Andalucia Part 2: Cordoba

So I clearly have been slowww when it comes to posting... Glad to see Yat is stil reading it, but I feel everyone else has probably stopped (including Tuan, Samosa, and others....)  Well perhaps once fellowship starts I will be re-motivated, or once I have some juicy tales of my (currently non existant) love life to share with you readers out there.... Until then, I can at least document what I did for my own sake! (And Yat don't worry, the airport story is very close.... Im sure everyone will get a kick out of it..)

So where was I? Ah yes Spain.... Andalucia.... Seville was beautiful once again.  Our next stop was Cordoba.  Pretty much the one thing to see there is the Mezquita Mosque.  That is kind of a redundant term, it should just be The Mezquita, since Mezquita means "Mosque".  The Mezquita is quite amazing, it's an enormous structure, which was built originally as a Christian Cathedral in 600 A.D., but subsequently, when the Moors took over, built it into a Mosque.   It  also had several expansions built by succeeding Emirs to hold the growing population of Muslims for prayers.  Coredoba was the Islamic capital of the Moorish world at one point, and the Mezquita was the largest Mosque in the world.  You can see different portions of the Mosque that were built that in many ways stay true to it's original architecture, but clearly you can see influences as the times went forward. Some are harshly contrasting the original, while others blend in nicely.   The real amazing thing about it is that as it went back and forth between the Christians and the Moors, it kept having pieces added to it from the Muslims and Christians, so it is a fine example of a combination of both religions and cultures in one structure.  Lined with pillars with single and double arches in the Muslim fashion,  a vastly decorated entrance and doorway, a huge dome and minaret, and then within the Mosque, right in the middle, is a huge Choir and cathedral.  Lined along all the walls of the Mosque are many chapels built durin the Christian reign.  In the back right in the center is the amazing Mihrab made by Abd al-Hakam II, which is strangly oriented to Damascus instead of Mecca.  Anyway, it is definitely a site to see if you hit Andalucia. It will take only one day.   

The other thing to see in Cordoba is the Alcazar.  The building itself isn't as amazing as the one in Seville, but the gardens are definitely a site to see.  A long stretch of pools lined by very strange trees (almost looked dead, dont know what they were), and scultpures and lush flora and greens.  A nice view all the way down the hills with the castle in the backdrop.  The Moors sure knew how to make back yards I'll tell you that!  I sat there and chilled reading a book for an hour.

Afterwards a stroll through the charrming Juderia district, with again old-feelin windy dusty roads of the Jewish quarter where all the shops and restaurants are will kill some time.  I enjoy these little old world feeling towns.  We stepped into an Arabic bath as well, which was fantastic.  It was co-ed, and had the architecture of one of the old Arabic baths.  Three pools, one warm, which was the big one, where you sat for a while and relaxed, after which you stepped into the smaller hot pools for a few minutes, and then made your way to the cold pools (I could not even get all the way in) to refresh.  There was also a sauna to sit and sweat it out!  You repeated this 4 or 5 times throughout your 1.5 hour stay in the Bath.  At some point you have a 20 minute massage (more of a back rub) on massage tables lining the main room.  Afterwards we went to the cafe upstairs and smoked a lovely hookah, and had some moroccon tea.  Probably one of the most relaxing afternoons of the trip!  Don't miss out.....

Our meal in Cordoba was probably one of the best in Andalucia as well.  It is known to have the best cuisine in the region.  The wine was amazing as well, locally grown and bottled.  I had an amazing Veal steak (they don't do beef much in Spain, mostly veal).  Speaking of food, don't miss having a kickass tortilla (potato omelette basically) at Bar Manolo right next to the Mezquita as an afternoon snack.  Grab a plastic fork and eat it as you walk away.  The best tortilla I had in Spain perhaps.

Our next stop was Granada, where the Alhambra lies, perhaps one of the most amazing Islamic architectural wonders of the world!

Comments

[terence]

don't worry...i'm reading too man. we just got back from spain a little bit ago to though, we were mostly in madrid.

[Salacious Samosa]

Array! Why would I eeestop reading my little Dr. Babloo's blog? I've watched you grow from a nunaa muna young resident into a fine young hunka sveet sveet DAAKTAR! Not even the fires of hell could stop me from reading your blog...

Now tell us about Granada, tortillas, empanadas, doner, sipping Turkish coffee and how you travelled accross the vast expanse of the East with a cigar in your hand and heart on your sleeve...

Yours everlovingly,
Garma Garam Samosa

[Zaina aka suga]

im here dude...

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