Sevila, Cordoba, & Granada!!

**Warning! This is extremely long! Only read if you have free time or are avoiding homework/work** ☺

Hola amigas y familia! We have officially left our first port of call. Spain was beyond amazing and we are going to do our best to describe it to you, although there really are no words to describe everything we experienced.
Of course our first city was Cadiz, which you all read about in our last post. The next morning, our second day in port, we woke up extra early and met in the Union at 7:30 am to leave for our trip. About 5 minutes after we got on the bus we both fell asleep. Thanks, Mom, by the way, for those travel pillows you bought us in the Atlanta airport! They are SO comfortable, and perfect for traveling. It was only about a 2 hour drive to Sevilla, and we arrived at 0945 at the Plaza de España. It was a gigantic plaza with a fountain in the middle and a palace-like building that surrounded it…you had to actually turn all the way around in a circle to see the whole thing. It was magnificent. The architecture and the grandeur of the whole thing was amazing. We all took way too many pictures and video there, and we even saw cats! (Which are everywhere in Spain, and there will probably be an album at the end of the trip just on the cats we’ve encountered) haha. After we were done, we got back on the bus and drove into the city of Sevilla about 5 minutes away. We walked down the main road to the Catedral de Sevilla—the 3rd largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s (I think that’s what our guide said—correct me if I’m wrong) in London. It was gorgeous inside. And magnificently huge! The intricacy of the architecture and the size of it were mind-boggling. We got to see the tomb of Christopher Columbus, which was really cool. Our guide also showed us a giant painting of San Fernando and told us a story about when a thief broke into the cathedral and cut out the bottom corner of the painting, which had San Fernando kneeling in it. The corner of it isn’t small—it’s about 4 square feet—so that must have been a hard thing to do. But he took the stolen corner and sent hundreds of authorities on a 6-month search around the world for it. They finally found it in New York City in an antique shop, and took it to Madrid where it was restored into the original painting. We could still see the line where that section of the painting was cut out. It was very interesting. The most gorgeous part of the cathedral was the stained glass and woodwork. They were beautiful! We eventually left the cathedral and walked over to the Royal Palace, or Alcazar, which is where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they visit Sevilla. It was built during the 13th century and, like a lot of the old palaces we saw, was built under a time of Islamic rule, so there was a lot of decoration and architecture inspired by Islam, including Arabic writings in the designs on the walls. There were ornate decorations everywhere—with ceramic tiles, and plaster and woodwork. The gardens were the best part, though, and we took a lot of pictures there. We left the palace and walked to the old Jewish Quarter, Santa Cruz, where the guide told us about Spain’s “black history” when they tried to exile all of the Jews. It was very interesting. The Quarter was adorable! It was exactly how we always pictured little European towns to look like, with compact colorful buildings really close together and small alleys running between them. And all of the buildings had flower pots on the windows and balconies and there were little cafes and restaurants. We finally got to eat lunch after what seemed like an eternity, and it exceeded our expectations. They really took care of us. It was a relief to all of us to be eating “real food” instead of ship food. We ate food that we never thought we would eat, like asparagus and Tortilla de España (an egg and potato concoction) and an almond cake for dessert…and it was all delicious! We had some free time after lunch, so we went on another adventure to find El Corte Ingles and jackets with Lisa (Sarah’s boss in the library). Sevilla has a commercial section apart from the old section and it’s really nice. There’s one main road with tons of shops and a rail system, which is similar to that of San Francisco, but looks more like a monorail from Disney World. We didn’t end up finding any jackets, but we did find a magnet that has Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada on it! So it saved us from spending too much money on magnets and buying one from every city! We also found a newspaper stand and decided that we’re going to get a local newspaper from every country. We’re really excited about that! We got back on the bus with everyone and set off for Cordoba. The scenery was so beautiful! It was all green and mountainous and we passed some small villages. We got some video of it (however good that’s going to turn out, we don’t know) so maybe you all can see what we saw.
