Southern Spain: Flamenco and Religion


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Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Seville » Triana
June 24th 2012
Published: June 26th 2012
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This past weekend I went on an awesome two-day excursion with friends from the program: Sarah, Corey, and Jessica. I left my house by taxi at 6 AM on Saturday (it's not safe to walk alone at that time) and met up at Alcala's train station. We headed into Madrid to the main station and caught our AVE bullet train to Sevilla. The next morning we left early for Córdoba, in between Sevilla and Madrid. We had tons of fun even though the temperature was about 106° the whole time! Here are some of the highlights of the weekend:

Sevilla
Since my boyfriend said this was his favorite place in Spain, I knew I had to see it. When Sarah, Jessica, Corey, and I were trying to get to the center of town from the train station, we asked an older man for directions. He was incredibly nice, saying that we were going on the same bus as him and should go with him! He pointed at our bags, reminding us to guard them on the crowded bus. Spanish people are so nice! It’s a relief that we're good enough at Spanish to ask for directions.
In Sevilla we visited the Cathedral and the Alcázar. The cathedral is the world’s largest gothic church! After wandering around it, we climbed to the top of the bell tower, 300 feet up. Instead of stairs, there were ramps because the cathedral has parts of an old mosque. Five times a day Muslims would ride their horses to the top of the tower to pray. Lacking horses, we desperately needed a drink afterwards. I had my first sangria, sharing a pitcher with Sarah and Corey.
After we'd cooled down a bit, I pushed us to keep going, skipping the siesta in order to see the grand Alcázar, a palace. It was another amazing mix of Catholic and the older Muslim architecture. There were grand, intricately decorated open rooms where the king would address subjects. In a comparatively simple room there was a sign labeling it as the place where Queen Isabella gave birth. Other rooms had hosted the wedding reception for Ferdinand and Isabella. How amazing!
That night, going to a Flamenco show was completely worth it. At first, there were just three men creating Flamenco music with guitar, voice, clapping, and stomping. It reminded me a bit of the show Stomp. They made complex rhythms with all of their instruments, yet their instruments were simple.
The actual flamenco dancing was performed first by a woman in black and second by one of the men who had initially been providing music. Flamenco is passionate and flowing, angry and snappy, slowly waving and quickly turning. I loved it. I used to do karate and it reminded me a lot of the katas, or routines, that we performed to learn about fighting and body awareness. I would love to practice kata again and integrate with it the emotions and style of movement from Flamenco..

Friends and new experiences
This was the first time any of us had ever stayed in a hostel, and we managed to stay in one of Europe's top 30, Hostel Oasis, with wifi, a tiny pool, and sheets included! One of the important parts of hostel life is making new friends from all over the world. On our way to the flamenco show we met a medical student from England and her friend, a Canadian mechanic. I sat with the two during the flamenco show in the front row, the best view of the feet of the dancers and musicians, tapping to create the music. When our group returned to the hostel found food, our goal, along with two backpackers, guys who had just graduated from Georgia College. We headed out to a bar with them to watch the quarterfinals soccer game... Yet another win for España!

Córdoba
Córdoba’s main attraction is the Mezquita, an old mosque with a cathedral built smack dab in the middle. The mosque was built with fairly low ceilings and gorgeous rows of arches to, according to my guidebook, “create an intimate and worshipful atmostphere.” While the mosque is 30 feet high, the top of the cathedral at the center is 130 feet. The gorgeous ceiling has typical Christian decoration. It was crazy to see the composite of Christian and Muslim architecture. It blended together at points, but others looked starkly different. The simplicity and comfortable atmosphere of the mosque shows an attitude of being close to God, while the gigantic, awe-inspiring cathedral makes you feel small in the eyes of God. This mix of Christian and Moorish architecture styles is called “mudejar.” The balance between the two styles reflects a mutual respect of religions. If only Islam and Christianity could so peacefully coexist everywhere.
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T-2 days until finals!

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