Yet another amazing weekend has passed and I am pretty sure I did it all. Friday was a day trip to Cordoba, which is a state just north of Seville. It took about an hour to get there but once we arrived you could tell the Muslim influence on the city. The great Mosque is located here and is the second largest in the world. From the outside, it looks like a typical mosque structure with nothing fancy on the outside. But once you enter inside the Mosque, the picture above, everything hits you at once. The stone columns were taken from various Roman temples when the Muslims took over and destroyed many temples. There are thousands of them throughout the whole Mosque. The Roman aqueduct style is the basis to this whole building. The architects were no fools either. The mixture between brick and limestone on the arches are a perfect balance of flexibility and durability. This allows some give to the structure which was very important when the earthquake hit the whole Iberian Peninsula, Portugal and Spain, back in the 18th century. Also another interesting fact about this mosque is that back when it was in full use, about 20,000 Muslims would pray here about five times a day and this open area was just filled with people all facing Mecca (bottom picture)
Christians took over this mosque during the 15th century and ended up rebuilding the center of the mosque. As sad as this is, the restruction actually saved the whole mosque from collapsing during the earthquake. Although, the church in the center is absolutely amazing, it definitely takes away from the Islamic feel and no longer are you able to see from one end to the mosque to the other, which would have been quite a sight. 
This mosque was truly amazing and every glance seemed better than the next. The surrounding area around the mosque were these small neighborhoods with cobblestoned streets. A lot of very cool shops filled each store and I was also able to try the famous eggplant dish that is fried with some kind of honey glaze over stop of it. There was so much history in Cordoba and the influence was very evident throughout the city.
Saturday was spent sunbathing on the beach of Matalascanas, which is in the state called Huelva. This beach is only about an hour east of Seville and a bus to the beach and back is only 15 euro, which is about 17 dollars, so it was just begging for us to go. We got our first glimpse of the bus experience and wow was it no joke. A bunch of people lined up outside of the bus but once the doors opened, the line seemed to become a huge blob of people trying to squeeze into one door. It was ridiculous how the people literally pushed and shoved to get on this bus. I was very lucky and was the last person to get onto the bus and the rest of the people had to take another bus that stopped at several other stations making the trip to the beach take about two hours. The beach was amazing when we got there and the weather was perfect. No clouds and warm, very warm weather. Yes, mom I kind of put on sunscreen but maybe a little more would have prevented the sunburn. The water was freezing but that didn't stop most of the group to go swimming and body surfing. It was very relaxing and just what I needed after a hard week of classes and visiting monuments. It was a great weekend and so glad I was able to travel around a little bit. There are only a few weekends left, so I have to make each one count. Tuesday, I have my first game!! I am very excited and a little nervous. I was able to watch the team that I practice with play today. They have some really good players all over the field but are missing some solid players in some positions. I hope to jump right in on Tuesday and start playing like I know how. I will make sure to let you guys know how it goes at the end of the week but trust me it will be the first thing I talk about, depending on how I do. I hope all is well back home in the States and I heard that it is finally warming up so that's good news except for my dad! I look forward to sharing my upcoming week with you guys this comind Sunday. ¡Adios!
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