Gloominess can't even ruin Cordoba

Oh lord, what a morning. St. Patrick's Day caught up with me early; I had set my alarm the night before for 7:15am and woke up on my own at 6am unable to fall asleep due to a pounding headache. I was officially hungover. I struggled through light, unsatisfying, painful sleep until my alarm went of at 7:15. I forced myself out of bed and into the kitchen for sustenance. I was nauceous, in pain, and tired. I popped two Ibuprofen and forced myself to drink glass after glass of water while my toast cooked. I had to pull up a stool to the counter because I was too weak and in pain to stand up. My body was literally shaking that's how dehydrated I was. I felt like passing out, NOW I was tired. Oy vey. I forced 2 pieces of toast with marmalade down my throat, drank more water, and dragged myself into my room to make my bed and get dressed. This was all a huge struggle until about 15 min later when the Ibuprofen began to kick in and the bread started to absorb with the water. I was still quite hungover, but feeling functional. I was seriously considering ditching out on Cordoba, that's how terrible I felt. Oh well, it was worth it. Stacey and I then left the house around 8:15 to meet everyone at the bus at 8:45. When we got there we saw that everyone was hungover and tired, it was kind of funny. Oh us American girls. Oh yeah, a little less than half of the program decided to come to Cordoba, and it was all girls. Hehe. It started raining again. It was a gloomy, hungover, early Saturday morning. The bus hadn't shown up by 9:15, so we were just standing out in the rain miserable. Pepe was on the phone, angrily, for a long time to find out what the deal is. At around 9:30 the bus finally showed up. We boarded, and since so few of us came we all got our own rows of seats to spread out and sleep. Yeah, we all slept on the hour and a half bus ride. We arrived in Cordoba then around 11am. I was still hungover and a bit nauceous from the swervy bus ride. It was raining, too. Cordoba wasn't looking too great so far. We first went to the Mezquita (mosque) which is the most famous landmark in Cordoba. Before our tour we were given 10 min to use the bathroom and such. I bought a huge bottle of water which I chugged during our tour and made me feel a thousand times better. The tour of the Mezquita was actually really, really great. We split up into 2 tour groups, Stacey and Katie were on mine. Our tour guide was awesome--she spoke really slowly and clearly and had a great spunk about her...she seemed very enthusiastic about the Mezquita. She also rolled her "rr" really beautifully...haha, it was like music to my ears. The Mezquita is really interesting, it used to be a Muslim mosque and then it just kept getting added onto as the population of Cordoba grew. Then the Christians came in and drove the Muslims out and converted it into a Cathedral banning any Muslim presence. They destroyed some of the Muslim-inspired interiors and built big areas for services and prayer. It's very fascinating because some areas of it are still very Muslim-inspired with intermittent Christian corridors and rooms. So cool! The inside of the Mezquita is really, really impressive; it's hard to describe its decor but I'll have pictures up soon so you can see for yourself. After the Mezquita our guide took us on a walking tour through the off-and-on rain of the small, quaint streets of Cordoba. Cordoba is really awesome! I loved its architecture and the streets and the laid back authentic untainted old Spanish feeling it has. The small streets are decked out in potted plants and flowers hanging everywhere, and on May 3 they have a big flower festival where everyone decks out their patios and the winner gets a prize. Can you imagine what that'd look like? Just a little city COVERED in flowers. I saw it when the flowers weren't in bloom and it was very pretty, so just imagine. I'm definitely bringing the family there in June. We also went into one of the many Jewish quarters. We went to the old, preserved synagogue there which was actually really amazing for me. It's tiny and very modest, but the walls are peeling and there's a small bima with alcoves in the wall where the Ark would have been for the Torah. There's also a small mound with one little menorah resting upon it. On the opposite wall is a big, red, painted cross chipping away to the point that you can only see the top of it. Our guide told us that during the Inquisition all of the synagogues were destroyed but this one was allowed to remain as long as it became a place of Christian influence (although Jews still practiced Judaism despite the cross). It then became used as a Christian hospital holding room. Now it's just a little landmark hidden in the small, labyrinth streets of Cordoba. So awe-inspiring. We also saw a statue of a famous scientist/philosopher of the 1400's from Cordoba. His name was Gaffou or something and he was one of the inventors of eyeglasses, so they are therefore named after him (eyeglasses are "gafas" in Spanish)! I thought that that was really cool. This guy was very Arabian looking, he was a gold statue that had feet that jutted out that were those stereotypical Middle Eastern Aladdin-like shoes that curl up at the toe. Our guide told us that there's a belief that you will receive good luck if you rub his left shoe, which was very, very brilliantly golden due to being rubbed so much. I was all over that, I rubbed his shoe...it felt like I was rubbing Aladdin's lamp since it's gold and shaped like it. I liked that statue...I mean, Gaffou...Gafas...so cool! I'm a dork. After that we all walked back. The streets are so narrow and crowded we had to walk in a single-file line which was challenging since everyone was carrying an umbrella. We got cut off and half of us consequently lost the group. About six of us were completely lost. I was lost with all of the Cornell girls. We retraced our steps