This weekend was filled with lots of great day trips all over Andalucía. The amount of history I've seen in the past 72 hours is incredible!!!
First up, Gibraltar:
 |
| La Roca de Gibraltar |
Within CIEE, I am involved in an interest group called "Otros Realidades" or "Other Realities." Its goal is to get students to learn about and see places that you wouldn't necessarily consider as being typically "Spanish." This Friday, my group headed off to Gibraltar, the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Gibraltar is owned by the UK and is very much an English country, although it obviously has a very large Spanish influence due to its geographical proximity.
The history and politics of Gibraltar is really interesting, so I'm going to go explain a bit. (Sorry guys, I'm a nerd :P):
Firstly, the etymology of "Gibraltar" is quite interesting. It derives from the Arabic phrase "Jabal-e Tariq," which literally means "mountain of Tariq," Tariq being a Berber general who conquered the Rock of Gibraltar in the early 8th century.
Gibraltar was conquered by the British in the 1700's during the War of the Spanish Succession. It has served as a key base for the British Royal Navy ever since.
During WWII, Franco cut off all ties and communication with Gibraltar in an attempt to weaken the territory and force it to accept Spanish sovereignty. This isolation split apart many Gibraltarian-Spanish families who had to choose between keeping their job in Gibraltar, or keeping their home in Spain. Gibraltarians have not forgotten how they were treated by Spain, and have voted almost unanimously on two different occasions (1967 & 2002) to remain a British territory.
Three languages are spoken in Gibraltar: Spanish, English, and Llanito, a kind of creole language that is a mixture of Spanish, English, Maltese, Genoese, and Portuguese.
We went up the Rock by cable car. It was definitely a bit nerve wracking, but the views from the top were completely worth it!
 |
| beautiful, blustery day in Gibraltar |
Gibraltar is also famous for its Barbary Macaques, a species of wild monkey. Legend has it that if the monkeys ever leave Gibraltar, so will the British. We all spent about 40 minutes oogling over the monkeys at the look out point.
 |
| Just chillin' |
(Money Saving Tip: It costs about 20 pounds to get into the nature preserve where the majority of the monkeys are. If you are tight on money, just pay the 10 pounds to get up and down to the lookout point by cable car. There will most likely be plenty of monkeys to see there.)
Apart from touring the rock, we walked about the town and it's many shops, and stopped to have some British fish and chips. Gibraltar was definitely a unique experience, and I'm so glad that our interest group was able to go!
Up Next, Saturday in Córdoba:
Saturday morning I headed off with CIEE to the city of Córdoba, which lies about 1.5 hours north of Sevilla. Córdoba felt so authentically, Spanish; I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Córdoba is slightly smaller than Sevilla, and everything from the buildings, to the small winding streets, to the food felt purely Andalusian.
Ready for a brief history of Córdoba? No? Too bad:
Córdoba has been the home to Carthaginians, Romans, and Visigoths, but it is most famous for being the capital of al-Andaluz (766-1031), the Muslim Empire in southern Spain. Córdoba was a large political and economic center during the Caliphate and it was during this time that the world-famous mezquita (mosque), was built. Córdoba remained a large cultural center until the Almohades, another Muslim dynasty took over, and transferred the capital to Sevilla. In 1236 it was conquered by King Fernando III during La Reconquista. The famous mezquita was converted into a cathedral, while keeping the moorish architecture intact.
We started out the day by touring El Alcázar de Córdoba, the palace for the Christian kings. It served as one of the many homes for King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabel of Castilla. I'm going to be honest, the Alcázar of Córdoba has nothing on the Alcazar de Sevilla. I realized when I got back that I didn't even take a single picture of the physical building; it wasn't extraordinarily impressive. However within El Alcázar, we got to see many interesting things including Roman mosaics, and Arab style baths.
The gardens of El Alcázar, while not as extensive as el Alcázar de Sevilla, were quite beautiful and everyone enjoyed our brief stroll through them.
After the Alcázar, we headed of to the Synagogue of Córdoba. The synagogue was beautiful, and was built in mudéjar style (remember mudéjar? the use of moorish style and architecture?) which was very exquisite and impressive.
 |
| Synagogue de Córdoba |
 |
| Patio in La Mezquita w/ the Christian bell tower in the background |
Another important part of La Mezquita is the mihrab, or the room in which the Quran is displayed. The entryway to the mihrab was absolutely gorgeous, decorated with beautiful designs in Arabic.
 |
| El mihrab |
 |
| Main Altar. |
After touring La Mezquita we had time to grab lunch and stroll around the streets of Córdoba. I wish, as with all these day trips that there was more time to enjoy the city! The day went by much too fast.
Por fin, Medieval Castles on Sunday
On Sunday, I again woke up early, this time to tour two medieval castles in the towns of Alcalá de Guadaira and Utrera, two suburbs of Sevilla.
 |
| Castillo de |
We started out by touring El Castillo de Alcalá, which was absolutely gorgeous, illuminated by the morning sun.
After spending a few hours in Alcalá we headed off to Utrera, the hometown of Ángel, the professor for my intensive session!
 |
| Vista |
 |
| Castillo de Utrera |
After touring el castillo, we took time to grab some pastries, something which Utrera is widly known for. I had a delicious piece of cake that was coated in chocolate....mmmm.
And there you have it. One supremely awesome, supremely busy weekend here in Southern Spain. This week it will be time to hit the books. Hasta pronto :D
No comments:
Post a Comment