Córdoba

Fri, Dec 18th: The big day. Out of housing, out of Granada. Change of plans also, because Amelia had developed an awful ear infection in BOTH ears, and a fever. So HANNAH and I booked a hostal in Córdoba, Spain, and needed to catch a bus there before our API housing terminated at 7pm. AND, it was raining.

In the morning I got up early to say goodbye to Maria-Carmen (my host mom) before she left for work. She is really awesome, and I’m really glad that I will be coming back to stay with her again afterward, despite how short of a time it will be. She told me to call her if I have any serious problems. :) Since I was up, I finished packing (almost), before meeting Sean and Amanda at 9:30 for pastries. I didn’t get anything, but I walked around with them and got a bag of things from Amanda that she let me paw through before she took them to API. We were there before it opened, at 10am, so that we could check stuff out and leave stuff behind. Sean and Amanda said goodbye to everyone, but I would be coming back. They just can’t get rid of me... ;)

Went with Amanda to the Plaza de los Flores one last time so she could pick up a poinsettia for her host mom. Then said goodbye to her and went home to finish packing (with my new stash from API). Was supposed to help Amelia move her stuff to API, but I took too long, so Hannah helped her while I brought Alex’s extras in for her. I also left her soccer shoes in the park near our house, per her request, where the local kids play soccer in the courtyard. She is always so sweet and thoughtful... I also brought in flowers for Carmen, Eli and Alicia. Amelia handed off the two airplane blankets she snagged so that I could take them in my bag, which is larger. Then I said my goodbyes to Eli and Jonathon (who is the new male ‘intern’ at the API front desk) and rushed home to meet Sean (who was going to give me some of his cast-off shampoo, soap, and socks). I should have known better though, because he was not ready when he told me to be there. ;) I ran upstairs and said thank you to Maria (our cleaning lady) and apologized that our room was always so disorganized, before coming back down to meet Sean and say goodbye. I cried – couldn’t help it. But we have decided that I will go back to MI to visit family, and then catch him on the ‘way home’ to meet his family, and then go with him to Chicago. Then he will fly back with me to visit us West-coasters, before going back home. We are going to start saving for it immediately... :)

Finally got back, INHALED lunch, grabbed my stuff and left the house. And it was raining. Go figure. Got to Correos (where I was supposed to meet Hannah) late, so we grabbed the next bus and took it out to the main station. From there we bought tickets to Córdoba (the next bus was at 5pm, so we only had about an hour to wait) and sat down. Turns out Hannah is AWESOME – I haven’t really ever talked to her before this, which is really sad. Amelia and her hang out a lot, because they both live in the residencia, but I am not anywhere near them. She has six siblings – two older sisters, one younger sister, and two younger brothers. She has been through some rough times, but is the better for them, and just a fantastic person! (We were scheming earlier today about how to get her to come with Amelia and I on our travels...) Caught the bus, rode 2.5 hours to Córdoba (where it was ALSO raining), and followed the directions on my print out to our hostal. Because Hannah has all her luggage, we got a room for just the two of us, so we could leave everything there and not worry about it. It was 14.50 Euro a night, so not a bad price at all, and we had a shared, but nice, bathroom with the next room down. The entire place is pretty nice – rooftop terrace, sheets and towels. Only thing that would make it better is if it was warmer outside... but it worked out because we used the little balcony as a refrigerator when we bought perishable food. :)

We didn’t really do anything the first night except change out of our wet clothing and figure out how to turn on the heater. Ate some of the food I brought from home (my host mom had made me a bocadillo, without me asking). Pretty chill night – we were both tired and cold, so we decided to call it a night and get up early.

Sat, Dec 19th: My alarm went off at 7am. That is not, however, when I got up. Too cold outside my covers. Finally got up and took a shower, which was nice when it finally got warm... had to wait a while for it though. Came back and roused Hannah, then went out for breakfast. We found a cute little café/bar/internet place down the street away from La Mezquita, and stopped in there for coffee and tostada (half a baguette with your choice of topping – Hannah and I both got tomato paste and jamón serrano) while checking email and sending Amelia the information on how to meet us in Salamanca. We then swung back to the Pension to drop stuff off, and continued on to La Mezquita-Catedral. Upon trying to find the entrance, we encountered the tourism office, and picked up some maps of the city. Paid the price to get into the mosque (8 EURO A PERSON!) and took lots of pictures. The Mosque here is the only one to be designed with double arches inside – it was a novelty at the time and is still the only one with this feature, so it was good to see. Two funny things happened inside: 1) We ran into Melina. She was there with her family before heading home together in a few days. Such a small world... 2) There were images of doves/pigeons EVERYWHERE. Hannah kept finding them and pointing them out to me... it just seemed random – neither of us have noticed them being in any other church/mosque like in this one... We then walked down the road to find the old roman ruins in town, right by the main Plaza. We also jumped into a random church, which had a lovely Nativity scene being displayed inside, which was cool to see. Then back to the main square: It has been the main central meeting point in Córdoba for centuries (although for different reasons – my favorite being a druggie hang-out... no joke... that’s how it was advertised online). Upon leaving the plaza, we picked up lunch at a supermarket and swung back to our hostal to eat it. What we didn’t eat went outside on the balcony.

