Cordoba!

Spain is a goldmine, every where you turn, there's another ancient beautiful artifact or building. There's no way I could take a bad picture here, even the sky looks more blue. Every city as once a super power, as long ago, Spain ruled the world. Now, just a fraction of it's formal size, it's easy to imagine the power this country once had, after all, even today 1/5 of the world speaks Spanish.  

On Wednesday, we took a surprise field trip to Cordoba, an Iberian and Roman city in ancient times,   was the most populous city in the world in the 10th century, and the intellectual center of Europe. In case you were wondering.   We took a huge awesome bus, which you'll see if you scroll down, and elft around 7am, before sunrise. As always, there were no field-trip forms, or fees, or parental chaperons, we simply left. why is that such a difficult concept for so many schools? 

Even the bus ride was beautiful... Spanish churches, and olive tree farms framed by mountains in the distance...

Paloma, Laura, Bea and Vicki

The olive trees and rolling hills....

The Bus! "Yellow school buses" don't exist here, we travel in style, and comfort. This bus had curtains, and reclining chairs. I think our Greene school bus has an emergency exit.

A random bull. Why not? It's Spain, in case you forgot.

As soon as we got there, I kinda went crazy with my camera, even the cobblestone path we were walking on caught my eye, in total I took 273 pictures.

The first step is acceptance. 

We arrived at the Cathedral, and formal Mosque of Cordoba, which was unbelievably ridiculously beautiful.

(the order of the pics is screwed up, this is a lamp in a gift shop)

                                                                      The Class!

Translation: The Synagogue. (just in case you were wondering)

A special mask store for La Carnival.

Oh, you know, random columns in the middle of the city. I forgot this was an anciant roman city some 1,000 years ago.

Flamenco Fashion Show

Saturday was a day to celebrate the beauty and culture of all this is Sevillian

it began with a magical tour of the Alcazar, and finished with a flamenco fashion show.. best day by far.

 It was a girl's night out, Ana (the mom) Laura, her Abuela and I. This was the outside of the convention center, you can't see it from this perspective, but there were fountains framing the building.

The whole convention was for La Feria, which is a pretty big deal here. It's one full week of dresses, dancing, food and drink, without any work or school to be heard of. I've heard about this festival since the day I got here, and soon realized, I would be leaving the week before it begins...: (. Life goes on. 

But this convention show cased the high fashion flamenco dresses which all the ladies wear during the week of la Feria, along with all the fabulous earnings, headpieces, bracelets, necklaces and dancing shoes.

 After the fabulous shows, My family was eager to share the joy of La Feria with me. They pulled out the dresses, earrings, bracelets and head pieces, and I tried them on. ugh, I wish I was here for la Feria. Paco played the guitar, flamenco style of course, and Ana sang. Laura and Malena danced. I attempted... it was great. The culture is so rich and woven with history and passion... I can't quite describe it.

The Spanish have great pride in who they are and where they come from, and everything has a story.

Alcázar de Séville

 Today was an amazing day. I visited one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, Alcázar de Séville.

Getting in required assistance from a stranger, as they couldn't allow two "minors" to go in alone. After being turned down by the ticket lady, we walked away, but a couple over heard the conversation, and offered to pretend to be our aunt and uncle, we gladly accepted.

With a sarcastic smile from the ticket lady, she let us go through :)

But Oh My God, when I walked in, I was blown away.

It's a Castle, which was origonaly built by the Moors some 1,000 years ago. Since then, Spanish Royalty has added on to it through the years, creating a massive fortress with both Spanish and Arabic architecture.

 the detail was incredible and, just everything about the place was magnificent. I kinda went crazy with my camera and took about 233 pictures so this is just the small collection, it took some serious restraint to not post them all.

When the Royal family of Spain visit Seville, they stay in this Palace, in the upper sections. The place was huge, and in immaculate condition.

Oh my god, when I waked out to the garden (yes, this is considered "the garden") I was blown away, the place looked so beautiful, it didn't even look real.

Of course there were wild peacocks...

The garden had tons of citrus trees, here you can see a lemon tree, an orange tree, and the palm trees in the background. Paradise.

Horse drawn carriages, naturally.

Another cathedral, but that would have to wait for another day

I seriously could not get over how beautiful the place was. And so old too!! Over 1,000 years... and we thought Providence was cool cause all the houses were built in the 1800's...