Dog and Pony Shows

July 30 - August 2, 2008

Seville, or Sevilla as the Spanish say, is where I spent 3 interesting days. As I mentioned before, my hostel was the most beautiful one of the trip with interior courtyards awash with plants. My first day there I saw the art museum in the afternoon and then had dinner and wandered around a little bit.

The next day, Thursday, I was planning on getting up early to go to the flea market then go to the Cathedral and then shop. I slept in, and instead, skipped the flea market (who needs fleas anyhow?) had a coffee and went straight to the Cathedral. Oddly enough, after lunch I was so tired, that I went back to my hostel, and slept some more. I got up, walked around for a while before I had dinner, (I didn't think it was right to eat, sleep and then eat again right away) and then I returned to Fres.Co the basically giant salad bar buffet I had eaten at the night before. (€9.95 for all your courses and as much gazpacho as you want?!!? Can I buy a franchise?) After the salad feast I used the internet until the desk guy told me it was time to go to bed (I was writing the last blog entry) and then I talked to my folks.

Friday morning I slept in again and this time just went straight to lunch. After lunch, determined not to be a sloth, I went directly to the Alcazar (okay I shopped a little) and did the full audioguide tour. The Alcazar is Islamic converted to Catholic palace in Cordoba (they pretty much have one in all the major cities of Andalucia). After the Alcazar I had some water and went to visit an old hospital for for old, decreped, poor, ill priests. It wasn't so much a hospital as an old folks' home. It was very beautiful though, and contained an impressive interior courtyard and church with more reliquaries than you can shake someone's tibia at. After that I took myself on the walking tour described in my Let's Go! (my travel bible) which included a bar that had the best tinto de verano (Sangria's less boozy cousin, the wine sprtizer) I have had yet, as the book promised and found Calle Susona. The full story on Calle Susona is in the captions of the pictures of it, found on facebook, or by following the links in the Pictures entry from yesterday.

After the walking tour, I went searching for Lactose, as I have been told it is very cheap here and since Jason and Sumantra are both partial to it, it seemed like a worthy quest. Unfortunately, someone's directions were incorrect and I did not find it, and now, there is no Lactose in Cordoba.

I was supposed to go to the Arab bath in Seville this morning before catching my bus to Cordoba. I did not. I was up late talking to Jay and I had to pack up all my stuff and I just flaked out.

Instead of taking the 2 hour bus to Cordoba, I took th 45 minute train ride, which would have been about the same price, had I not accidentally purchased two tickets. I was too embarassed to correct the mistake, and instead, enjoyed the space my extra seat afforded me.

I got to Cordoba and had the rudest cab driver I think I have ever encountered. First he was convinced I scratched his car with my backpack ( I did not) then when I was digging through my wallet, looking for a tip, he yelled at me to get out of the cab quicker because I was holding up traffic. Maybe if he hadn't stopped the car in the middle of the street, and pulled off to the side like a real driver, the traffic would not have been a problem. Unfortunately my Spanish is not good enough for me to have told him where he could have put the tip.

Cordoba is wonderful, it is much smaller than Seville and has a mosque turned cathedral that can accomodate something like 20,000. I toured it today and couldn´t believe how intricate and beautiful it was. While wandering around the souvenir shops afterwards, I was harassed by gypsies for money. I was actually surprised that I have been in Spain for 61/2 weeks and this was the first gypsie harrassment I have encountered.

After excaping creepy old ladies, I made another appointment to go to Arab bath's here, which I had to pay for in advance, so it looks like I am going. Then I got cleaned up, had dinner and went to the Andalucian horse show!

The horsemanship and dressage was spectactular. The combination of flamenco and dressage was odd. The flamenco itself was bad. Just plain bad. I walked back up here and now here I am typing this to you.

It is time for bed, more Cordoba tomorrow, then José on Monday and Inés on Tuesday and home Wednesday.

Later Alligators,
Kate