Well, this past weekend was another one of said trips. We went to Córdoba, which is about an hour and a half away from here on a bus. All of the trips through CIEE have guides, obviously, which usually consist of CIEE professors or staff and/or Spanish students who help out with things all over CIEE. The last two or three trips I've taken, one of the guides has been Ángel, who is the professor of my Spanish Novel and Cinema class. He's really fun and speaks really fast. Anyway, he was on the trip along with a few other cool CIEE-ers. Once we arrived in Córdoba, after a little nap, we all got off the bus and separated into four or five smaller groups. We were in a group with Ale as our guide, who is one of the Spanish-student-helper-guides. He is a history major and knows just about everything about everywhere. And he's nice to look at....
I didn't know much about Córdoba before arriving, besides the fact that they have some sort of building with pink-and-white striped arches. I saw it in Carmen (when we watched that in Ángel's class). Anyway, it looked pretty cool so I was excited to see it. We walked into the Mezquita (Mosque) and I was blown away. I didn't know it was so huge. Or beautiful. Or ornate. With so much history. It's a mosque, but also a cathedral. I may have been too distracted by the beauty of the building to actually pay attention to the history lesson given by Ale. Anyway, it was incredible. I didn't want to leave. Buuut, we had more to see.
Next up was the synagogue. It's one of only two historical synagogues left in Spain. It's not really much to see. A little tiny building that you could easily miss if you didn't know it was there. Its basically one little room with a balcony area. It was pretty cool, but we quickly moved on.
From there, we wandered around a little through the streets of Córdoba. We saw the old marketplace, which has a few little vendors in it selling homemade crafts. Then, we headed to the Alcázar. Pretty much every town we've been to has an amazing Alcázar (which is a royal palace). Sevilla's is beautiful as was Córdobas. Although Granada has the most famous and apparently most beautiful one yet. Anyway, we wandered around, saw the ancient baths and the mosaics. Then went to the gardens and ate our bocadillos. We had a couple of hours of free time after this, where we mostly just wandered around and got some ice cream. Then that was it, time to head back home! Another lovely trip!
(more photos here)
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