Espana - Cordoba

Assalamualaikum :)

The story then continues.....

Day 4 in Spain was spent in Cordoba. As we slept in Granada for 2 nights, thus after visiting La Al Hambra, we made our way to Cordoba very early on the day after. I mean, really early. We travel by a bus coach in a 2 hour journey. Before noon, we were already in a new state.

Once we reach the bus station which was surprisingly surprising to me because I just found out that in Europe, there are not many proper bus stations. No wonder the UK National Express bus only do pick ups at a normal bus stop and not a proper station. Yet, we Malaysian people have lots of bus stations everywhere! haha. Is it we love taking the bus so much or is that because we are not wealthy enough to afford trains and flights between cities? Something to think about over here. Don't get me wrong, our bus station facilities are awesome. You can travel between cities comfortably by bus and cheap too. ;)

Inside Mezquita

Anyway, let's go to the main story. Since we are not sleeping in Cordoba, we had to find a place to store our luggages. Thankfully, within the station, there is a locker room that provide the service that we needed. For 4 Euro per locker, you can fit in 3 hand luggages each sized no bigger than the standard allowed (55x40x25), we took 2 for 6 bags.

My first few impression of Cordoba were really good. We have not even move out from the area but I saw some good incidents that I could make an early conclusion that the people in Cordoba are definitely kind hearted. Why I say so? Well..... You might need to go there yourself to see it don't you? I mean, they are really kind, I am not being sarcastic, they certainly are kind. I could not say this clearer enough.

Mezquita from outside

We made our way to the "Mezquita de Cordoba" area. There are really a lot of attraction things going on around it. If you love horses, then you can hire a horse carriage ride to take you for a tour around the area. The starting price can be a bit (more like a lot) expensive, especially if they know you are a tourist, so get your bargaining skills up to work. However, I must warn you, if you want to bargain, bargain really good, and make sure to actually hire them. You don't want them chasing you. :P Oh, and they don't speak English very well, I doubt they even speak English, so you might need to learn spanish before going there. FYI, YOU REALLY NEED TO LEARN SPANISH IF YOU WANT TO GO TO SPAIN. Or at least, bring a dictionary or get to know some of the important vocabularies. At some places, it was just useless trying to communicate with them in English as they don't know any, so I just speak in my first language - Malay. Thankfully, I took up a Spanish Lesson in Surrey so, I was able to communicate with them in Spanish a little bit. ;)

Moving on, there were also a lot of beggars around Mezquita. So, my advise is just to ignore them. I know this is a bad idea. But if you really wanna help them, observe a few and only gives your alms to those who you truly think deserves them. Cause, once you started giving them money, more will come chasing for your kindness like hungry people and some will ask you for more. Some would also harass if you don't give money to them. =_=" (This is not why I say Cordoba people are kind okay-these are the exceptions).

Oranges everywhere!

As it was getting near to noon, it was already noon actually, we went for food hunting. There were various selections of Halal restaurants available nearby which excites us cause we have been eating seafood for the past few days. It would be really great to actually eat some meat. We happen to stop by at this Kebab shop (they do sell more items than just Kebab), which has an orange coloured setting (I don't remember the shop's name). We ordered some Bryani rice with beef and chicken dishes to accompany it and of course, our favourite drink - Agua (plain/tap water). hehe... Not long after we arrive, there were a few Indonesians and Malaysians family and people arriving to come dine at the shop. Apparently, while we were in Cordoba, we can see a lot of Malaysians. Probably it is just the time of the year where Malaysians love to travels to Andalusia huh? Feels like home a little bit. Just a little bit. ;) We were also given the opportunity to perform our Salah within the shop. Such a nice gesture by the shop owner. :)

Calahorra Tower

Next, we went sightseeing around the area. There is the Calahorra Tower just the opposite of the Mezquita. While walking on the bridge, you will be entertain by various streets (or shall I say, bridge) musician. You can tip them if you like because they really play good music. ;)

Alcazar's park

Other than that, you can also go to the "Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos" just within walking distance. The entry fee is below 5 Euro, I am not sure how much exactly, forgotten about it, but you'll get it cheaper if you have a student i.d. with you. Oh, and they also require any photo i.d such as passport to check whether the student card belongs to you. Paranoid much? The place is big, they even have a park within it and there are so many orange trees. You don't want to grab one because unfortunately I have friends who are always hungry and they actually went to grab one and it tasted bitter and sour (according to them). haihhhh....

