We woke up that Wednesday morning and had the same amazing breakfast, and again packed lunch from it, packed our things up, threw them in a conference room so that they would be safe while we hit the streets of Seville again, for some last minute shopping before we left. We wandered around for a while, looking for some tie shop for this one guy in the group, who later ended up ditching us to go and look for pants, so that part of the morning was pretty pointless, but then we went to some really cute shops, and ended up in the middle of this little market that they were having in the Plaza, and I bought myself a bag/purse type thing that I have really been needing to carry my lunch around and reading books or something so that I don’t end up having to hold 3 other people’s stuff and end up climbing to the top of some freaking tall tower again. So now that problem is solved! We all had to meet back at the hotel at 12 so that we could get on the bus that was picking us up, illegally I believe, where other buses stopped at the plaza. So we walked into the plaza and waited for the bus. When it got there was all had to throw our bags under the bus in record time, get into our seats and take off before the officers had time to see what was going on! And then it was off to Cordoba!
The bus dropped us
off on the main street of Cordoba and we were then on our own to try and find where our hotel was. We finally found our hotel, which ended up being just up the street from the main attraction of the city, the Mezquita. So we got settled into the hotel and we were all enjoying our stolen lunches when Prof. Shumway ran into the courtyard and said “Alright, we are leaving to go to the Mezquita right now!” That was the quickest I have really seen any of us move all at one time, because we had an appointment to make. So we scrambled out the door and down the street to the Mezquita, which is where me and Paige were supposed to give our little site report/tour thing. When we were done giving the presentation, we got to go and see it! Its is a gorgeous building! It was once a roman temple, but then that was taken over by the moors, who built the Mezquita, and then when the Inquisition happened, the Christians came and put a cathedral in the middle of it, so its kinda a mix of a bunch of different cultures all thrown into one building. The arches are painted red and white and gives the inside a really cool feeling, different than the other places that we have been, and the pillars (there are over 800 of them) are all polished almost black at shoulder height from all the visitors who have come and run their fingers over the pillars! So that part of it was gorgeous! But it was kinda disappointing because the choir, which is supposed to be amazing, was under construction, so we didn’t get to see that, and the bell tower that “hardy travelers” (so says the guide book) can climb, but it was closed down too, so that was pretty lame. But the Patio de los Naranjas here was a lot better than the last one! Maybe just because here is was nice and sunny and warm, like t-shirt weather, so the oranges were all blooming in the trees, and there were fountains and such all throughout the patio, it was really nice.
The rest of the day we decided to get to know Cordoba and go to some of the sites that looked nice on the map, so we started walking to what seemed like, from the map, a really
big park/garden area. So we walked for a bit, and no garden, and kept walking, and no garden. We finally stopped and looked at where we were on the map, and apparently we were right by their big park/garden which was not quite as grand as we had hopped. It was just kinda a little grassy area with a few trees. And after seeing the Alcazar in Seville, it was not so great. So… we turned around and walked around the city, singing Celine Dion and Backstreet Boys and some good 8o’s songs to keep ourselves occupied, we found a little ruin of something that we took pictures of, then came to the main bridge of the city that used to be another Roman bridge, but it had been refurbished, so it didn’t look so Roman and authentic anymore, but we walked over that too, then down the boardwalk that ran along the river, and then back! By this time it was dark and getting a bit nippy, so we went back to the hotel, ate dinner from some of the food we bought at a grocery store before we left, then a bunch of us changed into our pj’s and piled at least 20 girls into 1 room, on 3 different beds pushed together and tried to watch a movie. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, and I was really tired so I left a little ways into the movie and went to bed.
The bus dropped us
off on the main street of Cordoba and we were then on our own to try and find where our hotel was. We finally found our hotel, which ended up being just up the street from the main attraction of the city, the Mezquita. So we got settled into the hotel and we were all enjoying our stolen lunches when Prof. Shumway ran into the courtyard and said “Alright, we are leaving to go to the Mezquita right now!” That was the quickest I have really seen any of us move all at one time, because we had an appointment to make. So we scrambled out the door and down the street to the Mezquita, which is where me and Paige were supposed to give our little site report/tour thing. When we were done giving the presentation, we got to go and see it! Its is a gorgeous building! It was once a roman temple, but then that was taken over by the moors, who built the Mezquita, and then when the Inquisition happened, the Christians came and put a cathedral in the middle of it, so its kinda a mix of a bunch of different cultures all thrown into one building. The arches are painted red and white and gives the inside a really cool feeling, different than the other places that we have been, and the pillars (there are over 800 of them) are all polished almost black at shoulder height from all the visitors who have come and run their fingers over the pillars! So that part of it was gorgeous! But it was kinda disappointing because the choir, which is supposed to be amazing, was under construction, so we didn’t get to see that, and the bell tower that “hardy travelers” (so says the guide book) can climb, but it was closed down too, so that was pretty lame. But the Patio de los Naranjas here was a lot better than the last one! Maybe just because here is was nice and sunny and warm, like t-shirt weather, so the oranges were all blooming in the trees, and there were fountains and such all throughout the patio, it was really nice.The rest of the day we decided to get to know Cordoba and go to some of the sites that looked nice on the map, so we started walking to what seemed like, from the map, a really
big park/garden area. So we walked for a bit, and no garden, and kept walking, and no garden. We finally stopped and looked at where we were on the map, and apparently we were right by their big park/garden which was not quite as grand as we had hopped. It was just kinda a little grassy area with a few trees. And after seeing the Alcazar in Seville, it was not so great. So… we turned around and walked around the city, singing Celine Dion and Backstreet Boys and some good 8o’s songs to keep ourselves occupied, we found a little ruin of something that we took pictures of, then came to the main bridge of the city that used to be another Roman bridge, but it had been refurbished, so it didn’t look so Roman and authentic anymore, but we walked over that too, then down the boardwalk that ran along the river, and then back! By this time it was dark and getting a bit nippy, so we went back to the hotel, ate dinner from some of the food we bought at a grocery store before we left, then a bunch of us changed into our pj’s and piled at least 20 girls into 1 room, on 3 different beds pushed together and tried to watch a movie. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, and I was really tired so I left a little ways into the movie and went to bed.
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