Cordoba

Is this really my life?  How did this happen to me?  These are some of the questions that I keep asking myself and this last adventure was no exception.  Although, I do feel that maybe I should just stop with these questions.  Life is simply great and I am stuck with it.

My most recent adventure took me, along with my two roommates, Julie and Ellen, to the wonderful city of Cordoba.  Our trip started on Friday when we hopped on a bus here in Baeza, to make the 2 hr and 30 min ride to our destination.  It was an easy one, but a bit long for me as I was giddy with anticipation.  The reasons for this excitement are many, but most importantly were the Mezquita, the Arab Baths, and to once again see my long lost friend Russ, whom I had yet to see since parting ways back in September in Barcelona.  It is strange because of all of my best friends, Russ is the one that I have seen most recently, but being away from everyone for so long, has made these visits mean even more.  As I’m sure you can guess, I can’t wait to see my Croatian friends along with everyone and anyone that comes to visit me in the spring and summer months.

The three of us arrived in Cordoba around 8:00 pm on Friday and were met by Annelies and Russ at the bus station.  I charged him as he tried to run from my advances.  Just as I expected!  We then took the 15 minute walk from the station to the apartment of Annelies and her roommates where we would be staying for the weekend.  After saying hi and dropping off our things, we grabbed a taxi and made our way to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  There were nine of us, so we had a very nice dinner, eating enchiladas, drinking Mexican beer and margaritas.  Although I would say that it was not as good as Mexican food in the US.  The Spanish just don’t know how to spice their food up!  But it was nice to have something different for a change.  After lingering at the table for another hour or so, we decided to walk next door and catch the midnight showing of the new Bond, Quantum of Solace.  My first experience in a Spanish movie theater was a good one.  Here all the American films are dubbed in Spanish and without subtitles.  I understood most of what was going on, but probably missed much of the humor.  Sarcasm, irony, and jokes in a foreign language are a hard thing to catch on to.  After leaving the theater, we met up with Russ’s and my new friend Paige.  She had come with Russ from Cadiz for the weekend and was hanging out with some of her friends that she knew in Cordoba.  After making it to their location, we had some drinks at a couple different bars.  Here is where I met her friends, Jorge and Fernando, two of my new best friends here in Spain.  It turns out that Tracy, another new friend, had been an auxiliar like me two years ago, met Jorge in Cordoba, fell in love, and the rest is history.  She is now living here in Spain!  Just like in the movies!  Anyways, this whole group is one that I hope to spend a lot more time with over the next several months.  They are all great friends and we have talked a lot already about return trips to Cordoba and trips together elsewhere in Spain.  I’m sure you will be hearing more about these new friends in my life.

Saturday started out with sleeping in as the night before turned into one that was quite late.  After waking up and getting some breakfast, we headed down towards the Mezquita.  For any of you who do not know what the Mezquita is, you should.  Mezquita is spanish for mosque and the Mezquita here in Cordoba is one of the great architectural treasures in the world.  Built in 785, it is in almost perfect condition even today after more than 1200 years!  It is famous for two reasons.  First the inside is composed almost entirely of pillar after pillar connected by wonderfully decorated arches.  See picture.  The second reason is the cathedral that is there today, constructed in the center and on top of the mosque itself.  The history of this plot of land begins with another church that was torn down by the Muslims before the construction of the Mezquita.  Then, in the 15th century, at the end of the Moorish reign here in the south of Spain, the Christians built the cathedral on top of the mosque as a sign of their re-conquest.  Although in my opinion, the cathedral does not even come close to the splendor that is the mosque and because of this it actually has the opposite effect.  In fact, it is said that Charles V came to Cordoba after construction had already begun and was appalled at what they were doing to such a beautiful building.  We spent over an hour walking around and inside the Mezquita and seeing everything it had to offer.  You can walk everywhere inside.  There is a museum, you can see the cathedral, and see how strangely incorporated the two religions are in this odd building.

