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These Days, Nico

After the Andalucia funtimes came the hysteria of finals and goodbyes, which was bittersweet and hasn't truly hit me yet. Afterwards, trips with my beloveds to London and Positano (with a little side adventure of my own in Naples and Pompeii). And a reunion with mommy so I could show her my favorite cities in Europe.

I will miss Spanish figs and oranges, which explode with crisp sweetness, and the easiness of sitting in a plane for an hour and finding a new culture. I will also miss drinking good coffee in the morning with a valenciana for breakfast while reading El Pais.

But I think I pledge allegiance to the flag. What is this, really? I am lucky and surround myself now with what I like: curious people, melting-pot diversity (ok, let's argue this another day, I'm tired), efficiency, jaywalkers, four-way pedestrian crossings, no euro-to-dollar conversion, women who exercise, farmers' markets, fashion risk-takers, political correctness, good dancers, pad thai. Bagels, good street art, dream shopping, dim sum, big dogs, that is what I live for. Hi NY!

here's Andalucia!

Hello hello, it's been a while, I know. Let me tell you about Andalucia a few weeks ago. I went to Granada and Cordoba over a weekend in May, traveling by myself mostly but meeting Jaliz in Cordoba. Bus rides are a different animal in traveling--they are like going to a tiny cinema with the same anticipation of having a good experience. Things go a little slow but end faster than you'd expect.

"Been so long" (Vetiver, 2009)

In Granada I mainly visited the Alhambra (of course), which is a giant old Moorish fortress/palace that has fortunately been preserved. On Friday I took a bus from Madrid, and the views on the way were the best I had seen in all of Spain so far. That night I went on a night visit of the Nazareth Palaces, which was a little spooky because of minimal lighting, but of course I was flanked by 500 other tourists so it was less scary. Getting lost while trying to figure out where the Alhambra was and wandering through the dark gardens at night by myself was really terrible at first though.

So the next day was the daytime part of my Alhambra visit and I found the entire place had changed overnight. What was spooky, dark, was now overheated with a lot of  children running around. The gardens of the Generalife are great with some flowers I had never seen before. I wish I could bring home a bouquet of everything I had seen!

There really isn't much in Granada besides the Alhambra, unfortunately. I did go to a super great spice store near the cathedral though, where I bought some saffron for future paellas (visit me--I'll be cooking next year!). On Saturday then I went to Cordoba and stayed with Jaliz. And I really chose a great weekend to be in town, because it was the week of the patio flower shows!

The Mezquita in Cordoba is really amazing, what I'd imagined but much better. I remember in 8th grade art history looking at slides of the Mezquita and being intrigued by the shape of the arches but I was really standing there years later in its smell of incense and juxtaposition of Christianity and Islam. Very wild.



And now I've got one suitcase packed. Writing again as soon as I make more progress!