Cordoba-Granada-Sevilla

Dear friends and fam,

I’m currently in the Granada train station, although when I’m actually posting this, I’m sure I’ll be in my hostel in Seville. Traveling the last few days has been an adventure. I think that when I set up this trip, I was just so focused on finally being liberated from my schoolwork and full of desire to see more of the country that I didn’t really consider how, after a semester plagued by bouts of loneliness, traveling alone would affect me. I feel like this trip has just had so much silence, which has really …

Oh my goodness. This woman just came over to ask me a question about her phone (since, as she told me 3 times, me on my computer must know more about it than her). She’s convinced that every time that there is a missed call, her clock resets. So I put the correct time on her phone and then she just went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on talking to me for half an hour, always pretending like she was going to get up and then staying. She kept repeating the same things over and over. Like how she was going to go to the phone store when she got back to Barcelona, and that it was the missed calls that were ruining everything, and how she’s already told her husband and sons not to leave missed calls (which I tried to explain is impossible to avoid unless they just don’t call), and that the missed calls were ruining everything, and didn’t I speak Spanish well, and when she got back to Barcelona she was going to go to the phone house, and that she thanked me very much, but it was those darn missed calls that were ruining her phone, and what if she needed to set an alarm and the clock reset, and didn’t I speak Spanish well, and she was going to explain it to the people at the store when she got back. I think she just wanted to keep the conversation going but really had nothing else to talk about.

Anyways, got to love those somewhat awkward cultural encounters. It’s funny how I was writing about silence when all that started. But I still affirm that silence has had a heavy weight in this trip, but at the same time, I’ve met a lot of great people, so it’s been a really fun experience in that regard. I was talking with Gina and decided that this week is an exercise in spending time in and by myself.

I’ll get the pictures up soon. Since I’m by myself, I just take pictures all the time. I think it serves both as a way to pass the time and also as my attempt to artificially be able to share the experience with other people. While I’ve gone out with and met new people at night, all my tourism so far has been alone. I don’t mean to seem overly pessimistic about it—I have had some really amazing moments, like touring the Alcazar in Cordoba at sunset, with its enchanting gardens and tall medieval towers with hardly anyone there, or standing on top of the Watchman’s Tower at the Alhambra in Granada with the most expansive view of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the city, the river and the hills and contemplating everything—but there is just something a little empty about not being able to talk about it while it’s happening, and a reproduction of it is impossible. When I was at the Alcazar this was a very loud buzz of bird songs that the pictures obviously miss and mountains never show up as dramatically in photos as they do in real life. So in light of that all, I think there has been a sort of shift in attitude about what this is about for me and just seeing it all for me. It’s a very selfish experience in so many ways, and I don’t mean that to be pejorative at all, but really internal.

Enough of philosophizing, let me tell you all about what I’ve been seeing.

I think I left my previous post in Cordoba right before I went to the Alcazar, which like I said was a really magical experience. When I checked into the hostel, the guy at the front desk had mentioned that it was free entry on Wednesday if I wanted to check it out so it was just kind of a spur of the moment decision and very worth it. I really like the photos from there. That was the first place that I attempted the self-photo, which has continued to be an awkward struggle, but with my reluctance to hand over my camera to a stranger, my only way of getting photos of me. For every good one I get, there were usually like 20 mistakes. That night I went over to Jocelyn’s and met her very vivacious Southern Spanish roommates. Since I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before, I just called it an early night and went back.

Thursday, I got up early to go to the Mosque/Cathedral (as with so many monuments in Southern Spain, what was once Moorish became incorporated into the Catholic kingdom) while it was free, which was an excellent choice because it wasn’t crowded at all. Really nothing has been crowded which has made it so much more enjoyable. I’ve had crazy luck with weather. It’s just been sunny and gorgeous everyday so far. The Mosque/Cathedral in Cordoba is the one that has the red and white arches that I’m sure most of you have seen a picture of at some point. There are just hundreds of arches and so it’s very impressive. I really feel like it’s the best of the two worlds: the architecture is Muslim with some really beautiful geometric tile patterns on the walls, and then there are beautiful chapels and a big Christian altar in the middle. There as well a random lady came up to me and kept on talking about where the best places to take pictures were. I couldn’t decide if she wanted me to pay her? Or what? She most definitely did not look like she was looking for money, but it was just strange. I don’t think I quite understand Spanish señoras.

