I know society says I should feel guilty about this, but I don't. Just like how I learned once that I didn't have to feel bad for being a procrastinator nor for perfecting to communicate in confrontational situations through writing. Heck, whole cultures are known for being late, and they don't apologize, they just feel people should know that a out them - ha.
Anyway, I was awoken what felt like decades before I had set my alarm to get up, and was utterly unsurprised when we ended up at the chilly bus station 45 minutes early. >_< So when we were finally of the bus, I used it as my chance to PASS OUT!
When I awoke, we were in Cordoba! After a failed attempt at finding a laundromat for my dad, we got to our pension. Well, sort of. The street to it was closed for construction so I had to ask one of the construction workers how on earth to get there. His directions were a little odd, but I followed them perfectly and we were at our pension in no time, marking the second time in three days I'd gotten us to our hotel thanks to some strange directions that I managed to understand perfectly (that is always the trickiest part outnof all of the foreign language unit exams!!)!
We out our bags down, put on fresh outfits and were out the door, headed for lunch. We ate at a highly recommended place, but it wasn't super good. I had flavorless gazpacho and then meat balls, with oranges in olive oil and cinnamon for dessert. Dad had ox tail. :( Eww!
After lunch we were finally ready for what we'd come there to see: La Mezquita!! ^_^
It was both incredible AND not at all what I had expected whatsoever. In my mind - after studying about it in my History of Spanish Art class I took from Little Gay Professor Man the other summer during my time studying abroad in Alcalá - the mosque was going to be HUGE. The ceilings were going to be so high that you could hardly see them and the part with the famous red and white arches were to be outside, surrounding the mosque itself in the center. I imagined all the walls to be crazy detailed - like the ones at the Alhambra - and for it to feel very open and very middle eastern holy.
What I got was a rectangular building with a fairly lackluster courtyard just in front that was mostly cobblestones with few signs of vegetation and no red and white arches. Those were all inside the mosque, and mostly made it feel rather small and confined, as compared to other cathedrals we'd seen that had ceilings so high you practically couldn't see them. There really were a ton of them, though!!! And they really were absolutely gorgeous!
I knew the mosque had been converted into a cathedral a long time ago, but I had no idea it still functioned as one. On the permitter of it all were those little spaces with bars, each dedicated to a different saint. And the main cathedral part in the middle was gorgeous, but looked just like all the other cathedrals - it definitely didn't want to associate itself with the moorish feeling of what was surrounding it!
Dad said we had an hour to explore solo, but I was done after 20 min. I was intrigued, but honestly a little disappointed that it wasn't as ridiculously grandiose as I had imagined it in my mind. So, I began playing the game H and I nada invented when were at El Escorial in which you try to find as may skulls as you possibly can. It sounds random, but it was based off of a game of Bad Pigs we'd been playing earlier that day and was perfectly amusing to us. :) Call it immature (he did, but was just as into it as I was!), but man! I scoured every inch of that mosque in 40 minutes on a serious mission. In the end, I found 12, and was more than proud of my results. ;)
After the mosque, we went to the alcazar and gardens... Which were pretty... But Dad and I agreed that we'd already seen so much - and so much of it so mindbogglingly impressive - that everything was sort of starting to run together and we were no longer impressed half as easily as we would have been a week previously! Haha.
We spent the rest of the late afternoon and early evening just walking around and stopped for an ice cream along the way. Dad let me wander without any maps and I had a great time turing onto tiny random streets and accidentally running into cute shops and important landmarks! :)
When it came time for dinner, I picked the restaurant and we sat outside under one of those cozy heat lamps and relaxed, watching the crowds roll in for that night's procession. We ate at a lot of restaurant during our trip, but this one was one of my all time favorites! It was called "Fusion" and the inside of it looked a little like Hollister or Abercrombie and Fitch. :) So chic and so unexpected - it looked like a place you'd find in South Beach, not in little, run down Cordoba!
And the food! I ordered Jack Daniels BBQ ribs with fries and a few glasses of sangria. Oh. My. God. Delicious!!! ^_^
By the time we left to head back, it was dark and the processions were in full swing, which made it nearly impossible for us to get back to our hotel, as it was on one of the streets that the procession was on! We squeezed, waited, watched, squeeze, waited, watched... And finally arrived back!
XOXO
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