We got to Cordoba around 1800 and checked into our hotel. An interesting fact about hotels in Spain—the lights in the room are controlled by you! It took Sarah and I about 15 minutes to figure this out as we walked around in the dark. Right inside the door to our room there was a small thing that looked like a light switch, but we couldn’t press it. We flipped the light switches on and off throughout the room, but nothing happened. Finally someone told us that you have to stick your room key into the thing near the door. Once we did that, all of the light switches worked! It was very weird, but kind of unique. It’s a good idea, though, because when you leave, you have to take your card with you, so the lights won’t stay on unnecessarily. We turned on the TV in our room and it was so weird to flip through the channels and not understand anything! There was a German MTV, Spanish news channels, and even Italian & French channels. There was BBC, thankfully, so we got to catch up on some world news, which was interesting because we felt so out of the loop. Haha. We got bored after about ½ an hour, so we went on another search for jackets and decided to explore the city while we searched. We walked for a while and actually found El Corte Ingles! Everything there was too expensive, though, so we ended up going somewhere else and getting sweaters for 15 Euro. It was so cold in Spain and we were not as prepared as we thought we were, so we were happy to find them. Cordoba was a lot more urban than Sevilla, but it was still very nice. While we were walking around, we got to see Cordoba’s “centro cuidad”, or city center. There was a huge promenade that is basically a very wide street that is closed off to cars only in the middle and not on the side. And there are what looked like almost sidewalks on each side. So Sarah and I kept walking down the side next to the stores and cafes and cars kept driving down them and honking at us until we finally figured it out! Haha. You almost have to cross the “street” to get into the shops. We went back to the hotel for dinner, which turned out to be slightly disappointing after our amazing lunch! They had a lot of pasta and potatoes (it reminded us very much of ship food) and we had to pay for water! But it was food nonetheless. After dinner, we sat and talked with two girls at our table, Marisa and Janine from Allegheny College. It was so much fun! Janine is amazed with the fact that we are twins and they kept asking us to guess numbers and read each other’s minds and it was hilarious! They are just like us and it seems like we’ve known them forever, and we laughed so hard we were crying. We played cards after dinner (Presidents—it wasn’t the same without you Dad & Kathy!) with some of the faculty and life-long learners (LLL’s). Marisa, Janine, Sarah, and I all decided that we are a family, with Dr. G as our Dad, his wife Anne as our Mom, and an LLL Belisa as our other Mom. And the LLL Joan, of course, fits in there somewhere. We call Dr. G “D2” (Dad 2)--Marisa started calling him that and now it has stuck. We call his wife Anne “R2” (Get it? R2 and D2?!) She came up with that one on her own. And we call Belisa “M2” (for Mom 2), and we just call Joan “Joan”. Haha. So we sat down at a couch and took a “family portrait”. We were all trying to look serious and regal. Haha. Then we went to take a second picture and Dr. G said a “That’s what she said” joke right as the picture was taken and it was priceless! All of our jaws dropped and we were laughing so hard. It was SO funny because Dr. G is like our Grandpa. We all eventually said goodnight went to our rooms, and Sarah & I watched “Raising Helen” in Spanish and went to sleep. We had to be up very early the next day to explore Cordoba with our guide. We went to a magnificent cathedral with beautiful architecture. It had arches throughout the inside that were striped with alternating stone and brick. It also had amazing gardens. The grounds were massive and there were fountains and pools and hedges and trees that were perfectly cut like a maze. Then we saw Cordoba’s Jewish Quarter, and it was just as charming as Sevilla’s. There was a statue of a man in the middle that was dark and dirty everywhere except his shoes—his shoes were shiny and gold. He wasn’t made that way, the rest of him used to look like his shoes do now, but after years and years of wear, he has turned dark. And the reason his shoes are still shiny is because it is said that if you touch his shoes, you will gain wisdom. So of course we touched them! After that, we got back on the buses and drove back to the hotel for lunch. But after a disappointing dinner and breakfast at that hotel, we decided to go out to lunch with Marisa, Janine, and Lisa. We showed them where El Corte Ingles was s that Marisa and Janine could buy a watch and a jacket, too. Then we found a little diner across the street and we all ordered Tortilla España on a baguette. A “bocadilla”, or sandwich. It was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten! We all were satisfied and happy as we walked back to the hotel. On our way back, we came across a small street market where they were selling scarves. Sarah and I each bought 2 scarves for 1 Euro each! And they’re beautiful! We each bought one of them in purple, because purple is our sea’s color (the Bering Sea) and we’ll need it when we get to the Sea Olympics. We headed back to meet the buses and left for Granada. It was only about a 2 hour drive, and we slept for about a ½ hour and watched the scenery. Driving into Granada was awesome because it’s in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our hotel was nestled up on the side of a mountain, and it was right across the street from the Alhambra! It was a little scary driving up the ridiculously small and winding streets in a big bus, but we eventually made it and checked into our rooms. Since we were pretty isolated from the town and nightlife, and it was raining, we decided to just stay in and relax. We had dinner (much better than the hotel in Cordoba), talked with Lisa, Joan, Marisa, and Janine, and went back to our room. We started to play cards, and then got distracted watching world news on CNBC and a talk show about Obama and the conflict in the Middle East. It was really cool because the speakers were from Germany and Spain and it was interesting to hear their point of view about America and the new administration.
