Spain 2012: Cordoba

So I got my parents right off the plane and straight to the Atocha train station in Madrid. We grabbed some bocadillos and boarded the bullet train straight to Cordoba. It was the only place on the trip that we stayed just one night, but it turned out to be my Dad's favorite stop on the entire trip.

The parents with the bell tower/minaret of the Mezquita (or the "mosquito" as my dad kept calling it)

Some of the lovely patios in Cordoba

{I found a shortcut}

I saw this building the last time I was in Cordoba. It was open when we walked by so we peeked inside--it was a church with a youth service going on. 

After walking around the city we called it a night. We woke up the next morning and, to the sound of the mass going on in the high alter area, explored the Mesquita for free!

Inside the Mesquita--a former mosque turned into a church after the reconquest. Pictures can't do it justice--it's like being in a forest of columns. 

The history is interesting too: It's built on the ruins of a Visgoth church (around 600 AD). You can see some of the Visgoth mosaics under the floor in certain parts of the building. It was then a mosque built in the 900s. In the 1200s the Christians kicked out the Moors in Cordoba and it became a church. In the 1500s they turned it into a Spanish-style Renaissance cathedral. 

The prayer niche of the "mosque"

Entering the "Cathedral" part. (The ceilings go from 30 feet to 130 feet in an instant!)

Cordoba is a beautiful town. It was years after I fell in love with Spain that I made my way to it--but it's been a favorite ever since. 

Next stop: Granada!

Finally!

A break from the norm because, well, I'm in a celebratory mood!

This week I've been in Abilene catching up with friends and former coworkers/professors/ students/roommates. I also caught up on the progress of a project I haven't thought about in a while.

Years ago I signed on to help out on an editing project which aimed to turn a giant stack of photocopied excerpts into a book containing a collection of T. B. Maston's writings. It was only supposed to last a semester, but, of course, it stretched on. I spent part of one summer typing up the articles into 749 single spaced pages of text (and also developing a case of self-diagnosed carpal tunnel!) and the duration of another summer hunting down copyrights. I spent hours upon hours reading, editing and hauling the thing around. It was not always an entertaining job, but I started to really love T.B. Maston.

Maybe it was just a byproduct of my stressed and sleep deprived state of mind at the time, but after so much time working on his writings I began to feel like I knew the guy (who died in 1988). In fact, it was my respect for Maston--who was an early supporter of racial equality in the volatile mess of racial tensions in the South, who along with his wife lovingly cared for their severely handicapped son in their home and, even though he had a degree from Yale, always tried to write so that his mom, who only had a 4th grade education, could understand it--that kept me going when my cynicism inched higher and higher.

My love for Maston kept me interested in the project and ended with me digging up bricks from his demolished house (...that's another story). I used to wear a locket quite frequently, but never got around to putting anything inside. You guessed it--(through an overly caffeinated decision and the luck that I happened to have a flyer with a perfectly sized picture of Maston at my fingertips) TB made his way into my locket.

Anyway, I signed off on the project way back in May of last year, but the book has been bogged down in formatting and publishing challenges ever since. I talked with one of the professors on the project and we both agreed that it seemed the thing might never get finished. Fifteen minutes later someone stopped me in the hall to tell me that they had just sent the final version of the reader to the publishers and the thing should be printed and bound (with my name on the cover!) in around 45 days.

In honor of this accomplishment, and of Maston, I'm rocking the locket today and digging up some old articles and videos of Ol' TB. I won't lie, its like visiting an old friend. 

Camino De Santiago: Day 17 Mansilla de las Mulas-LEON!

The Camino de Santiago saga continues!

As mentioned in the last Camino post I ended up sharing an early taxi into Leon and skipping the outskirts of town and the "dangerous bridge" my guidebook mentioned (everyone who walked said the bridge is OK now). Once we got into town we dropped on passenger off at her hotel and then the other three of us followed the sound of drums and the people dressed in processional costumes to find the beginning of the Easter processions. We got to watch the very beginning of the parade with hardly anyone around. We later made our way to the cathedral, and the crowds, to watch the procession again and to see it join with the separate procession that started on a different side of town. 

