Ay de mi Alhambra! (Pomegranate City, cont.)

 I have a feeling I'm about to attach a ton of photos, so I'm just separating our Granada trip into two posts. After lunch on Saturday, we met up with ISA to go visit the Alhambra. Thus the title, that was one of the first things I read in my Spanish literature class in high school, and it stuck with me I guess?

Anyway, the Alhambra, as best I can remember, was basically the final holdout of the Arabic empire during the Catholic inquisition. It means "red castle", which our tour guide was very happy to point out that also kind of translated to "colorado" (colored red) when he found out where the majority of our group was from.

They have super cool irrigation there too. I was very happy.

Also, we kind of accidentally stalked a wedding for the first part of our tour… they were just trying to take pretty photos and we were going the same direction… towards the church at the top of the hill!

Here's a palace. It's square on the outside...

…and round on the inside!! I don't recall why. But it's a pretty sweet design, especially if you look at it from above.

And there were cats all over… we don't know why.

Ladies and gentlemen, the majority of Fall 3, the lovely people I've spent the last few months with!

So this is the sneaky way that one of the Catholic kings got his two cents in without messing up the lovely arabic decoration–the double headed eagle symbolizes Carlos V of Spain & Carlos I of Austria, I believe. Don't quote me on the exact details, but I do know he was king of both and therefore had two different titles, thus two heads. The insignia is definitely not part of the original decoration though.

Arabic detailing

Old-school wallpaper

Also, it's October and the gardens still look like this. We're not in Colorado anymore.

Alhambra from the Generalife gardens on the other side of the hill. There's the church on the left, the square/circle palace in the middle at the top of the hill, and then the buildings that start on the right side and go down the hill towards the left are a series of arabic buildings with insanely detailed decorations and really pretty gardens.

So, this is the point in the tour when my friends, for whatever reason, were insanely hyper, and when we stopped for a mini-bathroom break (this was a 3 hour tour, for the record), decided that our audio tour headsets were Secret Service headsets… Which led to all kinds of nonsense, including the group decision that our ISA advisor who was with us was now El Presidente, and our tour guide making a joke about the Chinese Mafia when an asian tour group walked by a few minutes later… I can't completely explain the utter ridiculousness combined with the hilariousness of  the whole ordeal, but I promise it was funny. 

Ok but back to history & stuff now. We finished the tour of the gardens and got back on the bus, and took a little siesta at the hotel before going out to do our usual wander-then-eat evening. We tried to find a tapas place that ISA had recommended (they give us a little info sheet whenever we go on excursion, which includes restaurant recommendations like the Mexican place we found on Friday night) but it was a magical little place that apparently doesn't exist, so the group split up–half went to instant gratification at an Italian place nearby, and Britt, Matt and I went to get tapas on a street we'd been on near the hotel. After dinner, we met up with the rest of the group and went to a tetería where people could get hookah and tea and desserts, and we just stayed and talked there for the rest of our night.

Here's a photo of the sunset I took at the end of our bus ride home on Sunday, which was pretty much all we did. Unfortunately, the girl across the row from me got carsick and threw up… twice… and that was the most eventful part of my day. Glad I grew up driving mountain roads and have an iron stomach, or we could've had a real problem.  We'll just leave it at that though, no one wants to hear about that!

But when we got home, María had dinner ready for us, and had spent some of her weekend making pastries. She made the dough and everything, and they tasted like the best cream puffs you've ever had in your life. So that made me very, very happy.

3 Días en Córdoba: Saturday

So Saturday morning, we all miraculously were up and out of the hostel by 9:00 AM. Amazing. And well worth it, because even though I would've paid to go into the Mezquita, going early meant we also avoided the clusters of tourist groups that like to invade these places. And the mosque is amazing–there's nothing quite like realizing you're in a place you've seen photos of for years. It was a little strange because even though it is also a mosque, the Catholic influence was strong enough that it really felt like a church in a lot more ways. The central part of the mosque, in the middle of all those columns and arches, is designed to be a Catholice cathedral, where they were actually holding mass while we were visiting. Photos not permitted while in session. Luckily, I took mine before mass, when they were just playing the organ–a great addition to the ambiance while visiting.

Arabic arches

Catholic time

Combined religions

The bell tower–and the palm trees

So, roughly 50 photos later, we'd done a lap of the huge expanse that is the mezquita, and ventured into the courtyard. My favorite part of the courtyard was the irrigation system they'd put in place so the fountain would water the trees eventually. Today, they also use a hose to get the job done (something I referred to as the "modern marble of plumbing" in my early-morning, not-yet-eaten-breakfast state), but I loved the design of it.

Courtyard walls

When we were done taking photos, we decided it was breakfast time–the idea that we could survive the whole morning on apples was not our best one. Plus, we had to make an attack plan for the day, so we went to a cafe called Oh La Lá, where I had the best tostada con tomate y jamón, café con leche, and zumo de naranja. Also known as toast with tomato and ham, coffee with milk, and orange juice. Or also known as my absolute favorite Spanish breakfast food.

 

Our attack plan first took us to the Puente Romano–another thing every Spanish city seems to have. There is almost always a Cathedral, and if there's a river, there will be a Roman bridge. 

While at the bridge, we met a man who does impressionist paintings on little slides of glass with his fingers. And they're amazing, so we bought some, and picked out the ones that depicted the white walls of Córdoba with the flower pots that are on every single window.

Next, we were considering going to the hostel for a short rest before lunch… but then we ran into the Alcázar de los Reyes. I don't even know how to describe this place, except that we took about 150 photos of the towers and the gardens–see below.

This is Kristi trying to drink the water even though they put a sign up that it's not drinkable...

Mila & I

After the Alcázar, we went to lunch at a place called 5 Arcos–in honor of the million Arabic arches all over town. This food was not exactly a winner, but it was good enough for a pre-siesta snack.

Also pre-siesta, we wandered around town and found Calleja de los Flores (it has more flowers than your average street) and the itty bitty little skinny street that requires you to go single file through it.

After siesta, we went to a Moroccan place we'd seen the first day, which advertised belly dancing at 8:00 on Saturdays. We thought we'd have dinner there, but unfortunately they were only serving drinks and pastries. So we all drank tea or juice and ate a baklava and watched the belly dancer, and then promptly decided we wished we could do something like that. The girl has some real skills.

Then, it was really dinner time. We found a fantastic tapas place, Taberna de la Tapa, where the waiter was super nice, there was a fútbol game on, and the tapas were pretty much your typical Spanish fare. Also a great dinner find. The waiter even recognized us the next day when we were walking around town! Oh, and I tried blood pudding, Mom & Dad! (Ten years after I was supposed to in London… better late than never?) It wasn't quite as terrible as I'd imagined when I was 9, but still not my favorite. What was my favorite was queso ovejo, the cheese tapa we ordered, which was also on the tostada with tomato and jamón that we ate. Simply delicious.

Om nom nom, tapas.

We wandered around town for a while after dinner, took some silly photos, and ran into a totally random parade/procession of some kind that involved a marching band and a lot of religious-looking things that we don't understand. It was either a funeral or some kind of religious ritual, we just have no idea which. And may never actually find out.