It’s been another busy week here in Granada, Spain. It took some time to wind down from our eventful weekend in Córdaba and Sevilla. With our program, the entire group traveled to these cities of Southern Spain for the three-day weekend. We departed from Granada early Friday morning and spent the day exploring Córdaba. In this city, our tour included a walk through the old jewish quarters as well as a guided tour through the famous Mezquita, Córdaba is best known as it once served as the region’s capital for both the Roman and Moorish empires. The Mezquita is a well-preserved mosque dating back to A.D 784. Inside was magnificent with the arch doorways and columns filling each room. After exploring and learning more of the history inside the Mezquita, we ventured off and explored the city on our own. For a small fee we were able to visit an old Christian palace. From the outside it seemed like just another old, historic building but once we walked inside we were surprised to find its courtyard filled with orange trees, fountains, statues and flowers! The pools with small fountains were beautiful, especially since they came alive with bright colors. After spending a few hours discovering this section of Córdaba it was time to depart for Sevilla. We were to spend the night and next two days exploring the fourth largest city of Spain!

After arriving at our hotel, we had planned to head to a Flamenco show with the entire group. Since our group is that of 30+ students, we ended up splitting up and losing track of each other. As luck would have it, the group I was in didn’t have a clue the name of the flamenco club nor did we have any of the leaders who could guide us. So we asked the hotel manager who directed us to his favorite flamenco bar.  Up for the adventure we set out to find this random flamenco bar. Finally finding it, we walked in and sure enough there was the other half of our group! It was so ironic!

The flamenco bar was an authentic Spanish experience mixed with a lot of energy! Once the flamenco singers and dancer started performing the place quieted down as everyone was in awe by the show. Her dance moves were intriguing as she did quick, jerky movements following the singer’s beat. Traveling to Spain, you have to see at least one flamenco show due to its importance in the culture. The best shows are those done in the homes of Spanish families. For these, an individual has to be specially invited making it hard for tourists to experience an actual flamenco show.

Saturday was spent exploring the city of Seville. We began the day with a walking tour through various parks, which was followed by a tour in Seville’s cathedral- the third largest cathedral in the world! Inside, we saw the statue of where Christopher Columbus’s remains are kept. Only a small amount of his remains are known to be inside the structure since obtaining the remains was apparently difficult for the church due to the number of Christopher Columbus’s in Spain at the time. The best part of the cathedral was the view from its bell towers where we were able to look over the entire city, and see the bull-fighting arena in the distance. Seville is one of the only cities in Spain where bull fighting is still politically correct.

From the towers, we had two hours to explore the city on our own. One of my friends and I decided to find a coffee shop to grab a coffee and people watch. Being such a large city, the people- watching was fascinating! Simply sitting and taking in the scenery and people allowed us to see how diverse Spain is.

With the group, we went to Plaza de España, the location set for part of the Starwars film Attack of the Clones. At this plaza, they filmed a scene with Anakin and Padme on Naboo with the intention of making it seem like “another world”. The actual reason for its construction was for the Ibero-American Exhibition World’s Fair in 1929, held in Seville in order to strengthen the ties between Spain and Portugal during that time. The shape of the building represents the embrace of Spain. The plaza is separated into two parts by four bridges, each bridge representing one of the four ancient kingdoms of Spain (Aragon, Leon, Castile and Navarra). Between these two parts is a waterway, which you could rent a boat to explore. A few of us rented and with so many others having the same idea, it ended up to be bumper boats rather than rowboats, turning out to be more fun!

            To experience the nightlife in Seville, a group of us went out for tapas across the river. Since Seville is another city known for its student population, we knew others students studying here so we all met up for drinks and tapas. Another advantage of being in this city was we were able to walk around on the streets with open beverages- it was the perfect way to end our weekend in Seville!

            For our final day in this city, we explored the ancient roman ruins of Italica. Here we saw the layout of the ancient roman homes as well as the fighting arena (gladiator style). From here we boarded the bus and headed back to Granada. Overall, it was an eventful weekend filled with some interesting adventures in Southern Spain!