Day 10 - Cordoba, Spain

Well, the free breakfast at the hostel in Seville wasn’t super, but I for one ate my money’s worth: donuts, bread and jam, cocoa crispies and tea. It lasted me all the bus ride to Cordoba, where it was HOT! And it was also Sunday, which meant everything was closed. We sat down at a touristy café and asked for tapwater (mistake - we got some seriously nasty looks from the waiter) but had some good (if expensive) tortillas and soup.

We then saw what we came to Cordoba to see - the largest mosque in the Western hemisphere. It also was cool and dark, so we subsequently escaped the heat for a while. The mosque was really huge - it could hold upwards of 50,000 worshipers in its prime. It was about the size of a city block (Diana and I nearly fainted from the heat when we walked around it) and the inside was made up of impressive striped arches that formed perpendicular rows ending on each wall with decorated chapels. In the center was an enormous pulpit and space for the choir, all decorated magnificently. Too amazing to be captured in words or pictures - go see it.

Our second greatest find in Cordoba (after the mosque) was an awesome Salon du Thé where we escaped the rest of the afternoon heat. We have our guidebook to thank for that. It was decorated with all sorts of plants, pictures, fruits, comfy couches and pastries. We had mango smoothies and chilled for a while. After some wandering, veggie empanadas, and down time in a beautiful square, we caught our 1AM bus to Madrid.

Observations:

1. We played lots of cards. I taught Diana hi low jack, which is a great game. Those of you who know me know that I’ll play cards with anyone anytime anywhere. And since Diana was there, we played a lot.

2. Spain is really really hot in the summer. If you want to go, be prepared to hide away in an air conditioned/very shady place between the hours of 1PM and 7PM, unless you want to die.

3. Sleeping is overrated, especially in Spain. We were there for 5 nights, and only slept for 2 of them. Easy on the budget, fun for the spirit, but tiring on the body.