"I Just Want to Make Friends!"

This is going to be a long post, but that’s because Saturday was a really long day (In the good sense).

It was quite an early wake up call for our day trip to Cordoba, our train left a little after 9 and we had to meet before then at the train station. We decided to walk, which took 40 minutes, but at least we got some exercise in?

This was my first time on a train and I have to say I kind of prefer it over flying. The security (or lack there of) was so much simpler and the train itself had so much more room than an airplane.

When we first got to Cordoba it was foggy and cold, and we super power walked over to the Mosque to meet our tour guide, who was a very funny woman, without meaning to be. She was Spanish but learned her English in London so she had a bit of a British accent, she was very knowledgable about the mosque and I loved learning about it, but she repeated things several times and would slow down so we would hear words…except she almost slowed down too much so I couldn’t tell what she was saying. For those of you back in the states, please ask for an impression when I return.

This section of the mosque itself is kept in its “oar-ree-gee-nal” (as she enunciated) condition from the 700s and has only been restored to preserve the architecture. Several sections were added on from 700-900 as the town of Cordoba became more important. When the Moors ruled the area after the Romans and German Visigoths, they named it Al Andalus (Where modern day Andalucia comes from), and Cordoba was the capital.

This section of the mosque is called the “kibel” and points toward Mecca. This was part of the rennovations in the 900s that expanded the mosque to make it even larger. Inside where it goes back into the wall is where the Qu’ran would be kept, and that section of the mosque was blocked off for the Iman and the Emir (Muslim King and the worship leader)

All of the pillars in this first area of the Mosque were recycled, so some go back as much as 2,000 years.

During the Reconquista, the period in 15^th century Spain where the Christians conquered the country, a cathedral was built inside the Mosque - pretty impressive, right? Mass is still held here.

The tower outside used to be a minaret, and it is now a Christian tower, the minaret is incased inside.

The royal palace is nearby the mosque and it used to connect through passageways. Christian kings stayed in this palace, including Ferdinand and Isabella, and this is supposedly where they met Columbus for the first time. The history buff in me was very excited to hear this. We ate our lunch in the gardens of the palace (no big deal).

We took the train back and were home around 4. I was in dire need of a siesta, but I didn’t have much luck.

Regardless, we went out last night, and Candace, Christin, and I were determined to make some new Spanish friends. We got the opportunity on accident, when someone was bumped in to, and this turned into an interesting conversation in which I struggled through some Spanish. I learned that they know what Gilmore Girls is over here.

After this we met a man from Paris, who was really sweet, but he happened to be with an obnoxious friend from London who dominated the conversation talking about how he gets wasted starting on Wednesday night and got kicked out of his host family’s home. Lovely. I wish we could have talked to the Frenchman more, but he said he goes to our school, so maybe we’ll see him again?

After they left, we met another group, made up of three guys, of which “Lopez” spoke the most English and did a lot of the talking. We switched back and forth between English and Spanish, and it was quite entertaining.

One of them asked me what the weather was like where we were from, because he has friends from Chicago, which is freaking cold. We told him we were from South Carolina, so the weather is about the same as it is here. He seemed to recognize Carolina, and mentioned California, which I pointed out was far away (Why does everyone here think Carolina is California?) He asked me if I had ever surfed, (I think….he was making the motion for surfing) and I said once, in Hawaii. I don’t know what he thought I said, but he just kept pointing at me and saying “Hawaii!”

Lopez was playing the role of wingman, obviously, though he explained it as: “I want to…how you say…sell my friends to you?” …one of the many things that got lost in translation. Another was when he said that he “liked to gander.” I liked hearing him struggle through English sentences, because it reminds me of how I sound in Spanish. It’s endearing.

After almost being awake for 24 hours straight I was beyond ready for bed, but I would certainly count this as a successful weekend.