Cordoba-the famous Mosque and the infamous Shemale

The next day we took the bus to Cordoba. It was only a 2 hour ride so we didn't mind being stuck on a hot bus for the morning. Once we got there we grabbed a map from the information office and decided we would wander into the center of Cordoba to see the famouos Mosque. Katie took off and she decided to go in the general direction of where the mosque was, but didn't bother to look at the map. After about 5 minutes we realized that we were lost, but thought it would be kinda fun to wander around Cordoba. Besides, we thought that we were going in the general direction of the Mosque, so we should be all set. Well after about 20 minutes we knew we were definitly lost and finally conceeded to checking out the map. We couldnt find any idea on the map of where we were so I had to ask a store clerk where we are. Unfortunatly the accent in Cordoba and southern spain in general is pretty much unintelligible. So after a lot of nodding of my head and pretending like I understood, she pointed on the map wher we were and gave us some sort of directions to the Mosque. So after an hour we finally were getting somewhere close to the most famous part of Cordoba

The first thing we ran into was this very bold looking gate on the south side of the city. It is meant to mimic the arches of the Mosque, and we laughed to think that this was the gaudy amusement park style version of the mosque.
We were able to see the mosque perfectly from a bridge we found outside of the city.

This is one of the old gates of Cordoba used to enter the city in the past.

An outside door to the Mosque. The details were incredible.

There was a plaza that seperated the mosque from the cathedral. It was beautiful.

These are the famous arches that are inside of the mosque. They are everywhere and are gorgeous.

Kelli and I in front of a cool archway

Check out those details!

Kelli and I with the arches behind us

A beautiful painted glass window near the entrance

This was from one of the chapels. It is very catholic looking and is funny to see the difference s between the islamic decorations and the catholic desgins all within the same building.

Our boys looking far handsomer than the patron saint of Cordoba.

After we visited the Mosque we wandered around for a bit, picked up some lunch and bought our bus ticket to go back home. We had a few hours to kill though before our bus left and there was a park next to the bus station. We figured we would grab some sun and maybe a siesta before we got on the bus. We sat down and were soon joined by a homeless man who was obviously drunk and was carrying a container of wine with him. He started talking to Tyler first, but Tyler played dumb and said his spanish was very bad and he couldnt talk to the man. So he turned to Nik instead and Nik started talking to him. About 5 mintues into the conversation this man told Nik that he was not a man, but a woman. I guess we might have been able to pick up on this since there was a dirty scrunchie in his hair. Nik however, didnt quite understand him and kept asking him to repeat himself. I tried not to laugh as he kept on telling Nik again and again that he was a girl. Once Nik understood what he said he told Nik that the most beautiful girl in all of Spain was looking at him right now. Nik got really excited and looked around the park trying to find this beautiful woman looking at hime. By now it was almost impossible for me to not laugh, and the man then informed Nik that he was the "woman" looking at him. He then asked Nik if he wanted to go with him and Nik told him that he really didnt do that sort of thing and he was a religious man. Well this set off this homeless guy/girl and he started yelling at Nik about how hypocritical religious people are. Nik was getting frustrated so he just stopped talking to the guys and laid back down.

Seeing that he had lost his attention the guy (which we have since named the "shemale") went back to Tyler and decided to give him a spanish lesson. He pointed to the grass and said cesped, He pointed to the wine and said vino. He pointed to me and said mujer. He expected Tyler to repeat everything that he said and hence learn better spanish. Tyler, though, quickly got tired of this and when the shemale decided to start a vocab lesson on the parts of the body and explained that he had both male and female parts, we all were getting red up. Nik turned around at this point and told him, "hey man come on, there are ladies present." The shemale just shrugged and said, "so what, I am a lady too!" I could tell that everyone was getting frustrated so I finally spoke up and said, "senor, im sorry but could you please just leave us alone?" Well apparently this is the wrong thing to say because he then stood up and walked over to me and I could tell that he was very upset with me. I have to admit that my mind just started to panic. I was sitting down against a tree reading a book and this drunk shemale was walking over to me and starting to yell, and I was the one who made him mad. yikes. Fortunately, as he was approaching me Nik jumped straight up to protect me in case anything were to happen (this is why I absolutely adore having Nik in our group-he is our bodyguard) and the shemale saw him and walked back over to him and asked if he wanted to fight. Nik insisted that he didnt want to fight, but was just stretching, that was all. Things cooled down from there and the shemale finally walked away from our group. Unfortunately for someone else, as we left that park about an hour later we saw him hitting on another guy who was just trying to relax in the grass.

We all couldnt help but laugh once the shemale left. They boys had both thought that he was going to hit on the girls when he came over to the group, but little did they know that he had his eyes set on them instead. The girls thought it particularly funny because we have been hit on by many many drunk guys here and the boys dont seem to understand how we feel, but now they have experienced it too. Ironically the last time I was in Cordoba, we were chased by a gypsy into a McDonalds bathroom and our teacher had to yell at her to leave us alone. I guess I am sensing a pattern with Cordoba and unwelcomed visitors...

Here are the girls that should have been hit on, but apparently they weren't nearly as good looking as our boys. Lol, just kidding, I love my girls and their funny faces!

When we were leaving the city we looked over and found a huge farm of sunflowers. All of the yellow specks in this picture is a sunflower. This wasnt the only hill of them either. We passed through sunflower land for at least 8 minutes on the bus. I have never seen so many sunflowers in my life!

As incredible as the Sevilla and Cordoba weekend was, I am much more excited for next weekend when we go to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls!