La Ruinas y La Mezquita

the ruins, stretching out on the hill

The next day we went to Madinat Al-Zahra, which were ruins from the 10th century. When the muslims (los moros) ruled in Andalucia before the christian "conquest" their capitol was right outside of what is now Cordoba. The group explored around this ancient city, looking at old ovens, beautiful arches, and imagining what glorious splendor it would have looked like when all the colors were still there.

Lisa, illegally climbing on the ruins

Right after the ruins we went to La Mezquita. La Mezquita has become my favorite historical building I've entered in all my time here in Spain. Wow. First off, it used to be one of the biggests mezquitas for muslims to worship in, but again, after the christian 'conquest,' a silly king decided to build a cathedral in the middle of the mezquita, which was nice because generally they just destroyed everything that the muslims built, but then again, there's a beautiful building with a cathedral sticking out of it.

When I turned the corner from entering from outside my breath got knocked out of me. I was standing in what looked like something from Lord of the Rings: something ridiculously huge, cold, medieval, and fantastical. It seemed to go on forever and ever. The archetecture of the Mezquita was amazing: large archeways, entricate carvings, but the thing that struck me the most was the harsh contrast between the mezquita and the cathedral. You're wondering around this maze of columns, and then BAM, you're in the middle of a gothic cathedral, surrounded by gold, a huge tower reaching up and up. It was very obvious to me the difference between the religion. When one enters a mezquita, everyone is equal, titles don't matter, only worship, hence the mezquita was grand, one floor, stretching out to hold everyone. The church, reaching up and up, gave the sense of heirarchy, power, and influence, class status, and money. Quite a difference, huh?

La Mezquita, endless columns, an equalizing space

the two together: gothic cathedral, arabic mezquita
the cathedral, reaching up, taking the focus off humanity

The Romance of Cordoba

When I got back to Valencia after Stockholm it was 1:30am, and as you can imagine, I was exhausted, BUT I was leaving for Cordoba with my university group at seven, so that night was 1.5 hours of sleep and the rest was showering, packing, and COFFEE. We took a huge tourist bus to Cordoba, which was 6 hours of uncomfortable but gratifying sleep. As soon as we stepped off the bus I fell in love. One deep breath in and I could smell fresh flowers, the bark of the trees, and the sun beating upon my skin. It was almost romantic, but not quite. Right outside of our hotel was a line from a poem: "Por fin te he encontrado." Which means: "Finally, I have found you." Okay, now it was romantic. Not to mention I was sharing a hotel room with three of the coolest chics on the program and our room had two balconies facing the street and if you opened the windows you got slamed with the smell of flowers, and we had a full kitchen, complete with plates and silverware. Totally romantic. I was so happy.

the view outside our window of the hotel

checking out the balconies

After we got settled in we took off into the casco antiguo, or the old city. It was like Toledo, which meant you got lost if you looked at a map. It was just better to wander and eventually you always ended up in the same spot. I was super excited because the harsh change in temperature from northern Sweden to southern Spain was MAGNIFICENT. We all got a wee bit sunburnt but loved it. What a gorgeous day. Not to mention that besides Cuenca, Cordoba is my favorite city in Spain. Every city has a specific feeling, and for me, Cordoba was one of general-good-feelingness-romance. Yeah, I know that's not english, but hey, back off. I'm going a little nuts. It's exam time and I've been pacing back and forth gulping coffee and writing about the nonexistence of reality. Whew.

sunny, gorgeous streets, complete with gorgeous Kaitlin

romance! Hilary and I

True love: Rocinante and I

in the streets of Cordoba

this dude is a jewish philosopher (forget his name), but the legend is is that if you rub his feet you'll get good luck

wow, the first sunset I saw in Spain!

