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Think about that moment

SPAIN | Wednesday, 27 May 2015 | Views [113] | Scholarship Entry

There's a mall in front of me: well, a small shopping center like is common to find in Europe. It was a "Corte Inglès", the most famous in Spain: Its name comes from the first shop in Madrid, they say it was a dressmaker who cut suits in the English style. Aurore, a French girl who joined me in this trip around the south of the country, wants to go inside: I accept, round here people say “las mujeres mandan”, and you cannot say no. However we have enough time: it’s too late to visit the famous “Mezquita”. You don’t know what is? Neither did I. That’s why an old couple almost shouted at me, when I asked for a place to visit in Cordoba: “Como que no conoces la Mezquita? Es espectacular, famosa en todo el mundo”, answered the woman, with backcombing brown hair, that listening to her tone of voice could sound like “you don’t know who is Maradona? How dare you”, when it was just “how possible you don’t know the Mezquita (mosque), it’s marvelous, famous all around the world”. Old people are usually right, and this wasn’t an exception. But at that moment I just answered: “well sorry…I’m pretty sure you know everything about Naples”, and we left the couple. Thinking about it now, it was already a big result to understand each other: in Andalusia people use to speak very fast, quite different from the classic “castellano”. In spite of this handicap, we were able to find a hostel in the afternoon, near the ancient city center: we asked for two beds in dormitory, they had just a double at the same price. A look to Aurore, “why not?”, we took the room. Later, we had some tapas with other friends (an Italian, two girls from Czech Republic and a Chilean guy) and a glass of wine on the roof of the hostel, while the trees of orange emanated their sweetness: it was spring and I had the sensation I was living the best of the trip. False: young people are usually wrong. I had an amazing night, with her, and I had the same feeling of ultimate satisfaction: I was wrong again. The best of the travel was when I understood the words of the old woman of the day before. The famous Mezquita is the only place in the world where God and Allah light people together, literally: the colored windows make games with the sunlight, giving a peaceful, oneiric atmosphere to the experience. Dreamlike, I spent some of my time there sleeping, leaning against a column, and again, against her. When I woke up I realized that was the best moment: I was right, I felt I was old.

Tags: 2015 Writing Scholarship

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