With that being said...My second week began/ended with a dinner with my family and my friends (a happy/sad dinner). My parents got in Friday night, and my friends left saturday night and sunday morning. We went to a flamenco show at La Carboneria which I had been to before and I really liked the dances there. Sunday, the family went to a smaller town about two hours away by bus called Ronda. I had been there earlier in the semester and really enjoyed the sights. It had some great lookout points and this really cool mine/hike that I wanted to show my parents and my brother. The day started out a little cold/rainy, but by the time we left the sun was out and had warmed everything up.
Monday was a busy day for me, but we decided to take a later bus to Granada for the night so that we could wake up early on Tuesday to see La Alhambra. La Alhambra is a palace/fortress constructed by the Moors on a hill in Granada (southern city in Spain) and is one of the more popular things to see in Spain, in my opinion at least. It has four different parts, but our two favorites were the red fortress and the Nasrid Palace. The palace was interesting because it was where Christopher Columbus had asked and received permission to sail to the New World. The fortress had the best lookout points and from there you could see all of Granada and also the Sierra Nevada mountain range behind you. There was snow!! We didn't have a lot of extra time in Granada, but I really liked the city and would love to go back someday if I can.
Once we were back in Sevilla, we did a few more touristy things. We already had done the Alcázar and the gardens, they did the Catedral y La Giralda another day without me, and we were able to do the on/off bus on another free day. It was nice getting to see the city without having to walk everywhere and to actually hear some of the more historical points that I might not have otherwise known. My last night with my parents, I had them meet my host family. It was an interesting evening as my parents don't know spanish and my host family doesnt know english. I was doing some translating and I was also lucky enough to have Christine be at the apartment to help. We had a few tapas together before we went out for our last night. I choose a cute restaurant by the river that I had been waiting to take my parents to see. It had a great view of the bridge and the Torre de Oro! Saying goodbye was hard, of course, but at this point I had around 2 months left before I went home, so I knew it wouldn't be too long until I saw them again. I LOVED being able to show them around and having them be able to experience the same things that I've gotten to do for my time abroad. Having visitors from home was something that I had been looking forward to since I had arrived, and it was greater than I had imagined.
Continuing on to the next week...
Part of the reason that I didn't have an extra night with my parents is because our program took us to Morocco. We left Thursday morning at 7a.m. to take a bus, ferry, and then bus tp cross the Straight of Gibraltar, then to Ceuta which is Spanish territory in Africa, and then on another bus to our hotel in Morocco.
Our first city and our hotel was in the city of Tetuan. This was the first place we stopped and we got to see an art/crafts school for moroccans to learn different types of craftsmanship such as mosaics, woodcarving, painting, dressmaking, and metal crafts. It was REALLLLY interesting to see. Then we checked into our hotel and we had four girls together in the pent house. woooot. Our next stop was into the medina of Tetuan and we had our first Moroccan meal. It was coucous which was a rice like meal with vegetables. At the end of almost every meal on this trip we had a really sweet minty tea that I began to love. One of the men in the restuarant did a flaming candle balancing act and danced for us all. It was obvious to me that this was one of the nicest restaurants that we could have found in that area, and that it had been picked for a reason (aka american students would enjoy the "upper scale" atmosphere. Later we came back for a Q and A session about the islamic culture. Before we set out to do our tour of the medina (oldest part of town) we did a money exchange from euros to dirhams. (40 euros = 440 approx. dirhams)
Then our guide took us into the heart of the medina. Everything was so old and kind of dirty. I felt like aladdin style exploring. We saw all different kinds of markets in the streets (fish venders, nuts, cheese, meat (with alive and dead chickens) and then just random stuff that looked like it had been left somewhere in the garbage, like scrap metal for instance. We basically walked around for hours viewing the city. It was incredible and a little scary at times because it was so different. I never felt unsafe, but it was literally a different world. We always had our two programs guides, and then 3 other Moroccan guides with us at all times (not that we really needed that many because the people really were nice there, but just to be safe I guess). Also, midway through our tour, I was chosen with two other girls to try on typical Bere-Bere styles of Moroccan clothing. I represented the north and wore a clothe skirt around my waist with another clothe wrapped around my top half as a shirt. My last few garments were a headdress/veil type of garment to cover our hair. It finished with a hat. The lady dressing me liked me and said she would trade me for 5 camels. At first I didn't understand what she was saying until our guide (who called himself Michael Douglas) translated for me. I laughed it off, but secretly I was like get me outttt of here! hahaha it was a greatt photo opportunity. I think she was joking anyways....
