Day 14 - Sunday December 19th 2010 (Madrid - Cordoba, Spain)

We slept way later than we wanted to but thats ok. We woke up and paid Maria the money we owed her and I brought some bags of things to Jen for her to keep safe during my travels. I called her too and wrote her a note to say goodbye. Then we had our massive packs and our wilderness clothes and we were finally ready to begin the true adventure leg of our trip. We were ripe with anticipation as we said goodbye to Alba and Maria. As we walked outside to the bus we kept talking about how we really felt like vagabonds or true adventurers finally. We really looked the part too with our 40 - 50 Lb. packs and our facial hair and waterproof boots. We stopped by a store to get some snacks and then hopped the train to Madrid. At the Tren estacion Atocha we found out that the next train to Cordoba (southern Spain) left in about three hours. That was fine with me because I wanted to buy a bicycle lock before we left so we asked a woman where stores would be open and then left for the center of Madrid for one last time. Once there it quickly became clear that there were no bike stores near and that even if there was one it wouldn't be open. The trip wasn't wasted though, we got to go inside a giant lit up Christmas tree and we found a group of traditional women singers in a parade and we followed them into the plaza. They had some weird drums that they were using and it sounded incredible and ethnic. After that we left for Cordoba on the train. The train ride was uneventful and took about 2 hours to get halfway across the country. It was late once we got into Cordoba and everything in the city was closed. It looked like a ghost town. We had to break into an information office just to find a map. With map in hand Lijah and I walked south to where it look like we might be able to camp by the river. It was only a couple miles but with a pack as big as ours we were walking slow. We were grateful that we were so conditioned from the crazy amount of walking we had done the week before. While walking we saw an interesting looking castle / village area so we walked through it. I again remembered why I came to Europe and specifically the south of Spain as I walked the the narrow cobble stone streets and admired the white panted stucco and bright colored earth tones on the walls. There were balconies everywhere and every balcony had tons of poinsettias growing. It was a beautiful welcome to Cordoba. After the small walled town we walked through an archway to a different part of the village. We saw an enormous castle with a grove of oranges surrounding it and we quickly picked some oranges for breakfast the next day. We had a bit of difficulty finding a way down off the castle wall and into the woods by the river and we walked quite a ways just trying to find a way around the castle moat. Eventually we found a way into the moat road and under a bridge leading us to a second castle wall. It was out of the way and dark and so thats where we set up camp. It wasn't perfect and I think I stepped in horse poo but it had a great view of the river. The tent went up in a matter of minutes and I actually slept quickly and comfortably.