Historical Awesomeness

OKay, so the last three days have just been chockful of good happenings and fun places. I mentioned that my program would have some excursions. One on Thursday, one Friday, and unfortunately a third one Saturday that was canceled due to rain (seriously! The day of our beach trip it rains in southern Spain. Talk about Murphey's law.)

Alright, so yesterday, our art and culture professor Fernando (adoringly referred to as ´Nando or San Fernando by some of us) took us to Real Alcázar Gardens, which happen to be the personal playground of the Spanish Royal Family. No, seriously, the public gardens are owned by the Royal Family. They kick everyone out if they´re visiting. Well, to start off with, it´s gorgeous. I mean jaw-dropping spectacular gardens. I just wish all of the fountains had been operating and flowers blooming and such, but I guess it is the end of a southern Spanish summer and they don´t have a whole lot of water, even for the royal family. Anyway, with Nando as our guide, we get in a super special secret backdoor. We just walk right under the gigantic wall covered in ivy. The gate had it´s own modern version of a portcullis and everything. So as we walked along, there were some very gigantic and impressive gates and this one cool little arch through the inner wall. Reminded me of a giant royal doggie door. This is all photographed and the pictures will hit the internet at some point in my life. When we finally entered the complex after our lovely but brief stroll through the garden (with it's very own Royal peacock), it was through an absolutely gigantic gateway. Must've been 50 or 60 feet tall. So cool! In the first hall we explored, they had some serious tapestries (I kept thinking Indiana Jones. "This is a castle is it not? It must have tapestries!") and some even cooler decorative tiling. Also, I was fascinated by the beautifully carved doors separating the halls. Probably a much more recent addition though...So in the second hall there was a large tapestry of a map of the Mediterranean and the surrounding lands. What's cool was that it was "upside-down". South was up and North was down, and this is the only map in Europe with such an orientation. What's more, there were trade routes AND winds dilineated in very clear red and black lines throughout the entire map. I think I took probably 10 pictures of the map alone. We thence proceeded into the private chapel, for personal use by the royalty and aristocracy in times of yore. Had it's own small harpsichord/piano/organ thing and a small confessional. I was really really tempted to sit in it but it was roped off :( O well. I probably would've been smoted anyway. So we leave the hall and exit onto a enormous plaza with a big wall running through it. The wall separated the personal portion of the grounds from the portion usually reserved for, well, judges and the seedier elements of society sentenced in las salas de justicia ("rooms of justice"). From there, we went into the "cooling room". It was a medium-sized domed room with a little fountain in the center and benches on the walls, the theory being that listening to water psyches you into thinking you're cooler during the sweltering hours of the day. From there, back to the square. Interesting fact, the four sides of the plaza are actually examples of four different styles of architecture, those being 1, 2, 3, and 4 (you honestly expect me to remember them with all this other cool knowledge?). We proceeded into what was the royal audience chamber, used for discussions and sentencing and diplomatic announcements, what have you. There were some very interesting paintings decorating the walls, including one big one that was basically "historical fiction" in paint. Very cool. We went into another room with some cool flags and an interesting altar thing that I can't remember anything about, but I will once I post the pictures with some captions. Continuing along our tour of Real Alcazar, we entered a portion of the building with distinct Muslim influences in the decor. Grand mozaic tilings covered the floors and walls and the sheer artwork and size was astonishing. Anyway, I'm getting a little bored writing about Real Alcazar considering I've been picking at this post for 3 days now, so I'm going to start talking about the archaeological museum.

Aso, Friday afternoon Nando took my group (Group B that is) to the local archaeological museum, which I believe he said was the second biggest in the country behind the main museum in Madrid. The bottom level was closed for renovations but the first floor was filled with some pretty killer Roman artifacts. The first room had a bunch of salvaged sculptures, generally of snarling lions that looked frightening even frozen as marble. Think Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe except Aslan got frozen midroar. The next room had some very cool tools, like axes and pliers and other metallic objects I can't remember. I liked the axe heads though. They were cool. From there, we were all impressed by some more serious mozaics. These things covered entire walls of the musem. Imagine putting together a puzzle 50' x 30', knowing the general lay out, but where none of the pieces actually click together or resemble anything in particular. There were some really cool geometric patterned ones and also some with faces, including the Roman God of Wine and Spirits, can't remember the fellow's name. But remember, if you're looking at something Roman and there's a guy with grapevines around his head, it's probably this guy. Next came some seriously awesome sculptures. There were gods and emperors and warriors and philosophers, all sculpted to be biologically accurate, or as close to it. There was a sculpture of Mercury (he's the messenger God right? The Roman version of Hermes? I can't keep them straight anymore) that was some pretty sweet stuff. The muscles were flexed and even the Gluteus Maximus was raised on one side as Mercury was moving forward. I just liked his winged ankles. They were neat :) The museum tour ended with one of the first sarcophagi crafted after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. There were also a lot of really neat Christian "crosses". Before the acceptance of Christianity, worshippers couldn't openly signify Jesus Christ or God or the cross, etc. So the design became a six pointed cross, with the Greek letters alpha and omega flanking the center axis. I never really understood why God was referred to as the Alpha and Omega, but seeing as how they are the Beginning and End of the Greek alphabet, it guess the symbolism makes sense. I also took a picture of a what appeared to be jade baptismal altar, though I don't think it was actually jade, merely green.

Saturday's trip was supposed to be to the ruins of Italica and after to the beach. Unfortunately, on the most anticipated trip of our short stay thus far, wouldn't you know, it had to rain. This part of the country sees rain maybe 30 or 40 times a year, and it had to do it on our day, through most of the day. Grumblegrumblegrumble We managed to walk through the amphitheater at Italica for a while before the rain was too bad and it was impressive architecture. Like the Colisseum in Rome, the Italica amphitheater was the site of gladiator battles; man vs. man, man vs. beast, or beast vs. tasty persecuted Christian. It was several stories tall, with 3 tiers for spectators and a subterranean level for the battle participants. It could seat 25,000 spectators, nearly the entire population of Italica, which was one of the largest Roman cities on the Iberian peninsula. 30,000 people. Those Romans knew what they were about when it came to entertaining the populace. I shudder to think what they would have done had they had television. We were just leaving the amphitheater to inspect the rest of the ruins when the rain really started coming down, so we hid under some trees and then made a mad dash to the souvenir store terrace. I was wearing my rope sandals in preparation for the beach and they are the most uncomfortable and smelly things when they're sodden. They've been drying on my window sill ever since.

Though we didn't get to go to the beach, I went and saw Mamma Mia with some friends. It was, of course, dubbed over, but all the songs were in English. Overall, I liked the film, but Pierce Brosnan really needs to stop singing. I cringed everytime he opened his mouth fearing another attempt at vocal murder. Dramatic ande exaggerated? Not in the slightest.

And thus starts another week, but hopefully one in which a soccer ball and wireless router enter in, so with some luck, it will be interesting. Also, Chris and I have decided to stop frequenting BigNeb's and start exploring some more. It's time to move out of the comfort zone. Andale!