Sevilla

After Cordoba we headed to Sevilla, another couple hours in bus. I instantly knew that I liked Cordoba more. Sevilla was too...touristy. The people were not as warm and the feel of the city didn't gel with me as much as Cordoba did. We went to the Plaza de Toros (bull ring), but we couldn't enter because there was a bullfight that day. No, we did NOT go watch it. I'm not too interested in watching someone run around a ring stabbing animals. Not my cup of tea. Instead we went and ate ice cream.

So we headed to the center of the historical city, got lost, got found, and headed toward Plaza España, supposedly the most beautiful part. On the way we stopped at a tobaco factory, which didn't look like a tobacco factory but more like a palace, but, whatever. It was interesting. I think what bothered me about Sevilla was the intense combination of old and new, but it wasn't done as beautifully as Barcelona. Something was...missing for me. The metro was above ground so there were tracks and wires everywhere. Sevilla was the richest city in Spain during the 1400's because all the riches that came from the Americas went to the port in Sevilla. There is a museum of a lot of the 'riches.'

To get to Plaza España we had to wander through a little garden, which was a welcome change to the CITY of Sevilla. Plaza España, unfortunately, was under construction, but we could still see the potential. It was a beautiful sunny day and the blue stones in the plaza shone brillantly. A couple of the girls bought fans so we did some silly foto shoots, but it was getting late so we headed back to the hotel to go supermarket shopping for dinner. Tonight? Bread, cheese, ham, olives, beer, and oranges. Way less classy than the last night.

checking out the cathedral

The next day we went to the cathedral in Sevilla, which I believe is the 3 (or 4th) largest cathedral in the world. Radnor, mi pueblito, could fit inside of it. No joke. It's enormous. We climbed up the giralda, or the tower, to see Sevilla from high up. Now THAT was beautiful. After climbing up then down and massaging our knees a bit, Chris took us on a tour of the cathedral, which took about an hour. We saw (one) of the tombs of Christopher Columbus and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't remember.

this thing is HUGE

looking out at Sevilla

Christopher Columbus

After the cathedral we went to the Juderia, or the jewish district. I always love this part of the cities, but in Sevilla it was even more interesting. Sevilla was were the worst massacre of jews during the Inquisition happened, so the were streets named "Calle de los muertes" (street of the dead) and "Calle de Sangre" (street of blood). The streets were a maze, small, winding, and after walking a few feet you were instantly lost. This was a strategy of protection because the jews knew their was around their neighborhood, but if someone else entered they would get lost and confused. Besides the dark history, this part of the city was the most beautiful to me. The small twisting streets, the houses, everything.

there were a lot of tour groups in the cathedral and the tour guides had umbrellas, flags, and bandanas to help their group follow them. Chris? she had a bocodillo (sandwhich). And of course we followed the food.

La Juderia

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