One of the last things that we saw in Tetuan was the tannery. This was where they kill/wash the sheep for the wool and the leather type products. There were little "water" pools which had blood in it and smelled HORRIBLE. It was terrifying. Something I will never forget even if I tried. They gave us spearmint to hold to our noses to cover the stench. thanks ciee.
The next day we got up early and took the bus to Tánger. After seeing Tetuan, I didn't know what to expect, but Tanger was a more turisty city and was a lot more europeanized. Looking back, Tetuan was def a huge culture shock and it was a lot to take in, especially in one day. Tanger is the second most industrialized city in Morocco and also the second most popular for tourists.
The first thing we did was a company visit to the Coca-Cola factory. As a business program we got to meet with some of the workers and they showed us how they make the production of their different sodas.
After we left the factory, they took us to the Tánger caves which was basically just one open cave into the Atlantic ocean (maybe mediterranean?) Howevere, it was gorgeous. Supposedly Hercules rested here after completing his 12 tasks. The cave is famous because it is shaped like Africa backwards. Once outside the caves they let us ride camels ; ) Finally we had lunch which was a patilla? I think is how they say it. It is a Moroccan sandwich which is wrapped in fillo crust, covered in powdered sugar and it has a sugary chicken on the inside. It sounds like a weird combination but it is one of the greatest things ever. You have to try it to believe it!
Our next stop was the business school. Apparently to be able to attend the school, you have to get one of the highest marks on your standardized test and they compared it as the Harvard of Morocco. We even had some Moroccan students travel with us this day, so we got to learn a little bit more about them.
Finally, we had some free time. They took us to the local market area to bargain shop with the vendors. We felt a little like meat being stared at probably because we were obviously American, but still everyone was really nice. There were mostly men in the streets, but it was still cool to see the different cultures compared. The store owners would haggle you to come into their store saying they had the best stuff, but everyone said that so we really took our time looking around. Eventually I bought an imitation wallet. Wooo
Our last day in Morocco we went to Chefchouen. This was the farthest away, but I also thought that it was the prettiest. By the third day we were getting worn out and I was getting tired of listening to the guided tours but I tried. The city was more in the mountains and there were cool water systems running through the town as well. Chefchouen was particularly cool to see because they painted a lot of the walls/doors blue. From what I gathered it was a way to keep the city seeming fresh during the hot summer months. We also had free time at the end to buy things if we wanted before beginning our 6 hour transport via bus/ferry/bus back to Sevilla.
Once we were finally back in Sevilla, Semana Santa began. Semana Santa is the holy week leading up to Easter, and in Sevilla this is a big deal as everything shuts down for processions in the streets. However, all of the bars/restaurants remain open for the people when they dont have a procession. Basically, it is a party in the street when you arent waiting for your church's turn to parade/walk down the street. Originally, I thought that this was a very serious week (and in a lot of ways it is) but it is also a celebration and Sevillanos enjoy their time eating and drinking when they can.
Since we had a two days before we began to travel, Christine and I decided to go out and experience Semana Santa. We first realized how crowded it was when we tried to get on the metro and had to wait 40 minutes until we could finally get on. Once we were downtown, we sat by the river and got bread and cheese to view the processions crossing the Triana bridge. It was an awesome day, very relaxing, nice weather and we got to see the very beginning of Semana Santa when all of the people wear their Sunday best. We did a lot of walking around the central area and there were so many people! We then went out again on Monday, but it was a little rainy at first. I liked Sunday better as people were more dressed up for the first day, but Monday still had a ton of people in the streets. Although we only had two days, I felt like we got a good taste of Semana Santa before we began our travels...Spring break numero uno began Tuesday morning.
