Cordoba

This past weekend, I attended my final excursion with my school. Why final, you ask? Because I've been on all the excursions they offer. With five weekends left during my big adventure, I will have to continue my travels solo or with friends.

Cordoba was a very interesting and old city. How old? Well, for example, the mosque was built on top of an old cathedral beginning in the 700s. So it's so old that they were already building on top of other buildings 1400 years ago. That's pretty old.



The Cathedral/Mosque/Cathedral are very interesting. The Moors (Muslim and Arab) dominated southern Spain from the 8th Century until the 15th Century, mas o menos. Thus, when the Moors came to Cordoba in the 8th Century, the decided the best place to build a really really big Mosque was right on top of existing Cathedral. Around 700 years later, they would meet karma and parts of the Mosque would be converted back into a Cathedral.

For me, going into the Cathedral/Mosque/Cathedral was pretty weird. I'd learned about both Muslim and Catholic architecture and art during the art appreciation class I took last fall. Muslims do not decorate their buildings with depictions of humans, animals, events, etc which, of course, Catholics do. Thus, it was super weird to see the intricate geometric designs of the Muslims next to a painting of Christ's crucifixion.



















While in Cordoba, we also visited a very old synagogue which, despite being of the Jewish faith of course, also had Muslim decor. The buildings were really a "mixto" of cultures.

Most of the streets we were on in Cordoba were very small (like as wide as my umbrella) and windows were covered with flowers. This is done for both the cooling effects and to provide a pleasant scent.

Unlike previous trips, this trip went very smoothly and there were no problems. Thank goodness!

As a side note, my dinner when I got home was an entire large plate of cooked spinach with a fried egg mixed in. I thought there was no way any human could eat an entire plate of cooked spinach but I did it. Where's my blue ribbon?