Trip to Córdoba

This Sunday, we had a group excursion to Córdoba, Spain. En route, I spotted this lovely little castle in the hills:


We stopped outside the city at an architectural museum called Conjunto Arqueológico Madinat Al-Zahra. If I had had a guide, I would have understood more of the symbolism behind the artifacts I was viewing. But I did gather that many of the dishes and pottery I saw were from the X-XIII centuries. Yeah, that's like the 900s to the 1200s. Incredilbe.




The panel I am standing in front of has ataurique decoration and is made of limestone between 953-947 AD. Yeah. OLD.

Once in the city of Córdoba, we went to a very old synagogue that, like the famous mosque in Córdoba, has toggled between faiths over the years. It was a church, then became a Jewish synagogue.


After that, we had some free time to find food and explore the city. Cheetoh, Kira, Christina, and Natasha and I found some tapas where I tried blood sausage. Yeah, I, Laura Fennell, tried blood sausage. And it wasn't bad. I will be honest. Haha. But that wasn't the high of our break, the city itself is just spectacular.




I look so little compared to that beastly fountain.

However, Córdoba is most famous for its vastly huge and ancient mosque/church or mezquita-catedral. It is so rich in history and culture, it is a World Heritage Site. The site was originally a pagan temple, than a Visigothic Christian church, before the Umayyad Moors converted the building into a mosque, and later built a new mosque on the site. Currently, it is a beautiful fusion of the Islamic faith and the Christian faith. And I loved it! This is part of the outside:


Then we entered and were blown away. I will try to explain as much as I can after the photos.



These arches are a combination of stone and clay which prevents them from crumbling or deteriorating over time. The clay is moist and more flexible, so it gives more. Also, all of the pillars are recycled from other archeological sites in Spain, Europe and Middle East. The other sites were deteriorating, so the pillars were salvaged. Very Islamic style.



Now you can see the Christian influence on this enormous building as well. The change is so abrupt. One minute you're looking at a golden arch that looks like it's straight out of an Arabic country, and then you see this big Catholic mural. So incredible.


This is one of my favorite photos. The majority of the photo looks so Arabic, until you peek in the bottom left and see Christ on the cross.


That is very much real gold and very much a statue for God.



This area was my favorite. First of all, that ceiling will keep you staring for hours. Secondly the cathedral is so full of minute details, I couldn't believe parts of it were real. I could take a semester course on this room alone and still not understand all of the symbolism of the arches, the saints, the angels, the angles, the number of pillars and lines, the molding, why some is stone, marble, wood or gold. It was all so overwhelming. I encourage you to zoom in on this picture and just study it. I couldn't count all of the cherubs and holy helpers. I can't imagine going to mass here and hearing the organs on either side of the pews with 50+ stops. Incredible.


And that's our group walking across the famous Roman bridge out of the city and back into the less-ornate every day life. :]

Procesión de la Virgen

(Procession of the Virgin)

So I was in my kitchen, cooking some delicious pasta with a red sauce with zuchinni and what not, when I heard this lovely music. Xanthe, Belén and I stuck our heads out the window to see folks with cameras and a few police. We asked the police what was going on, and the officer shrugged and said, "No sé por seguro... Algo de la virgen como siempre." We all laughed. He basically said, "I don't know for sure... Something for the Virgin as always!" Haha. Well said, officer.

I love living on Calle Jesús y María, or as we Americans would call it: Jesus and Mary Street! It makes for great views of nearly every holy procession in Granada. Xanthe, Belén and I caught the street view of the marching band and the candle-lighting until things calmed down a bit. I ate dinner and about an hour later, we heard another uproar of music. I ran to Chiara's balcony and saw this huge figure of the Virgin being carried by hand down the street. She was decorated in gold and violet. The music was deep and sad, but simultaneously picking up speed. It was so moving.

I grabbed my camera and ran up to Brandon's balcony to get photos:



I posted the video I was able to capture to YouTube (it uploads much faster than on Blogspot). Here is the link to the short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVhOU-SVvI

Enjoy!

Dusseldorf, Germany.

This lady had the foresight to match the train from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf.