Tuesday we woke up and took a plane to Milan, Italy. We spent a few hours walking around Milan (got to see the Duomo which is one of the coolest churches, saw some of the shopping stores in Milan) and then from there we took one of the best train rides I think I will ever have through part of the Swiss Alps to get to Interlaken, Switzerland. The next morning we woke up and got ready to go hang- gliding. Christine, Jen, and I all went. Callie wasn't quite up for the challenge so she did some touring of Interlaken while we were flying. I was the last one to go. Jen and Christine went first and said how cool it was, but I was still a little nervous to go. It was about a 20 minute car ride up through the mountain, and then took about 10 minutes to walk to our landing pad and set up. He did a few practice runs with me, showing me how to hold onto him and how to take off. I helped him set up, and then we took 3-4 steps before we were off the ground flying in the air. I don't know how it is possible to describe it other than incredible. There were two different lakes on either side of the city. When we took off the city was in front and to the left of us, with the alps surrounding us on all sides. The two lakes bordered Interlaken on either sides and the views were literally the prettiest sights. I could see the river running through Interlaken as well, and the water isn't just normal water, it was glacier water so it was the prettiest blue you could imagine. Even the lakes looked fake because they were so colorful. My guide was really nice and really funny. He took pictures and we got some great shots of the scenery. He even let me fly over the cows! As we descended, right at the end he did a couple of dives/turns which almost made me nautious (luckily I had taken dramamine before = )). It felt like we were free-falling for a few seconds when he did the stall before climbing back up in the air. We landed on our stomachs (we are horizontal as we are flying) and it was surprisingly really smooth to land.
Once on the ground, we got food, did a little shopping and then got back on the train to head back to Milan to begin our tour of Italy for the next couple of days.
Once in Italy we met up with a friend of mine (Nikki) from IU. We went to Cinque Terre which is a five city hiking tour along the Mediterranean Coast. This was probably one of my favorite things in Italy to do. It was a great day and the five cities are some of the cutest little Italian towns that you could imagine. After our hike, we made a one hour stop to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
The next 24 hours we were in Florence, and also got to see our friend Terri from school too! She let us stay in her apartment as she is studying in Florence, and told us some of the good things to see (the statue of David by Michaelangelo, the Leather market, the duomo, and then we walked in the downtown area by the river, got gelato and enjoyed the weather!) Florence reminded me a lot of Sevilla. It was a cute smaller city with a lot of shops and a pretty river area. I wished we had more time there, but Nikki and I bought tickets to Rome that night so we could try and see as much of Rome as we could in 24 hours...let me tell you it is impossible to do, but we did our best to see the biggest sights!
The next morning we woke up around 6:30 am to get the day started early. Our first stop was the Vatican and we got there around 8:30 and there was already a line wrapped around the wall. We waited for two hours before we finally got in. We saw the palace, the Sistene chapel, the catacombs (where the most recent Pope John Paul was buried), St. Peters Basilica (largest church in the world), and then finally the Piazza San Pietro which was right outside of St. Peter's Church. Please note, we did all of this the Saturday before Easter Sunday. We got to see them setting up all of the chairs, the flowers, everything for the ceremonies the next morning.
Our next visit was to the Colosseum, and then we took the on/off bus around parts of Rome to see as much as we could. The other main things we saw were: Trevi Fountain, Piazza Venezia, and a few more smaller churches that we passed on the bus. We just didnt have time to see anything else, but we got to see our fair share of the city for the time we had there. Rome could easily take up to 5 days to see if you wanted to, and I just didnt quite understand why people thought we were crazy doing it 24 hours until I tried to do it! I really liked the city and would love to go back and see more if I can someday. Also note: it has the best pizza everrr. And, it is the cheap pizza in the small cafe places that have the best stuff, at least from my experience there. I was glad to see that the pizza really was good in Italy...its not just an expectation but a reality. We also tried a cannoli in rome as a treat for surviving the busiest day running around the city.
I took the AVI (high velocity train back to Milan) to meet the rest of the girls, get dinner with them and then wake up before dawn to catch our 7am flight back to Sevilla. I was lucky enough to have three adorable little chicas waiting for me as I got off the train to go get dinner with and help me after a long long day. WHAT a week...
As sad as I was to see Semana Santa end, I was glad to return to Sevilla and be back in a normal schedule where I know I understand the language being spoken. I think we were all ready to get home. However, one last side story: we had our first true problems with Ryanair. This is the discount airline a lot of students fly and they were actually checking the size/weight restrictions. Naturally we were all over, so we all started putting 5 layers of clothes on. I looked over at my roommate Christine and see her literally putting on 3 layers of pants and 4layers of shirts (including a white tank top that weights .02 lbs.) I coudln't help but laugh out loud at seeing our ridiculous selves being shoved to the side to put half of our luggage on our bodies. Great ending to our week.
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