Holes to Heaven: Random International Update (12.11.13)

Córdoba, Spain

The Boston College crew minus 1 (so, 12) and our coordinator (so, back to 13) took the high speed train down to Andalucía last Friday afternoon. My knowledge of the South consisted of a reputation for good food and friendly people, and little more. This turned out to be pretty accurate. The people are really nice, and the food is delicious.

After arriving in Córdoba a few girls in the group consulted tripadvisor.com and off we went to a well-reviewed restaurant around the corner. Flamenquíns were the popular thing to get. They are a ~~tradicional~~ traditional Cordovan plate. Imagine a corn dog, but with real pork and beef inside, and then also fried and battered better than a corn dog. I resisted this until Saturday. I got vacío instead, which is code for delicious steak. And a small hot plate full of melted provolone cheese, called provoleta. Typical Argentine dish, actually. That was a throwback. Anyways, after dinner I had a food baby (I ate so much food that the expansion of my stomach could be compared to pregnancy) and thus sleep like a baby.

And apparently burned off thousands of calories sleeping. I do not know how it happens, but it does. Now it was Saturday, and we had plans to carry out. First was a walk along the Guadalquivir River, with stops for info about Córdoba and Al-Andalucía (old Arabic name for the empire there) from Teresa, our dear leader (read: program coordinator, if you aren’t fond of North Korean nomenclature). We took a tour of the old Mosquito de Córdoba, a huge stone construction at the center of the town. Inside the mosque is, yes, a cathedral. And not just a room that has a sign that reads, “cathedral”. It is a beautiful, elegant, Roman-looking, definitely-Christians-lived-and-worshiped-here cathedral. There is a nice courtyard full of orange trees. Like, trees that ~~sell~~ grow oranges. There are orange trees on every street here. I bet when they get ripe, the city smells real good.

But it is hard to know whether to call Córdoba a city or not. It had more people living in it in 1000 AD. A lot more. Estimates are between 350,000 and 1,000,000… in 1000 AD! Whereas now it has about 325,000 and it feels smaller than Portland, Maine. So I’ll call it a city, but I do so for old times’ sake.

After the Mosquito-Catedral, we went to an old lookout tower, and walked around there, and saw Córdoba from high. After a few hour break for lunch at a nice little place outside the old fort wall, we were off to Madīnat az-Zahrā, the ruins of a city a few kilometers outside of the city by bus. It would probably be a similar distance using other forms of transportation, now that I think about it. This was a palace built in the late 900’s AD, inhabited by the Caliph of Al-Andalucía for about 80 years, and then looted and burned to the ground (class middle ages, am I right?). What a puzzling piece of ruins. To think it only lasted for a hundred years or so is crazy. Then again, the United States has only been around for 200+ years… perspective. After the ruins we returned to Córdoba and went to a traditional flamenco/horse/dance display in a local arena. It was dark, and they used lights really well during the show. Saturday por la noche we hit up tripadvisor again and went (with our dear leader, this time) to another restaurant and had another lovely meal. I had a flamenquín, at long last.

Sunday morning was our last planned event. We did the museums in the Jewish ghetto (Córdoba’s got it all) which was probably the most interesting. Here’s something you weren’t expecting, though: The Spanish Inquisition. Yes. The guide started talking about it (in Spanish, of course) and everyone was really confused and taken aback. He had the element of surprise. Fear and surprise. Fear, surprise, and ruthless effic – I’ll come in again.

And that’s Córdoba, in a nutshell. The high speed train going back to Barcelona got up to 300 km/h.