So it's been a bit longer than I had hoped since my last post, and unfortunately that means you're going to have to suffer through a super-long one. It's been quite the busy schedule in the past five days, as you might have guessed from the title.
On Wednesday last week, I went downstairs (literally) to watch the Barcelona-Inter game at the bar on the first floor of the apartment building immediately behind mine. I wouldn't say that the atmosphere was great, but there was something very nice about just being able to go watch the game with other people who were actually interested in it... easily. And the bartender was great, perhaps more into the game than anyone else.
Thursday morning, we had to get up early (before 9) to take a tour of the Cathedral of Málaga and the Alcazaba (the Muslim fortress). The inside of the Cathedral was quite awesome, as many of you may have already seen from the photos I posted to facebook. The stained glass was lit up perfectly for our visit, which, I must admit, was a bit surprising given that it was raining slightly when I got off the bus in El Centro.
From there, we proceeded to the Alcazaba, but what I found to be super-interesting was the fact that it was built on the site of a Roman Amphitheatre. We stopped briefly at the amphitheatre before entering the Alcazaba. Once we had entered the Alcazaba, it was quite literally a case of up, up, and well, more up. The zig-zagging path up to the top, as I explained briefly in one of my photos, was used as an elaborate defense mechanism. I'm not sure because I wasn't quite paying full attention, but I don't believe it was ever successfully attacked. I believe when the Moors left the Alcazaba, that it was done peacefully. It certainly seemed to be in quite good condition.
Inside the Alcazaba, at the top of the winding path, was the palace of the governor. Our tour guide made it quite clear that this governor was totally unimportant, and that if we wanted to see the palace of an important governor, we'd have to go to the Alhambra... that comes next month. The palace was nice, but what I really found interesting were the little mini-irrigation canals dug into the paths to water various gardens throughout the palace and Alcazaba. The Moors certainly knew how use water to good effect, and of course, their elaborate defense mechanism was also quite a fascinating work of engineering.
Take a deep breath... that wasn't even nearly half.
Friday's are still days off for me, but I went with a bunch of other people to play basketball and then beach football. Basketball, right? Who knew I could play basketball? Well, I can't, actually, but nobody else is really that great either. I mean, there's nobody who's just head and shoulders better than everybody else. The beach football was a little disappointing. The court was just kind of Rocky and that made it rather uncomfortable to play. It also meant anytime anyone fell, he got cut. It was great to play though.
Saturday we had to wake up really early (6:30 for me) to get the group bus at 8 in El Centro to go to Ronda. When I told my host mom I was going to Ronda for the day, I could just see her getting excited for me to experience Ronda for the first time. Maybe if I had gone on a different day, or maybe if I had toured the city in a different direction, or maybe if I had had a different guide, I wouldn't have found it so unbelievably enchanting. But if it hadn't been for Manolo, the travel companion for us Dickinson students on all our trips, it certainly wouldn't have been so.
Manolo is a big guy, at least 6 feet tall and 230+ pounds (I still haven't made the conversion entirely to the metric system). He has a huge face (big nose, big mouth, and massive ears). He has long grayish white hair that's always slicked back over his head. He dresses like what you would expect from a man who knows his personality will win over more people than his looks (not that he's unattractive, rather that he has a great personality). And all of this at at least 60-70 years old.
So the 27 of us students, plus Manolo and Profesor Borges, got off in Ronda at one end of the old town. We met our guide for Ronda, a trilingual Ronda native, Jesús. Jesús explained everything to us in Spanish that was quite easy to understand, but frequently would interject an English word or two, usually with a rather thick British-German-Spanish accent - never heard that one before. When I asked him where he had learned his English, he replied that he had gone to college for tourism in Grenada, but was now married to an anglophonic German wife. And whenever we would finish at any one location, he'd say, "follow Jesus" in a straight British accent. I got quite a kick out of that.
We began entering through a stone arch into the old town. There was a trough outside with a spigot of water flowing out of the stone wall into it. At one point, while Jesús was explaining something, I noticed Manolo go over and just drink out of the spigot. I was standing right next to Profesor Borges, and another student had noticed the same thing, and so asked Profesor Borges if the water was drinkable. Profesor Borges, who seemed as taken aback as both of us, replied something along the lines of "apparently, so." I rather got the impression he wouldn't be caught dead doing that. But I also would have expected nothing less from Manolo.
