Hello All,

Sorry for the lack of recent updates! Things have been really busy with traveling, and I haven´t had much opportunity to sit down and write things out.

Since my last update, almost a month ago, a lot has happened; traveled to Cordoba, went to Morocco, Mom and Bri visited, visited Portugal, and last weekend went to Jerez and Cadiz. I’ve split the updates by country/city…You can click on them on the right:

Visit here for more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/kkiss7

sorry for the long-winded posts, once you start you just can’t stop! I doubt that you will read the whole thing, I wouldn’t haha, but I figured this blog is just as much for me to read later as it is for you to read now.

Things are good, I’ve been enjoying a weekend in Granada for the first time in weeks, and have taken advantage of sleeping in and doing some work. On Friday night I went to my first movie here in Granada, we saw the Oreido Express, which was really good, rather surrealist, and I actually understood a lot more than I had thought I would. Later that night we went to a few bars and had fun dancing. Yesterday a friend and I went to Casa de los Tires, a museum that had some Frederico García Lorca letters, early works etc. which was fun to see considering I really need to start working on that paper… That night we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, or at least the Spanish interpretation of one, and I called it an earlier night, coming home at 12:30 and watched an episode of entourage from an illegal Korean website.

I’ve been trying to avoid American movies/tv-shows (well I watch house, but in Spanish) but I figured you need a little American break every once-and a while, and show about 4 ridiculous American guys living ridiculous lives in Hollywood is as good as any other.

This past week has been pretty good, I wrote my first 11 page Spanish paper on the intellectual heritage in Islam and censorship, went volunteering, and hung out a bit with Lilia (host mom). It’s gotten really cold, and considering there is no heat in our apartment, sans a few space heaters, I’ve been taking advantage of my warm down-comforter bed. I think I’m going to get some boots because it’s getting a lot colder, and when the five-year old Spanish kids are even more fashionable than you with their little boots, it’s time for some action.

Hope all is well with everyone, I can’t believe next week is Thanksgiving! It’s the first Thanksgiving that I won’t be home, and though I am disappointed to miss both the family and friends’ dinners (who’s going to bring the salad?) I think the IES dinner will also be fun.

Besos,

Katica

Portugal

Portugal

The day my Mom was leaving and I was also leaving for Portugal, so I couldn’t see her off. After a frenzied day of classes, a visit to a Mezquita, and the Alhambra for class, Sydney, Emme, Angie, Sahar (we met up the Rika and Dan later) and I caught a bus to Málaga so we could catch a flight the next day.

Let me first start that Portugal has been high on my to-visit list for a while, I’ve heard tons of praise and I was really excited for this trip because I was going to a wonderful country with a group of really fun and sweet people.

We arrived to Málaga, and a friend of Angie’s picked us up with his friend to drive us to the hostel. They were very sweet, waited for us to drop everything off and then brought us into the center. Ironically enough, they brought us to Pimpi, a popular Málagan restaurant we had visited with IES. We were actually in the same room as before, but instead a group of 70 loud Americans, we were with 70 even louder Spaniards. We had a good time, tasted some of the famous Málaga “agua” and went back to the hostel.

The next morning we took a flight to Madrid, hung out in the Madrid airport for a few hours and caught a plane into Lisboa. Haha, it’s funny re-living this as I think about it, but some of the girls wanted to get the Lisboa stamp on our airports so asked an airport attendant where we could get that. They kept insisting that it was not necessary, while the girls were insisting that they just wanted a little stamp…eventually two of the workers brought us on a walk to another building, shaking their heads as to why we wanted the damn stamp. Turned out the place was closed, and we left stampless and said good-bye to two amused Portuguese airport attendants.

Kind of a random story, I know, but it’s just such a perfect example of the European (or at least Spanish/Portuguese) system. They make us go through all these hops to get our official papers, return 5 times to an office that is only open from 10-12 and closes for smoking breaks, and after all that back and forth, the papers are never even asked for again later.

Anyway, we took a bus from the airport to Rossio plaza, right in the heart of Lisboa. Dropped our stuff off at the hostel, and took a walk around the city including walking up to the elevator where you can see the whole skyline with lights- beautiful. Walked around a bit more (were very excited when we discovered that Lisboa had an H&M) and grabbed a cab to go to a restaurant for dinner and a Fado show.