Hannah took a shower (where she had more hot water than I had this morning) and we went back out to find the parks. On the way, we encountered the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos... where the discovery of America was planned out. Since we didn’t have cash after breakfast, we decided to wait and find an ATM instead. We then continued up the street to find the main Jardines (gardens/parks) in Córdoba, which currently have markets set up through them, and where Hannah and I both spent our respective 5 Euro... me on a necklace, her on a wallet. We trekked all the way up to the end of them to play on a climbing structure there en el Paseo de Córdoba (another park). Then around to Plaza de Colón, where we were dodging pigeons, and eventually back down to the Alcazár, where we had started. Although we now had cash, it was now closed for the evening, so we missed it. We did walk around it though, and around the back there are places where the wall is lower, and we could see the gardens inside anyways. For FREE... ;)

We crossed a bridge to double back on the other side of the river, then crossed again over the recently renovated old Roman bridge to head back to our hostal... because we both really had to use the restroom! We had to follow a crazy guy with a squeaky toy for about half the way also... which was really strange – especially because for the longest time, we couldn’t figure out what the noise was! I had thought it was a sick bird...

Took a break and chilled in the room – Hannah took a siesta while I blogged. When I finally ran out of battery life, I woke her up and we went back to the internet café down the street so Hannah could transfer money. Then swung by the bus stop to make sure things would be easy in the morning... only to find out since it would be Sunday, the bus wouldn’t get us to the station in time to catch our bus to Sevilla. So we ran back to the hostal and asked the guy at the front desk for the number for a taxi service – and found out there was wifi at the hostal, so we hadn't needed to pay for it. :( Couldn’t get a hold of the taxi service, so we went to bed frustrated, planning on getting up REALLY early to pack all our stuff to the station on foot.

Sun, Dec 20th: 5AM. Got up to catch the city bus to the station, where we had seats on the 7:30 bus to Sevilla, then a transfer to Salamanca. Hannah managed to get her big bag on her back, although it’s a duffel, and so we actually could move pretty fast (I had her rolling bag and my stuff). It only took us 45 min to get to the train station, when we had given ourselves 2 hours... so we got to sit there in the cold train station (the doors never close there, and the heat didn’t turn on until 7). Not only that, but our bus was an HOUR late... which ended up being ok because we still had an hour before our transfer in Sevilla (2 hour bus ride). The station in Sevilla kept the doors open too, so we hung out in the cafeteria while Hannah got churros and chocolate for cheap warmth. When it was time to catch our bus, we almost missed it because none of the boards were updated with any bus information after 11am... and it was 11:30. But we got on the bus without too much mishap... but once ON the bus, the lady sitting behind us cracked open a beer within the first 10 min of the ride. After drinking two of them, she decided to talk to me. She told me all about her life, and how she had studied abroad in America and loved the people, and how she was so excited that I was American and Catholic... she just LOVED talking to me. She gave me her address, phone number, and instructions to call her if we ever wanted to visit León, where she lives in a big house by herself – she would let us stay with her for free. She even gave me her neighbors’ number and address for a spare key if she wasn’t there. Hannah, dang her, pretended she was sleeping the whole time so she wouldn’t have to talk to her. By the end of the trip, this woman had drunk at least 6 beers...

We finally got to Salamanca and followed the instructions on how to get to Sarah’s house (Sarah is from Iowa – we found her on Couch Surfing, which you should Google if you don’t know what it is, and she is really AWESOME!! We got to her house without too much mishap, and literally took over her living room with the air mattresses she blew up for us and our luggage. Amelia came in on a later bus, so she was supposed to meet us around 9:30pm... but we finally went across the street to wait for her in Burger King while we ate something. Hannah and I essentially hadn’t eaten all day, and were both starving and dehydrated. Amelia met us there, and ordered food also (she was in the same state as us) before going back over to drop her stuff off. Then Sarah took us for a quick night-tour of Salamanca, which although painfully cold, was absolutely beautiful! I really love this city – I would love to come back here!! The Plaza Mayor, which is literally out her front door and 10 steps to the right, is where they filmed the movie Vantage Point, which is pretty cool. As soon as we got back, we pretty much went right to bed because everyone was so exhausted.