After the Alhambra

After our visit we were dropped off below in the city to eat and spend the afternoon. Resha and I went off in search of food and got a little lost and wound up in a major shopping district before setting on the right place to eat. I had my first fried fish, not my favorite, but worth trying out, and a varied tapas plate (with more fried fish that I didn’t eat), coffee and a beer. We then walked up into the neighborhoods to try to get a good shot of the beautiful mountains. We discovered some amazing graffiti that is actually beautiful artwork. It was a nice change from the normally scribble that is in Sevilla. We spent or last hour sitting by the river talking. You may one day stumbled upon a picture of us from behind (my blond hair was probably blaring in the sun) as I think some guy took pictures of us (or of something in front of us?). Our bus ride home was less eventful then the ride there, but something did happen at the back of the bus, not too sure what and don’t think I want to know. It was still beautiful out so we had a wonderful view of the landscape. The Sierra Nevadas reminded me of home, of Reno and our mountains there, the Sierra Nevadas. I am now quite curious if the my home mountains are named for those surrounding Granada. We arrived home tired and feeling as though it had been the two longest days of our lives in some time.

The Alhambra

2/20/10 It is hard to describe the Alhambra in adequate detail to demonstrate its beauty, ambiance and the times it represents. It, as all areas in Spain seem to be, is a mixture of architectures specifically Arabic and Christian. The most fascinating of which to me is the Arabic. I have talked about the running water as a feature in the Alcazar and other Arabic buildings. Well, while all other European countries were suffering from the plague because a general lack of cleanliness the Moors of Spain were thriving. They had clean water, bathed multiple times a day and lived more hygienically it seems than anyone else during that time. This being so, water is a key feature in the Alhambra and all its buildings and gardens. Because I was so sick on our visit it is hard to be flowery in my description of my feelings while there. Being with a large group took away from the experience as did having the a built up general image of the place. It was not a letdown. I wondered in awe of its beauty, but after hearing so much of the place it is hard to discern my own opinions from those of others. When Mike and I return in May I want to put my camera down and walk in quiet through the site and truly observe its beauty. I am not saying that I was not amazed by the Alhambra just that it being such an important historical place with such sadness (at the loss of an empire) that it was hard to enjoy in a heard of people and mucus. What was really neat on the other hand was knowing that I am the third generation of women in my family to have visited the Alhambra. My Grandmother was in Spain for her 60th birthday and was and still is enchanted by the Alhambra. My Mother also visited Granada and the Alhambra which she loved about 30 years ago. I can’t image what it must have been like before the Moors were defeated; lavish, modern, beautiful and full of life.

