Cosy in Córdoba
I arrived in Córdoba from Madrid by high-speed train, so the journey took under 2 hours as opposed to 5 by bus. The moment I stepped out of the station I knew I was finally in the south. White buildings and palm trees surrounded wide promenades, and it was very warm despite the late hour. Toledo could easily have passed for a town in northern Spain, but it was worlds apart from Córdoba, only 200 km away. I suddenly felt very relaxed and comfortable, even though I had no map and no idea where I was going to sleep that night.
I wandered the bustling evening streets in the pedestrian center of town until I found a hostal with an available room. Because there were no free single rooms, I accepted a triple for slightly more (25 EUR), and selected one of 3 beds, leaving the other two for my imaginary companions. I then wandered the evening streets some more, discovering more and more interesting areas as I went along.
In the morning I continued my toor, exploring various Roman ruins and the Mezquite, a gigantic square building of Muslim construction, containing a tropical garden and endless halls with colorful arches and columns. The Christians had superimposed a cathedral into the structure, but even it looked lost and out of place in the vastness of the internal passages. Another fascinating area was the shallow river, overgrown with tropical forest, and containing various ancient ruins and an enormous number of deafeningly loud birds.
In the afternoon, I was finally able to call through to the mother of my Spanish friend Celi and she invited me to spend another night in Córdoba at their place. Celi´s father was working in the Canary Islands, her sister was in London, and Celi herself was studying in Tucson, Arizona, so her mother was the only one in the house. However, Celi, by phone, suggested I meet one of her friends who lived in the same building.
Rosa, Celi´s friend, was willing to show me around, and even invited me out with her friends for their usual evening bar outing. It was a nice large group, although Rosa said there were fewer people than normal because it was Sunday. It surprised me that it was possible to have so many people meet almost every night, while I consider myself lucky if I see most of my friends in DC once every 1 or 2 weeks. It surprised me even more when I found out that almost half the group were lawyers.
I wandered the bustling evening streets in the pedestrian center of town until I found a hostal with an available room. Because there were no free single rooms, I accepted a triple for slightly more (25 EUR), and selected one of 3 beds, leaving the other two for my imaginary companions. I then wandered the evening streets some more, discovering more and more interesting areas as I went along.
In the morning I continued my toor, exploring various Roman ruins and the Mezquite, a gigantic square building of Muslim construction, containing a tropical garden and endless halls with colorful arches and columns. The Christians had superimposed a cathedral into the structure, but even it looked lost and out of place in the vastness of the internal passages. Another fascinating area was the shallow river, overgrown with tropical forest, and containing various ancient ruins and an enormous number of deafeningly loud birds.
In the afternoon, I was finally able to call through to the mother of my Spanish friend Celi and she invited me to spend another night in Córdoba at their place. Celi´s father was working in the Canary Islands, her sister was in London, and Celi herself was studying in Tucson, Arizona, so her mother was the only one in the house. However, Celi, by phone, suggested I meet one of her friends who lived in the same building.
Rosa, Celi´s friend, was willing to show me around, and even invited me out with her friends for their usual evening bar outing. It was a nice large group, although Rosa said there were fewer people than normal because it was Sunday. It surprised me that it was possible to have so many people meet almost every night, while I consider myself lucky if I see most of my friends in DC once every 1 or 2 weeks. It surprised me even more when I found out that almost half the group were lawyers.
posted by Dmitri Evseev at 9:19 PM
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