The train to Dusseldorf, Germany was as lovely as the train through Amsterdam. Easter Netherlands and Western Germany is gorgeous country side with pockets of suburbs and the occasional industrial town.



Once in Dusseldorf, Hotel Diana was a walk away. We were very excited for this stretch of the trip for three reasons. 1.) It was Halloween. 2.) We were meeting up with some of Alex's friends, Blake and Omar, who had already visited us for a few days in Spain while backpacking through Europe. Great folks. 3.) We were going to see an incredible DJ called Laid Back Luke at a club in Dusseldorf that night. Despite these jitters, I still took in the scenery as we trekked to our hotel.


I took pictures of the street signs and other texts for my dad. Just so he could see his language skills in action. :]




Once at the hotel, we had to be sneaky about how we got in once again. The maximum number of occupants was two and this hotel was in my name. So Brandon and I went in and checked in with the hilariously dry German, Marcos. He was a crack-up, and later didn't really care when he saw all five of us pouring out of the room.


Brandon seducing the camera.

We then walked around Dusseldorf in search of Blake and Omar who were also exploring the city. Once we found them, it was a "YES!" moment just like when we Alex answered the hotel room door in Amsterdam. Sweet victory!

Nighttime in Dusseldorf was very busy, but it was Halloween after all. The city is urban, but not nearly as urban as other cities in Germany.





After exploring, we were famished! Blake showed us a nice little place to get some delicious German bratwurst in Kaiser rolls. They were amazing. Even I, who does not care for red meat or pork, absolutely loved it.

We returned to the hotel to dress up for our evening of house music (or "has" music). As I said in my previous entry, Ryanair prevented me from dressing up as Quail Man from the old Nickelodean cartoon Doug. :( So we just slapped on some masks and dressed up like any night at the club.


Blake and I being delightfully awkward:


However, Blake and Omar did us in with their costumes. They really did.


The club was insane. We don't think the establishment that is known as 3001 was prepared for such a crowd. The coat check line was like a torture chamber of suffocation and trampling. The drunken German guys eerily reminded me of an American fraternity. But the music was incredible and we had a great time. :]


Bus ride to Dusseldorf airport on Monday, November 1.

The next day was the panic attack. We had a flight that was supposed to land in Madrid at 4:30 p.m. (ideally). The only bus that Brandon, Natasha and I could find from Madrid to Granada left at 5:30 p.m. Ryanair is notorious for landing about an hour later than expected. There was no other option but to PRAY the flight landed on time AND that the metro from the airport to the main bus station wasn't running slow because of the holiday. By some holy miracle, our flight landed a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule! And we made our bus putting us home in Granada around midnight. Just in time to study for my midterm the very next day! Yeah, if I missed that bus, I would have missed my midterm. Just saying.

Overall, amazing trip! I could easily see myself living in Amsterdam for a few months. And I desperately want to see Berlin now, as everyone just built it up so much.

Also, German is going to be my next language. I've decided.

Amsterdam!

This place is magical. Let's dive right in, shall we?

Chelsea and Alex left the day before to explore Frankfort, Germany and planned on meeting us Friday morning in Amsterdam. Brandon, Natasha and I were to fly out of Madrid at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday for a quick 2 hour flight to Eindhoven, Netherlands. Well, the best-timed bus to Madrid left at 7 p.m. the day before, putting is there around midnight. Therefore, we slept in the airport for FOUR AND A HALF HOURS until the Visa checkpoint opened and we could check-in for our flight. The flight to Eindhoven cost 90 euro plus tax and the flight home cost 5 euro. Yep. Just 5. Amazing.

Well, no wonder it was so cheap! You can barely take ANYTHING on board OR you can check your first bag for 35 euro! Screw that. I stuffed my undies in my jacket and threw a toothbrush in my smallest backpack. That was about it. I exaggerate. But, this meant I couldn't have an elaborate costume for Halloween as Ryanair would have confiscated it, I'm sure. That airline is nuts. But cheap. So we live with it.

Anyway! The bus ride to Madrid went smoothly. We (by some miracle) caught the last metro to the airport. We camped out at the airport until our flight, which also went well. The second we landed in Eindhoven, Netherlands, it hit me that were definitely not in Spain. It was so cold and gray. It felt like San Francisco! I missed that feeling so much. The majority of the people we ran into spoke perfect English, which was rather disappointing. I wrote down phrases in Dutch before I left and everything.

