So I have already been here for 6 weeks….CRAZY! I can’t believe how fast this semester is going by! It is definitely bittersweet. It means I only have a little more than two months until I get to enjoy the summer with all my friends and family at home BUT it also means I only have a little more than two months left in Sevilla!! I am trying to make the most out of this semester and although I haven’t traveled very far, with the exception of Morocco, I don’t mind because Seville is just that great…why would I leave a place so amazing!
Last weekend I had a four day weekend since I don’t have classes on Fridays and Monday was Día de Andalucía (Day of Andalusia) so we didn’t have classes. My friend Lauren and I decided to go to Malaga for a couple days since it was supposed to be such nice weather. We left bright and early Friday morning and arrived in Malaga at about 10:15. When we arrived we found our way to our hostel which was nice at first but after a little while we changed our minds…I think if we had been in a large group it would have been a fun place to stay…but it was just me and Lauren and a few questionable older men staying there and it was away from everything and a little uncomfortable. We didn’t know what we wanted to do so we walked to the beach, down an almost 90 degree hill might I add, and had a glass of wine. We ended stumbling upon this really nice hotel near the beach and we ended up canceling our hostel and staying there instead. I had an amazing rooftop view of the bullring and other monuments in Malaga. We walked around a bit on Friday and ended up just going to bed early. Saturday and woke up, went right to the beach and didn’t move much all day. It was wonderful! I absolutely LOVE being on the water, especially on a beach of course, but just being on the ocean is so relaxing and glorious. We ended up leaving Malaga a night early and returned to Sevilla to go out with friends and relax the rest of the weekend.
beach :)
bullring
The week went by super fast since I only had three days of class. Everyone in my program went out Thursday night for someone’s birthday which was really fun since we were all together for dinner, etc. Friday consisted of sleep and work, boo, and the Saturday I was off to Cordoba!
My program offers a few free day trips like to Cadiz and Cordoba and this Saturday it was Cordoba. I’ve heard mix things about Cordoba but the terms ‘trip’ and ‘free’ in the same sentence will pretty much sell me to go anywhere. Only about half the ppl in my group went, about 8, and I love them all so we had a great day. We got to Cordoba around 11 and went right to the Mezquita/Catedral (Mosque/Cathedral). It was beautiful! It has both Muslim and Christian influences and was used by both back in the day. It is huge and has just a sea of columns and arches throughout the whole Mosque part of it. Then there is this huge, gorgeous cathedral in the middle of it that the Christians used every Sunday for mass. It has so much history to it and a lot of what our guide, a young Spaniard who works for CIEE, was explaining and talking about went along with what I have been learning n my Spanish culture and civilization class so it was really interesting and cool to see examples of what we learned. After the Mezquita, we visited La Sinagoga (synagogue). It is one of the three oldest synagogues that have been conserved in all of Spain. It was a lot smaller than I would have imagined but interesting, none the less. Lastly, we visited El Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (the fortress of the Christian kings). We have an Alcazar here in Sevilla, which I think has prettier gardens, but it was still really beautiful. After the visits we had free time to do what we wanted so we went to a restaurant near the river, had some tapas, walked around a little, and headed back to Seville. I think Cordoba is a nice city but I don’t think I need to return again while I’m here in Spain. I’m happy I went though because so far, every single city I have visited in Spain, and specifically in Andalucía, has been gorgeous.
me and my friend Katherine at the Alcazar
I got back to Seville around 6, just enough time to go home, eat dinner, get dressed, and head to Cadiz! There is a company here called DiscoverSevilla which plans trips and excursions to places. They are offered to students studying aboard and my friends and I went with them to Carnival in Cadiz. To sum up, Carnival was pretty much Halloween x50…it was CRAZY! Everyone dressed up. I wore just all black, a boa, and a mask my senora gave me. There were people in some legitimate costumes too though. We had to wait a while since the company brought at least 7 busses full of Americans but we left Seville around 845 Saturday night. They had music on the bus to get us excited but I don’t think they could have prepared us. Right when you arrive in Cadiz you are greeted with huge lights on all the telephone lines and in the streets and a huge ‘Carnival’ sign. There were people EVERYWHERE along with bottles of every kind of alcohol. We got off the bus and made our way to the Cathedral where there was a stage. My mom said it is probably comparable to Mardi gras in New Orleans and if that’s true, I don’t think I will go anytime soon. Don’t get me wrong, it was SO much fun and it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience but I don’t think I could have stayed another hour…it was so overwhelming! It was so hard to walk around because of the people and amount of trash on the ground since everyone had their own bottles of who knows what. It was surreal being right next to the gorgeous cathedral, drinking, dancing, and talking to people in Spanish all at once. Spanish people must have some secret way of always staying up all night partying and then having the energy to get up the next day and do it again. We left Cadiz at about 345 and it was still absolutely packed. We were supposed to leave at 245 but the DiscvoerSevilla people were really unorganized and pretty much started a mob of Americans pushing their way to get on a bus…so my friends and I didn’t get on one til about 345 and got back to Seville at about 5:30am. I slept pretty much the whole way home and pretty much all day Sunday a well. Thankfully Rosario was visiting her kids so I didn’t feel very guilt about wasting the day.
all dressed up for Carnival
This week is just another full of classes but Thursday I leave for BELGIUM to visit Jimmy and I get to see Molly too so needless to say I am PSYCHED! Then my FAMILY arrives in Seville on the 14th so the next few weeks should be great!
Besos!
