Granada and Córdoba

This past weekend my friend Jess and I took a trip to Granada and Córdoba, two cities in the south of Spain. I´d wanted to go to these two places for awhile because they both have important cultural landmarks that I´d heard a lot about and wanted to see for myself. It was a great trip, and although we spent a lot of time on trains and buses since we only spent a day in each place, it was well worth it and I had a great weekend.

We went to Granada first, which is known for the Alhambra. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it for those how have never heard of it, but it’s basically a particular part of the city that was built by the Arabs when they occupied Spain centuries ago. (Wikipedia describes it as a palace and fortress complex, which seems about right to me.) It was a lot bigger than I expected before I went there, but I knew almost nothing about it except that it was a famous Spanish landmark, so pretty much everything surprised me, except for what I´d already seen pictures of. It´s a beautiful place that I highly recommend to anyone traveling in Spain, and I´m so glad I went because I don´t think my semester would have been complete without seeing both the Alhambra and the Mezquita. Since words can´t do justice to the beauty, here are some pictures to give you an idea (although pictures don´t completely do it justice either). I took over 400 pictures during the entire trip, so obviously this will only be a very small sampling of them. 

These pictures are of the Generalife, which is one of the areas of the Alhambra.

 

The following pictures are of the other section of the Alhambra, which has the Palaces

Palace of Carlos V

Palacio Nazaríes (i don´t know what that translates to in English)

The room where the famous lion statues are supposed to be but it was closed for repairs :(

Other than seeing the Alhambra, we basically just wandered around Granada for the rest of the day until it was time to catch our bus to Córdoba. We had some confusion with our directions (apparently Google maps doesn´t know Spain very well) but we eventually got to the station with time to spare and made it to Córdoba just fine. And with very slight direction problems again, we made it to our hostel.

So onto day 2, in Córdoba. The main attraction was the Mezquita, which is an old mosque that was converted into a cathedral when the Christians reconquered Spain. The original architecture is still there though, and it´s gorgous on the inside. When we first got to the Mezquita, it wasn´t open for visitors yet, so we walked around and saw the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and the Alcázar de los Reyes Católicos (Castle of the Catholic Kings). Here is a sampling of the pictures from that day. 

First glimpse of the Mezquita

There´s me!

Courtyard

Castle

The Castle had the most beautiful garden

Inside the Mezquita. Pictures really don´t do this justice

This one is probably my favorite picture from the trip. I got a postcard that looks almost exactly like this, which makes me proud of my photography skills haha

So that´s basically it for my weekend. I leave to go to Ireland and England in a week, which I´m so excited for! I´m finally getting to go to two countries I´ve wanted to go to my whole life. It should be awesome! I´m also visiting two friends who are studying in Norwich, England, so that will be fun too. I will do my best to write about that trip when I get back from it, but once I get back it´s basically time for finals so I might not have time. I´ll do my best though.