April Holiday: Spain: Cordoba (flamenco)

On Saturday night, we went to see a flamenco performance as kind of a last hurrah in Spain.  We generally go to see flamenco once a year in Boston at places like the Wang Theatre or the Opera House, but this place was different.  A long room with tables meant that although we were close to the back of the room, we were closer to the action than we'd ever been before.  And it was incredible.
First a woman and a man danced together, then a woman alone, then four women together, and then the man came back alone.  I love flamenco - my darling sister used to take classes at the Dance Complex - and these guys were good.  Hair up, long ruffly skirts, poise... it's such a cool art form.  Way more sensual than ballet, and watching it in Cordoba was magical.
The next day we drove up to Madrid and home to Paris!
Have you seen flamenco?  What did you think?
(photo from here)

April Holiday: Spain: Cordoba (the Mezquita)

Almost done, I promise!
On Friday, the day after we had been to the Alhambra, we packed up and headed to Cordoba.  This was possibly the place I was the most excited about going on our entire trip.  In senior year, I had chosen to do a senior project on Islamic geometry and the history of the Cordoba Caliphate - the period of Muslim rule in Spain.  My project advisor and I spent hours looking at photos of the Mezquita and reading Arabic poetry about the structure of the universe.  We read about the culture of tolerance for the other "peoples of the book" that was destroyed in the Spanish Inquisition.  We talked about the Greek works translated into Arabic and brought back to Europe and about the origins of flamenco.  I wrote a paper on the mosque, or the Mezquita.  And to actually see it was incredible.
We visited the Mezquita on Saturday, and it took my breath away.  Thousands of red-and-white striped double arches stretching into infinity in the hugeness of the space.  There was none of the intricate stucco-work or zellij we saw at the Alhambra or in Fes - this was a kind of grandeur and simplicity I'd never seen before.
Nothing really prepares you for going in.  The vaulted ceilings and the arches make the space feel huge - I've been in an awful lot of churches with vaulted ceilings and stained glass reaching to the sky, but I've never felt so small in a building in my entire life.  There were easily a thousand people or more in the mosque, but it was easy to feel like you were maybe the only one there.
The Mezquita was built on what had once been a Visigoth Cathedral, which had been built on the site of a Roman temple, which had been built on what some believe to be a holy pagan site with standing stones.  The Ummayads, who built the mosque, borrowed heavily from the Roman ruins around Cordoba (which had once been a Roman outpost), taking capitals and columns and even the arches from aqueducts.  When they expanded the mosque and had no more Roman capitals and columns, they fake-antiqued some of their materials to look like they had come from Roman sites.  Even the red-and-white stripe pattern on the arches - done in alternating shades of brick - was inspired by the vestiges of Roman architecture.
Have you been to Cordoba?  Do you want to go?  Did you visit the Mezquita?

April Holiday: Spain: Granada

We arrived in Spain in the midst of Semana Santa, or Holy Week, which was quite an experience!  I have to admit, it was really a little scary at first.  Troops of men in purple and white Ku Klux Klan - esque robes and hats, carrying statues through the streets...  My first reaction was to think back to my US History classes from sophomore year and the segregated South, but after a while it wasn't so startling and I could understand more of the magic and mystery of Spanish Catholicism.
For that first evening, we wandered around the old town of Granada before settling in to eat delicious tapas at a local restaurant (and watch a very upsetting Madrid-Barcelona game in which Barcelona lost), and tried to get to sleep at a reasonable hour for all the things we were going to do the next day.
Our second day in Granada we got to see the Alhambra.  I had wanted to visit it for years, and so in the afternoon we visited the main gardens and the Generalife before returning at ten-thirty to see the rest.  It's as magical as everything you've ever heard, and seeing it at night - the lit-up town below, the intricate stucco on the windows, the golden Arabic poetry climbing to the arched and inlaid ceilings - took my breath away.  We wandered through the Boat Room, where each geometrical piece of the arches had been painted different colours, and through the Hall of the Myrtles, where the moon (almost full!) glistened over the long reflecting pool.
If you ever get a chance to go to the Alhambra, even if it's like us and you get the last tickets for ten-thirty at night, go.  It's exquisite and one of the most stunning examples of Moorish architecture in the world.  Just thinking about the artists who painted the ceilings and made the tiles and painstakingly applied gold leaf to the windows is overwhelming, don't you think?
Have you ever been to the Alhambra?  What did you think?  If you haven't, would you like to go?

Wanderlust, Spain edition

Yesterday was my brother's last exam, so we went out to eat at a Tapas place called Taberna de Haro.  First, if you are in the Boston area and need a place to eat, go there.  It's excellent - I especially recommend the Pisto (vegetables and a poached egg), the Alcachufas (artichoke hearts) and the Espinacas (spinach with golden raisins and pinenuts).  Delicious!  Make sure you get the Trufas for dessert - three perfect truffles with toasts, olive oil, cocoa powder, and salt.
Point being, however, that they serve Spanish food.  And every time I go to their little restaurant, I immediately want to travel to Spain.
To go see the Alhambra with its famed carvings and gardens (I wrote my senior thesis on the Islamic art and history of the palace!)....

from here

and here

and here

To visit Barcelona, home of Gaudi's unfinished cathedral and arguably the best club soccer team...

from here

and here.

What about you?  If you had the opportunity to go to Spain, where would you go?  Have a lovely weekend!