A Whirlwind Two Weeks

I apologize in advance for the length of this blog. It's been getting crazy busy over here, between school-work and trips. Funny thing is, I know it's only going to get busier too, but I'll do my best to keep posting. However, for this blog, I'm going to split it into two parts so it isn't ridiculously long, or so you can skip around if you wanna. But it'll be divided into Cordoba and Barcelona.

Cordoba
So, last weekend, our school had an organized trip to Cordoba for us. We have several trips that our school takes care of for us, all we have to do it show up. So Friday morning, we met up at school and boarded a bus for Cordoba. It's about an hour and half northeast of Seville, and it was still early, so we all caught a little shut eye on the bus. Cordoba used to be a really important city in its glory days. It has been estimated that in the 10th century, Cordoba was the most populated city in the world, being a center for Islamic learning, and the city was full of universities and libraries. Now, it's really a spec of what it used to be, with a population of around 300,000 people, but it still has some amazing remnants of the past.

our view of Cordoba as we got off the bus

The first thing we did in Cordoba was visit the Great Mosque of Cordoba (or the Mezquita, for all you Spanish speakers). It has to be one of the most incredible buildings I have ever seen. It was begun in the year 784. There are hundreds and hundreds in columns in the mezquita, and no two are the same. It's pretty amazing. There were beautiful red and white arches overhead, and they went as far as the eye could see.

Where mass is still celebrated 

A little more history... The mosque was converted into a Cathedral in 1238, during the Reconquest. It was expanded upon, chapels were added, the minaret was made into a bell tower, and now, mass is still celebrated every day inside the Mezquita-Catedral. 

For me, the Mosque was the one of my favorite things that we've seen in Spain. Later that day in Cordoba, we also saw a synagogue, the alcazar de los reyes catolicos, then had the afternoon free to get lunch and roam the city. 

This past week at school has been busy with midterms and a lot of studying. I had an exam is every class, but each one was a little different. Two of them, my grammar classes, were a lot of fill in the blank, translations, and writing. My other two were more essay based. After the week of stressful school work, it was off to Barcelona!

Barcelona

Barcelona was a really fun, but short trip. We finished midterms on Thursday, then at 6am Friday morning, I met my friends Alec and Antonio by our school and we split a cab to the airport. Our flight left at 8:20, we had to be to the airport early since we had to go through some passport checkin, in addition to security. So the flight was pretty uneventful and we all got to sit together. I was super tired when I woke up that morning, so I had the intention of sleeping on the plane, but I was too excited. We got into Barcelona around 10, but then we had to wait on the plane for a bus to come and get us and take us to the terminal (yes, the plane didn't taxi, so we had to walk off the plane). When we got into the terminal, looked at the directions to our hostel and were on our way.

I vastly underestimated how big Barcelona is. We took a 35 minute bus ride into the city, walked several blocks, caught the metro (subway), walked several more blocks, then found our hostel. It was a really nice hostel, centrally located and only a 10 minute walk from the Sagrada Famila. So, you can imagine where our first sightseeing trip was to. We dropped our bags off and didn't waste any time venturing out into the city. Our first stop was Gaudi's famous church, the Sagrada Familia. That church was something I have wanted to see for a long time and never thought I would get the chance to. It is so amazing to see it in person. Gaudi was such a unique artist, it was reflected in the church.

After the church, we wandered around the city, got a great lunch since it was Antonio's birthday, then met up with my friend Greg from Truman, at the hostel! Greg is studying in Austria, but had some time off and was visiting Spain, so it was awesome to get to see him. That night, we had dinner, then went out to see what the Barcelona night life had to offer.

Saturday morning, we got up and decided to go for a great view of Barcelona from a small mountain at the edge of the city. We took a combo of the metro and bus to get there, but the view was completely worth it! After the great view and small hike, we couldn't wait for lunch. We took the metro into the city center and went down to Las Ramblas, which is the famous main street in Barcelona for street performers, shopping, and eating. We found a great place and had sangria and paella for lunch. Those are two things I will definitely miss when I have to go back home.

 After Las Ramblas, we did my favorite part of the trip, we went to the beach! I was on the Mediterranean, and I had a fantastic time, playing in the sand and getting my feet wet. I could have spent all day there. The water was so blue and so beautiful.

The beautiful Mediterranean Sea

It's hard for me to believe that my time here is already half over. One on hand, it seems like I've been here forever since I know my way around the city, I've made local friends, and I feel so at home. But on the other hand, I don't want it to end. I feel like I just got here and there are so many other things I want to do. 

Whatever I decide to do and where I decide to go, I'll keep you posted!

Adios!