Voila! Great Internet and More Ramblings on Cordoba
Okay, I finally scored, with some great Internet in Granada -- the guy running the joint didn't know anything about Unix, but was enthusiastic about seeing how I configured it to get my box on the net. Woo hoo!
Cordoba was interesting, but a bit too touristy for me. I mean, there was a constant stream of busloads of tourists diving into the amazing mosque/catherdral there, and it was almost a bit too much for me. Plus there was a huge fair going on, with bullfights and rides and dancing and all manner of fun.
That's nice, but it made it tough to find a place to stay, and tough to get anything done in town, as the museums (and Laundromats) closed at 2PM for siesta, but didn't reopen (as they usually do) at 5PM. If you didn't see it in the morning, you didn't see it. Bummer.
The mosque was definitely worth the trouble, though. It is an enormous building, perhaps 150m by 150m (apparently 23,000m^2 in area). The really weird part is that the Catholics, when they took over the town, built a Cathedral right in the middle of it.
You walk in, see this vast empty floor area, with 10m ceilings, and then there are the walls of the cathedral rising out of the middle of it. It is kind of a shame that they had to ruin such a cool ancient building by putting up the cathedral in the middle of it, but then again, the mosque was built on the site of an ancient basilica, so I suppose turnabout is sorta fair play.
It'd be worth it if the cathedral really rocked, but it was kinda mediocre.
The food in the town, though, was far from mediocre. They have a sort of very thick gazpacho made of tomato, garlic, and olive oil, called salmonroja that just rocked my world. The rest of it wasn't bad either. Plus there was plenty of Cruz Campos beer to wash it down -- much preferable to the far too thin Mahoa that is ubiquitous throughout the parts of Spain we've been through.
Hopefully Granada will be fun, too.
Cordoba was interesting, but a bit too touristy for me. I mean, there was a constant stream of busloads of tourists diving into the amazing mosque/catherdral there, and it was almost a bit too much for me. Plus there was a huge fair going on, with bullfights and rides and dancing and all manner of fun.
That's nice, but it made it tough to find a place to stay, and tough to get anything done in town, as the museums (and Laundromats) closed at 2PM for siesta, but didn't reopen (as they usually do) at 5PM. If you didn't see it in the morning, you didn't see it. Bummer.
The mosque was definitely worth the trouble, though. It is an enormous building, perhaps 150m by 150m (apparently 23,000m^2 in area). The really weird part is that the Catholics, when they took over the town, built a Cathedral right in the middle of it.
You walk in, see this vast empty floor area, with 10m ceilings, and then there are the walls of the cathedral rising out of the middle of it. It is kind of a shame that they had to ruin such a cool ancient building by putting up the cathedral in the middle of it, but then again, the mosque was built on the site of an ancient basilica, so I suppose turnabout is sorta fair play.
It'd be worth it if the cathedral really rocked, but it was kinda mediocre.
The food in the town, though, was far from mediocre. They have a sort of very thick gazpacho made of tomato, garlic, and olive oil, called salmonroja that just rocked my world. The rest of it wasn't bad either. Plus there was plenty of Cruz Campos beer to wash it down -- much preferable to the far too thin Mahoa that is ubiquitous throughout the parts of Spain we've been through.
Hopefully Granada will be fun, too.
posted by K at
11:52 AM
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