After the Mezquita, we headed towards the Guadalquivir River, one of the longest rivers in Spain, which goes through the city.  There is a great bridge where you can walk around and enjoy a lazy afternoon.  We even went down to the banks and and spent some time enjoying the afternoon.  Done with this, we headed back towards the Mezquita and found a nice little cafe where Russ, Ellen, Julie, and I sat down to enjoy a nice afternoon snack and reenergize a bit.  Towards the end of this rest stop, Veronica, one of the girls we were staying with, met us and took us around more of the city.  We enjoyed a great walk through the Judaría and into some really nice plazas.  The Judaría is the neighborhood surrounding the Mezquita.  It is made of almost all white buildings that house apartments and houses, cafes, restaurants, and numerous small shops.  The streets are very narrow.  A great little Spanish neighborhood.  As it began to get dark, we made our way to a nearby Mercadona (spanish grocery store chain) to pick up some food for a cheaper dinner at our friends’ apartment.  We settled on some pasta, took that back with us and enjoyed a small siesta followed by a great and filling dinner.  Thanks girls!

Not wanting to waste any time on our current adventure, Russ and I headed out to meet up with our new Spanish friends.  The rest of the girls were a bit tired and decided to siesta before heading out that night.  I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am that I didn’t partake in this.  Russ and I arrived at our friends’ apartment, enjoyed a glass of wine, and then Jorge, Fernando, Tracy, Paige, Russ, and I made our way out for the night.  First however, their apartment is right on the Guadalquivir River and is an amazing place.  Not too big but very nice and spanish people are so hospitable.  They were so happy to open their doors to us.  As we headed out, they took us out to a couple spots where we could get some great pictures of the bridge over the river and the Mezquita at night.  The pictures obviously didn’t come out great, but the views were breathtaking.  After this, we made our way to my favorite night life place of the weekend.  I don’t know what the name of this bar was, but it was located on the roof of a building right on the river.  Parts of the club were indoors and parts outdoors, the drinks were amazing, the music great, and the company unbeatable.  Russ and I had a great time and I definitely hope to return to this place on my next trip to Cordoba.  When out at night in Spain, the experience is quite different than in the US.  People of all ages go out.  Everyone from those younger than me, to 60 year old men and women.  In my opinion, it really makes for a fun atmosphere and one that is hard to come by back home.  After leaving this bar, we made our way to two more that night and met up with Ellen, Julie, and our hosts.  We all had a great time as we drank and danced the night away.  Too much fun.

The next day, after not enough sleep, we rolled off of our inflatable air mattresses and headed back to the Judaría where our Arab bath awaited.  Although a little bit pricey, this is an experience that I most definitely recommend.  For 90 minutes we enjoyed maybe the most relaxing experience of our lives.  The experience is something like this:  The bath house consists of a series of different temperature baths.  A cold bath (and by cold, I mean take your breath away cold), a large warm bath which is more like a large baby pool, a hot tub, and finally a steam room that has something in the steam that smells great.  The idea is to progress from bath to bath as many times as you wish for your designated 90 minutes.  I spent most of my time in the warm bath and the steam room, but combined it makes for a great way to shock the system and relieve any tension that you might have.  During this time, you also receive a 15 minute massage when your number is called.  I felt total relaxation as I walked out the door.

Feeling that we needed some food and drinks in our system, we made the short walk to the famous Bar Santos right outside the Mezquita for some fantastic tortilla potata and salmorejo.  For those that don’t know, tortilla here is actually more similar to an omelette and salmorejo is a spanish soup from Cordoba that is based from tomatoes and bread.  Delicious.  Along with a Coke, we enjoyed our meal and then headed back towards the bridge and the river, where we crossed, made our way to the banks, and laid down in the grass for a wonderful siesta.  At least an hour later, we finally got moving again as we slowly made our way back over the bridge where we were planning to stop for Russ to pick up a sweatshirt that he had left over at Jorge and Fernando’s apartment.  Well, this turned into an afternoon stop where we were treated to a feast complete with pizza, leftovers, drinks, and conversation about all the crazy events of the weekend.  These guys really are some great guys and I hope to stay good friends with them throughout this year and long into the future.  Finally after leaving, we met up with Veronica and Annelies and made our way back to their apartment where we briefly stopped to pack up our stuff and head back to the bus station.  After saying good bye to them and Russ, we parted ways and Ellen, Julie, and I were on our way back to Baeza.

