Carnaval and Cordoba (Feb 4)

Last Friday we went as a group (through MCP Sevilla) to Cordoba for the day – we drove out by bus (a bit less than 2 hours) and were shown around by tour guides. I think our tour guide thought we were a lot worse at Spanish than we are- she enunciated demasiado and she had the annoying habit of repeating certain words she had said in English. The weather was cold and windy- not a bit of sun. We went first to the famous mesquita (“mosque”- though its no longer a mosque, its a catholic church, but they still call it a mosque) which was absolutely beautiful (but freezing cold). The majority of the building is filled with columns that have white and red double arches, giving the space the feeling of a forest. It is amazing to see mosaics with verses from the Qu'ran (sp?) right next to gothic arches and the quintessentially Muslim geometric adornments surrounding Jesus on the cross.


Right smack dab in the middle of the mosque is a huge opulent baroque cathedral; other bits had been done in a very gothic style, and randomly there are a couple of places that are completely neoclassical. This type of juxtaposition is pretty common in Spain I feel – when los Reyes Catolicos re-conquered the peninsula, they didn't destroy all the mosques, but rather they just made them all into churches, adding catholic elements to the arab buildings. The mesquita de Cordoba, however, is probably the most beautiful example I've seen so far.


The rest of Cordoba seemed completely deserted, except for some other tour groups. They sell absolutely beautiful silver jewelry there (didn't buy any though) and are famed for their good food, including salmoreja (a cold tomato-based soup similar in concept but distinctly different from gazpacho) and robo de toro (or something like that, I can't remember exactly, the point is that it's cow tail). We putzed around the city the rest of the day (I saw a huge stork nest on the
tip top of the steeple of a decrepit church, kinda cool) and then headed home.


Saturday night basically our entire program went to Cadiz for Carnaval. I almost didn't go at all (partying all night didn't really seem to be worth the 25 euros) but several people (Spanish people, adult people) said it was really worth going, that it was the most famous carnaval celebration in Spain, so I went. I've never seen so many people in costumes in my life. We saw cows, pirates, chickens, princesses (only male ones though), knights, gypsies, nuns, and several groups of people dressed in white body suits carrying large red circles, which is a reference to a tv station ad (Cuatro). I saw a pair dressed in overalls, one in red and one in green, and when I yelled out “Mario y Luigi!” they started singing the Mario music in unison – pretty funny. :-) We were approached by tons of well meaning (but definitely drunk) spaniards. Spanish is hard to understand when they're slurring their words.

Jeff and I are the responsible ones, keeping track of where we are.

A lot of people have pictures of drunken spaniards all making about the same face as this guy. The look on my face is pure terror.

I felt pretty safe though- the whole thing was very good natured, and I didn't see any fights. Hannah went as a pirate; I went as Mother Nature.

Hannah has her ¨Lewis and Clark pouch¨, como siempre jaja.

I also learned a silly song from the drunken spaniards in Cadiz, and now I have it stuck in my head. Huge groups would just start singing it and dancing about:

Alcohol
alcohol
alcohol, alcohol, alcohol
hemos venido
a eborracharnos
el resultado nos da igual

Alcohol
alcohol
alcohol, alcohol, alcohol
we've come
to get drunk
we don't care about the outcome [of the (soccer) game]

*disclaimer: this song is not meant to express the opinions of the writer of this blog