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| Courtyard of orange trees outside the mosque |
As my time in Granada, Spain has quickly flown past the month of January, classes and program-related activities have finally gotten into the full swing of things. For me, the excitement that comes with this reality is easily described in just a single word. Excursions! This past weekend, our program had it's very first day-trip excursion out of the city of Granada and into the beautiful city of Córdoba, which is a province in the southern part of Spain that is about two and a half hours away from Granada. We, the CEA students along with our program leaders, loaded up into our bus and began our journey towards Córdoba. It was in that moment, while I sat there in the bus sharing one of the ear-buds of my iPod with the girl sitting next to me, that I realized that the last month of me continually getting lost throughout Granada was actually me continually getting lost in Granada with a group of people who would become some of best friends. Friends with whom I would get to spend the rest of my time abroad! After what seemed like a short bus ride through the beautiful landscapes of Andalusia, we all arrived ready to take on our destination! Right away, we started out by taking a walking tour through the most historic areas of the city with one of the most interesting tour guides. Although the tour was in Spanish, she did a very good job of making sure that we all understood exactly what was going on throughout the entire tour. We got the chance to explore the historic Catholic Mosque, walk through La Calle de las Flores (The Street of Flowers) and the Jewish Quarter, and most importantly, go inside the last standing synagogue in the entire city and also one of the last ones in all of Spain.
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| Architecture inside of the mosque |
Restored interior of the mosque |
After the organized tour, we all had the chance to explore the rest of Córdoba on our own before heading back to Granada. What I have come to further realize day after day in Spain is that you do not have to be in a museum or an art gallery to experience the wonders of art here. Throughout the streets and along the walls of buildings, Córdoba is filled with monuments, flowers, and paintings that give a whole new definition and standard to the term "landscape architecture" back in the states. This city was a living, breathing canvas. After this excursion, I knew that the love I had for Granada was only going to keep extending into the entirety of Andalusia as I experienced the many more excursions to come during my time abroad in Spain.
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| Flowers and pottery that cover the walls of the city |
Art randomly painted on the side of a building |
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| My friends and I after a successful excursion |
Brady Greenwalt is the Spring 2015 CEA MOJO in Granada, Spain. He is currently a junior at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln.
