Sevilla [Days 1, 2, 3, and4]
I got my first taste of Andalucia in Sevilla. After getting off the train, we decided to try to walk from the train station to our hostel because according to Google maps, it was only like a twenty minute walk. We may or may not have gotten lost in the pouring rain for an hour and a half, but we finally made it*!
| *Sidenote: Sevilla (and most of Andalucia) has really really narrow streets--and even narrower | sidewalks! We almost got hit by a few cars/buses!Our hostel [Sevilla Inn Backpackers] was in a fantastic location. It was on a little side street about 2 minutes away from the Catedral and city center. Since there were six of us we were able to have a dorm all to ourselves!
Since Semana Santa [holy week] started on Sunday, we just wandered around the city and did some tapearing [went out for tapas]. On Sunday, we got up early and went to misa [mass] for Domingo de las Ramas [Palm Sunday]. It was a really interesting experience for me because I'm not Catholic and I've never been to a catholic mass before. It was really cool because we got to go to mass in the Catedral of Sevilla. The catedral is one of the oldest gothic style cathedrals in Spain (and all of Europe!). Also, Colombus' [or Cristobol Colon] tomb was in the cathedral too! After mass, a two of my friends had a Rick Steve's Spain guide book so we did a walking tour around the juderia. The juderia is the old Jewish neighborhood that all the jews in Spain had to live in during the Inquisition. A lot of the streets are very tiny and narrow, a lot of them are called "kissing lanes" because of how close together they are. We also found the statue of the original Don Juan and the hostel where he supposedly stayed and the play is based on. We also found a plaza that originally had a synagogue that was converted into a church, which was then destroyed by Napoleon when he invaded Spain. A bit of irony--the French consulate is right next to this plaza. It's also where Murillo is supposedly buried! If you go to Sevilla, I highly recommend checking out the juderia!
On Monday, we went to the Real Alcazar de Sevilla, the Alcazar is basically a giant palace. It's actually the oldest Royal Palace in Europe that is still in use. Basically that means that when the Spanish Royals are in Sevilla they stay in the Alcazar. It was really really pretty. There was a ton of moorish influence mixed with catholic architecture. There was a lot of tile and plaster work, with tons of intricate little details. We had a lot of fun taking lots of pictures. One of my friends is really into photography, so I tried to match her pictures by taking some "artsy" pictures. After the Alcazar, we had some paella and sangria* for lunch. After lunch, we decided to head to the Torre de Oro. The Torre de Oro was the place where all goods entered Spain way back when Sevilla was the main port in Spain. We were able to climb to the top where we got to see a pretty cool view of the city.
|*Sidenote: The sangria we had was like spiked sangria. Normally sangria isn't very strong (or at least the sangria I've had). After we had been drinking it for a|while, one of the waiters came up to us and told us to be careful when we stood up because it |ad black rum, vermouth, and wine in it. We were drinking it on an empty stomach, so that had kinda a damper on our plans for the afternoon! But after a nice long lunch, we were ready to go!
Both Sunday and Monday we were able to catch Semana Santa processions. For those of you who haven't ever heard about Semana Santa in Spain before, let me share some background info. Basically, each day there are processions at night that include penitents and a float carried by penitents. Pentinents are dressed from head to toe in robes (some are all white, others all black, some are red or purple, green or blue, it really all depends on which hermanidad [brotherhood] they are from), these penitents are people who are repenting their sins which is why they are walking around in the robes, so that they can hide their identity. Most of them walk barefoot and they also carry the floats in the processions. Each procession is sponsored by a different church/brotherhood. Each float depicts a different scene from Holy Week in the Bible. They were really impressive to see. I still can't believe that I was able to take part in the largest Semana Santa celebrations in Spain!