Then I just kind of toured the center of the town, did some post Christmas shopping with the sales (since Christmas ended the 6^th) and read a while by the river in the sun. For dinner, we went to the super hippy, hole-in-the-wall place where they made this gigantic pot of lentils with vegetables (the meal is always vegetarian) and had a little bar with everyone sitting outside. For the drink and the dinner, you just play whatever you think is appropriate, which is a little difficult to navigate in some ways because I feel like there is a strict, unspoken moral code. It was a fun environment though. Then we went out to this horribly corny Templar bar that was kind of in the style of the Rainforest Café. We walked into what seemed like a castle, and when we got downstairs, we went through a door and into an enchanted lost garden with paintings of castles and trees. It was fun though.

Got home at 4 am that night. 3 and a half hours later, I was up and getting ready. Made it to the train station at 830 for my 830 bus and snuck on just in time. The bus was EXTRAORDINARILY hot. I was stripping down (I changed my shirt and even went so far to take off my shoes and socks. I couldn’t handle it). All the Spaniards, of course, had their jackets their jackets zipped up tight. In some combination of lack of sleep, my general issues with carsickness, the extreme heat and a potential hangover, I was miserable. For the last fifteen minutes I was just holding on to the seat in front of me repeating “Please don’t throw up.”

Finally arriving to Granada, I sat on a cold bench for a while to recuperate and once I was finally ready, started walking from the train station, sans map (a favorite activity of mine), in search of my hostel. Grabbed breakfast along the way and eventually made it over there. Changed, washed up and then went to the Alhambra.

The Alhambra was originally the fortress of an Arabic king and then was conquered by the Christians, so it has evidence of it all. It has the 12^th century (if I remember correctly) fortress part, a Islamic-style palace and another palace of Carlos V, so it’s just a mixed bag of architecture and art, which makes it a lot of fun. The complex also connects with another palace from 1931 that has beautiful fountains and gardens. I spent all afternoon there touring around and taking a gazillion photos. When I was on top of the Watchman’s Tower looking over the city (the place I mentioned earlier), it just totally struck me that Granada is a huge place full of many people with its own long history… and that there are hundreds of other equally vibrant cities in the world. It’s crazy.

Yesterday night I had dinner at the hostel. They made this absolutely gigantic paella. The pan was easily 3 feet in diameter. It was delicious. I met two sisters from Seattle, one of whom has a boyfriend who is studying here (the sisters left today to study in Cadiz), and the 4 of us went out. In Spain, it’s popular to go out for tapas or to get tapas when you get a drink. At certain bars in Madrid you can get tapas, which are usually a complimentary plate of little empanadas, olives, ham and bread, paella or torta, etc… something small but nice to have along with your drink, and if you had a few rounds you could fill up. In Granada, tapas are just straight up meals. We got our drinks (which cost half as much as they often do in Madrid, I might add) and straight up got sandwiches with fries. It blew my mind.

Today I slept in a bit. I was going to go on the hostel tour, but when I got down to check out at 10:55, he told me I had missed it. I asked him what time it had left at and he told me 11… They had snuck out a little early I guess, so I just asked him to show me the route that the tour went on and followed it. I went through the Albaicín, which is an old neighborhood in Granada. There’s a lookout point that has striking views of the Alhambra. Unfortunately, I got there at 12:30 or so and the lookout looks east so it was just at the point where it was a bit difficult to look at the castle and the pictures didn’t turn out. Kind of a disappointment in that regard, because I would have loved to just sit and stare at it, but it was still a spectacular view.

After my little tour, I just went back to the hostel for a bit, grabbed some lunch at the grocery store and made my way over to the train station. I’m now on the train on my way to Sevilla.

Hope everything is well with you all.

Big hugs.

Jason

P.S. Just arrived at the hostel here in Sevilla. The guy who works here told me that I have the best Spanish of any non-native American speaker he's met, so that was flattering. Had a great conversation with the girl sitting next to me on the train about linguistics and politics and what have you. We started off in Spanish but then she wanted to practice her English so we switched. It was fun though.