Cordoba...or the place where we said "I'm hottt!"

The train to Cordoba was uneventful. We arrived and took a taxi to our hostel. I'd read online that it was in a great location. Little did I know that it was practically touching the Mezquita, one of the main structures

My first thought from the taxi was, "Wow it's so bright and beautiful!"

My second thought from outside the taxi was, "Good lord it's hot!" It was definitely above 100, plus whatever the white buildings and stone increased the temperature to.

We dropped off our bags at the hostel, which was quite cute. We had our own room and bathroom, which was really nice.

We headed to a pharmacy to get something for Allison's gigantic and horrifying bug bite that took up her whole leg, looking at the beautiful streets.

I loved the way it was painted. The buildings are white to act as an air conditioner for the inside, but I'm pretty sure it just reflected the sunlight straight onto us so we boiled just a little bit.

Even though it was hot, the city was incredibly beautiful.

The view of the Mezquita from our hostel.

The side of the mezquita.

We headed over to the Roman bridge, so called because the foundations dates back to the Roman Empire.

We found this arch, which you could walk up, so we headed to the top of it to take some pictures.

The View from the Top

There's the Roman Bridge. This bridge was built during the 1st century, BC and was was the only bridge in Cordoba until the mid-20th century.

Here Adrienne and I are at the top

Anna and Allison

Adrienne "winking"

Here we are with the bridge behind us

The arch from the bridge, which for some reason looks like it's a completely different color than the other side.

While on the bridge, we saw a river otter and some fish hanging out on the foundations.

At the end of the bridge, was the lovely and air conditioned Museum of Andalucia's History where, as you can see, we had to wear ridiculous bull-fighting headphones to hear the commentary.

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They were extremely attractive.

We learned about important people and buildings in Andalucia, such as Maimomides, a Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer who lived in the 1100's.

We of course took pictures from the top of the museum.

The roof was pretty cool. And boiling at the same time.

Afterwards, we made the never ending trek to the restaurant we wanted to go to for lunch. It really felt like we were walking through the Sahara. I'm from Seattle. I am not accustomed to heat.

We slowly walked by the mezquita, saw a gypsy using a smart phone, while begging for money (???).

We slowly walked by the signs that showed horses and trees.

And slowly walked by more beautiful buildings.

We slowly walked by other cool looking signs.

This was interesting. I vaguely glanced at it as I slumped to the restaurant.

We finally made it to the Casa Mazal, a Jewish/Sephardi restaurant.

We sat down and were sweating profusely, because Anna accidentally took us the long way. She'd been to the restaurant before. I took a picture of Allison and Anna and then asked them to, and I quote, "Take a picture of Adrienne and I in our sweat."

The couple sitting behind Allison there started laughing and I apologized for being ridiculous. We came to find out that they were from Seattle.

We discussed the extreme heat and the fact that it was actually 105 degrees.

Even the menu was cool. The food was so delicious. I got couscous. Adrienne got this delicious duck and mushroom dish with some sort of honey sauce on it. We had a eggplant and honey appetizer that was amazing. Everything was wonderful. We were very glad Anna made us go there.

This is the restaurant. We got there at a weird time so nobody was there.

After eating, we slowly headed to the Mezquita, which basically turned into a photobomb fest, but was an amazing building. But, that will be the next blog!