La fountain I was talking about

There are many water fountains in the park. Have an excellent view for pictures and the fountain stops operating after 5pm. So, if you want to take pictures while the fountain is spraying water, you might want to do it before the stated time. ;)

As the day were getting darker, we purchased our tickets to finally enter the Mezquita. For 8 Euro each (no student discount), we were able to enter the Mezquita and see for ourselves the magnificent place. If you want to know, Mezquita used to be a mosque but are now transformed into a church not long ago due to certain historical events in the past. The name itself means mosque/masjid. At least, I think that is why they named it Mezquita. haha. Making my own history here? Sorry, I do not intend to. It is sad to see, as a muslim, that the place has been turned into a church. Even though, they transformed it, but you can still see some Islamic identity in it - characters and images. So, it looks as if it was co-related. There are a lot of Christians related paintings, items and other stuff within the Mezquita. Some of which was also really nice for me to get to know to. I love art. So, I really do fancy looking into these drawings and paintings as I can feel the story behind it. Some was really deep which somehow moved me. One thing I don't fancy about the place is that it was really dimmed. Can't they put a bit more lights in it to make it brighter? It was almost impossible to even snap a photo in it without turning it out to be faulty.

Special exhibition was held within it.

Some transcript left from an the previous mosque

This must be all the space was used back then for prayers.

I am not sure what they use this for, but it is really golden.

After the visit (fyi, the place closes at 6pm) we made our way to a nearby hangout place. We were lucky to have been able to spectator a LIVE sketch by the organizers within the crowd. They were literally presenting the story in the middle of a huge crowd. There was not even a proper stage for them to stand and act properly. They had to move about in the middle of 'us' to act. Magnificent. Oh, the story was about how Jesus was born. Mainly about Maria. It was a good play except that me and friends could not really understand them as they were reciting it in Spanish. However, it was such a good experience for us. As for me, I was really listening to them diligently because I wanted to try and understand them. My teacher said, if you want to try and understand what Spanish people are talking about, you should look at them (as they do body gesture while talking) and listen to them as if you know the meaning of each word they say even if you don't. Cause, you will come across eventually a word or two which you actually are familiar and you can combine them together to try and understand the whole sentence. ;) Good tip right? And so, that is what I did and I was able to understand the sketch for about 40%. hihihi...

Magnificent play

Cordoba city

Afterwards, we went to the city centre which was only 10 minutes by foot. Cordoba really have an awesome nightlife. People are everywhere in the streets. If in Guildford, the town would turn into a ghost town by 4pm but not in Cordoba. You can really experience nightlife over there. We were walking, sightseeing and end up going back to the Mezquita area for dinner. We dine in a Turkish restaurant. The menu are all written in Spanish, we could not understand anything, what more know what to order. haha. And the waiter can understand very little English. So, here comes me to the rescue.  I was only able to ask them for some of the things, not a very big help actually. (",) The food was really nice and VERY CHEAP! ;) Well, it can be expensive for some items. When they say, it is a small portion, it is a big portion for me. We then asked permission to pray in the shop. They were closing and there was no one else aside from us, so we were able to perform our prayers there. Such a relief. The toilets are so clean too. Just, thought I should mention it.

Paella (seems so famous in Spain) describe to us
 as mixed riced Malaysian/Indonesian loves to eat.

I ordered Shawarma (influenced by the Avengers)

The day was coming to an end. We made our way back to the bus station to catch our 12am bus. As requested by my friends, I am telling you this - I also had a little accident on our way back, I slipped down the stairs, ended up looking like a sitting frog at the end. =_=" Continue.... We got to the bus station an hour and thirty minutes earlier than departure time. Apparently, what we thought was a 12am bus turned out to be actually a 1am bus. Thus, we had to wait at the station. Worse, they did not turn on the heater and it was freezing cold. In fact, our whole Spain trip was a quite a chilly trip. We thought it would be warmer than UK, we were proven wrong. Spain was in fact colder in UK at the time we were there. haishh! Finally, it was time. We board our bus, and slept in it for a 5-6 hour journey to Madrid. Yup, the bus was our hotel for the night. It was a bit warm in it, but halfway the journey, the bus driver closed the heater and we were back, again, freezing. I literally felt as if I was trap in a freezer.

Okay, that is it. Till the next, final 2 days in Madrid people. I hope you enjoyed this post. I realised, I may have written a little bit longer for this one even though we didn't do much here compared to Barca and Granada. So caught up with it I guess. I am stressing for exams!

See ya! ;)