We woke up early the next morning and walked across the street to the Alhambra. It was so grand and beautiful! We thought it used to be a palace, but in fact, it used to be a small city. It is the equivalent of 26 acres! It had a palace inside for the King and his wives, and then it had a public bath, and the area for the servants and commoners. It also had amazing gardens that stretched out all over the city. It was raining most of the time, and it even snowed at one point! But we were prepared with our mini umbrellas (Thanks, Mom!). After we were done looking around there, we walked back to the hotel and had lunch, before boarding the buses for the last time for our trip back to Cadiz and the MV Explorer. It was about a 4 hour drive, so most of us slept for the first hour. At that point, the driver stopped at a rest area that had a diner inside and little stores. Sarah and I found some Spanish Kit-Kats (of course!) that were 10 times better than those in America. We got back on the bus and everyone went back to sleep but Sarah and I were too awake, so we ended up taking pictures and having a photo shoot with Afras. (In case anyone doesn’t know who Afras is, he’s a stuffed ostrich that Anna gave us to take pictures of throughout our trip at monuments and such.) It was so funny and we were laughing so hard! As we were sitting there, we heard a familiar song start playing on the radio. It was “That Thing You Do”!!! It was so random and funny that that particular song was playing on the radio in the middle of Spain. We were definitely very happy, but it made us miss home just a little bit. About a half an hour after that song played, “Bad Day” came on and we immediately thought of Jenna! It was our theme song when we traveled to NYC in ’06 and it was, again, so random that it was playing on Spanish radio.
We got back to the ship almost ½ an hour late, but it was okay because we were on an SAS trip, so there was no dock time. We put our stuff in our room, ate dinner, and went up on deck with our cameras to capture the last of Spain. We took pictures and video, and stood there with Rachel and Mike as we pulled away. It was reminiscent of Embarkation Day—bittersweet, but we are all excited for Morocco and the rest of our journey.
This morning we had our cultural pre-port during global studies and learned what we need to know for traveling. A few of the things we learned were that we have to dress conservatively and we can’t look people in the eye. It’ll be interesting to go from Spain to Morocco and get to compare the two.
Last night, we hit a storm and we had the roughest waves we’ve had so far. They even tied stuff down in the library and campus store, just in case. It was crazy! But we did get to watch “The Patriot” in our cabin so that was cool.
Right now, we’re idling outside of Gibraltar to re-fuel, and we’ve been here for about 12 hours now. It’s pretty cool to look outside our window and see the Rock of Gibraltar and land. We have our logistical pre-port tonight, and then tomorrow we are scheduled to get to Casablanca at 0800! We’ll write more tomorrow night about our adventures, as we’re sleeping on the ship, and then we’re leaving for Marrakesh on Tuesday morning with some new friends. It should be exciting!
Talk to you all soon! We hope everything is going well and you are staying warm!
Love you!
-Kate and Sarah-