Tuesday morning, we packed up and check out of our hostel. Before heading to the bus station, we stopped by the Museo de Bellas Artes where we got to see some works by Zubaran and Murillo. I felt really artsy in there because I could compare the works and see the differences between the painters. For example, Zubaran's subjects tend to be very rigid, and sculpture-esque, whereas Murillo has a better use of light and his subjects are a lot softer and look more life like [thank you, Ricardo and Fran--my profs for my Prado class]. I felt very high-class after leaving because I could kind of understand what the paintings were meant to be about and why they painted a certain way :)
Cordoba [Days 4 and 5]
We were in Cordoba for exactly 24 hrs. I absolutely loved Cordoba--it was a great change of pace from Sevilla! Sevilla was very crowded and there was so much we wanted to cram into the three and a half days we were there whereas Cordoba wasn't very crowded and a much less stressful atmosphere. The main thing we went to Cordoba to see was the Mezquita/Catedral de Cordoba. The Mezquita is absolutely amazing. It has so many different styles of architecture for three different types of religious buildings! When you walk into the Mezquita the first thing you see are the arches (which is what it's famous for), the arches are part of the Moorish style of architecture. These arches are incredible, there are hundreds of them! They all are identically painted with red stripes. It's kind of eerie to see in the darkness of the building. Besides the Moorish arches and tilework, there is also a wing of a Visigoth church that the Mezquita was built on top of. And plopped right in the middle of all of that is a Catholic cathedral! It was really amazing to see how well it all meshed together with some fluidity even though each aspect was so different!
After walking around the Mezquita, we decided to explore a bit more of the historic district of Cordoba. Like the rest of Andalucia, it was filled with narrow, windy cobblestone streets. It was gorgeous! We found this little synagogue, which is one of the three synagogues left in Spain that predates the XIV century (all the rest had been destroyed by the Inquisition/Catholic Monarchs). The synagogue had actually been converted into a church at some point--there is a faded cross painted onto one of the walls. After leaving the synagogue, we stumbled across this little plaza. It was on a little off-shoot of the main road, you got there by walking down a narrow street that had little arches to walk under. When you get to the end of the street, you are greeted by two-store stone-faced buildings on three sides and a whitewall covered in potted plants with a staircase going up it. It was beautiful, there was a guy strumming flamenco guitar while we were there. It was in that little plaza that I had my Spain epiphany. It only took me three months to get there, but I finally had that "Holy cow, I'm in Spain!" moment. It was amazing.
We also got to see a procession in Cordoba. It came out of the Mezquita (all of them have to pass through the cathedrals in whichever city they are in), and it stopped literally right in front of us. We could see through the detail work and look at the guys who were carrying it! It was amazing to see. We could see every single little detail! This time the penitents were wearing white and purple robes, and most of them were wearing shoes. There were also a lot more kids in this one than in the other ones.
Granada [Days 5, 6, and 7]
We got to Granada mid-afternoon, so all we did was walk around the city. Our hostel [White Nest Hostel] was in a fantastic location. It was on Calle Santismo, which is really close to the Albazyn, which is the old Moorish neighborhood.
| Quick Spanish history lesson if you're wondering why Andalucia has so much Arab/Moorish influence. The first people to settle in Spain were the Visogoths, Celts, and Romans. After then in about 711 came the Arabs from Africa. They held domain over southern Spain until 1492 (when Colombus sailed the ocean blue...and all the Jews were kicked out of Spain thanks to the Inquisition and Catholic Kings). In 1492, The Reyes Catolicos [catholic kings] reconquered Granada, which was the capital of Andalucia.We were right along the river, which flows underneath Plaza Nueva, which was the main square. While I was in Granada, I really felt like I was in Spain. I'm guessing that's probably because I could see the Alhambra [!!!!!] from my hostel room.