After months of non-friendly Spanish restaurant service, this restaurant was such a nice welcome. I’m guessing that the couple owns the restaurant, they were so sweet, kept coming over to us, you could hear everyone yelling and bagging pans in the kitchen, and the woman even sang Fado for a bit as well. There was another younger male singer (also the waiter) and another older women who was introduced to as a famous/important Fado figure. The show was really good, very powerful voices, and we had some yummy Portuguese food (fish of course for me).

The next day we traveled to Sintra, about an hour outside of the city. I think from the moment we started walking around, we all fell in love with Sintra. Even thought it’s a relatively small place, there is just so much to do, so many castles and museums, restaurants and cute cafes. When walking into the town, which is tucked inside a mountain, there is a huge garden in the cliffs and modern art along the pathway.

We went to the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, which was really pretty and had lots of cool stories. It was where the Royal family lived, even when the Muslims took over, and there was even one room where the King imprisoned his brother. I also really liked the kitchen that has two cones for a roof and is still used to this day in important government functions.

Afterwards we bought some roasted chestnuts (a new favorite, and you can’t resist singing the song) and wandered over to Quinta de Regaleira. This place was incredible, completely fantastical and surreal and like a playground for adults. The owner worked really closely with an the Italian architect Luigi Manini that for the beginning part of his career was a stage designer, and it really shows. Everything was super creative, elaborate and ornate… the library had a mirrored floor so it looked like you were going to fall into a sea of books, and the stairwell was like a slide. However, the best part was the gardens. There were towers, grottos, statues, sacrificial groves, bridges.. all kinds of things to explore. We left to grab lunch (which took forever) and returned later so we could explore properly.

The descriptions and explanations of the architecture, including that of the gardens, was also incredibly bizarre and funny. It talked about a place in the gardens to “criticize the accent of your consciousness” and all other kinds of mythological and strange/mystic phrases.

Afterwards we grabbed some famous Sintra pastries, which had an apple filling and were incredible. Amazing- I have never had as many good pastries as I have had in Portugal.

We took the train back that night, hung around in the hostel for a bit and then went out to Bairro Alto to grab Indian food, yumm. Bairro Alto is where a lot of the bars are, and the street was just hopping with people, a really fun part of the town. We got back to the hostel and then went out to a few bars with other people in the hostel, and had a really fun night dancing.

The next day was declared explore Lisboa day- so we played tourist all day. We visited Alfama, went to the castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge), and the Cathedral (Sé de Lisboa) and walked around the small streets. Then, we went to back to the center, and visited an old church that has since been converted into an archeological museum. This was one of my favorite places because the roof of the church was unfortunately destroyed in Lisboa’s large earthquake, but now the stone frames are left and open straight to the sky. It was a beautiful day, so I loved this inside/outside church with grass growing inside.

Then we grabbed some lunch for later (fruit, bread, salad etc) and took the tram to Belém, the seafront part of the city. We first visited the Mosteiro Dos Jerónminos (Monastery) that was beautiful and had an inner court yard that looked the West Minster Abby and the scariest Jesus on the cross I have ever seen.

We ate lunch at the public gardens where they had music coming from the loudspeakers. We then walked over the Torre de Belém, and half-way there realizing they were 5 min. from closing started running. We got there right when they were shutting the doors, and the attendant, so corrupt, said they people could come in for 15 euros for 15 minutes. We decided the torre wasn’t that large anyway and instead hung out by the water for sunset.

It was such a beautiful day, and there were so many people out just walking around and enjoying the view. One of my friends made the good point that being surrounded by so much water and seeing that never-ending ocean is such an inspiration to explore. You really could imagine being in Lisboa, waiting for the ships to come in and out of the harbor, coming back with all these tales of these exotic places they’ve been to. As Americans, we hear all about the “discovery of America” and the expansions, but it was really cool to be on the other side, to see what inspired that motivation and for me, if anything, it would be shear curiosity to find out what is at the end of the never-ending blue line.

