Chinese Ladies and Monsoons

This past week was a three-day work-week, followed by a four-day weekend. After some confusion as to if I would have to work on Friday or not (negating a long weekend for me), I was thrilled to find out I wouldn’t have any classes that day.  Once I found that out, Whitney and I went into super planning mode, trying to figure out where we wanted to adventure to for the puente.

At first we had thought we would head over to Valencia, my home away from home.  But then, on Wednesday morning (the day before we were going to leave), we decided to go to Córdoba, a place neither of us had been before.  We were just going to play it by ear, buying the bus tickets from home to Madrid in advance, but the tickets from Madrid to Córdoba at the bus station and just finding a hostel when we got there.

After work on Wednesday, I went home to shower before going out to Oscar’s country house to celebrate Halloween.  Bad news- the water had been turned off.  No pre-party shower for Rachel.  Oh well.  Whitney and I put on our Chinese lady outfits (approved and improved by the real Chinese man who worked at the Chino we bought the costumes at…he told us we needed Asian fans to complete the ensemble) and headed out to the country.  After a few minutes driving, we reached the country school that Josemi works at and that Oscar’s dad is the director of.  Being the director comes with some perks…including a house.  The house was decked out in red candles, a fire was roaring in the fireplace, and meat was grilling.  We spent the night eating, playing games, laughing, and being super strange in our bizarre mix of costumes.

Around 3.30 am, Diana drove Whitney and me home, as we had to wake up at 7.00 am to pack and catch the 9.00 am bus to Madrid.  More bad news- the water still wasn’t on. Showers would have to wait until the morning. Even more bad news- when we went to make a list of potential hostels we could try when we arrived, only ONE had any availability. We had to book it then and there. Then, we decided to check on the bus situation from Madrid to Córdoba, just in case.  The bus we were originally going to catch at 2.00 pm was sold out, and the next one wasn’t until 4.00 pm.  We had to book it. That meant we would have 5 hours to kill in Madrid between the two buses. It was going to be a long day.

We woke up at 7am, only to find the water STILL wasn’t on and we were in terrible moods.  We quickly decided to change the time of our tickets to Madrid to 1pm, so we could get some more sleep, get a shower (surly the water would be on by then), and only have to wait around an hour before getting the bus to Córdoba. 

After sleeping some more, we woke up again at noon and guess what…?  No water. At this point, we couldn’t do anything else, so we packed up and headed off to the station, knowing we would be sitting on buses all day and would smell rather delightful when we got to Córdoba.

The bus ride into Madrid was uneventful.  They actually played a movie, which is rare.  The movie was a good one, which is basically unheard of.  If you haven’t seen “The Intouchables,” I recommend it.  When we got on the bus to Córdoba, a seriously strange string of coincidences started.

When Whitney had arrived to Madrid this year before coming to Navalmoral, she had met up with another auxiliar  (Kelsey) who would be in Navalmoral this year as well.  They met up to take the bus here together, and Whitney met one of Kelsey’s friends from college, who is an auxiliar in Madrid this year.  His name was Amir.  Whitney and Amir met very briefly and that was that.  Guess who ended up sitting behind us on the bus?  Yep, Amir.  Not too strange, I guess. But listen to this…Amir was supposed to meet up with Kelsey and go to Valencia for the weekend. We were supposed to go to Valencia and meet up with Kelsey.  We would have met Amir there.  But then on Wednesday, both Amir and Whitney/I made the last minute decision to go to Córdoba.  Amir was staying in the sister hostel of the hostel we were going to be staying in…just a 5-minute walk away from one another.  Because of Amir, we found out that the hostel had a policy that if you arrive after 6pm, you must call, or else they cancel your reservation.  So we called. And good thing…or else we would have had nowhere to sleep.

After the 5-hour bus ride, Amir led us to our hostels (smartphone GPS comes in handy).  At first, Whitney and I had thought we should shower ASAP, and then get dinner…but we had gotten that far.  Another hour without showering wouldn’t hurt.  The three of us went to dinner, dined on traditional Cordobés food (salmorejo, flamenquín, berejenas…) and met Amir’s hostel roommates, two girls, one from Belgium and the other from Turkey.  We all had a lovely time at dinner and when Whitney and I got back to our hostel, we had the sweet relief of showers after 36 hours of not having one. Gross.

Friday morning, we woke up, got ready, and then met our three new friends for breakfast before heading over to La Mezquita.  The mosque-turned-Catholic church was incredible.  So different than the dozens of cathedrals I’ve visited over the years.  The Arabic arches and tiles, mixed with images of Jesus on the cross was such a bizarre and beautiful convergence of cultures.  After a while spent walking around, we said goodbye to the others, planning to meet up later that night, and Whitney and I went off to explore on our own.  We just wandered the winding, small streets of Córdoba, following the recommended sites to see from our map, as well as suggestions from a waiter at a café we had taken a coffee break at.  La calle de las flores was one of my favorite places.  It’s a narrow street, lined with blue pots and colorful flowers from top to bottom. 

A tiny street called "El pañuelo"

Calle de las flores.

We walked and walked and walked, got lunch at a hole-in-the-wall bar, ate some ice cream, went shopping, then headed back to the hostel for a rest for a bit.  After doing nothing for about an hour, we got ready and headed out for the night.  We stopped for some tapas, then just wandered the streets, at one point following a big group of jovenes, thinking they new where the good places to go would be…but then eventually just getting super lost and having to backtrack. Then it started the rain. 

Roman bridge.

We wanted to break the window and steal it.

We took shelter from the rain in a restaurant that a friend’s uncle works at near the Mezquita.  The food was pretty good and towards the end of the meal, we asked our waitress if the uncle was working…he ended up coming over and chatting with us for a while, sending over a couple of free glasses of local wine after we said goodbye. What a nice guy.  After dinner, dessert, and wine, we were ready to head out and meet up with our new friends.  We walked over to the door, only to find that there was a monsoon outside.  The streets were flooded and the rain was pouring down.  So naturally, we ordered some beers and hung around for a while. 

By time the rain stopped, we were tired and decided just to go back to the hostel and sleep before we had to get up early in the morning to go back to Madrid.  Sleep was pretty rough that night with the sounds of snoring echoing throughout the hostel.

After breakfast, we took a taxi through the rain to the bus station and boarded yet another 5 hour bus back to Madrid.  Again, the ride was uneventful and long.  That night was spent in Madrid with 100 Monteditos, watching a friend’s basketball match (one Spanish person on a team of all Dominicans), and eating chocolate cake. It was nice not to have to get immediately back on the bus back to Navalmoral until the next day.  Seven hours of bus travel (not including “layover” time) is not very fun.