The weekend was a whirlwind and probably the best since arriving in Spain.  I really can’t put into words what I think of Cordoba, our fun there, and especially the new friends that we met.  I hope to see all of them soon and to obviously return as soon as possible.  As for my next adventure, this next week is Thanksgiving, which I will soon be writing about.  I hope you and your families are enjoying a wonderful start to the holiday season.  It will be a bit of a different one here for me, but one that I’m sure will be unforgettable.

Hasta pronto.

Un poco de todo

First off I would like to say congrats to the Gophers for what looked to be a successful weekend at the Grand Prix.  I saw a lot of impressive swims and know that they will only be even faster in a couple more weeks at the Ohio State Invite.  Not to be forgotten also was the unbelievable performance by the Minnetonka girls team at Varsity Sections.  A truly fantastic meet by those girls.  I am really proud and happy for all of them, especially the ones that I was fortunate enough to help throughout the last year.  Jen, Katie, Maddie, Jenny, Sarah, Paige, Kelsey, and my little Isabel.  Keep it going as you get ready for State!

The last couple of weekends have been much less overwhelming and busy but believe me, I have found other things to occupy my time.  The first of these that I wanted to quick write about was the excitement of November 4.  For me, it was a bit of a strange day.  I was not subject to the constant barrage of political ads throughout the couple of months, which was quite nice, although I did try and read as much as possible about the election in the weeks leading up to it.  The economic struggles, the attacking of the candidates at one another, and of course the political humor by such shows as SNL and The Daily Show, gave me my fill of the political tension that was present back home.  Each election is of course an important one, especially when we are electing a new president, but in my lifetime and possibly as far back as FDR, there has not been such an important one, mainly because we have not been presented with such hard times since then.  I really have no desire to start a political forum here, but I think most people would agree in varied degrees to this statement.

Election Day was a bit strange.  Throughout the day I was incredibly nervous.  My plan was to stay up all night to watch the results come in.  In order to accomplish this and still be functioning on Wednesday at work, I decided I needed to sleep as much as possible during the day on Tuesday.  So with that in mind, I went to class in the morning (thank goodness Tuesdays are generally easy days for me) and then slept all afternoon until I had to return to work for some private tutoring in the evening.  Then I went back to bed and slept from about 11:00 until 2:30 AM (8:30 PM EST).  Luckily I was able to receive a couple of different live streaming videos from CNN, MSNBC, etc that I was able to watch and keep tabs on everything as polls continued to close across the country.  Finally, as California closed at 5:00 AM, we all received the word that Barack Obama would be the next President of the United States.  After the last year and then some of campaigning, hoping, and dreaming, it was made a reality.  Who knows?  Maybe I can actually return home to the US, instead of finding a new life here in Spain!

Another item that I wanted to quick share is that after three months of almost zero swimming (I did swim about 800-1000 meters in both the Munich and Barcelona Olympic pools) I actually did a workout.  There is a 25 meter pool in a nearby town called Canena.  It is quite pricey to go and swim there, but I have met some friends who go every once in awhile and now will probably try to go as well.  The first experience was great, although quite painful.  I did 3500 meters and it almost killed me.  But it felt great to actually be doing that again.  I do not plan on doing any training at all this year and have been enjoying the months without subjecting my body to the demands that it is used to, but after being away for a couple of months, I would possibly like to resume swimming in the future.  At least as a form of exercise.  There exists none better in my opinion.

Finally, my roommate Ellen went to Malaga recently and brought back a gift for me.  I now have a map of Europe in Spanish on my wall which I am using to mark my travels throughout the year.  So far I have already been to three different countries and many cool cities.  I hope that in another seven months or so, I will have a map full of little feet.  (those are the stickers that I am using to mark these adventures)  I think it will be a great keepsake after this adventure has come to a close.

Anyways, next weekend we are planning on taking a trip to Cordoba to see the Mesquita and maybe experience and Arab bath.  Should be lots of fun.  We had some of these friends and others over to our place this weekend and had some great times.  Eric and I made fajitas for about ten people on Saturday night and we even had pancakes!

More from Cordoba next week.

Milano

My trip to Milan was the first trip outside of Spain since coming here via Munich in September.  It did not disappoint and proved to be a great choice for us.  Once again, myself, Ellen, Julie, and Lucia left together on another adventure towards a far away land.  The road would at times prove to be a challenge, but as we continue to journey around our European home, I feel now that I am ready for whatever comes next.

On Thursday, we departed from Baeza on a mid afternoon bus that took us up to Madrid.  The ride is approximately four hours and not too bad of a trip with a good Spanish novel and my ipod.  Both of which I am never without these days on our weekend excursions.  Once in Madrid, Ellen and I parted ways with Julie and Lucia.  Ellen and I had decided to stay in a cheap hostel Ellen had found, while Julie and Lucia had decided to try the exciting world of couch surfing.  I think it was more or less a success although apparently the guy was a bit of a creeper.  But you’ll have to ask Lucia about that.  As for Ellen and I, our hostel was actually great.  Really cheap, clean, and friendly.  We did have one other guy in our room, but he returned late that night and we were up early to catch our flight.  After settling in we went on a nice little walk from our hostel down towards the Plaza Mayor, which was a nice treat at night.  Although I am anxious for the next time I am in Madrid, so that I can do a bit more exploring in the day.  We then met up with Julie, Lucia, and Enrique, their couch surfing host, where he showed us some good places to go eat.  We then found a nice little place where I had another menú diario (daily menu) of 10 euros.  I believe I had Spanish tortilla as my main dish on this occasion.  Afterwards, Ellen and I headed back towards our hostel with a quick pit-stop at a Mexican restaurant.  We had seen it on our way and Ellen desperately wanted to try a margarita, of which she never had before.  It was actually quite good and even with its Mexican origins, made me think a bit about home again.  After making it back to our hostel, we quickly went right to bed so that we would be well rested for our trip the next morning.

Our flight from Madrid left at 9:00 that morning.  Ellen and I checked out and then made our way to the airport where we met Julie and Lucia.  The flight was very quick.  Only about an hour and a half and since we were not checking any baggage, it was quick and painless.  Upon our arrival in Milan, we found a bus from the airport to one of the main train/metro stations in Milan.  The airport is actually quite a ways from the center of the city.  Waiting for us in Milan that Friday was plenty of rain and paired with the traffic, our bus ride ended up taking nearly two and a half hours.  Not exactly fun.  We then found the necessary subway line to our hotel and after a little confusion of where exactly it was, we had arrived.  (It appears to me that in Europe in general, accurate maps and street signs are things that are not necessities.  A little strange to me and often difficult as a tourist.)  The hotel was nothing special but ended up being just right.  The room was not great, but the shower was fine, everyone had a bed, and it was fairly clean.  The staff was also very friendly and even had a pet dog that was often sleeping on one of the couches in the lounge.  A male boxer named Loci.  Very cool.  