While I felt a bit guilty taking a taxi into town, even though it wasn't too far, I knew it was the best choice for my ankle, and also the only way I would have gotten to see the processions--which were a highlight of the entire Camino for me. After watching the processions and taking in all the Easter celebrations at the cathedral I checked in at the nun-run hostel and caught up with some Camino friends. Overall it was a very memorable day. (For a slightly sentimental, but live from the scene take of it, you can see my Easter post.)

My first glimpse of the cathedral--one of my favorites

First "float"--and no, they aren't KKK outfits. Even though it's very hard to get that out of your mind as you watch it!

Especially these guys

The little ones seem less threatening 

John's float. 

I learned from my days of co-teaching religion classes in a Spanish high school (it's a long story) that these floats are really heavy. The people who carry them have to practice for months leading up to the processions to make sure they can all keep in step as they sway and carry the things 

Mary and the women

Grieving women

Side view of the cathedral

Just as I was commenting to myself how lucky I was to be a whole head taller than most Spaniards it started to rain and up the umbrellas went!

The floats made their way to the cathedral where they met the other procession

John again

Mary and the women

All the procession filed into the plaza in front of the cathedral where the float of Mary and the women met the float of Jesus and the empty tomb. The people carrying the float made it "dance," or do an elaborate swaying. The crowd erupted into applause and the whole thing surprised me in how moving it was. 

After a brief sermon broadcast through speakers in the cathedral it was announced that the night was over and dozens of doves were released. 

All the floats filed out, this time everyone with pointy caps removed

And the music was much more cheerful! 

A shot of the inside of the the cathedral

I'm admittedly horrible at taking pictures inside cathedrals, but I'll just say that the inside of the cathedral matched the outside--awe inspiring. 

The interior doors of the Leon cathedral

Entrance

Most of us also took the next day as a rest day to see the sights in Leon and to rest our tired bodies (and hit up numerous pharmacies looking for all the right bandaids/tape/pain pills!). I really attempted to not spend the whole time walking (like I did in Burgos) and defeat the purpose of the rest, but Leon had some lovely sites!

Gaudi infront of one of the few buildings he designed outside of Cataluna 

His building plus an anti-domestic violence/sexism protest

Chillin with Antonio 

In case you forgot...Leon no es Castilla! 

Glass of horchata. Funny story: Rest days present a problem in that you have to be out of the albergues generally by 8am and you can't check back in till 2pm or so. Buuuut finding something open in Spain at 8am is tricky. We found a cafe to rest in for a while, but I had already had a big coffee (or 2?) with my breakfast. I was looking for something mildly breakfast-like and saw that they had limonada. I knew that Leon was famous for their limonada and had seen signs indicating cafes had it all over town (I also wrongly assumed that it was an Easter drink). So, at 8am I ordered what I thought was limonade (kinda like juice, no?). The waitress gave me a really strange look. Um. Ok...maybe not. I saw that they also had horchata, so I went for that. In the end the horchata was SUPER sweet (and definitely not a breakfast drink). I later found out from my Spanish friends that evening that limonada is not limonade, but actually wine. Which is why it was a little eyebrow raising to order it at 8am! 

In front of San Isidoro--one of my very favorite tourist sights along the entire Camino

A ceiling in the cloister--unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside. You'll just have to go and see it yourselves! The ceiling frescos were out of this world!

Another courtyard shot

Sevillian pilgrim friends Juanma and Maica in San Isidro

CAMINO!

Plaza in front of the Cathedral

Just to prove I was there!

(OK, sorry! I know that was photo heavy, but I just couldn't cut it down anymore!)

Feliz Pascua!

OK so I didnt exactly get this up by Sunday. And Im not actually in Leon anymore. I wrote it on Sunday in Leon though, so lets just pretend, eh?

Feliz Pascua desde Leon--Happy Easter from Leon!

It's been a long, wet and painful week. The meseta (the high flat plain between Leon and Burgos) is sometimes skipped when people dont have much time to walk the camino because it has a reputation for being boring. My experience this week was anything but boring--getting caught in the middle of a lightening storm...in the middle of nowhere...where i was the tallest thing for kilometers, getting hailed on, sloshing through mud and finding some surprisingly large hills.