Granada

Written on 2/28/10 about 2/19/10 Where to begin? Well, as you probably know on this date I was sick with a cold that I had already had for about 5 days, we had not seen the sun or experienced warmth in over a week and I was up to my ears in things to do and stressed to the gills. Anyway, on the morning of the 19th Gina and I, and the other 60 some odd students met our bus near the school at 8:30 AM for our trip to Granada. I was a mess but still had to laugh at the immediate drama of a group being late for the bus (in all fairness they forgot a wallet and I am sure they felt horrible), cell phones being passed around and actual running taking place not only for them to make it but to find them because they got lost. This was our first real trip out of the city and it hadn’t started raining yet. As we drove out of the city we went passed the big commercial areas with furniture stores, Carrefour, track housing and so on. Once we were out of the suburbs there were beautiful hills of green, flooded fields and villages, all of which seem to have a castle or palace like structure standing proudly in their midst. It is absolutely gorgeous. We stopped midway (an hour and a half in to the trip) for bathrooms, coffee, food and so on. It was a good thing because a girl who partied to hard the night before had passed out and woken up in time to throw up all over herself in the back of the bus. This really is a sign of what most students do when they are abroad. “I haven’t slept yet” is one of the most commonly heard quotes in this group. Everyone looks great! Anyway, fields of olive trees, rolling hills and looming dark rain clouds characterized the second half of our trip. Once we got into Granada we were once again in a city with rebajas (sales) and tons and tons of shopping, but there are giant mountains nearby, the Sierra Nevadas. Our first stop was the Royal Chapel. Our bus driver could only drop us off in a certain area (really not fun having to drive a bus in a city with traffic and streets like this) so we walked to the Chapel in slight rain. Not only is there gold, silver and priceless paintings all over the place in this chapel this is where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried (though not buried because I saw their caskets). Isabel had a crown with pomegranate designs because Granada was known for and means pomegranate. Granada was their favorite place and although they never lived there it was dear to their hearts. We then met our bus driver and went to the Mirador San Nicolas to get a sweeping look at the city and the little structure on the other side of the gorge, the Alhambra. It was amazing to see the white houses, snow capped mountains and the magnificent Alhambra in one shot. I have a ton of pictures you can look at. Then we walked down through the Albycin past the Arabic Tea Houses, tapas bars and tourist shops to meet the bus so we could grab our bags and head to the hostels. We got our keys to our rooms at the San Joaquin Pension. I used my laptop and then a small group of us went to walk around. We hit up a café and had delectable pastries and then walked up and down the Albycin shopping on our way back down. We headed back to the hostel for some need rest (not sleep, because if any of us had slept we would not have woken up until the next morning). By this time I was really sick and had lost my voice, but we still made it out for dinner. Most bars in Granada offer a free tapa with your first drink, so we decided to try it out. The four of us ordered a wine concoction or another and got a huge plate of food for free. Granted, I think the wine cost at least .50 Euros more, but it is still a deal. We then made our way to an Arabic tea house where we had yummy tea, good food and poor service. It was worth it though. We all had hummus and part of orange. I had seafood paella. It was good but Montse’s is better. Then we went to another tea house and promptly home after we finished our drinks. After a good 8 hours of sleep Gina, Resha and I rushed to get churros con chocolate for breakfast and coffee of course before meeting the group at 9 to catch the bus. Running out of time we threw our churros in a plastic bag and our chocolate in a small cup that Resha had from the coffee machine and off we went to munch churros for 15 minutes while waiting for the bus. It was a glorious day! No clouds and warmth! The best we had seen on the whole trip and they had told us Granada was going to be colder than Sevilla, not this day. Que suerte. We went to the Alhambra after filing onto the bus and having two of our group have to chase the bus down. They were boys this time and one had been robbed by a French chic the night before. In his lust he forgot his wits and she took his wallet! Ha, I’d feel really bad if he and his friend weren’t continuously getting themselves into these situations, but boys, alcohol and pretty girls can be a lethal combination.

Italica

Italica or lack there of

Written on 2/15/10 about 2/12 Last Friday we walked 50 minutes in the rain and 7 degrees C (or 44.6 F) to get to the Plaza de Armas Bus Station to catch the bus for our school tour to the Roman city Italica, which is about 20 minutes outside of Sevilla. Almost the whole school was there and we completely filled the bus after a complicated get on, get off, get on routine to pay our fares. Have I mentioned yet that there are 8 males and nearly 60 females at our school? Well, you can imagine the talking and the cattiness of conversation with this many females together. Lots of lovely things can be overheard at any point in time. Anyway, so Italica is supposed to be absolutely amazing. What we can see is the remnants of a early hundred AD Beverly Hills portion of a BC Roman city, as well as an amphitheater which used to be the third largest in the world, old bath houses and a few other things. Italica was the inspiration for a lot of the movie Gladiator! Our group was split and Gina and I stayed with Judy. We huddled near the gift shop under cover, as it was still raining and possibly ten degrees cooler than in Sevilla while Judy told us about the city. We then walked to the amphitheater and stood in the same corridors the gladiators were housed in the night before an event to hear more about what went on in the amphitheater. Apparently, the gladiators had quite the party with lots of food, women and drink the night before they were to fight. They fought lions, tigers, bears and Spanish bulls! We got to walk into the amphitheater and look down into the pit where they used to keep the animals. It was even beautiful amidst the cold. The giant stones making up the structure are fitted together so tight they do not have any type of bonding material. We then returned to the gift shop to rotate girls in and out of the store to get warm and wait for the other group. They actually walked the whole place (and looked positively miserable when they returned)! We then made our way over to the restaurant where Judy had arranged a huge lunch for those students who signed up, about 50 of us I think! It was 15 Euros for a meal that normally cost 25! We had sangria, bread, corn and iceberg lettuce salad, steak and a garlic, paprika and oil salsa. It was all delicious. We had a rice pudding with anise flavored desert, which caused a huge uproar because some got an actual rice pudding and some got the anise desert. Many didn’t like the anise desert and made a big fuss. It was a good demonstration of mob mentality and how rude people can be in herds. I liked the desert! Some girls also drank too much sangria and proceeded to pound booze at the bar while we waited two hours for our bus home! We had two false alarms were we stood outside getting soaked and chilled to the bone for 15 or more minutes before heading back into the restaurant. Prince Philip was in Sevilla and traffic was a mess. Gina and I had wondered what all the cops were doing out in the streets when we were walking to the bus station. We got a cold answer. When we did manage to get back to Sevilla we took a cab home with Brooke and Chris (it was now 39 degrees F) and proceeded to change in to warm clothes and relax the rest of the day. We plan to go back to Italica on warm day.

