Ahhh Andalucia, land of Flamenco dancing and bullfighting and Muslim architecture and wailing gypsy guitar. Our little group of twenty KU students made the treck down to Spain's sunny underbelly the first week of March, visiting three cities crucial to anyone's understanding of the region: Cordoba, Granada and Sevilla. We also saw how olive oil is made, que interesante.
Cordoba was the capital of the Muslim dominated south of Spain during the tenth and eleventh centuries, and at one time was the largest and most culturally advanced city in the Western World. Here Muslim's, Christians and Visogoth's all lived and prayed together in "relative peace", and the many crosses, cresents and stars of abraham dotting the city skyline reflect this. It is also home to La Mezquita de Cordoba, a completely unique mosque that is filled with hundreds of pillars supporting hundreds more red and white arches, creating the affect of walking through some spiritual forest of palms. This effect is partially ruined, of course, by the big, fat gothic cathedral that the conquering Catholics plopped right in the middle during the Reconquista, but still- very impressive. Other interesting tidbits: I ate Rabo de Toro (Bull's Tail) with Gazpacho, I had either the third or second best breakfast of my life in El Hotel Conquistador, I managed to avoid the crazy gypsies selling herbs and fortune tellings during lunch.
On to Granada, home to both Spain's most famous castle/palace, the Al-Hambra, and also one of its largest universites (only fifty thousand students). Translation: Two days full of incredible memories of palaces and cathedrals and gardens and views; two nights of which I remember very little. One of my favorite moments of this whole european trip, though, happened just inbetween the "phases" of Granada; sitting in the Mirador San Nicolas, watching the sun as it set behind the city and the beautiful castle/palace, listening to an old gypsy play his guitar and sing.* Words do it little justice.
Finally, we concluded our excursion with a run through Sevilla, land of the worst spanish speakers in the world. They don't pronuciate literal hal thei word, maki i really har to understan. A friend of my roomates described learning spanish in Sevilla like learning english in Glasgow. Imagine! Anyway, I also got to tour the third largest Cathedral in the world, get my picture taken with Chritopher Columbus' (alleged) bones, and walk through the gardens of Fernando and Isabella, the first rulers of Spain. Also, outside of Sevilla our group stopped in the ancient roman town of Italica, where I walked through its coliseum and fresco-lined ruines. I realized later it was the oldest thing built by man that I have ever seen.
It's funny how it sometimes takes being away from something to discover what it really means to you, but on the plane back to Santiago there was a general feeling that we were all going home. I love life, especially here.
Much has happened since my return, but this is a heavy test week and there is much to do. More to come, more to come!
Nos vemos pronto.
-Patrick
*do not buy his CD. Surprisingly, it doesn't work. Gypsies...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment