Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Cordoba (with an accent on that first "o"!)




Last Friday, Robert and I went with a big group from NYU (it's one of the NYU-sponsored excursions) to Cordoba and Granada in southern Spain. Southern Spain was controlled for 800 years (in the Middle Ages) by Muslims from Northern Africa and was called al-Andalus (now called Andalusia).

Very fun trip. We started with an early morning at NYU, a 5 hour bus ride, and our arrival in Cordoba. Personally, Cordoba was an important place to go, but I'm glad we didn't spend a ton of time there. La Mezquita (the Mosque) is the focal point of the city...by the way, Cordoba used to be the largest city in Europe and possibly the world. La Mezquita is a giant building that surrounds a courtyard of orange trees. The inside is beautifully dark with red and white stripes adorning countless arches. After the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492 (big year for Spain), the building was converted into a cathedral. By converted, I mean that a cathedral setting was place smack in the middle of this mosque and chapels were built all around. We got to walk around the city some, but La Mezquita was clearly the reason for going to Cordoba...and well worth it!

Cultural note...so far I'm loving Spanish food. They eat a good bit of food and it's all very tasty, but I finally found something I'm not very fond of. Tortilla espanola is like an omelette with potatoes...and it's great. However, a popular sandwich in Spain is a tortilla sandwich (egg on white bread). It may sound okay, but when it's been sitting around for hours, is cold soggy, and just not quite what you want (even though your host was so kind to fix it for you), well, let's just say I found one thing I won't be ordering!

Thank you for reading! Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your blog. Keep up the good work! Love and miss you - MOM

Unknown said...

You've got some great info and it's all so well written. It feels like you are just around the corner with the regular updates and helps time pass until your return. Miss you and love you - DAD