Tapas Tapas Tapas

Written on 2/15/10 Last Thursday Gina and I skipped dinner at home and went out for tapas which worked out well since Montse had to attend a wedding expo (looking for stuff for her store). We first went to the beautiful Bario Santa Cruz to a place near the Arabic Baths. Gina had croquetas de jamon and a yummy tomato with cheese. I had a tuna salad (not what I ordered, but it was good), a prawn crepe with white sauce, a squid dish with rice and vino tinto (red wine). It was all pretty yummy, but the squid dish was really fishy and I think led to me getting sick in the middle of the night, ugh. Anyway, we then decided to wonder through the winding streets to see where we would end up and to find a new place to eat more food. We found ourselves near La Catedral. After we did the tourist bit and took night pictures of the beautiful cathedral and La Giralda (tower) which looked like it had someone waving on top of it (apparently a weather apparatus) we went to Toro Toro. They had a very enticing sign for churros and chocolate as well as sangria We ate our churros and then ordered more croquetas de jamon which were very cheesy and yummy. Croquetas by the way are little fried balls that have a cream, meat and cheese type filling, croquets in the U.S. I guess. They are better in some places than others and in one place fantastic (they have bacon & it’s close to our house). After a while we purchased Helado and headed home. It was a wonderful night for tapas, but very expensive! We spent 40 euros together or about $54. Next time we will eat dinner at home and then go have tapas so we don’t order so much.

Arabic Baths

2/9/10 Yesterday Gina and I went to the Arabic Baths in the Bario de Santa Cruz. First of all there are very few street signs here and then the streets change names often after a few blocks. Anyway, we wound are way hoping we were headed in the right direction and walked through streets so narrow only a small car can fit through. The distinctly European buildings rising on either side of the less than a foot wide sidewalks are kept up beautifully and although they are likely hundreds of years old they look magnificent. Luckily, we made the right turns and came upon our destination fairly easily, Aire de Sevilla. As we turned into the doorway we could smell incents, hear Arabic music and see candles along the perimeter of the walls. We checked in and headed upstairs to the waiting area where we had a small glass of tea. We then followed directions to enter the stairway and turn left into the locker room to change. Of course we headed down the stairs and had turn back around. I have a feeling the employees there are used to this occurring because they are patient and well choreographed. We changed and were told to wait (only us). That’s because our 45 minute messages were scheduled before our bath time. We went up three floors and had our massages in private rooms with candles lining the floor. I am really curious how much stuff has caught on fire in that place. After that we went down to heaven, the baths. A room opened off to the left which led to the huge steam/aromatherapy room (menthol) and another enclosed hot tub with a fabulous jet to massage your shoulders. From the hot tub if you look up there are stars cut out of the domed ceiling that let in just enough light. The next flight of stairs takes you down to the original salt water bath. In front the relaxation room opens up with yummy sweet tea and water in beautiful steel pots. The room is humid, dark and lit with candles so you can see the marbled walls. On the other side of the relaxation room to the left are the main baths, one of medium heat, the other hot and an ice cold pool big enough for one person to submerse themselves. The largest medium heat pool spans two rooms. One has intricate Arabic curved wood ceilings the other without the carvings, but with huge wood carvings on the walls. Above the large bath hangs a beautiful stained glass encasement the looks like it may be an ancient oil lamp enclosure. It is amazing beautiful and majestic looking. Because of our massage we were allowed to stay 45 minutes after the rest of our group which was so cool, because Gina and I had the place to ourselves for that time. The baths are like something out of a movie. They are relaxing, contemplative and enchanting. In the relaxation room sipping tea it is almost impossible to think about anything. Everything drifts away, it’s spiritual.

