Day 2 of my
weekend in Andalucía was a crazy one filled with travelling…I had breakfast in
Granada, lunch in Cordoba, and dinner in Seville!
In Granada, we had the hotel continental
breakfast before leaving on the bus.
I’m
not typically a fan of free hotel breakfasts, but this one was so different
from any I’ve had in the US.
There was a
lovely tray of smoked Spanish ham and manchego cheese, a bowl of fresh fruit,
and baskets of delicate, fresh pastries. The chocolate croissant I tried here even made my top 5 list of favorite
chocolate croissants.
From
there, we were off to Cordoba to see the cathedral-mosque. This is such a unique site due to the mix of
Catholic and Muslim elements. It was
built in the year 782, but was partially converted into a Catholic church after
Christians arrived in 1230. The shape of
the entire mosque is a big rectangle with a Catholic church in the center in
the shape of a cross. I was amazed at
how richly both cultures were portrayed in this one space--the contrast was so
interesting.
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| Cathedral |
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| An altar in the cathedral with beautiful Arabic mosaics |
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| Mosque |
Once
we were finished admiring the cathedral/mosque, we headed for lunch.
The group I went with decided on tapas.
We tried gazpacho, vegetable pisto (a sort of
Spanish ratatouille), calamari, bacalao croquettes (deep fried fritters of
potato and fish), and my favorite, eggplant chips with honey.
We had some free time to admire the city
before heading to the train station to go to Seville.
In
Seville, I stayed in a hostel for the first time. Since I was travelling with a big group—14
other classmates—I was eased into the hostel experience. Twelve of us (luckily all girls) stayed in
one big room with 6 bunk beds and a bathroom. Hooray for not having to sleep near random people! On the same floor, there was a kitchen and common area with wi-fi. On the top floor, there was a small bar/food
station and a deck with a pool, lounge chairs, and tables.
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| Hostel living...not too shabby! |
After
locking away my stuff in a storage drawer at the hostel, since I wasn’t about
to let any potential thieves trick me, a few friends and I went exploring.
We had passed a small outdoor market on our
way to the hostel, so we returned to check it out.
We also went down some of the main shopping
streets, and I found another fabric store.
There was also some sort of religious procession happening, so we
followed it to the beautiful, historic square where the cathedral is
situated.
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| Rooftop terrace at the hostel |
At this point, we were ready for dinner. We shared a smoked salmon salad, grilled vegetables (garnished with ham, of course...good thing I'm not vegetarian!), and grilled merluza with this amazing mushroom/truffle oil concoction on top. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped for ice cream. I got creme brûlée and dark chocolate hazelnut. The sweet, buttery taste of the creme brûlée went perfectly with the slight bitterness of the chocolate...yum! After getting this small glimpse
of Seville, I couldn’t wait to go out the next day and do lots more exploring!
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| A flamenco shop in Seville |
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