"Alcohol may be man´s worst enemy, but the Bible says to love your enemy." -Frank Sinatra
I´ve been in Spain for five days, but it seems like much longer. Part of that may be because I´ve been so busy- museums, parks, historical sites, trains, sangria- but part of it is just culture shock. There are all these people here who look like waiguoren, but they don´t speak any language I understand! Add to that the fact that my Spanish is more like Spinglish, and I spend most of my time wandering about looking confused. Luckily my sister is a better linguist than me, and she keeps me from wandering down too many dark alleys.
We´re in Cordoba right now, in the heart of Andalucia, the southernmost province in Spain. It is disgustingly hot, but Hong Kong prepared me well and I´m able to get by with minimal misery. You would think that the buildings here would be built for heat, and they probably were originally. However, a lot of the Moorish architecture I´ve seen has been based on the open wall design, and modern day Spaniards tend to place higher priority on keeping their stuff intact than having a nice cross-breeze. Such a loss.
For example, today Darcy and I went to the Mezquita (the Great Mosque) of Cordoba. It was unspeakably beautiful- the first piece of architecture since the Great Wall to really take my breath away. In this case, it wasn´t the scale of the place as much as the smooth transition between the Muslim arches and the medieval cupolas, the Arabic script and the Catholic frescos. I know that the transition was not a peaceful one, and that the construction of the cathedral meant the destruction of dozens of beautiful columns, but the overall effect is still visually stunning.
Tomorrow I´m heading out to the archaeological dig of Rahman III´s tomb (or something- I´ll have to check the details), while my sister goes to some Moorish baths for a medieval-type massage. We´ll meet up for sangria before hitting up the old cathedral and the synagogue. Then it´s off to Granada for the next few days. I´ll post pictures when I get the chance.
Here are the long-awaited pictures from the Medina Azahara, Rahman III's palace complex north of Cordoba. I only got off a few shots before my camera broke, but the distance views give you some scope of just how amazing this place will be once they've finished the excavations... and they think they've only uncovered about 10% of the city so far!
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