I was sad to leave Drew. He was very nice to us and I learned a lot from him. I secretly wished that there could be a Drew in every country who could teach me about the cultures that I was visiting. Unfortunately there isn’t…
Once we said our good byes we boarded a train that would take us to Cordoba and the Great Mosque that I was excited to see. This train ride seemed a lot longer than any of the others and I couldn’t help but allow the little kid in me to think “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Finally we were there. This time we were able to find a tourist booth and we were able to ask where and how to get to each place we wanted to visit, most of them suggestions from Nathalia. Once we had a map and a plan we headed to the bus stop and took a bus to where our journey to the great mosque began. It wasn’t much of a journey but I felt like a pilgrim, carrying my heavy backpack following other pilgrims in through skinny cobbled roads until we arrived to our destination. Al that we could see on the outside of the mosque was very high walls made of stone. We walked around half of the building before we could find a door. We entered and found a beautiful giant patio with trees and fountains. We also found the main entrance into the mosque but all I could see inside was darkness. We found where the ticket booth was and got our tickets and headed back towards the main entrance. Once inside we were overwhelmed by the amount of columns and arches and people. It was very dark, there were small lights hanging from the ceiling, but at the center of the mosque a great amount of light was leaking in to the surrounding areas.
Like I said, it was completely overwhelming walking in to that place. Katie and I started walking around the sides looking at the different chapels that were set up for saints but we both felt a need for someone to tell us the history of the place so we could grasp even just a little bit of its meaning. We were able to pick up a little pamphlet on the way in which described a short history of the mosque and so we milked as much information out of that as we possibly could. I learned that there was certain pattern about the Mosque. Before it was a mosque it was a Visigoth church. They know that because when they were excavating part of the mosque they found Christian ruins. Supposedly when the Moors took over Spain they built their great mosque over the church to show their power. Then when the catholic kings took Spain back they were going to destroy the mosque but Ferdinand thought it was too beautiful so instead they built their Cathedral in the middle of it. Yes there is a Cathedral in the middle of this giant mosque I saw. It was so beautiful! But in the end I had mixed feelings about the place, because although the pamphlet said that the catholic kings thought it was too beautiful to destroy, in my art history lecture about the mosque my professor said that the cathedral was built there to show that the catholic kings had defeated the Moors. That is a little upsetting to me, I know that was the thing to do but it’s hard to believe that they would be so disrespectful. My professor also said that he thought the building was just really ugly, the mosque was beautiful but all of the “junk” and the cathedral that they added to it made it ugly. All things set aside I completely disagree. I felt that the building was extremely spiritual and beautiful the way that the two styles of architecture were put together was very amazing to me, the mosque with it’s dark peaceful feel and then the cathedral which was very radiant, the two styles and religions together seemed to give off a powerful feeling. I dunno it’s hard to describe exactly what I felt.
We sat out in the courtyard of the mosque for a while after we had explored every inch of it. It was good to be able to sit and soak in the environment and rest up before we had to pickup those heavy backpacks and continue on. We eventually moved on and saw more of the places Nathalia had listed for us like looking at the amazing patios in the neighborhood which were decorated with colorful tiles. We went to the Plaza de Corredera, a nice little square surrounded by apartment buildings and had a coke, then we walked around until we eventually found a small courtyard where there was a crucifix surrounded by lanterns. Everywhere we went was very beautiful, but it was hard for us to express that because we were both so tired and sick of carrying our backpacks, we ended up cutting our experience in Cordoba short and ending it with some yummy gelato and a long train ride back to Cadiz.
It was nice to finally get back to the ship, take a nice shower and relax! That night to celebrate our trip in Spain coming to an end a whole group of us went out to party! J We had some Tappas and then walked around to find a bar to hang out in. I think about half of semester at sea was out that night, we passed a couple of bars that were packed to the rim of our classmates. We found another less empty ba, had some drinks, exchanged stories of our adventures and enjoyed the nice evening breeze. The funny thing about this group of people is that many of them are underage, but on the ship and in almost every country kids that are 18 are allowed to drink. On the ship they are a little more strict about it, people only allowed to have much to drink, and they have to buy a drink card so that people could keep track of how much each person was drinking. However in port there was no one keeping track, kids were free and able to experience alcohol all they want. There is an island off of….barcelona….called Ibiza, which is basically just a party island, and we were told not to go there, but over 200 students went there anyways, and all they did for 3 days was party and drink... I am a little embarrassed by this. I feel like there are so many kids on the trip who are just here to “party around the world” and most of them are wasting their parent’s money. I think that really sucks. Amazingly everyone made it to the ship alive and in one piece, although some kids had money and passports stolen.
I would have to say all in all my personal experience in Spain was really great. I got to see a lot, experience an authentic Spanish lifestyle, and learn a ton about Spain’s history and the culture of today. I would really love to go back to Spain someday because I think there is so much that I didn’t get to see and it just had very nice environment.
We had a very short turn around, maybe 10 hours, and we were in Morocco. My view of Morocco when we first got there was very different from the view I had when we left. The following is something I wrote the first day we arrived. My first impressions of Morocco:
Can you imagine living in a country when 89% of the people believe in the same religion as you do? It is something very hard for me to grasp. Morocco has been intense. The climate, plants, ocean, sky, everything looks about the same as Spain, but the people are basically the exact opposite. As the bus took us to the pier gate and as we walked into the city it was a very long time before I saw a woman.
We walked to the great Mosque, the third largest in the world. It was so amazing and beautiful. I really respect how deep their faith is, how holy their mosques are, sometimes I think as a catholic myself and the rest of the people I go to church with, could learn from these people about how to respect and keep holy that which is supposed to be sacred.
The first day I mostly just walked around with a bunch of people exploring Casablanca, I wasn’t really impressed by anything except the mosque which really was incredible. But my feelings of Morocco was that it was going to be like Saudi Arabia, very strict laws about what women could do, and very conservative religious views. That changed during the rest of the trip.
The next day I was able to buy a ticket to the city orientation tour which was very enjoyable. Our tour guide was a woman which was a big surprise to me. She was a very kind, excited and somewhat loud person. One of the main points of her tour was that the King, Mohammad VI, was a good King, He was the first to introduce his wife to the public, he was also the first to marry someone that wasn’t royal. He believed that women should have more freedom and so far has brought a lot of change to Morocco, a good King. We learned more about the mosques and the Muslim culture, it was also very interesting. The best part of the trip was when we stopped near the ocean to have a snack at a café and we ran in to none other than Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah! They were such a cute couple and a few of us were able to take our picture with them. The rest of that day we walked around, had a fun adventure in a hostal where we stole some free internet and drank some delicious mint tea.
Wow! I feel like I didn’t have a whole lot of stuff in Morocco that was hugely impactful, I am struggling to think of cool things from the first couple of days. Next time I will talk about my trip to Marrakech and by then you will all be caught up, and just in time for Ghana!!!! We arrive in Ghana the day after tomorrow and my goal is to update my blog throughout the trip, that way I won’t have to struggle to catch up like this. Hopefully it will work out!!! Check tomorrow for another update!
Jya Ne!
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