Córdoba, La Alhambra, and Granada

As you can tell by me not blogging for years (not really, just a few weeks), I have been fairly busy. I am currently working on a 10 page, single-spaced paper analyzing a bunch of literature works from the Romantic Era. Oh yeah... It's IN SPANISH.

When I got back from Ireland, I got really sick and then kept traveling so whenever I came back, I had to do lots of school and was pretty much too drained to blog. Regardless, the 2nd to last weekend of October, my group and I went on a trip to Granada. We visited the Mesquita in Córdoba, which was first a church that was burnt down. Then, a mosque was built in 4 stages to expand and then once the Catholics took over, a cross-shaped church was placed directly in the middle with typical baroque, over-the-top decor. We wandered around the city and checked out the teeny-tiny Jewish quarter, remnants of harsh anti-semitism in the 1400s at the hands of the Catholics kings.



Later on, we went to Granada and spent the rest of the weekend there. We visited around the town and also went to La Alhambra, a summer castle for the kings with expansive gardens and moorish influenced architecture. It was absolutely gorgeous and I learned how obsessed I am with carvings into plaster on the walls. The designs are breathtaking.



Another nice thing about Granada is how you eat dinner: for every beer or drink you purchase, you get a free tapa! I found Chinese noodles, a bagel sandwich with beef and cheese, and spring rolls! Yum! It was a fun weekend with everyone in our group. The bus ride was 5 hours each way, but it was worth it.