Museo Arqueologico

2/5/10 Today was our visit to Museo Arqueologico in the Plaza de America (which is in the Parque Maria Luisa about 15 minutes from our apartment). The Plaza de America was constructed for the 1929 World Exhibition in Sevilla. The buildings were designed in the traditional styles of architecture that are seen around Spain, Mudejar, Renaissance and so on. The Museo Arqueologico is done in the Neo Classical style with Sevillana type embellishments. We visited two portions of the museum today, one for the Treasure of El Carambolo from the Tartessians of the city of Tartessos, and the other for prehistory and ancient artifacts (way BC). The Tartessians lived in a city, Tartessos on a shelf that used to exist to the southwest of Sevilla. They were initially traders with the Phoenicians that inhabited Sevilla, but things turned sour and the Phoenicians set out to fight the Tartessians. Well, the Tartessians knowing the Phoenicians were coming set up an ambush on hill overlooking the Guadalquivir River. They were planning to attack when the Phoenicians they returned from finding Tartessos only filled with women and children. The Tartessians thought the Phoenicians would not harm only women and children, but when the soldiers looked toward their city the Phoenicians had set it on fire. By the time the king and part of his warriors got to the city it was completely destroyed and everyone was dead. One messenger escaped to tell the king’s son who was at the ambush site of what happened. The prince took the ceremonial treasures (jewelry, 24 Karat gold belts, arm bands, and other pieces, all hand crafted and beautiful) and put them into giant jars and buried them with the miniature statue of a women goddess to watch over them. They would usually leave the treasure with the queen, but as that was impossible it was buried on the hill. All those who knew the location died in over taking the Phoenicians and taking the city of Sevilla for the Tartessians. It was not found until 1958 when the excavation began to build a clay pigeon shoot for a country club! It was perfectly preserved! And, it has only been displayed twice for the public, once for the 1992 World Exhibition (the man that ordered it displayed was fired) and now! We saw the real thing. There is usually only a perfect replica of the (24 Karat gold and all), but today there was both. It was beautiful. If you want to look it up search for El Tesoro de El Carambolo. The destroyed city of the Tartessians was lost forever when the shelf broke off into the Atlantic Ocean (there is evidence in the Canary and Azores Islands) and is thought to be tied to the belief in Atlantis. The second portion of the museum is dedicated to prehistory artifacts like pots and early statues. This half also houses amazing, wonderful, spectacular Roman artifacts. There are many original Roman mosaics, statues and parts of Roman cities in Spain. The statues are huge. The Romans only depicted emperors, gods and athletes naked. The statues without heads (including athletes) were common people and were always done clothed (except athletes). When someone important (commoner) died they would take a mold of their face and make a head to go on a statue. I can’t begin to adequately explain these statues. They are breathtaking and gave me the chills. They are so old and so incredible! Seeing this museum is seeing what we learn about in our history books. It is hard to comprehend, but it makes you realize how old this part of the world is and how young America is. Even thinking about it, the fact that artifacts can make you feel so insignificant, young and lucky to be in their presence is crazy. We take so many things from the Romans, our concept of beauty, our jewelry, and on and on. One of the interesting things that I have noticed here is that girls/women have more meat on them and this comes from the concept of beauty the Romans had that a women should be voluptuous. There is a statue (a very famous one) that I can’t remember the name of, Venus maybe, but it is of a Roman Goddess (who were all virgins) and she has curves  This link should show her. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/SevillaMusArqS17_01.JPG&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SevillaMusArqS17_01.JPG&usg=__3JSfRVW3fxxkHrFe0YIedLd8Jos=&h=2304&w=1728&sz=1574&hl=en&start=4&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=I7stl5JLBGWZAM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3DVenus%2BSevilla%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1 I did not take pictures today, but will return soon to do so. As with the Alcazar I owe this knowledge to an amazing professor Judy Cotter. (Mom, remind me to tell you about her)