A couple weekends ago I left Catalonia for the first time and experienced the"real Spain" in Málaga, Córdoba, and Granada. Throw in the oldest standing mosque, one of the seven wonders of the world, endless seafood, a bit of Picasso, and unnumbered Roman remnants and you get a small taste of the four day weekend Katie, Raquel, and I enjoyed.
Our excursion began in Málaga, a town that could have passed for a small California beach town only sitting on top of one and a half thousand years of history. If you think construction back home takes forever, wait till you see Málaga... every attempt to dig or start construction comes to a standstill when unsurprisingly they come across yet another ancient Roman ruin just feet below the surface. Next comes the extensive process of deciding what to do with this ancient ruin, how to go about it, and whether or not to continue building on it. But no biggie, they're just walls and buildings that have continued standing for over a 1000 years. We were only sitting on the steps of an ancient Roman theater at one point taking a break from covering every inch of the city with Enrique.
Enrique was our couchsurf host who's enthusiasm, knowledge, and love for Málaga was contagious. As a 19 year-old law student with adamant intentions of becoming a diplomat for the European Union, he is extremely well versed in history, politics, philosophy, and life itself. He gave us a tour I would have paid money for. We literally covered every inch of the city (I'll try not to make the list too lengthy): We combed the beach, meandered through old castles and fortresses, toured the Picasso museum, learned all about the cathedral with only one complete tower because Málaga gave the rest of the money allocated for the other tower to the US during WWII, ate patatas asadas (the local cheap food for students), visited the old palace on the hill that Francisco Franco used to vacation to, strolled through the old fisherman village on the coast, viewed the city lights from the highest point in town, of course stumbled upon Roman ruin after Roman ruin, I could go on and on. I'm pretty sure one could guess we think pretty highly of this town.
Next came about 4 hours in Córdoba at La Mezquita. The Mosque. This is a highly regarded Roman Catholic cathedral, but as one can obviously imply from the name it was at one time a great mosque. Around 600 AD a Christian Visigoth church was built in this location, only to be rebuilt as a great mosque about 200 years later under Arab rule, and recaptured by a Christian king in the 12th century and converted into a Roman Catholic cathedral. Therefore in this great church/cathedral/mosque one can find Christian and Arab architectural styles and influences throughout the entire structure. One enters through Arab style walls that seem capable of containing an entire city, through the beautiful gardens, into the gigantic Mosque with countless Arab arches, and finds a typical gothic Roman Catholic cathedral right in the center of it all. Katie, Raquel, and I had to locate each other via text messages after wandering around for over an hour with no sight of each other because it was so large.
We spent the rest of day two and three in Granada where the highlight was definitely La Alhambra, one of the seven wonders of the world. We chose the three hour guided tour as opposed to the 7 hour guided tour not knowing how one could possibly spend an entire day within the walls of La Alhambra. But oh it's possible. Very possible. The walled city consists of beautiful Arab gardens and palaces so intricately designed that every detail was placed with a specific purpose and meaning in mind. We learned, for example, why there were eight-pointed stars and symbols in patterns or groups of eight covering the palace walls and gardens. Allah lives in the eighth heaven above all other heavens (7th heaven is the highest for humans which is where we get the phrase 7th heaven) and therefore the number eight is a symbol of Allah and perfection. In fact the significance of the numeral 8 comes from this belief that the perfection of Allah and the 8th heaven is never ending so the numeral itself is never ending. Like the Mezquita, control of the Alhambra also changed hands between rulers, Muslim and Christian, and has architectural influence from both styles.
Right outside of La Alhambra walls we wandered throughout the Albacin. The Albacin, a World Heritage site, is an old Arab neighborhood consisting of very narrow cobblestone streets, small shops, restaurants, and houses with great views of the Alhambra. When the Arabs built the Albacin, and other similar neighborhoods all over Southern Spain, they built such narrow streets to keep the streets cool and shaded from the sun. After exploring the cool, sheltered streets, or alleys if you please, we enjoyed a spectacular sunset over la Alhambra while listening to Flamenco guitar from a mirador, or look out point, in the Albacin.
We spent our last night back in Málaga at a hostel on the beach where we relaxed and enjoyed another great sunset in great company before our flight back to Barcelona in the morning where we arrived just in time to make it to a thing called class.
A ramblas, or boardwalk area was supposed to go here in Malaga until they found some Roman Ruins:
The one completed tower of the cathedral in Málaga:
Palm tree relaxing:
Soccer on the beach! (of course)
Katie on the tire zip line on the beach in Malaga
Taking a break at the Roman theater
Málaga sunset
Espetos (sardines on a stick) cooking in one of many fire pits on the beach.
That's the bull fighting arena below:
Walls of the Mezquita
Mezquita arches
Waiting for sunset over La Alhambra and Albacín
The Albacin
Intricate details everywhere in the Alhambra!
Floating palace of the Alhambra
Looking over Granada from the Albacin. (That's the fourth largest cathedral in the world)
Organ inside:
We ran into these two in the Albacin:
So many spices!
