Córdoba- Mosques, Gardens, and Animals- OH MY!

Well, I just want to start out by recommending an incredible movie, ¨The Night Train to Lisbon." I saw it, in English, Friday night with the other girl in my apartment, Claudia, at this off-the-beaten path movie theater here in Sevilla. The main character is played by Jeremy Irons (haven't really seen any of his other movies before) who saves a woman from jumping of a bridge in Bern, Switzerland. He brings her to his work, but she runs off and leaves her jacket. In the woman's jacket pocket he finds a book, by a Portuguese doctor and part of the Portuguese Revolution, and a train ticket to Lisbon. He takes the things and decides to go Lisbon, where the rest of the story unfolds. It's an intense movie, but the sort of intense that makes you feel happy, sad, and curious, all at the same time!

But moving forward! Speaking of trains, Saturday morning Claudia and I took the train from Sevilla to Córdoba! I went through a little bit of a bumpy road this week to try and go, just for the day, but I pushed myself, and made it happen! I told myself that I had a free weekend, and why not go! You only have so much time in Spain, and who knows when you'll come back!
So, we got into Córdoba at around ten. We had a little bit of frenzy getting a bearings, especially since there was nobody on the street. But no worries, everything turned out fine!
Our first destination was the Mezquita, which was AMAZING!!!!!!! It's so weird thinking that a little over two years ago, for my final project in high school Spanish, I was planning a ¨trip¨ in Spain. I added the Mezquita to one of the things to see, but then I thought I would never be able to see it, but life does take you in unexpected directions.

The Mezquita, I thought, was much more impressive than the Cathedral and Giralda here in Sevilla, maybe because the Cathedral and Giralda are Gothic and darker. But the interesting thing about the Mezquita is that it has multiple parts, that people kept on building onto. The first part, which is underground, is the Chapel of Saint Vincent, a priest who was born in Zaragoza and was a martyr. Then the Moors came to Andalucia around 745, and constructed the majority of the building, but at different periods. And, in 1492 all of the Jews and Muslims were given the choice of either fleeing the Iberian Peninsula or to convert to Christianity. So, in the middle of the Mezquita is a Baroque (maybe?) ¨Cathedral."

Remains of Saint Vincent

The Cathedral at the Mezquita

Afterwards we walked across el Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and were thinking about going into the Museum of Al-Andalus, but there was a protest going on in front, so we decided against it.

El Puente Romano

We then went to the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Christian Kings.) The interior wasn't to impressive, mostly because there was nothing to see except for a tiny Moorish mosaic, but the gardens made up for it.

Then we walked in el Barrio Judío, to go the la Sinagoga (Synagogue,) which ended up being only one room, but was still fairly interesting. After the Jews were expelled from Spain, the synagogue was used as a church, and you can still see a cross painted on the wall. But, most interesting thing was seeing the Hebrew inscriptions, from the Torah, on the wall.

La Sinagoga

Honestly, after witnessing Semana Santa, and all of the Moorish and Jewish influences here in Andalucia, and I think that for any religious, anthropological, or historical scholar, this would be a cultural heaven (not literally!) I mean look at these two pictures! They were right next to each other at the Mezquita!
We went to the zoo, which was fun, but I feel like in the future I need to do a little better planning when going to a city that I am not familiar with, like Córdoba, so that I am able to embrace the atmosphere of the city as much as I can! I mean, I learned that Córdoba is famous for it's patios. I got to see a few, but if I did a little more work, I bet we could have seen more!

One of the lovely patios!

But, after the zoo, I looked at my handy dandy Rick Steve's guide to Andalucia, and saw that he recommended to go to Plaza de las Tendillas, in the city center, which ended up being very neat! It had a funky fun feel to it, with the Córdobesa Bachillerato de las Artes school's windows filled with pictures of eyes and tons of kids going around on skate boards (almost got my fingers got cut off by one of them.)
Today we went to el Museo de Arqueología, and discovered that there was a civilization in the province of Cadiz, called Tartessia. Nobody can decipher their language (writings) or understand their religion, but they have one symbol placed on everything, and their is a theory that it may represent the lost city of Atlantis (IDK?)
Finally, something that I have forgotten to mention is that for about a month now I have been helping out with the primary classes at my school, whenever I have Math, Economics, or English. I go to the bilingual classes, which are English and Science, and teach the students songs, games, and help out with the teacher. Sometimes I can't stop laughing at the little kids (which proves my brother Ben right, that I can not be a first grade teacher) or I need to find new ways to make them quiet (making the llama sign.) But, overall, I love it, and sometimes it makes all the difference in my day!
Next trip- Barcelona!