Merida

POSTCARD SCRIBBLES:

Good evening!

We made it to Merida and it is INCREDIBLE; rife with Roman ruins and alive with eclectic art and archaeology.

For 12€ you can get an open-ended ticket to see different sites around the city: the Theatre and Amphitheatre, the Roman Circus, Santa Eulalia’s cript, and the old Alcazaba, to name but a few. There are also many monuments and museums that are free. One day is NOT enough to see it all, but thankfully we can come back and use our ticket at any point, so we’re thinking of coming back in spring for a weekend, hopefully when the cherry blossom explodes into bloom in the surrounding country-side; a sight I’ve wanted to see since a student waxed-lyrical about its beauty a few years ago.

We parked Rita-the-van by the side of Merida U. D. Football stadium, and started our tour with the Amphitheatre. It is incredibly well preserved and they have reconstructed one side of the seating area, so you can get a better idea of what it must have looked like originally, although it is still missing the top rows of seats (where the bricks and stones had been dug up and used as a quarry). The centre of the Amphitheatre has a ditch that was once thought to have been filled with water, in order for the Romans to re-enact sea battles (although this was later disproved), and small rooms still exist at the various entrances into the ring, where animals and gladiators supposedly waited their turn. There is a really good display of some of the different types of gladiators, and an explanation of their costumes, fighting techniques and opponents.

Right next to the Amphitheatre is the Theatre which is breathtaking, fully reconstructed, and since the 1930s (I think?), has been reclaimed as a theatre space again, where every summer they hold the Merida Festival de Teatro Clasico.

After satisfying our thirst for roman ruins, we picnicked next to the Roman bridge that arcs over the river Guadiana. 

Finally we visited the old Alcazaba, a perfect place, we decided, to hide out if attacked by zombies, and also home to an amazing aljibe, an underground pool that filtered water from the river through a series of rocks, for the residence of the Alcazaba.

We finished the day off in a teeny tiny village called Mirandilla, where we found THE ONLY bar with wifi. It was also full of men -ONLY men- and we came to the conclusion that I was literally the only girl in the entire pueblo. The men in the bar were all watching the Olympics (women fighting women... had to be!) and the barman (possibly to stop a riot), guided us to the 'salon' part of the bar... a large enclosed space far away from everyone else hahaha!

Have you ever been to Merida? What did you think of it?

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