and found our way back to the Mezquita, but we weren't sure if the rest of the group was actually going back to the Mezquita. One of the girls then called someone in the group who we had lost and they said that they were at the entrance. We had a hard time finding the entrance, and them, and it had started to POUR. I mean, violently pour. I was worrying a lot since I didn't know if Stacey and Katie would wait for me, and I didn't have my phone on me. Thankfully we found them across the street from where we entered, and Stacey and Katie were there waiting. We were all kind of disillusioned by the weather and all, so we wallowed in the rain over to find a restaurant. We were starving. We found this really awesome tapas restaurant that's in a courtyard of a residence. It was perfect, it reminded me of the restaurants I went to in the haciendas of San Cristobol in Chiapas last Summer. Our seating feels like the outdoors but they had put a large, clear roof over the courtyard. There was also a running fountain in the middle. So peaceful. Stacey ordered pasta (hehe), I got paella (which, by the way, is turning out to be my favorite hangover food. Refer to my Madrid trip for evidence) and Katie got some tapas. The food was pretty good, came out really fast (great service!) and extremely satisfying. Because we were so tired, wet, and hungover, we had no motivation to see any more touristy places. So we decided to just chill out at the restaurant, perhaps have some cafe, do some walking around and look at the shops, and just waste time before we had to leave. We sat for another half hour, drank some cafes to give us some perk to get us through the rest of the day, then got up to walk around. We walked along that narrow block and looked at souvenir shops which were all the same. Nothing special. Actually, a lot of the souvenirs said "Sevilla" on them, which confused us. I mean, do they want their tourists to leave and go visit Sevilla? Speaking of tourists, that's all that I saw. I mean, Cordoba was teeming with tourists that day. I wonder what the natives are like, haha. Then we ran into a bunch of girls on our program who invited us to go to a teteria (an Arabic tea house, like the one I went to in Granada) with Pepe and them. Sure, why not? We got there and it was so nice inside! Great decor (again, I have pictures) and really comfy, couch-like seating. Some people ordered tea, I ordered a batido de platano (banana milkshake...literally bananas blended with milk and a touch of sugar). Btw, Spanish milkshakes are much better than America's because they are just blended with milk like a smoothey, no heavy creamy ice cream. And usually made with fresh fruit. The batido was pretty good. It was around 3:45, and we were to meet the bus at 4:30. We wanted some more time to do touristy shopping, so we paid early and left. We walked around, went to some more stores, I bought a silly bright orange souvenir t-shirt that says, "Someone who loves me went to Cordoba and bought me this t-shirt" in Spanish. Hehe. Then we walked back to the bus. It was still gross out, drizzling off and on. We boarded, and then passed out again for another hour and a half. When we got back to Sevilla the sun had just started peaking through the clouds...it was warm and sunny! I tell ya, everytime I travel Sevilla always welcomes me home. It was a bit windy, however. We felt like having a chill night, so Stacey, Jessica, Melissa, Courtney and I decided to walk to Plaza de Armas (the indoor mall across from the bus station) to see when the movie Volver was playing. Volver is the new Almodovar movie starring Penelope Cruz that came out on Friday. I reeeeeeally want to see it because I love Almodovar, and to see a film of his in Spain is just perfect. I mean, in the States we don't get all of Almodovar's movies in the theater, and they also come late. Unfortunately, the next showing wasn't until 7:30 (it was about 6:20) which was cutting it way too close to dinner. So we decided to just walk home and see it another time. Whatever, it was a nice evening for a walk...there was even a pretty sunset. So happy to be back home! We got home, Stacey watched a movie on her laptop and I went online. I booked a hostel in Amsterdam! The best deal I found was 26euro a night in this hostel called the Bulldog which is right on the river and next to the Red Light District. Nice! The only thing is that we're sleeping it an 8 bed mixed dorm the first 2 nights, then we have to move to a 12 bed, and then for the last night we'll be in a 10 bed. Whatever, it's all good. It's actually rated the no. 4 hostel in Europe! It includes breakfast and has a bar in it. Not bad. I'm so excited...it's all worked out. I'm going to Amsterdam!!! Then we had dinner at 9:30 just Maruja, Stacey, and myself since both Maria del Mar and Marta went home for the weekend. Dinner was SO good! We had a vegetable noodle soup, a beet and onion salad, grilled zucchini, and a grilled onion/grilled mushroom mixture. Then an orange for dessert. It was absolutely perfect because in Cordoba I had eaten so many carbs and felt gross about it, so as we were walking home from Plaza de Armas I actually told Stacey that all I wanted for breakfast were just some grilled vegetables. Now, Maruja makes us vegetables very often, but usually it's served with egg or a meat. All I wanted were grilled vegetables and that's what we got, coincidentally! It was quite an exciting moment. What an amaaaaaaazingly perfect meal. After dinner I went online, searched through the LS&A course guide which took ages (I get crazy when the course guide comes out). I don't know, I'm picking courses for my penultimate semester at UofM so I am putting a lot of thought into my course choices. I want to make sure I take everything that I've wanted to take before I graduate. Holy shit, I'm graduating next year. WHAT?? Anyhoo, I was up until about 2. I passed out and slept like a rock...I was EXHAUSTED.