Then, saving the best (or at least most delicious) part for last, we stopped at Pasteis de Belém, the famous pastry shop. I had expected a quaint little pastry shop, perhaps with a few tables in the back. But oh my god. This place was a living monument to the famed pastries that look like little custard tarts. The line was out the door, and so while some of the girls were in line, I went into the bathroom and to look at the restaurant. There were a bazillion rooms, one room where you could see them making the pastries, and the only thing on the menu are drinks and the pastries. You don’t need anything else.

We all bought a few, and wished that we could eat 20 more. They were amazing, even better with a bit of cinnamon and then went back to the hostel. We hung out in the hostel for a bit, I attempted to sign up for some classes for next semester and then we went out to get a few drinks and some fun. We had an early flight the next day, so grabbed a cab and headed for the airport- everything worked out fine despite some line mix-ups and we got to Barcelona, caught our flight to Málaga and then took the three hour bus ride back to Granada.

There is always such a let-down after a trip, all the excitement of a new place, but coming back to Granada was such a nice break from the jam-packed weeks I had before. I was exhausted, and even though I normally have trouble sleeping on planes and busses fell asleep the whole ride, waking up intermittently so we could catch the next flight etc. Overall, we had so much fun, laughed a lot, met some great people, didn’t get lost, and even though three days was not enough time, still felt like we got a good taste of what Lisboa had to offer – which is a lot, and includes some damn good pastries : )

On top of the elevator

Sintra












Royal Palace




































La Quinta















They are.. criticizing the accent of their consciousness?

Mom and Bri visit

Mom and Bri Visit

The day I got back from Morocco my Mom and Bri visited, but since I got home later we didn’t meet up until the next day for breakfast. Walking into the café on Gran Via and seeing my mom and Bri sitting at a table was so surreal, it’s always such a strange thing when different worlds collide, but it was so great to have them here. They stayed together in the same hotel room, and explored the city while I was in class, and then we would meet up later for lunch, or go to the Alhambra etc.

Isn’t it sad that you don’t really explore your home city until you have visitors come? I have to admit I hadn’t visited some places of the Alhambra (I went to some other parts already) since the time I visited 5 years ago. Anyway, the girls had tickets for the generalife (gardens) and the alcazaba (military fortress) and then we met up in the Nazari Palaces. Since my entrance was an hour before theirs, I waited inside the palace in the first room for an hour and tourist-watched. There were so many tours from all over the world, one minute a group of Korean tourists all wearing the same bright blue shirt would come, two minutes later 30 Dutch blond/blue-eyed tourists invaded. I think I probably heard about 20 different languages in about an hour.

The palace, (which I just recently re-visited at night, a completely different experience) is amazing. The ornamentation is so intricate, and it must have been amazing back in the day when the colors were still vibrant, had rugs, furniture, incense. Sort of wish I was one of the royal wives, but not a concubine thank you very much.

I tried to show them the life of an average student, so I brought them to meet some friends for tapas in Albert Einstein, and later we went to a bar that had a flamenco night. The dancers and singers were really young and bohemian, and we had a lot of fun.

Over the weekend we went to Seville since Bri was leaving from there to fly back to Italy. We revisited basically the trip I had done earlier, but it’s always fun to return and actually know a bit about what you are looking at. (And we bought some of the Seville pastries I wasn’t able to buy last time). One weird thing was that as usual, on Saturday there were a million weddings. We were leaving a park to catch the bus and saw one bride taking photos, she was really striking and I loved her dress. Anyway, 5 hours later that night, when my mom and I were back in her hotel in Granada we saw that same bride, she was having the reception in the hotel – small world, or at least Small Spain.

That week I had three midterms, so I normally stayed at my mom’s hotel to spend time with her and because it’s closer to the center than my apartment. And of course, I took advantage of the free hot water (15 minute hot showers!) and even splurged on a nice long bath. : )

My Mom(s) (Hungarian and Spanish) wanted to meet, so my mom and I invited Lilia and Valentina to get a drink. Lilia invited her into the apartment, so I brought my Mom up with me, thinking she would get a tour and then we would go a nearby bar. Well, when we got there Lilia had bought Spanish wine, jamón, cheese, olives… the whole Spanish spread. It was so sweet and they really seemed to like each other. I played translator, which is always a head-spin, but it was good they could meet each other.