From here, we walked up (more walking up) to the Cathedral of Toledo. This was quite fascinating (you know, I rarely find my second cathedral in a week fascinating) because there were two parts in two distinctly different styles. The front part of the cathedral was constructed in a Gothic style, with pointed arches and the like. There was the big wooden choir chamber in the middle which prevent the viewing of the other side and thus the mixing of the two styles, and the other other side was constructed in the style of the Renacimiento (Renaissance... a word that at least to me, makes a whole lot more sense in Spanish). Photos to come.
The plaza outside the cathedral was also lovely, with orange trees and Arabic architecture. From here, we did a vuelta of the old Ronda, stopping at the Palacio Mondragón. Manolo, as was the case at the cathedral, knew the people working there. Manolo is apparently also great friends with Jesús. The palace was a lovely excercise in the little patios and staircases. I took quite a number of photos here, which will be posted once I have the will to sort through the 250+ from yesterday. We also stopped at the Puente Nuevo (new bridge) from which we could see the Puente Viejo (old bridge). There was also a Puente Musulman (Muslim bridge), which we didn't see. These were great feats of engineering over massive gorges.
Finally, we finished our vuelta of Ronda at the Plaza de Toros, the largest and most famous plaza in the world. Here, Jesús consented to come on the tour, but insisted that Manolo give it because he has such a wealth of knowledge of bullfighting. What was nice was that not everyone wound up coming on the tour of the Plaza de Toros. We were allowed to do whatever we wanted to at this point, after seeing the inside of the plaza, but of course, I was never going to miss out on getting a tour of the most famous plaza de toros in the world.
After walking around the entirety of the interior of the ring, several of us climbed up to the top to snap some better photos, and then Manolo gave us a tour of the museum, pointing out portraits, clothing, gear, etc. of famous matadors. When we reached a painting of Juan Belmonte, Manolo stopped. "In my opinion, Belmonte is the best matador in the history of bullfighting... He revolutionized the art of bullfighting. Before, the matador would move to catch the attention of the bull. Belmonte would stand in the same place and make the bull come to him... He was gored over 90 times, including one in which the bull's horn went into his mouth and ripped out his cheek... I knew him personally. He was a friend of my father." As Manolo was telling us the story of Juan Belmonte, I could not help but get chills. It reminded me of Carlos Ruiz Zafrón telling the story of some character in "The Shadow of the Wind" because it just fit together so perfectly in a way that only Spanish stories can. I've now decided that I must go to a bullfight with Manolo.
The rest of the day was rather anticlimactic (how could it have been anything else), but still fun nonetheless. Seven us (Tito, Brynn, Ursala, Gina, Luís, Leslie and I - all of whom, except for Gina, will be here for the year), went out to a nice cheap café where we got a fine lunch. We then walked down through a lovely park to the puente viejo where we could take better pictures of the puente nuevo and the gorge. After this, there was just enough time to hurry back to meet up with the rest of the group to catch the bus.
The bus took us on a lovely scenic drive south to the coast (out of our way) to return via a more beautiful route. This is not to suggest that the drive TO Ronda wasn't scenic. I was snapping pictures from the bus then, too, but the drive south to the coast from Ronda was incredible. It was entirely mountainous, and reminded me slightly of driving along the roads in the Pyrenees until we rounded one corner and voila, there was the Mediterranean. For some reason, we were scheduled to stop in Porto Vanús, a luxury resort town on the coast. It's known for being the best sporting port in the world (or so says Manolo). Basically, there was more English than Spanish spoken there, and the majority of the people made me look like I was poor as dirt. There were 2 Aston Martins, a Bentley, a Ferrari, and just dozens of souped up Mercedes. The shopping was designer brand after designer brand. Some kids bought ice cream cones for 3 euro, a remarkably reasonable price comparatively.
Finally, after a scenic drive along the coast back to Málaga, I got in in time to go back to the same bar downstairs and watch the Barcelona game against Atletico de Madrid last night. It was 3-0 inside 30 minutes, and the game was more or less a joke. Messi looked his usual fantastic self, but Xavi was the key man again. Iniesta came off the bench to inspire the fifth goal in stoppage time. It ended 5-2 but Atletico was never within 1 after the 16th.
I think that about takes care of it, 2 cathedrals, 2 palaces, 2 aston martins, 2 Barca games, 1 fortress, and THE Plaza de Toros. Pictures to come...
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