A-Broad Adventure: Córdoba, El Rastro, La Plaza de Toros

On Friday we took our class trip to Córdoba, Spain. It was a horrifically early train ride, I had to be up before 7, and most of you probably know from firsthand experience that I am most definitely not a morning person. Regardless, Katie and I made it to the train station on time and an hour and a half later, we were safely in Córdoba, courtesy of the Ave. Córdoba is infamous for its summer weather, to put it another way, it was 100 degrees (at least) the entire time we were there. We walked from the train station, which is in more of the modern area of the city to the older part of the city. The architecture is beautiful, and we walked across a bridge so that we could get a better view of all of it. The pictures are below! After that we took a trip to the mosque/cathedral. It is an absolutely incredible building. It started off as a giant mosque and then part of it was converted into a cathedral. It seems to me that a common theme of all of our school trips is visiting all of the religious places, or at least the key three in each city which include some sort of reference to the Christians, the Jews, and then the Arabs - as our tour guide Carmen put it. Anyways, the inside of the mosque was spacious with pillars placed strategically and almost so that it formed a forest of them as you walked through. It was very interesting to see the two architectural styles mixed together of the Arabs and the Christians.
After the mosque, we had some free time for lunch. One of my favorite things about these excursions is that you end up eating with and hanging out with everybody in the class, even as it splits into groups. I had lunch with Katie, Danielle, Ashley, Jordan and Thomas at a little restaurant called "Rincón de Carmen". One of the things on the menu was fried eggplant with honey, so naturally Katie and I had to order that and share it, and I also had a delicious grilled chicken with a olive oil and salsa verde topping. A bonus was that the restaurant had wifi so I got to text with Jen before she had her last day of sophomore year! How exciting and extremely frightening that she is halfway done with high school. After lunch we stopped for some gelato, and it has never tasted so good, mainly because of the extreme heat. Next stop was a Jewish Museum where we learned all about the history of the Sephardic Jews in Spain and heard some traditional music. The problem is that the museum was not air conditioned, so the entire time everyone was worried about passing out. Alexis came to my rescue and lent me her fan.
On the train ride back I got to sit with Alejandro, who spent the entire ride freaking out because he was missing Mexico's first game in this World Cup. It was pretty funny to watch him ask everyone in the class who had data on their phones to check the score routinely. Luckily for him, Mexico ended up winning. Unfortunately, the Spanish, who played in the next game, were not so lucky. They took a beat down and lost 5-1 and I swear all of Madrid was silent for a moment. And then everyone started drinking their sorrows away, which always bodes well for some American college students looking to go out. We ended up going to El Kapital again, the seven story discoteca, and thus I did not get home until the lovely time of 6:48 AM. When in Spain...
On Saturday we slept until lunch, which is served at 3 PM. After we had eaten, Katie and I went and met up with Will, who was playing his guitar and singing in front of the Reina Sofia and making money doing it. The three of us walked to El Retiro (the park) where we met up with Nicolette and Nicole and we played some card games and had a cherry seed spitting contest. Kind of. I failed epically. Clearly spending time in Northern Michigan has taught me nothing. People from class came and went, and eventually Katie and I headed home where we ate dinner and then went to bed early.
Sunday morning we woke up early (9 AM) so that we could take a trip to El Rastro, which is basically a giant market where people set up stands and sell everything you could ever imagine - except food. Katie and I got some good gift-shopping in for about two hours, but by 11:30, the streets were so crowded that we could barely move. We were very happy to have gotten there early enough to experience it the right way! On the way home we made a few stops: the first was for some Bubble Tea, the second was at a Museo de Jamón where I got the most delicious bocadillo (sandwich) with ham and cheese and a Coca-Cola for less than five Euros, AKA I'm in love with this place. The third stop was a gift shop, and fourth was Futbol Mania. Lots of good shopping. Then we went home for a real meal which was two fried eggs, a sausage, and some rice each. Surprisingly delicious. Something about Spain has turned me into a human capable of eating eggs. Who knew?
After lunch, Katie and I headed to El Retiro where we were supposed to meet Jordan, but he bailed on us. I hope he reads this and continues to feel bad for not showing up. Anyway, we ended up taking a short nap in the park and then taking the Metro to Plaza de Toros where we met Nicolette, Christine and Briana. Daniel and Alejandro joined the group shortly after, and we bought our six euro tickets to watch a bullfight. Even after learning about them for years in my Spanish classes, nothing could have fully prepared me for seeing one live. First of all, trust me when I say I am definitely not an animal rights activists, but even I thought that what was going on was cruel. The show was pretty cool, the matadors who try to confuse the bull were hilarious as they jumped around waving their capes and then sprinted for cover as soon as the bull started charging them. Other than that, it was pretty gruesome. To put it simply, even from the fourth floor, I could see the blood on the animal's body. It is horrible how the matadors taunt the animal purely for entertainment's sake before murdering it. I will say, though, that I do not regret going. It is a Spanish tradition that I am happy I had the opportunity of experiencing. However, we stayed for only two bulls (there were six in total) and I know that I never need to go back to see another bullfight.
In this paragraph I'm going to describe exactly how the bullfight worked, so if you get queasy or really really love animals, don't read this part. Basically what happens is that a bull is released into the circular arena. There are about 6 matadors hiding in little passages that jump out and wave their capes around (the bulls are attracted to the movement) so that the bull will charge at them, the idea is to confuse the bull. Once the bull is pretty confused, two matadors enter on horseback, and it is their job to stab the bull in an area right around the 'shoulder blade' area of the bull. Once that cut is deep enough, three new matadors come out, each with a set of little pokey things (obviously not the correct terminology) and stab them into the wound created previously. After this, the final matador enters with his red cape and sword and it is his job to kill the bull. The first bull that we saw die was killed immediately as the sword entered it. The second bull refused to die... It was honestly really sad because another matador came out to try to provoke the bull into standing and fighting again once it had been stuck with a sword the first time. What the helping matador did was stab the bulls forehead area approximately 17 times. It was absolutely excruciating to watch, and the crowd was going insane yelling at the bull to stand. I watched in amazement as the bull did try to stand, but finally one of the stabs did him in and he too keeled over. Sorry for the graphic-ness, but that is indeed what happened.
As I said before, we left after only two bulls because none of us felt the need to see any more bulls die. On the way home we all stopped at a Museo de Jamón. Yes, it was the second time Katie and I had been that day. Yes, I ordered the same thing. No, I do not regret it. All in all it was a pretty fun-filled weekend! We also had the sad realization that our time here in Spain really is dwindling.