It was fun showing my Mom around, especially since I’ve really come to love living in Granada, but it also made me realize how much I’m starting to grow-up. Whenever I normally travel with my family, my parents are the ones who plan things (with my input), make sure we know where we are going and often translate if we are in Hungary or French speaking country. But this time, I was the one translating, showing her my favorite places, suggesting itineraries, and though she was on her own a lot and had no problems, I still felt a dynamic shift.

I'm also really looking forward to visiting Bri in Florence. It was so fun to see people in their new worlds. I'm sad that meeting up w/GW people hasn't really worked out, but it's so hard to figure out travel schedules when everyone else is literally in their own country and own schedule.

Alhambra

Alcazar

Isn't she cute?

Seville

Granada, Paseo de los tristes

Isn't she cute?

Aren't we cute?

Maurreco

Morocco

The weekend after cordoba, we went to Morocco which was just an incredibly impressionable trip. I´m including our iteinary below, but it was really packed of activities and opportunities to talk with Moroccan students and such. I like that the trip wasn´t just a tourist visit, but that we lived with Moroccan families and had real one on one interactions with the people there.

We began our trip by first staying in Gibraltar, which was a completely bizarre city. It’s a British territory on the Spanish coast, the people speak a gibberish mix of Spanish and English, and they use both the euro and the pound. There are British pubs right next to tapas bars and we went a bit crazy buying British chocolate because it was so good. We took a bus tour to the top of the Gibraltar rock and visited the cave and feed some of the monkeys that live up there. They were obviously very used to tourists, but there was a baby monkey that was soo cute and they were all jumping on the cars and running around. That night we had fish and chips and hard cider, at a local pub. However, overall I felt really confused in Gibraltar. I have heard there is some sense of culture shock once you return from abroad, and I think it´s going to feel a lot like that. Though, don´t get me wrong, I’m guilty of speaking English with other people in my program, it was so strange to hear so much of it around me. I would walk into a store and talk to the attendant in Spanish, and they would respond in English and with a complete British accent. After dinner we walked across the border ¨back to Spain¨ which was where our hotel was. The border is actually the landing strip of the airport, so when planes are arriving you can´t cross the border.

The next day we got onto a boat and crossed the Gibraltar straight, arriving in Tánger. Right away after getting of the boat, you could tell this was a completely different place. I find that lot of times once you arrive in another country; it’s more of a transitory process. Airports, train stations etc. all look the same, and as you venture out to the city or outside is when you start to see the more genuine culture. Not in Morocco. You get off and there are people dressed in full hijab and traditional clothing, standing right next to people wearing very western clothing. The signs are all in Arabic, french, english and spanish and it´s just very chaotic. In ceuta, which is still considered a Spanish territory (isn´t amazing to think that the Spanish border is actually on another continent??) they speak spanish, but every where else it´s Moroccan Arabic, French and some people speak English.

We went through the town, visited the market which had beautiful spice stores with rows and rows of all kinds of spices and lots of fresh fruit stands. We then visited a woman’s center where we talked with Moroccan students (who turned out to be a couple and were getting married next year) about their experiences. It´s always a bit awkward starting these kinds of conversations in such a big group, but there input was very interesting. I think overall they were very honest with us, but I think they were very clear about emphasizing the tolerance, acceptance etc in Moroccan culture. I think in this trip, as is to be expected, there are a lot of defensive attitudes,, where people are more interested in trying to break a stereotype than really discuss the issue.

Anyway, they showed us the center which seemed to be a really great organization. They have classes to help the women develop computer skills, sewing, etc and they have their own handicraft store and theatre. They fed us lunch which was amazing vegetable couscous and of course invited us to the famed Moroccan mint tea, that is super sweet but really good.

We then got back on the bus and started the four hour drive to Rabat. Most of us fell asleep along the way, but woke up to a really nice surprise. All of the sudden, the driver pulled to the side of the road and on our right, right along the banks of the river was a heard of about ten camels. We got to ride the camels, which as really fun. I´ve ridden a camel before, but a ten minute ride at the DC zoo is really not the same as a riding a camel named Fatimah while on the banks of a river in Northwest Morocco. After lots of pictures, we got back on the bus and drove to Rabat.