We were starving, so Natasha and snacked at the train station. I bought a "ham en kaas," which I figured was a ham and cheese croissant. 'Twas correct!



We took a 2 hour train to Amsterdam from Eindhoven, which was just beautiful. The countryside has so many little lakes and fields between their triangular houses. Lovely!


Once we arrived in Amsterdam itself, we realized we had a major problem: our Spanish cellphones work in every country in the EU--except the Netherlands. CRAP. We needed to find our hotel in a town on the outskirts of Amsterdam sans cellphones. We figured Chelsea and Alex were already there. We had an address, but a cab was out of our price range. So we hunted and hunted for WiFi to check Brandon's iPhone if they emailed us, but the signal was poor. The three of us looked at each other until Brandon said the obvious, "Um. We've been traveling for over a half a day, can we just relax and enjoy the city for five minutes?"

We were off! This was the beautiful train station we exited before a little exploration:



Off to a coffee shop to relax and people watch those crazy Dutch.




Once we found WiFi, we found that Alex and Chelsea had emailed us each in worry about 10 times. They explained which train to take to Zandaam to find our hotel.

Side note: A hotel, you ask? Why not a cheap hostel? Well, hostels are horribly expensive in Amsterdam. It was cheaper to get a hotel (for two) and cram our lanky butts in there. Which we did. At one point, four of us slept in a king size bed. Yes, we bonded.

We got the hotel, but had no way of calling them to see if they were there, nor could we ask the front desk for fear of them realizing we were sneaking three extra people into the room. So we just went to room 1213 (a suite on the top floor!) and prayed to Baby Jesus that they were there. We knocked… We waited… And Alex answered with a joyous, "YES!!!"


"Reunited and it feels so good!"

This hotel was lush, to say the least. Even for five people. There was a sauna, walk-in shower, and a jacuzzi tub.



This was the view of the hotel:


And the hotel from the outside was just adorable:


After napping for a bit, the five of us went back to the city to explore. What a city! We tried to enter this cathedral, but we waited until Sunday, and realized mass was in session. So we let them be.


The canals were my favorite. Like a Nordic Venice. The girls:


Brandon and his honorary "bro":


The following day, we researched delicious breakfast places. We've all been hankering for something substantial for breakfast as Spain is not a huge fan of big breakfasts. They like their toast and cafe con leech. But I need my pound of America with my meal of champions! So Chelsea researched and found this pancake haven which served us these bad boys:


After refueling, we were on the streets again (dodging bike after bike). This city is SO BIG on biking. 200% more than San Francisco at least. After debating what to explore (and passing the 2 kilometer long line for the Anne Frank house), we decided on impromptu beer tasting. Alex and Brandon are very serious about their beer and are well-educated on the matter. We found this amazing beer joint with all kinds of special brews. Alex found his favorite IPA, which is brewed soley in Chula Vista, California. It cost 12 euro here! Apparently, that brewery is getting some kind of recognition as beer capitals of the world are ordering it.


The manager of the store recommended a beer bar a half mile away or so. Of course, we listened to this smart man and went. I found a sweet beer I liked (if you can even call it beer), called Magner's Cider.


After that, we spent the rest of the day souvenir shopping until we went home to rest before dinner and the nightlife. In the process of buying some one million postcards, we stumbled across this snack shop where you can buy hamburgers and things of that sort out of a machine. This place is a hot food vending machine. I kid you not.


Our last night in Amsterdam, we had a huge Chinese dinner (don't laugh! Amsterdam truly is famous for its Chinese food. Haha!). And walked around once last time. Yes, we saw the Red Light District. And yes, it was sad to think that the majority of these women are here due to sex trafficking. It was so sad to see these gorgeous, young, seemingly confident women and realizing that they were more than likely there against their will. (Chelsea took a human sexuality class with an emphasis on human trafficking and informed us of all the statistics). The tourists were a crack-up to watch though.


The next morning, we were off to Dusseldorf, Germany...