That night, because we were all poor and was aching to cook, the girls had a dinner which consisted of a salad of fresh greens, strawberries, walnuts, goat cheese, and carrrots. Yummmmm Tapas of bread, cheeeeeeese, olives (which were immediatly and completely devoured) and some wine. Yeah, we like it classy. It was a great night, tranquil, for the most part, and the first time all the girls ate dinner together. Very nice. We had a modeling competicion, which, no worries, was totally not serious, but completely hilarious. I lost. I won't post the pictures so as not to embarrass ourselves. :)

chef Anna

yes, there are 3 bottles of wine, but there were 9 girls...

yummmmm

Stockholm

Stockholm!
We booked a hostel that turned out to be a hostel/boat. Unfortunately, our beds were on land. After a couple of hours in the train we arrived in the city of islands. I had no idea Stockholm was literally a city of islands. It was a gorgeous sunny day, which almost made it warm enough to take off my scarf...

Bobby!

I was really interested in the historical district so we headed there first and just walked around without a map, checking out random streets and oggling at yummy sweets in windows. After one guilty pleasure SUPER touristy stop at a kitschy shop we headed to chug some coffee then to the bohemian district of the city, which of course Emily knew. There we actually got lost, but I was happy: I found a playground ontop of a little mountain. We wandered through the streets, boring Bob because Emily and I kept on entering second-hand clothes shops to look at silly hats and skirts from the 80's, which will never get bored. O man that decade was super...interesting.

Emily!

A city of islands

We had a wonderful dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. The food was even a little spicy! Whoa! We stopped at a bar to grab a drink and then Emily and I took Bob to the hostel so we could spend our last night together. We ended up at a bar that had two floors, and in the basement there was the Barcelona vs. Arsenal football (soccer) match. Yeah, I LOVE watching football so we camped out there. It was a good exchange, because after the match we went upstairs and listened to a guitarist sing really cheesy songs and people watch. The next day I was off, back to Spain, and after a few problems with my tickets I got on the plane and headed back to the warmth.

Don't worry, this is just a pint, just in a HUGE thick glass, and the best beer I've ever had. Of course, it's from Belgium.

Wow. Stockholm at night.

Wik

The next day we didn't ever leave Wik, which was fine with me. I was really into reading "Pride & Prejudice," so we had an easy morning, slept in, sipped on coffee, then moved on to sipping on tea, listening to music, Emily and I catching up on each other's lives, head massages, drawing, doodling, giggling, relaxing, something we both really needed. In the afternoon we took a lovely walk around the Wik campus, which is complete with a lake that stretches all the way Stockholm (which equals HUGE), a farm, and a beautiful forest. I was in heaven because finally I was away from the city and could hear myself think, finally I felt some ounce of creativity that used to be within me. I didn't realized how much the city was clogging my brain until I spent that day in Wik. It also helped that Emily, this huge channel of creative energy, was always right next to me.

huge lake

Wik and Rocinante

art studio at Wik

walkin' around the countryside
That night Emily and I chilled in her school, playing on instruments and being totally awful at playing billards. I found a random guitar lying around, picked it up, and we filled the empty halls with music and laughter, you know, normal Emily/Anna goofiness.

goofing around in the school

being a total badass

Sweden #1

First off, getting to Uppsala, where I was meeting up with Emily, was an adventure. I flew in to Vasteras, where from there I had to take a bus for 1.5 hours. Lucky for me, everyone in Sweden speaks almost perfect english. Their education system really is something. While I was waiting for the bus from Vasteras to Uppsala, a guy from Spain was desperatly trying to speak in English and ask for the bus station. I instantly thought Hey! I can help this dude! And so I became the translator for José, an engineering student from Valencia. We were both going to the same place so we spent the 1.5 hours in rapid conversation about water pumps and bridges. You can imagine how much I talked...but...he was a really cool guy, we both got to Uppsala safe and sound, and I got to speak in Spanish, wish is so much better than english. :-)

When I finally met up with Emily we went to a bar to watch some good blues and relax with her friends. Unfortunately we missed the last bus to Wik, the little town where she lives, so we had to stay the night at her friend's house, Joel. Boy do we (not) know how to be on time to things...

whoa, countryside, farms, heck yes! I felt right at home

Wik

The next day we met up with Bobby Long, Emily's dad, at Wik. It was a wonderful coincidence that both Bob and I were visiting Emily on the same week. The three of us made a good pair. Wik is the hippy art school Emily is studying at this year. It's tucked back in the middle of nowhere (so we feel right at home, coming from Radnor), surrounded by fields, cows, and a HUGE lake that goes all the way to Stockholm. We trekked back in Uppsala (so I could see it in the daytime) and did some sight seeing. It was really interesting for me to see a different European country and compare and contrast. Everything was, of course, completely different: how the streets were laid out, the architecture of the buildings, the general feel of the city.

what luck: Swedes love sweets>I love sweets= I love Swedes

the river crossing through town

We went and checked out the largest cathedral in the Nordic countries, and I couldn't believe it was from the 15th century. 15th century architecture in Spain is gothic, ornamental, loads of details, and grand. This cathedral was TALL and looked almost like modern american churchs.

biggest cathedral in the northern European countries

look! Spain!