Once we arrived in Rábat, our ¨host mom¨ escorted us to where we were staying. She was very sweet, but only spoke Arabic and a bit of French, so it was difficult to communicate with her. We met her husband (who was about 40 years older, so we thought at first he was her father) and had dinner in the kitchen. It was interesting trying to communicate with the two of them, but between hand motions, lots of pointing and smiling, and us trying to speak some version of French with Spanish we were all right. We had hoops (bread) and pasta for dinner. To be honest, there were times that were very awkward because we weren’t sure what to do, but once the sister arrived home, she spoke English, things were a bit easier.

We found out that the mom was a bread baker and that the guy was her father. They introduced us to some other family members, an aunt and cousin, and the bakery assistants that live with them. There were always people coming in and out, the concept of privacy seems to be an impossible and foreign concept. You would eat in the kitchen at the same time as people sleeping on couches in the same room, the TV would be on, the mother would be yelling to warm water for the tea… it was all pretty crazy but fun.

The next day we started the morning with a conversation with four Moroccan students. We were supposed to talk about “Stereotypes” but the conversation went in a lot of directions and was really interesting. One thing that particularly stood out to me was when the students were talking about the freedom of speech in their country. We were telling them about the peace protests in DC against the war, and they were all very surprised that the protestors didn’t get in trouble. Although morocco is considered a constitutional democracy, the king has the highest and final say, and citizens can not criticize him or “his” government. Some of the students seemed to openly agree with this, while one was pretty adamant about saying that they should have the right to criticize, something that if he said publicly could have landed him in prison.

We also talked a lot about the role of education in Morocco, and how so many students are trying to leave the country for school. They were saying that since Morocco only gained its independence from France in 1956, there is still a lot of struggles in becoming a democracy and still maintain its Islamic tradition. My overall impression of Morocco was that it’s full of contradictions- it’s a democracy with an unquestionable King, Islamic state that has both very fundamentalist and liberal Muslims, and the elites are both extremely proud of being Moroccan but just dying to get out.

After the conversation, we went into tourist mood and visited a few monuments, including las ruinas romanas de Chellah, el Mausoleo Hassan II y la Mezquita Mayor. In the roman ruins, there was a pond with eels and an old lady with about 50 cats stays there. For a couple dirham, women buy eggs from the lady and feed them to the eels for fertility. Even though a bit hesitant, we eventually fed the eels and hoped that it was just another Moroccan suspicion (I’m writing this four weeks later and still baby-free, phew!

The Mausoleo was also interesting, another reminder of how important the royal family is in Morocco. Right next to the mausoleo, was the Mezquita Mayor, which is technically the only Mezquita that I, as a non-muslim, can enter in Morocco. It was actually intended to be the largest Mezquita in the world, but after an earthquake it was ruined and they never continued with building it. All that’s left are the capitals but you can still see how incredibly huge the Mezquita (mosque) was intended to be.

After that, we went home for lunch and had some more wonderful vegetable couscous. We met the grandmother, who was an incredibly striking woman and had tattoos on her forehead, I’m not quite sure what that was about. They were very sweet and everyone ate the couscous from a big plate in the middle. Apparently, though the food is communal, there are still important food rules to keep in mind. You can only eat the part right in front of you, and you never never eat or pass with your left hand. The grandmother and mother also showed us how to role couscous balls with just one hand (well I tried to do it, it was very hard) and of course we had plenty of Moroccan tea.

Later we walked to the beach and then met some students to walk around Rábat and the market. I like the two students we met, who were from the city across the bridge and were both translation students. The linguistic abilities of Moroccans is amazing, everyone speaks at least two or three languages, and they seems to have a real talent of learning more. One of the guys said he’s only been speaking English for a few years, and he was incredibly fluent. He knew all about American music, and was a big Nirvana fan so we bonded over that. They brought us to the market and helped us bargain down some deals.