Finding a pizzeria that was very close to our hotel was our next order of business, which we were able to do almost immediately.  They do pizza right in Italy.  I had pizza a few times over the next few days and was never disappointed.  Due to the constant rain on that day, we took the metro to an area that had several museums.  Julie and I chose to spend most of our time in the Museum of Natural History, while Ellen and Lucia went to one the art galleries.  My experience was great.  The museum had a lot to see and some very cool dioramas.  After wandering inside there for a couple of hours, we headed in the direction of our hotel to find a restaurant for dinner.  I had a very big meal for a pretty fair price (risotto milanese).  We then bought some wine and headed back to our hotel.  We were tired, wet, and the rain was not stopping.  I hate to say it, but that first day was actually pretty miserable.  Not a whole lot of things you want to do when you are in the shape that we were.  We called it an early night and pledged to go all out on Saturday.

In the morning, we began the day at Castello Sforzesco.  Originally constructed in the 14th century, the castle has seen many changes and renovations.  Today it consists of an enormous courtyard in the center and many museums which are inside the still covered castle walls.  Outside of the castle, there is even a section of the original wall that is still standing.  Another interesting fact is that the origins of Milan date all the way back to the 5th century BC and the Celtic peoples who first came here.  It is a very old city.  

After touring the castle in the morning, we headed to the Santa Maria delle Grazie, the location of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.  Before coming here to Milan, I had not realized that the location of such an important piece of art was located in a place that is not a tenth as impressive.  The church is a nice little place, but is incomparable to the Duomo, which we were to see soon.  Probably in large part due to the popular book and movie The Da Vinci Code, the painting has been of interest to me and I was quite excited to see it.  However, if any of you are heading to Milan in the future, be sure to book a reservation in advance.  We luckily received word from a friend of ours that you needed a reservation to go and see the painting.  Upon arriving at your designated time, you are ushered into a waiting room with the 30 other people that have also reserved that 15 minute time slot.  From here you are moved into another room via an automatic door.  This room and the subsequent ones are along the courtyard on the interior of the church.  Sorry I have no pictures here.  From this room, you are then sent into another room via an automatic door that closes behind you after entering.  Then, once again you repeat the process and enter into your last waiting room through another set of automatic doors.  Due to the current condition of the painting and the huge amount of work they have done to continue its existence, they do everything they can to allow no outside light and humidity to enter the room.  Quite a process.  When you finally enter the room, you see that it is inside a large hall with two paintings at each end.  At one of these ends is The Last Supper.  It was unbelievable.  I do not consider myself a very religious man but standing in front of that painting really made me stop and think.  About God, Christianity, and really the history of religion itself.  Not just here at the site of such an historically important work, but when you see the things I have seen in my short time here already, it really makes you think.  Why do men build such unbelievable cathedrals, make such artistic works, or devote their lives to a cause that we know so little about?  I cannot help but history and my participation in it.  The painting, if only, helped to evoke such thoughts.

Our next stop, was the Plaza Duomo and it was yet another impressive sight.  The Duomo itself is unbelievably big with a capacity of 40,000 people.  Inside, the building is of the baroque time period with huge columns and paintings hanging alongside the pews.  It is fairly dark inside due to the small number of windows.  However, as cool as the inside was, the climb to the top nearly matched it.  Although you have to pay a rather steep five euros to make the trip, it was well worth it.  After a series of winding steps, you emerge at an area that is not quite all the way at the top.  Here you walk from the side of the cathedral, towards the front where you make your final ascent.  Finally at the top, I found myself in front of a scene that was completely unexpected.  There was honestly a small get together occurring on the roof of the cathedral.  Probably 60-70 people were simply sitting on the roof, checking out the sights, and enjoying the afternoon.  Here I was, on the roof of one of the biggest and most important cathedrals in existence, and there was a small party going on.  I took some time to walk around the edge of the roof and check out the city below me, as well as the mountains.  Then I joined the rest of the crowd, found a spot to sit down and relax, and soaked myself in the moment.