After the cathedral we headed to the castle, also from the 15th century, and the ugliest thing I have ever seen. It's a huge, bland, straight building that looks like a square salmon. Whew. I'm sorry if I'm offending swedish architecture right now, but that is one ugly castle.

ugliest castle EVER

they sure can do gardens well, though. Linnaea, the guy who created the categorizing system for plants and trees was from Uppsala

Alicante

Rocinante chilling in the harbor

Okay, finally, I"m posting about Sweden. Man, I really suck at keeping this blog thing up to date. I left Valencia at 7am on the cheapest train to get to Alicante, where my flight was from, and because I left so early I had a few hours to wander around, walk along the beach, soak up some sun, find a cool street and not find out it was a mini-mountain until I reached the top completely breathless. It was so nice to have that time to move around before getting on a 4 hour long plane ride to the freezing cold weather of Sweden. It gave me time to get into vacation mode, which this vacation consisted of reading "Pride & Prejudice" all the way through (in 4 days), actually relaxing and letting some things settle that had been happening in Spain, and return to Valencia with a clear mind and view of how I wanted to spend my last few weeks there.

goin' fishin'

great way to start vacation, laying out in the sun

soaking up the last bits of sun before heading north

Back to My Roots

What will follow is a run of pictures about, yes, the thing I miss the most, the countryside. After spending 3 or so odd months in a city, it was high time to escape to see some green, roll around in the grass, and climb some trees. I had a "holy-crap-I-need-to-escape-the-city" moment, so one weekend was full of countryside, thanks to my wonderful friends I've made in Valencia. First, Lauren (from Earlham) and I went to the Botanical Gardens in Valencia, where we, two country girls from the Midwest, frolicked around the trees and plants, relishing in the sun. But that is just a taste of the happiness I got that weekend.

botanical gardens

The next day my wonderful friend Maria took me to the rice fields outside of the city, which, if you didn't know, Valencia is famous for it's rice. I found a patch of grass that hadn't been mowed in quite awhile and plopped down and rolled. I forgot how much I love grass. It was almost a full moon, so we scurried off to the beach and took a stroll along the water side, listening to the waves and watching the moon glitter off the water. Man, I wish there was a lake, or something (that wasn't Delaware Lake, which is fake and dirty) near my house in the states...

an intense fight to the death in the rice fields...with grass...

The next day, Sunday, I was kidnapped by Bruno and Maria and we drove 2 hours away from civilization to the mountains, where twisting and winding through the peaks is a river called Rio Fraile. How beautiful. We found a spot to picnic where no one was in sight, crawled around the river (now I have good luck, Erin and Mom, because I went creeking in Spain!!), and even swam. It was freezing, but the fresh water felt sooooo good. The sun was out, which of course meant laying out and just relaxing, enjoying the sounds of the birds.

rio fraile and bruno!

bruno! yes, we swam in the freezing cold, FRESH river

Did you know that there is a town called "Anna" in Spain? I didn't either! They took me to my town, which, what luck, is GORGEOUS. There's a beautiful gorge, complete with a waterfall, clear water, and caves. O man o man o man. I was super excited.

my town!

look how beautiful it is!

and....a waterfall!

What a wonderful day! The next weekend, the day before I went to Sweden (posts of Sweden coming soon), Josep, a fallero, took me to his town and we made gazpacho manchego, again. Hell yes! So good! Definitely my favorite dish in Spain.

haha, look! It looks like my house!

I'm going to live here

yep, it's decided

mountains!!!!!

mmmm....gazpacho...

kicking our feet back and relaxing, listening to jazz, so good