Though both were relatively liberal Muslims, they both had girlfriends, one of the guys really surprised me. He was very open with how liberal he was, and told us that he smoked pot, and smoked hookah with wine and a lot of other things that were prohibited. I didn’t have that many expectations going into Morocco, but I was really taken aback about how such openly liberal and extremely conservative Muslims co-existed. The other guy was much more religious, prayed 5 times a day and we asked him if it bothered him that his friend was so liberal. He was a bit taken aback, as if we asked did he mind that his friend had a different flavor ice-cream, and told us it made no difference at all. I wonder if that’s really true.

That night we went to the Hamam, which was one of my favorite experiences. The hamams are the public baths, well really vapor rooms, that everyone goes to about once a week. We were a bit nervous as to what to expect, bought kishes (scrubs) to wash ourselves, and went with our host sister, host mom and host grandmother. I have to say though, it felt amazing. The room was really hot and we rented big buckets to pour hot water in and really enjoyed ourselves. The other women were really sweet, and complete strangers gave some of the girls rub-downs and gave us mud to use. I thought it was interesting how something totally foreign, a public, semi-nude (we wore underwear bottoms) public washing could so quickly become totally comfortable.

Afterwards we went to talk to a Fulbright scholar who is doing research in Morocco. She was really nice and gave some good insight, and now I really would like to try to get a Fulbright or some kind of research grant as a gap year between going to grad-school. She was really passionate about her research, she was researching educational systems in morocco, and knew about AIESEC which was pretty cool.

Though I loved the hamam, I have to say my favorite memory in Morocco was waking up to hear the 5 am oration. I can’t even describe how it sounds, almost eerie, but unlike anything I have ever heard before. The first time it took me some time to register that it was the call to prayer, I just remember waking up to a completely silent city with this ethereal music/noise in the background. My friend has a recording of the imam (orator) that I’m going to copy, but it certainly won’t be the same.

The next day we left Rabat, drove by the shantytowns, stopped in a small, poor town in the Rif mountains and then arrived in chefchaoun. Driving by the shanty-towns was really sad, they are right outside of the city just like they were in Capetown, and it’s just such desperate conditions. In contrast to the city poor, the rural poor were really different. They told us that the rif mountains has a lot of hashish growing, because it’s such a cash crop, but that the government doesn’t do all that much about it. We stopped to have lunch with a rural family, who we talked to with a translator (who turned out be an NYC cab driver). That night we drove to Chefchaoun, a beautiful town in the mountains that had these amazing blue-washed walls (they even sold the blue paint pigment). Did some shopping there, went out to dinner and went out for hookah with some of the Moroccan student-tour guides. The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise, and left soon after to drive to the port to catch the boat back to Spain.

Going to Morocco was an amazing experience, a place that I would have been much more hesitant to visit on my own, and it was so valuable to spend so much time just talking to Moroccans and see how they really live. And.. I now can add a few Arabic words to my vocabulary, in particular bread (hopps), zween (good/pretty), shukran (thank you), salam uaalikum, waalikum salam ( hello, peace be upon you), and my personal favorite: hashak (excuse my dirt which is responded with aazk llah ‘may god grant you pride and honor’). Very valuable.

Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Algeciras

Algeciras


















Rabat, Roman Ruins


















Rabat




























Us with our host family














Rif Mountains






















Chefchaouen









Itinerary:

Viernes 19 de octubre GRANADA - LA LÍNEA - GIBRALTAR

10:30 Salida de Granada

13:30 Llegada a La Línea: Hotel AC La Línea

15:00 Visita guiada a Gibraltar

Tarde y noche Gibraltar (opcional y libre)

Sábado, 20 de octubre ALGECIRAS - TÁNGER – ASILAH - RABAT

7:15 Desayuno en el hotel

7:45 Salida para la Estación Marítima de Algeciras

9:00 Travesía del Estrecho de Gibraltar de Algeciras a Tánger

Mañana:

- Conversación “Cultural diversity in Morocco” con el Profesor Ali Azeriah y estudiantes de L’Ecole Superior de Traduction de Tánger

- Visita a Centro para Mujeres Darna en Tánger

Tarde:

- Traslado a Asilah y paseo por la Medina

- Comida en un restaurante junto a las murallas

- Traslado a Rabat (3 horas)

Noche:

- Encuentro con las familias (Dos o tres estudiantes se quedarán con cada familia)

