Córdoba

So after having my mind blown in Sevilla, the weekend was just beginning. We hopped on a bus to Córdoba, and I was face to face with one of the most important sites on my must-see list in Spain. In reality the first night spent in Córdoba was more getting our bearings after arrival- but it's worth noting that we went out for tapas and this was where my friend Maddie first planted the idea of trying rabo de toro (bull's tail)- mind the foreshadowing here.

The day started out with an attempt at watching the sunrise over the great mosque. Which was in fact my idea, because I could have sworn that I had read that this was quite the site to see. The unfortunate part to this was that the great mosque is deep inside the city and can't really be seen because it's not terribly tall (part of it's charm) but so yes, we made a special trip to the river, on  a hazy morning when we likely would not have been able to see much of a sunrise anyway, buuuuuut on the bright side we did get to see the roman bridge. first thing in the morning.

Roman bridge

We then headed towards the great mosque after some much needed coffee (priorities). So quick history lesson on the great mosque, because the title is a little misleading. To begin with, the site used to be a pagan temple. This was then taken over by the visigoths and converted into a church. This structure was then mostly destroyed by the Moors and in it's place, the structure was converted into a mosque. This mosque kind of epitomized the notion of a work in progress, by which I mean that for 2 centuries this was being enlarged. What's neat about this though is that you can easily see the passage of time as the new sections were being added because there is a noticeable difference between the initial horseshoe arches from beginning to end- as i'll show in pictures, the later the arch was constructed, the more bowed the arches are. But so the final piece to the puzzle is that the great mosque is actually the mosque-cathedral. Because in true christian form here in Spain, the mosque was taken over by the catholic church and converted into what is now the cathedral in Córdoba. So what that means is that among all the historic, one of a kind, polychrome, double horseshoe arches, is a very elaborate catholic church, Which, albeit very impressive, kind of clashes with the whole restrained, austere, and understated feel of the Moorish portion of the structure.

In the courtyard of the Great Mosque

Example of some of the early arches

some of the later arches

This is pretty neat because as you look further in the distance you can see the arches starting to cave in more towards themselves

If you can believe it, this is inside the great mosque: if you're thinking that I've lost my marbles or am trying to pull a fast one on you, you can see in the bottom left-hand corner the iconic polychrome red and white double arches

The incredible Mihrab of the great mosque

The rest of the weekend was spent with stops in a neat little synagog and an old little early-gothic church that were both very cool, along with my trip to the fine arts museum in Córdoba, whose permanent collection was small but had a really cool temporary collection of letters that an artist wrote to friends with sketches on them- always a fan of some neat pen-work.

inside the synagog

The inside of the little early-gothic church

And finally, this is where it all comes full circle: bull's tail. The hostel that we were staying at that weekend happened to be right across from a flamenco bar. Which, after having experienced a flamenco show in Granada, was definitely something that I was up for experiencing again especially since I didn't know when the next time I would make it to the Andalusian region would be. So armed with an extremely tasty glass of sherry (from the region) I sat down with my friends to watch another flamenco show, and low and behold, there on the menu, basically begging to be tried was rabo de toro, and seeing as how the sherry was good, the show was about to be good, and you're only young and fearless in Spain once: we ordered the Bull's Tail. And I'm more than happy to go on the record as saying that, my fellow Americans, we have been missing out. I don't know which Spaniard decided that they should try eating a bull's tail, but I must admit that it was one of the best cuts of meat I've ever had. Put it on your list of things to try if and when you come to Spain.