Patios, Cordoba

Some might say that deliberately surrounding an allergy sufferer around thousands of flowers is just plain torture.  It in fact was torture.  But also one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  This is Patios--- A yearly celebration in the city of Cordoba where people open up their homes to the public.  It is typical to find a patio in most Spanish homes.  A patio is an open air 'room' (aka no roof) normally found near the entrance of the home.  Most patios contain fountains and flowers with stones or tiles as the floor.  But for this festival, the patios are decked out with hundreds of flowers and plants and they compete for the most beautiful patio.  Tourists from all over the world flock to Cordoba to enter these Spanish homes and witness the beautiful patios.

I had actually forgotten I had allergies.  Luckily, I'm not allergic to olive trees so this year has been wonderfully sneeze free.  And when I headed into Cordoba early Friday morning, I continued to breathe happily.  But after heading off with Maggie to the first patio, the flood gates opened.  It was as if my allergies were making up for lost time.  But we trudged on and visited the patios in the Juderia.  The best part of this day was finding a turtle walking around in the first patio.  Being a lover of this animal, I thoroughly enjoyed playing with it.

  My turtle friend

 Besties

I should mention that for the rest of the day I had anxiety wondering if anyone stepped on him

After moseying through the Juderia patios, it was siesta time so everything was closed.  It was a hot/humid 90 degree day, so Maggie and stopped at a nearby restaurant to rehydrate and eat.  We munched on a gigantic salad and pizza.  After lunch, we went back to her apartment to rest until siesta was over.  We then headed back out to see another section of patios.

 Fountain filled with flower petals

Round two of patios was even better.  And we were warned by a lot of Spaniards that we would be waiting in long lines to see each patio, but luckily that never happened.  We showed our tickets to each door entrance and walked right in.  We also lucked out and were able to watch a choir performance in one of the patios!

Spanish flower pot lady

After an exhausting day of walking around in the heat, we called it an early night and headed home.  

The next day, I was off on my own while Maggie headed off with some friends to go canyoning.  I headed to another patio section and was shocked to see at the first patio the enormous line of people.  I refused to wait in this line since it would probably be an hour before seeing the actual patio and only two minutes spent looking at it.  I headed to the next patio listed on my map, and again another long line.  Determined, I went to the third patio.  And amazingly only a line of five people!  This strategy of beating the crowds worked for the rest of the day and I avoided all lines!  It was great.  

 Puppy patio chillen

 

 

 My dream pool

 

After visiting two patio sections, I got an ice cream snack before heading back to Priego.  There really is no way describe the patios with words.  It is very much a visual experience (hence all of the pictures).  But I did learn the following:

1. My future home will have a patio.  It's like your own secret garden.  And it's so peaceful!

2.  I still have allergies.  Poor Maggie had to deal with me sneezing every five seconds.  And I'm sure some Spaniards wanted to kill me for not being able to stop the sneezing in their quiet, tranquil patios.

3.  You're probably wondering how they water all of these plants.  Well, they have a very long pole and at the end of the pole they attach a soup can.  They fill the can with water and then dump the water into each pot.  Simple and easy.