- Cena con las familias

- Posible paseo por la Medina de Rabat en grupos pequeños

Domingo, 21 de octubre RABAT

Mañana:

- Desayuno

- Presentación y debate:

“West and Arab worlds - images about each other” con el Profesor Zaki

- Visita de las ruinas romanas de Chellah, el Mausoleo Hassan II y la Mezquita Mayor

Tarde:

- Comida con las familias

- Paseo por la Kasbah, la playa y el Mercado de la Medina en grupos pequeños formados por estudiantes de IES y estudiantes marroquíes de la Universidad de Rabat

Noche:

- OPCIONAL:Conversación con becarios Fulbright y voluntarios del Peace Corps

- Cena con las familias en la Medina

- Tiempo libre. Posibilidades: Hammam, compras, paseos, tiempo con las familias

Lunes, 22 de octubre RABAT – MONTAÑAS DEL RIF - CHEFCHAOUEN

Mañana:

- Traslado a Akchour, en las Montañas del Rif cruzando áreas rurales de Marruecos (3 horas y media)

- Paseo por un valle en las Montañas del Rif

Tarde:

- Picnic y tiempo libre

- Conversación con familias del Rif

- Traslado a Chefchaouen (30 minutos)

- Paseo guiado por la Medina de Chefchaouen

- Llegada al Hotel (Hostal Andaluz/Hostal Yasmina)

Noche:

- Tiempo libre para explorar la Medina de Chefchaouen

- Cena en un restaurante en la Medina

Martes, 23 de octubre CHEFCHAOUEN - CEUTA – ALGECIRAS - GRANADA

Mañana:

- Ruta a pie hasta un monte en las afueras de Chefchaouen

- Traslado a Ceuta (2 horas)

- Desayuno por el camino

- Cruce de la frontera de Marruecos a España en Ceuta

Tarde:

- Travesía del Estrecho de Gibraltar de Ceuta a Algeciras (llegada a las 15:30)

- Traslado en autobús de Algeciras a Granada (llegada hacia las 19:30)

Cordoba

Cordoba

I was really looking forward to this trip because I remember loving Cordoba the first time that I visited. We left early on a Saturday morning, and first drove to Medina Alzarat, a small city outside of Cordoba that was built by the Muslims. All that´s left of the city is basically archeological remains, and though it seems extensive, is only like 10 percent of what was there. It was still really beautiful, and I sometimes like incomplete remains better because you have to imagine how it once was in its prime.

The mezquita in the medina (which means city in Arabic) is particularly interesting because it was the first Mezquita built in Spain that actually is correctly oriented towards Mecca. I think it´s so interesting that the mihrab (i only know the spanish versions of these Arabic words, sorry) is calculated to orient towards Mecca. However, in the first cities, like the Mezquita in Cordoba which is much older, they didn´t have the proper calculations and is misoriented. Apparently, the funny thing is, they actually figured this out pretty early but decided not to change it anyway.

From the Medina, we drove to Cordoba to visit the Mezquita which is just incredible. first we went to lunch and sample salmorenja, which is basically gazpacho with eggs and ham which is a specialty of Cordoba. It was in my mind a mix between gazpacho and lecho, a Hungarian dish that I really like, so I was a big fan.

We then went into the Mezquita, which has been one of my favorite places this trip. The mezquita is complete symbol of cultural interaction, and how one culture feeds into another. There are roman ruins, Muslim mosque , and a catholic cathedral all integrated into one building. It´s very dark when you first enter, but right away you just see rows and rows of the iconic red and white horseshoe arches that just feed into one another forever. In the center is the mihrab, which is so ornate and complex, and lots of really detailed coranic scriptures and ornamentation. It´s a bit bizarre that adjacent to that is this ornate cathedral, literally right in the middle, but somehow it all works.

I really enjoy going on these trips with out Profe Lupe, because you learn so much more than just being a normal tourist. She showed us the signatures of some of the builders that are inscribed throughout the walls, and all about the different amplifications and how the mezquita had evolved. I later did my art history paper on the quibla wall, and the mihrab because I liked it so much. I wanted to bring my mom and bri there when they visited, but we didn´t have time, oh well.

Check out the photos of my recent travels:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kkiss7

Love,
Katica