It was also surprisingly beautiful. The flat horizon makes the West Texan in me breathe easier. The wheat fields were especially green against the grey skies. The views of mountains in the distance the last two days were a reward for making it through the rain and clouds. Even though I lost most of the people I knew when I took a break last week to go see friends in Cantabria I met new wonderful people. Also, in a happy surprise I found one of my favorite couples in my hostel last night.

But best of all I made it to Leon for Easter. This was my goal and a partial reason for the many 30 plus km days I did last week. My right ankle is swollen and busted up but it was worth it to get here and see the early morning Easter processions. No one does Easter like Spain. People marched through the city in elaborate robes and hoods carrying heavy sculptures of Easter scenes. Two separate processions met in front of the impressive Leon cathedral to culminate the celebration--Jesus and the empty tomb met the procession of Mary and the grieving women. The people carrying the sculptures, more or less alterpieces really, made them ¨dance¨ and all the people of the city started clapping. A small sermon and prayer were broadcast from the cathedral saying--The night is over. Death is over. Peace and love have won. At that moment they released hundreds of doves.

The whole thing was incredibly moving.

Some of you have asked if walking the Camino during Easter had any special impact. One impact was that things were more crowded--lots of people walk the Camino on their Easter holidays. The biggest thing though was that I was fortunate enough to be in the places and mindset to enjoy and to really take in all that these celebrations have to say. It´s definitely a Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Easter that I won´t soon forget.

Larnaka, Cyprus

So I thought I might catch up on blogging when I was in Texas for a few days. That obviously didn't happen. I also thought I might catch up a bit when I was here in Cyprus, taking it easy for a week or so. I've come to the realization that this is not going to happen. Not only have I not shown you most of Nicaragua, I now haven't shown you Sounio or Corinth from the Greece trip. 


I am also about to drop off of the grid again--the Camino is just around the corner. I'll be bare bones-ing it as I hoof it across Spain on foot, so starting April 1st or so, things will drop back down to only occasional updates from internet cafes along the way (if that). But for now...I'll just try to keep up with Cyprus!

Today I was reading through my guidebook in my room still in pjs when I realized the weekly walking tour started in 10 minutes. Too bad, I thought. And then I thought, well...I might could make it. What do you know, I did. I ended up with the worst tour guide ever, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Afterwards I explored other parts of the city, finally broke down and bought an umbrella (it has poured every afternoon since I got here!), and walked through Lazarus' tomb in Agios Lazaros. To wrap up the afternoon I found myself a cafe with big windows (and wifi!) and have been planning my next step here in Cyprus.

I will admit it's been hard to keep in my self-imposed strict budget here in Cyprus (it's a lot more expensive than I originally thought it would be), but especially considering the camino is coming quickly, I caved when I saw a crazy deal for a fancy hotel on the coast. So, the plan for the next few days is to kick back! Because, sometimes you just need a vacation from your vacation. 


Pictures below!

I generally say that traveling is a continual exercise in problem solving skills (well...at least for me!). This is what you get when you want to make tea and don't have a kettle or cup: tea made with hot water from the sink in a water bottle. It works. 

More colonial archetecture

Carpentry shops

Chairmakers

Inside the fort/castle

A look at the sea: If my geography is correct (and it's probably not) I think we should be looking toward Palestine

Another shot of the castle

Some more pretty houses

Church of Agios Lazaros (St. Lazarus) From my relatively useless Lonely Planet:

Lazarus was expelled from Jerusalem and came to Larnaka, where he was ordained as a bishop by St. Barnabas. He reportedly remained a bishop for 30 years. After he died (for the second time) he was buried where the current church stands. His relics did not stay entombed for very long after their discovery in 890, as they were transported to Constantinople and subsequently removed to Marseille in 1204. 

A shot of some of the icons in the church

Sarcophagi where Lazarus was supposedly buried

Next stop: Agia Napa. It's supposed to have beautiful water but be incredibly touristy. It's only March though, so I'll hold my judgement until I see it for myself!