After returning back to the city below, we then decided to check out all of the shopping that Milan has to offer.  They don’t call it the fashion capitol of the world for nothing.  Everything seemed to be very expensive and way out of my price range.  But it was a really nice scene.  Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, you can find such shops as Gucci, Prada, Louis Vitton, and many others.  Not exactly where I do my shopping, but it was definitely fun to see it all.  However, I was a bit disappointed to find a McDonald’s smack in the little of this fashion mecca.  It just didn’t seem to fit in my mind.  Outside of the Galleria the shopping continues.  There are several pedestrian streets with shops all over the place.  I even managed to find one where I purchased a coat, a nice jacket, and even a fleece.  I probably packed a little light in this area when I left home in the US.  The girls obviously enjoyed all of these places much more than I did, but just walking down these was fun for me.  There was an exhibit with photos of planets, stars, the earth, and other celestial bodies that was really cool.  I busied myself here as opposed to walking into every store along the way.  

Done with shopping for the day, we stopped at a nice pizzeria that we found.  It was really good and a fun place to go eat.  I had a four cheese pizza that was excellent.  (not to mention a large part of Julie’s)  We then wandered back to the Plaza Duomo to take it in at night.  Here we also found a film festival that was displaying sports documentaries from around the world.  It was free, so we walked in and watched a bit on a famous Portuguese football player, although I can’t remember his name.  It was a rags to riches story, due to the fact that he was a gypsy.  It was pretty interesting.  Maybe you know who I’m speaking of?  From here, we took a walk down towards the river and walked along that for awhile before finding a small bar where we sat outside and enjoyed a drink before heading back towards our hotel.  We also made our plans for the next day, which was to be our last in Milan.

Sunday we slept in a bit and then headed over to the Teatro alla Scala.  We were disappointed though.  It was closing because there was a performance later that night.  I was sad we couldn’t go in and see it, but I guess I have a reason to come back!  From here we headed to the train station and purchased our tickets to Lake Como for the day.  The train ride is approximately an hour and the tickets quite cheap.  We arrived early that afternoon at the city of Como and walked from the station out towards the lake.  It was astonishingly beautiful.  To be completely honest, words cannot express how wonderful I thought this place was.  The lake is wonderful, the town is beautiful, and the weather great.  We spent the day walking through the town, looking at shops (I bought a scarf), seeing the Duomo in this city, and checking out the old city walls and towers that still stand today.  The shopping was still expensive, but I think that just must be Italy.  And the Duomo here was very nice, but obviously on a much smaller scale than the one in Milan.  When the sun began to go down, which was early due to the hills and mountains surrounding us, we walked out onto the extended pier that takes you out onto the lake.  It was really peaceful out there and pretty at night.  Afterwards we walked back along the lake until we found a nice little restaurant just off of it and had our last Italian meal of our trip.  I had a very tasty spaghetti bolognese and the bottle of wine we drank was a bit pricey but really good.  Finally we hopped back on the train and headed towards Milan.  When we made it back, we stopped by the sports film festival again and watched a really cool documentary on snowkiting.  The filmmaker was in the audience so we even got a chance to talk with him after.  He was American and the film was shot in Wyoming and Idaho.  Very cool.

The rest of the trip was also memorable but not exactly enjoyable.  We had checked out of our hotel that morning because our flight home was at 6:00 am on Monday and we thought that we would save some money and stay out late before heading to the airport.    Well even though we were in Milan, it was still Sunday night and nothing was really open.  So we headed to the train station where our bus would leave for the airport at 4:15 that next morning.  Until then we spent the hours in the train station waiting area with a lot of other people doing the same thing we were.  We played cards, read, and met a group of American students studying abroad in Florence.  We then took the hour long bus to the airport where we flew to Madrid.  Then we hopped on a bus to Granada because there was no bus to Baeza until the evening.  After that five hour ride, we made it to Granada a little before 5 pm where we waited until 6:30 pm for our bus to Baeza.  Upon arriving in Baeza at 8:30, I collapsed in my bed.  It was the end of a long day that started long ago in the train station of Milan.  Ugh.

As for my next trip, I’m not quite sure yet where we are going or when.  But I will be sure to post again with the next bit of exciting news that I have for you all.  

Keep in touch as always.