On Thursday morning, we got up pretty early and did another Rick Steve's walking tour through the center of Granada. We saw part of the old Silk Trail, the Cathedral, another large Plaza, and [my personal favorite] the Capilla Real! The Capilla Real is where the tombs of the Reyes Catolicos and their kids are! The Reyes Catolicos are Rey Fernando II of Aragon and Reina Isabel I de Castilla. They had a daughter, Juana la Loca [long story short, she was crazy] and her husband Felipe el Hermoso, are also buried there. [Juana and Felipe's son is Carlos I/V (I because of Spanish Emperor, V because of Holy Roman Empire]. It was really, really cool to see their tombs because they had such a large impact on both Spain's history and the history of the new world, after all without them Colombus never would have discovered the New World!
After the walking tour, we went to lunch and got kebaps. Kebaps are pretty much gyros, but you can get them with chicken or falafel too! They were my favorite food that we got on the trip, and when I was walking back to my piso after dinner the other night, I found a kebap place here in Madrid, so I'm super happy!
After lunch, we went to THE ALHAMBRA! I could write pages and pages and pages about the Alhambra. It was absolutely breath taking and amazing! I still can't believe that I've been there! For those of you who've no idea what I'm talking about, the Alhambra is a castle/city on top of a hill over looking all of Granada. Its where the Arab saltans from 1237-1492 lived and later the Reyes Catolicos after the reconquering of Granada. I learned tons of new things about it, for example, of the 22 saltans that lived there only 7 of them had enough money to build their own palace. And of the 7 palaces, only 2 are still fully standing. Like I said, it was absolutely incredible to be standing there and absorbing the history of it all. The Alhambra is the one place that I absolutely had to go to in Spain! I've been wanting to go there since like sophomore year of high school when I first learned about it, and now I can say I've been!
After the Alhambra, we went to Flamenco in the caves. It was really cool to see. The dancers were amazing! I really enjoyed the flamenco guitar as well. [Mom, Dad, when you come, we'll go see some in Madrid!]. After Flamenco we decided to get some kebaps and hang out in city center for the night. We knew that there was going to be a procession so we figured we would try to catch it, but we didn't know that the entire city of Granada was going to be crammed into Plaza Nueva. It was mobbed. We ended up loosing Maddy and Olivia for the rest of the night [no worries, they were together!] and we lost Ray for a solid hour. After meeting up with Ray, we gave up on trying to battle our way back to the hostel until after the procession. I'm glad that we stayed because the procession was called "El Silencio" [The Silence]. They turned off all of the street lights and everyone stood in complete silence as the procession passed. All the penitents wore black and had chains connecting them to each other, so as they walked all you could here were the chains moving against the ground. The float was of Jesus on the cross. It was such a somber and dark move compared to the rest of the processions we saw. It was absolutely incredible, even if we had to deal with some very rude Spaniards all night.
Malaga [Days 6, 7, and 8]
By the time we got to Malaga, all of us were completely exhausted. Our hostel was really really nice, they had a nice little bar and they made dinner there every night. Since we were only there for one full day, I spent the day laying on the beach and soaking in the sun. Maybe a bit too much sun because I'm extremely sunburnt and I think I got a little sun sick...oops! I'm much better now, but I've got some pretty awesome tan lines right now.
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Overall, Andalucia was absolutely amazing. If I couldn't have studied in Madrid, I definitley would've gone to Sevilla. As much as I enjoyed the trip, I definitely am planning on going back to Sevilla and Granada because I want to see what its like without all of the Semana Santa craziness going on.
This trip has got me thinking a lot about what I want to do after college, and its made me realize that I don't necessarily want to settle down in a high school or middle school right after college. There's still so much of the world that I want to see. So, I'm planning on talking to my coordinator about teaching English in Spain after I graduate. Who knows? Maybe it'll work out, maybe not, but I at least want to try!
Interested in seeing my pictures of Andalucia or the rest of the places I've been? Check out my shutterfly page: lavidamadrilenafotos.shutterfly.com
It's way easier than trying to get pictures on here or on facebook! I've got a lot of pictures to load so I'll be working on getting them all up within the week!
XOXO,
Kelsey
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