Nerja and Cordoba!

Last weekend a bunch of us took a 2 hour bus ride to the beach in Nerja! To sum up the weekend in one phrase, I will say this: We WILL be returning!! We stayed 3 nights and 4 days, and the first two days were goooooorgeous, right up around 70 and super sunny each day. We literally posted up on a spot on the beach, broke out some home made bocadillos (sandwiches) for lunch, and spent the day there sipping on drinks and relaxing from our stressful life in Granada :P

Both Friday and Saturday night our Hostel owner showed us around Nerja a bit, taking us out to tapas, a flamenco bar, and a plaza with all the pubs. We were super lucky to have found someone who was as helpful and kind as him, and he's a big part of the reason we want to return to Nerja so badly! Saturday night after a long day at the beach and a sufficient amount of napping, we socialized on the terrace of the hostel while sipping on mojitos, meeting other travelers who were also staying at the hostel. The party got moved inside once a neighbor complained about the noise, so we started playing drinking games in one of our rooms. After a bit of that, there was another noise complaint (GEEZERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so we relocated to the beach, can't kick us off that property!! We stayed there until about 1 maybe, when a few of us continued on to pubs while others headed back to crash at the hostel. The plan was to leave the pubs and chill at the beach til the sun rose! We probably got to the beach at 4am, and it's just as pretty at night! 5am came along, we were still going strong. 6am...still pitch black...6:30 we gave up and headed back the hostel to pass outttttt.

The next day I decided to sleep in while the rest of the people woke up early to go to beach and market. I took my own little stroll around Nerja, ate a delicious quiche, bought a cute tunic that actually turned out to be a dress (it's a good thing), and found the most gorgeous display of jewelry I've ever seen in my life. I made sure to compliment the boutique owner on it. I think I must have been in there for a good 30-40 minutes after buying my tunic/dress just looking at every piece and touching everything but then fixing what I messed it up. I realize now this picture doesn't capture every color they had displayed, I must have been so captivated that I didn't notice after I took the picture, ha! Anyway. Super aesthetically pleasinggggggggg:

After my shopping, I met up with everyone else for all you can eat paella!! I actually only finished one plate's worth, so that should have been my first sign that something was wrong!! We walked back to our hostel because rain clouds were rolling in, and we proceeded to nap. I woke up burning up and definitely had some sort of fever, so I kept sleeping for most of the day. Not fun! Trying to sleep that night was horrible too, but I used Irma's cold-towel-on-the-forehead method to get me through the night. I pretty much slept all the next day, skipped class to sleep Tuesday, felt better Wednesday, and now I'm good as new :)

Yesterday (Friday) our program went to Cordoba to visit the Madinat al-Zahra, which were the ruins from an ancient islamic city, and La mezquita, which is the biggest mosque in Spain, and daaaaang was it pretty!! The ruins were cool, situated a few kilometers outside the city, boasting beautiful architecture that mimics the mezquita. It also overlooks much of the countryside of Cordoba which is super pretty but I was too mesmerized by the structure itself to really take any good landscape pictures, hahaa!

We continued on to the mosque which I love love loved, it's so dang PRETTY!!! It's bordered by a bunch of Jewish shops where I bought a prettyyyy neaaaat bottle opener and got some delicious helado while we waited for our visit inside the mosque to begin. Once inside the mosque, I realized how much I already knew about it and could explain as our Islamic Art and Architecture professor prompted us with questions. It's really cool having learned about all the specific arch structures and construction phases of the mosque, and even more so that there's a whole cathedral inside it! It's just overall a really pretty place, I'm obsessed with its ceilings, and its general decorative detailing. So I'll leave you with a few pictures from the visit!

Ceiling in the muslim part of the Cathedral/Mosque

Me posing with a pillar! The  place was huuuuuge

Ceiling of the Cathedral. I coulda laid there all day studying it. SO PRETTYYYY.