Writing this post from Cole's favorite spot in Europe... and "Mr. Tambourine Man" just came on and my heart filled with that weird jolty-adrenaline feeling. We are in the most adorable hostel, and there's going to be live music very soon. But they've been playing incredible music all day, from our friends like Kansas and Mumford & Sons.
Jump, jump! Or, to use the Spanish informal second person imperative form, "¡Salta!"
The live music has begun. "Come Together." More classics. There's a lot of English-language music here, in clubs and bars. It's interesting to hear people perform it live, though, since 1) it's not their first language 2) what's more, some of them can't actually understand what they're saying. It changes the shape of the words in a really interesting way. This guy makes English sound soft and pretty like Romance languages. Not sure if that should be capitalized. Imma keep going.
Granada is awesome. My life has kind of spun out of control in that I'm suddenly traveling every weekend! Every week I post here saying "I just got back from/about to go to...." What a world we live in. And in five weeks I'll be back to America.
The rest of my European adventure can be summed up in this way:
-Granada/Cordoba this weekend
-11/14Copenhagen next weekend
-11/23 Cuenca day trip? Maybe.
-11/28 Thanksgiving... We have an American-esqe dinner planned by the school.
-12/9 Italy: Shane is planning on coming now, and we would do a week in Venice, Pisa, Florence, and Rome before I fly home on the 16th of December.
Istanbul is one of the greatest cities on this planet. Every one of you should visit someday. What a vibrant city, with incredibly nice people that can somehow speak EVERY language. Like, why can vendors in the Grand Bazaar speak Catalan? Catalan is only spoken in one region in Spain.... and 99% of people who speak Catalan also speak Spanish, so there's no real need to speak it. But these guys will do anything for a sale-- they can talk to you about just about anything.
I don't have the time to elaborate fully, but I will include some pictures.
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| Hagia Sophia (henceforth H.S.), one of the most incredible monuments in the world |
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| Harem in Topkapi Palace |
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| Mosaic in the H.S. It's amazing-- it was a church, then a mosque, so all the faces got covered up. Now it's a museum, so they've had to decide what to uncover. For instance, in the main hall, there's four Angel Gabriels. Two have their faces covered by gold shields. Anyway, this concept totally fascinated me, that the H.S. can be both a cathedral and a mosque yet neither. If only Israel-Palestine could come up with a similar sharing solution. |
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| In the top left, you can see one of the uncovered angels. |
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| My favorite building in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque. I prefer it architecturally to the Hagia |
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| Inside the Blue Mosque |
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| A mosaic in a Greek Orthodox church we visited. |
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| This is another interesting story. In the Greek Orthodox tradition, Jesus goes into hell and rescues Adam & Eve, because him being crucified for our sins forgave ALL sins ever. So that means that A&E got to come back. This is them coming out of their graves. What a cool story. |
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| Spices in the spice market. |
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| Tea and spices-- I bought 100g of the Natural Apple Tea. YUM. |
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| This tower was built in 507 under Justinian. We got to go to the top and take cool pictures. They've installed an elevator and an automatic hand dryer. Anything is possible. |
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| Taksim Square |
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| THE FRESHEST JUICE OF ALL TIME. |
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| Me at the top of the aforeshown tower. |
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| Me with Asia in the background. |
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| (I think) an Ottoman castle |
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| Palace of Carlos V |
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| My lover. |
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| Garden. |
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| Alhambra magic-- the most intricately-wrought building I've ever seen. |
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| Overlooking Granada |
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| Me, Isabel, Kevin, Lauren, Sara at the Alhambra. |
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| This beautiful quote translates to "Give him alms, woman, for there is nothing sadder in life than being blind in Granada." It's by Francisco de Icaza. Interesting that the Alhambra chose quotes from Mexican and Argentine writers for their walls. |
The title comes from the fact that I MISSED PATRICK
ROTHFUSS BY 12 HOURS. My heart is almost
broken. HE IS IN MADRID!!! This is the Rothfuss that never goes
ANYwhere. Anyway, I wish I could have
seen him, but it’s okay, I guess.
Below are the songs that the live guy played. What a great mini-concert.
"Come Together" Beatles
"Creep" Radio
"I Want to Break Free" Queen
"Black or White" Michael Jackson
“Baby One More Time,” Britney Spears, with an epic kazoo
solo
“Folsom Prison Blues,” Johnny Cash
“Wild World,” Cat Stevens
Love you all,
Rachael
"Me with Asia in the background" made me laugh. Did you at any point actually cross the Bos (Bosporus, but Bos rhymes with cross) and step onto Asia?
ReplyDeleteTambourine Man, Borges, and Rothfuss in the same post, wow. Sorry you missed Pat.
Haha, I shouldn't be surprised that geography humor made you laugh, even if I only half-meant it as a joke (I made someone take that photo of me for the express reason of having Asia in the background). I didn't step onto Asia, because to do so would've taken a lot of effort and there wasn't much free time. Visiting India gave me an Asia check mark, so I didn't feel the absolute need to do it. We did cross the Golden Horn, though.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a week full of our favorite things. Europe's treating me well.
Ah, India. I had forgotten.
ReplyDelete