Sunday, 15 May 2011

Overdosing on Cathedrals and Churches...


I arrived in Cordoba on Friday morning and walked around the city all day, visiting the many many many many ... Churchs and Cathedrals. They are all very beautiful but bloody hell there are many! I then walked further South to the Parque Sarmiento, which I managed to get lost in! I was looking for La Vuelta al Mundo designed by Gustave Eiffel. I had no idea what it was until I finally found it. Turns out its a metal ferris wheel! I was slightly dissapointed as I had gotten lost and my feet were hurting! I also visited a few museums such as the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa and El Paseo del Buen Pastor, which was exibiting really cool paintings by Ciruelo.
I came back to the hostel and ate soup and a sandwich which reminded me of our road trip to Patagonia! I spoke with a couple of french guys in the hostel, one of which went to Mexico and told me how he got kidnapped, robbed and beaten up after a night out. Other than that he said it's a beautiful country!
Today, I took a bus to Alta Gracia, just outside of Cordoba. It's a really pretty little town with even prettier houses. I visited the Museo Che Guevara, which is in one of the many houses he lived in. It explained all about his life from a child. Then I walked North of town because I wanted to see the Gruta Virgen de Lourdes, as the name intrigued me. I thought I was lost because the roads turned into dirt roads but I managed to find my way. Basically, it's an outdoor church and the altar is in a small cave/grotto type space. It's really pretty!
I came back to Cordoba around 6pm, hoping to buy some very funky leggins, with raindeers on them (they seem to be all the rage down here!) but everything was closed! So I'm just hang out in the hostal, waiting for my bus which is at 9pm. I also thought I'd update you before I go to BA, because I think I'll have another La Paz situation on my hands!


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Je suis arrivee a Cordoba Vendredi matin, je me suis baladee en ville pendant toute la journee et j'ai visite de nombreuses Eglises et Cathedrales. Elles sont toutes tres belles mais qu'est ce qu'elles sont nombreuses! Ensuite, je me suis promenee dans le Parque Sarmiento, ou j'ai reussi a me perdre! Je cherchais La Vuelta al Mundo de Gustave Eiffel. Je n'avait aucune idee ce que je cherchais, mais j'etait assez decue quand je me suis retrouvee face a un carousselle metalique! J'ai aussi visite quelques musees, dont El Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa et El Paseo del Buen Pastor, qui montrait des peintures de Ciruelo que j'ai vachement aime.
Je suis rentree a l'hostal et j'ai mange une soupe et un sandwich qui m'a vachement rappelle de notre voyage en Patagonie! J'ai discute avec 2 francais dans l'hostal, dont un qui s'est fait kidnapper et tabasser au Mexique. Apart ca, il dit que c'est un tres beau pays!
Aujourd'hui, je suis allee a Alta Gracia, just en dehors de Cordoba. C'est une tres belle ville avec de tres belles maisons. J'ai visite El Museo Che Guevara, qui est dans une de ces maisons. Ensuite je me suis baladee dans le Nord de la ville, pour voir la Gruta Virgen de Lourdes car le nom m'intriguait. Je pensais que j'etais perdue car les routes se sont transformees en petits chemins, mais je me suis retrouvee. La Gruta est une sorte d'eglise a l'exterieure, dont l'autel est dans une petite grotte. C'est tres jolie!
Je suis rentree a Cordoba et j'attends dans l'hostal car mon bus est a 21h. Je pensais aussi que ce serait une bonne idee d'ecrire maintenant car je pense que BA sera la meme situation que La Paz!

6 comments:

  1. This fellow Gustave Eiffel has been around then!! Ferris wheel...get it? No seriously, isn'it the guy who built the bus station in La Paz and a few other things in Europe?

    Must write something to make sure that I am before lovely Sofia!!

    xxxxxxx

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  2. yep it is him who built the bus terminal in la paz.. i just got to BA at 6.30 and have to wait until 1.30 pm for a bed :( im tired!

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  3. What exactly is the La Paz situation? Are you meeting up with Liv and is it gonna be party party party??

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  4. Hopefully will be meetin her.. and yes BA will be party party party from what ive heard

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  5. Hey there Angelique,

    The La Paz Situation sounds like a thriller novel by Robert Ludlum. How do you get time to read a book and go to three parties!(See above comment)The younger generation is so talented these days. I feel like an artifact.
    Must've missed any comment you made on Patagonia. Did you meet any Welsh descendants there? I hear the Welsh lilt is one of the more unusual features of that wind-swept place.
    I see from the above comments that Papa seems to be going to Bulgaria (Sofia) - why is that!!
    Sorry I don't stay in touch regularly but getting thru' my working days is tiring enough -when I read of your passage thru' South America I get even more fatigued. As long as you're happy and revelling in your lengthy wanderings I'll stay in touch.
    Weekend here was a mixture of weak sun, breezy days and wet nights. The early signs of summer have petered out for now. Thank God the royal wedding has faded from the press, it put me right off my food. All I heard for days in the office was talk of her bloody dress. I saw one just like it in 1956 when Grace Kelly married that chap in Monaco. Weddings do not fill me with glee.
    Hope your stay in Buenos Aires is enjoyable and you don't get robbed. Are you carrying any Mace!
    Have a great time and hope you get to team up with Liv again. Fortunately we have a few people absent on holiday and no-one has noticed I'm scribing a message to you otherwise I'd be killed in the clamour for more photographs!
    How're the goats in Argentina?

    Be lucky, be happy
    Brian xx

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  6. ...As I thought...I had a chat with my mate Wiki and over the centuries a lot of French settled in Argentina. I could copy the lot but there are pages and pages and it could prove to be a tad boring to your friends. However here is a little flavour of the Wiki info:

    "French colonies in Argentina.
    In 1857, an immigrant from Béarn, Alejo Peyret, founded the first farming colony in Entre Ríos, San José. In 1864, out of 380 families living in San José, 125 were from Savoy.[14]

    The town of Pigüé, founded by 165 Occitan-speaking French immigrants from Rouergue in 1884, is considered a focal center of French culture in Argentina.[15] It is estimated that 30% to 40% of Pigüé's modern inhabitants can trace their roots to Aveyron and they still speak Occitan.

    According to the 1869 census, a quarter of immigrants to the province of Mendoza were from France. In 1895, they made up 15% of immigrants of the province, right after Italians and Spaniards (26.1% and 17.3% respectively). Frenchmen were particularly numerous in the wine-producing departments of Maipú, Luján and in the French colony of San Rafael, founded by engineer Julio Gerónimo Balloffet.[16]

    In 1904, the governor of Tucumán founded a town carrying his name, Villa Nougués, as a replica of Boutx in Haute-Garonne, a French village where his family traces its roots back to."

    I couldn't resist it!

    xxxxxxx

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