Una visita a Lorca - "A visit to Lorca"

Yesterday, a group of about 15 exchange students with origins in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium, and others went on an excursion to a nearby small town called Lorca. We knew very little about the city except that it was exceptionally cheap for round trip bus tickets to get there (for a trip over an hour each way) and we knew that there was a castle there. That was enough for us!

The town: Pretty small, very cold, great buildings and history. We arrived at the Lorca bus station at about 11 am equipped with walking shoes, a brown bag lunch for later, cameras, and eager minds. We explored the city a little bit, taking pictures of all the beautiful and history-rich buildings. We stopped at a plaza with a large fountain and decided to have our lunches there. After taking even more pictures, we packed up and started our hike to the top of the hill of the city, where an ancient castle was looming above the city. We listened to some classic Spanish singing and guitar playing on the street as we walked through the main city towards our destination. We also came across a gorgeous church "Iglesia Santa Maria" that caught our attention for a while.

The castle: It wasn’t an exceptionally large, beautiful, or extremely important castle, but it was a castle, and it did hold a lot of history for Spain. Known as “La Fortaleza del Sol” or “Fortress of the Sun”, the castle is of Arabic origin and dates back to the 13th century. It was a fortress to protect the city of Lorca. The castle also marked the border between the Christian and Muslim kingdoms. The city itself lived for many years as a mixture of these religious cultures. The castle had a lot of exhibitions. They also use it for entertainment events, historical teachings, etc. Here’s me picking an orange at the castle. These orange trees are all over the region of Murcia. On the way back from the castle, we visited a tiny home built into the hill where the castle is. One of the girls in our group had to use their bathroom earlier in the trip, and the family asked that the entire group come by to say hi. A woman with eight daughters and no sons greeted us with open arms, explained some history of her family, some of the buildings surrounding her home and the castle, and gave us some information about Lorca. Her daughter was holding a 2 day old puppy which of course caught all of our attention. It was a great experience to see how a local lives, view how open and nice they are, and to get a piece of history that we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.