Wow it's so hard to keep up writing on this thing. There's so much I have to talk about! Well for starters I just got back from a trip to Sevilla this weekend, which was the first independent overnight trip I've taken with friends! We stayed in a hostel that was within walking distance of the Real Alcazar (where the spanish kings and queens use to live, though very much not like a normal palace because everything was in the mudejar--the mudejars were moors permitted to live in Spain after the Reconquista by the Catholics-- style), and la Catedral, which was really fun and brought back memories of summer camp (all six of us in one room with three bunk beds). We took a day trip out to Cordoba on Saturday pretty much just to see La Mezquita. That place was incredible. Its construction began in the 8th century while the Moors dominated Spain and underwent 4 or 5 expansions over the course of the next several 100 years. But after the Catholics gained control of Spain they converted the Muslim ezquita into a Catholic cathedral. So you enter and are surrounded by moorish architecture and hundreds of their iconic arcs, but while walking around you come across chapels and Chrisitan paintings. It's the most unusal thing ever. Luckily my camera is ancient and didn't buy a new one before going on the trip, so I only took about 5 really crappy pictures inside la mezquita... I'm definitely planning on stealing photos from my friends. I should load the ones I did take on here but my camera is way across the other side of the room and I'm nice and cozy snuggled up on my bed right now...
As for this weekend I'm planning on staying in Barcelona to do whatever sight-seeing I haven't done here. I still haven't seen the inside of the Sagrada Familia yet, and I really want to go to the old little theme park called Tibidabo up on the top of the mountains overlooking Barcelona, so maybe I'll get to do one of those. If not, I've got a list of places to explore that my host, Esther, mentioned to me. The weekend before last I walked for over 3 hours listening to my ipod and enjoying the city. I love long walks :)
Take care, everyone!
