(+) 1 tapa: Córdoba
Saturday night, after finishing finals, Susi and I took the redeye bus to Córdoba. It took about 5 hours, so we arrived around 6am. Because of this, we walked over to the closest park and took a nap until the city actually woke up. We walked over to “Old Town”, which is actually the only part of the city which is historically preserved. The rest of Córdoba is modern and completely normal. I think it’s funny because the Jewish quarter of Old Town is called “la Judería”, which makes it seem like a business where they make Jews (like a panadería – a bakery, a pastelería – a pastry bakery, a zapatería – a shoe store, etc). Anyway, while we were in Córdoba we visited all of the Jew quarter, the synagogue, the mosque (la Mezquita, which is now a Roman Catholic cathedral), and the Alcázar. We also went to a restaurant that Rick Steves recommended, and it turned out to be pure shit. That was the last time we took food advice from him.
One of the many fountains inside the Alcazar.
I think this is my best shot of the arches and columns inside the Mezquita.(+) 3 tapas: Sevilla
Sevilla was AWESOME. After braving the pouring rain in Córdoba, Susi and I hopped on a bus to Sevilla and got there around 8pm, when Susi’s friend Juan Ignacio picked us up from the bus station. He took us back to his house, just outside of Sevilla, and we got to stay in his guest house! We met his amazing parents, and his younger brother, and ate some delicious food. The highlight of Sevilla was probably all the amazing food we ate, both while we were out and the food his parents fed us for dinner. Our host dad even made us the most gigantic vat of scrumptious paella!!! Everything we ate in Sevilla was incredible, it was definitely nice having the insiders tour of Sevilla. Since we were staying there for 3 days, we were able to take our time with the sites. Each day we would go see something, go eat delicious food, then go home and take a nap. We saw the cathedral, the Alcázar and its gardens, Italica (ancient ruins outside of Sevilla), Plaza España, and pretty much all of Sevilla. Juan Ignacio’s friend also acted like a tour guide to us because he knew so much about Sevilla’s history that we basically got our own private tour of everything. It was beautiful and we ate really well, so Susi and I loved it!
The cathedral, view from about half way up the tower.
Inside the Alcazar.
Ancient coliseum inside Italica, ruins outside Sevilla.
Me, Jose Alberto (our 'tour guide') and Susi in the Plaza Espana.(+) 1 tapa: Olhão
After Sevilla we took another redeye bus over to the Algarve. We ended up staying with this crazy guy named Hugo who has been a member of CouchSurfing.com for 2.5 years. In those 2.5 years he has hosted over 200 PEOPLE!! That pretty much means he only has a couple days to himself every month. Anyway, that day we went to Ilha Farol which is one of the islands off of the coast of Olhão. We got there kind of late but it was beautiful and it seemed like we had our own private beach. We were enjoying it until we got cold and had to wait an hour for the last ferry back to the mainland, but we managed to pass the time by my reading out loud to Susi from the book Blink. That night Hugo took us, and the two other couchsurfers who were simultaneously staying with him, to this restaurant only a stone’s throw away from the ocean. It was delicious seafood, as Olhão is mainly an old fisherman’s town. The next day Susi and I walked around town and then left mid-afternoon for Lisboa.
Sunsetting, looking out towards the islands from Olhao.(+) 4 tapas: Lisboa!!
For our 4 nights in Lisboa Susi and I stayed in the apartment of these guys from Couchsurfing.com. Only one of them was home for the weekend though, but we didn’t really see him much either. On our first day in Lisboa we walked around our neighborhood, the Alfama, which is the old Arabic quarter of the city. We went to the bakery for breakfast and experienced our first god bread: sweet bread baked with coconut shavings and powdered sugar on top. We saw the Sé, which is the old, large cathedral, chanced upon a farmer’s market/street fair, saw the pantheon, and then walked into downtown. Afterwards we took the bus over to Belém and saw the Jéronimos Monastery, as well as the Tower of Belém. After missing the last tour for the Tower, we ended up crossing the street to get some delicious Pasteis de Belém, which is basically a puff pastry filled with custard and topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. DELISH.
Tower of Belem.The next day we took a daytrip to Sintra, a UNESCO world heritage site. We took a bus from Sintra to the nearby town of São Pedro where there was a huge farmer’s market going on, and we bought a giant loaf of god bread for the next day, and then made ourselves sandwiches with fresh bread, fresh cheese, and dried figs from the market. We took the bus back to Sintra which was so fun. The streets in Sintra are super narrow, and the city is on a hill, but this didn’t phase any of the bus drivers. Instead, they tore down the hill on these huge busses, making it feel like a really unsafe but fun rollercoaster! Back in town we walked around a little bit, saw the Palace of Sintra which is actually pretty unimpressive, and then took a tour bus around to see some other sites. The tour bus (another awesome rollercoaster ride) took us up to the Castle of the Moors. This castle was really cool because it’s built into the hillside and has beautiful views of Sintra. You can’t even see the castle because the walls are all stone, but covered in ivy and moss, blending in to the mountain. After, we caught the bus up to the Palace de Pena, where we ended up missing the last tour by 5 minutes, AGAIN. So we ended up taking the train back to Lisboa to eat and sleep.
Archway in the Castle of the Moors.Our final full day, Susi and I took another daytrip to Cascais, a beautiful beach town just outside of Lisboa. There, Susi and I managed to get our hands on our first Indian food since being in Europe, and ate it on the beach. The food was so good, and it really had me missing Bombay Garden back at home. We stayed on this tiny beach for the rest of the day, laying out, relaxing, and swimming in the freezing cold water. It was wonderful to have such a relaxing day after spending the previous 9 days walking around sight-seeing in every city, non-stop. That night we returned to Lisboa and one of the roommates had come home from his backpacking trip, so we cooked dinner with the two guys in the apartment. We had a lot of fun with them, and we learned about a lot of new music as well as new things about Portuguese culture.
Beach in Cascais. Its actually beautiful, minus the row of cigarette butts left by the high tide and the swarm of locusts over the water we were swimming in.
Our last day we went to Belém again to get more pastries!! Then we went straight from there to the airport. We had amassed 7 bottles of wine on this trip (1 for each of us from our host dad in Sevilla, 2 bottles in Olhão, Susi’s 2 bottles of Porto, and my 1 bottle of Ginja – a cherry liquor with actual fruit inside the bottle). We ended up wrapping these bottles up in towels and the Asterix sheets Susi had acquired, and then stuffed them all into her bag. Then at the airport we had to check the bag and had them put some “fragile” stickers on it, and then just prayed to Dionysus that our luggage would make it back to Madrid safe. We also ended up sitting on the plane next to this French guy we had met on our first day in Lisboa. Finally we made it back to Madrid to find our wine bag safe and unscathed!!! This was a true testament to the fact that the trip was a total success. :D
Links to my photo albums on facebook:
Cordoba: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006246&l=1a3a1&id=1064550102
Sevilla: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006250&l=3d681&id=1064550102
Portugal: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006253&l=f6cf6&id=1064550102
Now back to reality…
1 comment:
finally you posted. jeeze louise. i can't wait to come visit you, did you get our reservations yet?
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