Cordoba and Sevilla
Today was a very early day for everyone! I woke up at 5 so that I could get ready, eat and be at our bus by 5:45. We all got on the bus at about 5:50 and headed for Andalucia which is about a 6 hour bus ride from Segovia. We stopped at 9:45 to eat a little but and then headed out at 10:30. We got to Cordoba at about 12:30 and we got to visit the Mosque that had been converted into a Cathedral. It was so cool to see the architecture and colors in there, and it was so different from the Cathedrals that we have seen. I really liked it, but if I don't see another Catholic Church in my life I will be just fine with that! After the Mosque/Cathedral we got back on the bus and headed for Sevilla. Right when we got here, we went to the hotel and got settled and then all met out front of the hotel to go on a walk around the city. It is so beautiful here! I love how the old is mixed with the new and there is a LOT of shopping to be done here! When we started our walk, Ricardo stopped and showed us an ice cream shop that is his favorite in the city and he bought everyone some! After our walk, we had free time we looked at some stores and got food from the grocery store for dinner. I took a shower at around 8:30 and have been just chilling in my room reading a book since then and accidentally fell asleep. I think tonight is gonna be an early. I hope. Anyways, I am going to read some more and see if I can stay awake! Goodnight! Love you!
11.11.2011
Sevilla
I had so much fun today! I woke up at about 9 to get ready and eat breakfast. After breakfast, me and the girls that I am rooming with here went downstairs to meet everyone and get our day started. First thing we did was go to the Cathedral in Sevilla. Before we went into the Cathedral we all made our wishes at 11:11am on 11/11/11. It was so funny! This Cathedral is the largest Cathedral in Spain and the 3rd largest in the world. It was so cool! It also used to be a mosque so there are certain things that give that away, like the tower that has the bells in it now. Anywho, it is a HUGE Cathedral and I really liked getting to see it. It seemed very cold and impersonal though, even more so than the other Catholic churches we have been to. In this Cathedral are the remains of a King and Queen -AND- some of the remains of Christopher Columbus. It was interesting, but creepy. There are 5 aisles in the church and it is so big that I am pretty sure you could get lost in there. Seriously. There are so many extra rooms and "secret" hallways that it actually is a little difficult to get around. So, there is a tower from the mosque that was about 36 floors tall and we all climbed up that to see the AMAZING view at the top! It was so cool because you could basically see all of Sevilla.
view from the bottom
view from the top
After we all finished looking at the church, we walked to a restaurant and ate there as a group. We all were seated at tables of 3-5 people and each table got a bunch of appetizers including pizza, some sort of meat mush stuff that you put on crackers (typical Spanish dish), and a salad. The pizza was the best! For my main course, I had Spaghetti Carbonara (basically alfredo) which was super good! There was so much though so I couldn't eat it all... For dessert we got Tiramisu!!! SO GOOD! After lunch we we all walked to our bus and started our tour of the city. We got off at random places to look around too, like Plaza de Espana where there are really cool tiled walls with the names of provinces and cities of Spain. We also stopped at a place called Parque de las Palomas (Park of the Pigeons) because there are hundreds of pigeons, hence the name.
I was taking a picture of all of the pigeons that were there (really soon after this picture actually) and as I was taking the picture, a pigeon LANDED ON MY HEAD! Of course, I screamed like a little girl, pushed it off my head and speed walked out of the park, so fast that I may have accidentally kicked a couple pigeons on my way out (oops...). GROSS NASTY PIGEONS! After I got out of the park, I got on the bus and waited for everyone. When everyone was back on the bus, we drove around ta bit longer, sang some Karaoke and a bunch of random songs. We got back to the hotel and got to have some free time. During free time, Jen and I went shopping (I got a cute scarf, 2 shirts, and some shoes), then went to McDonalds for dinner and Starbucks for dessert! Every time I have gone to Starbucks in Spain, hey have spelled my name wrong! Madrid- Liss, Barcelona-Chris, Sevilla- Elizzabeth. They have yet to get it right. After free time, we all met at 9:30 and walked through the city to go to a Flamenco show. It. was. so. cool! I relaly liked it a lot! It is so impressive how fast they can move their feet... The Flamenco show ended at about 12:15 and as we were walking back to the hotel, the whole group (all 22 of us) sang Hakuna Matata, The Star-Spangled Banner (I hit the high Soprano note at the end of it! Amanda-be proud cause I am an Alto 2), Don't Stop Believin', and a couple of other songs. We got some weird stares but that's okay... When we finally got back to the hotel, we all got into our PJ's and gathered to watch Remember Me, but they didn't start it for a while so I went into the guys room to play cards with a bunch of other people. I started to feel really sick after about an hour, so I went into my room and fell asleep. I woke up a little bit later and let the other girls in my room in. Now I am going to bed for real! Goodnight! (ONLY FOUR MORE WEEKS!)
11.12.2011
Granada
Today was long. I woke up at 9 to shower, get ready, eat breakfast, and pack up the rest of my stuff to get ready to leave Sevilla. We all met at 10:30 to get on the bus and left for Granada. We drove for about 3 hours and then stopped at a beach for an hour to get food and some crazies went swimming (in their swimsuits instead of fully clothed this time!). I got Nutella!!! And yes, it is so much better here than in the States. Anyways, after an hour we all got back on the bus and drove and hour and a half to Granada. Once we got here, we got settled into our rooms and then met downstairs for a walk around the city a bit. We got to see some awesome views of the mountains and cities and a couple of the mountains had snow!
So cool! We walked around for about 2 hours and then got back to our hotel. A group of us went to Burger King for dinner and I ate a WHOLE Whopper! They also had self-serve pop which was really exciting to all of us! After BK wee came back and talked and listened to music, then they left and I read a bit. Now I am going to read again and I don't know what after... homework? Probably not. Goodnight! I love you all!
11.13.2011
Granada
I am so tired! Today we got free time in the morning until 1pm and that means that I woke up at 9:15 so that I could go to breakfast (they had chocolate cake! for breakfast! but sadly there was no grapefruit juice so OBVIOUSLY I could not eat the chocolate cake.). After breakfast me and some other girls went shopping for a little bit and I got scarf and some presents for people! After shopping, I came back to the room and read until we all had to meet. When we were all ready, we got on the bus and headed to La Alhambra. It has 3 sites, the old Royal Summerhouse, Alcazaba, and one other building that I can't remember the name of.
This is part of the 3rd building
Anywho, that took 3 hours! I was just so tired and all I wanted to do the whole time was sit. After La Alhambra, we got more free time and I ended up going to Burger King...again. On the way back to the hotel, Jen and I stopped at a shop and I ended up buying the BEST present for Amanda (and no, Manda, I will not give you hints no matter what!). I also got a Flamenco scarf that can be used as a shirt or skirt or scarf. It is super cute if I do say so myself. After shopping I came to my room and read and accidentally fell asleep til 9:30pm. It was so relaxing and just what I needed. After my nap I went to the lobby area and talked with some girls. One of the girls and I decided to watch Grey's but it ended up not working cause the internet here sucks! So we ended up getting a huge group of people together and went Salsa dancing! It was so much fun! But I can't decide if we had more fun dancing, or if the Spaniards had more fun watching us attempt to dance.. We were there for about 2 hours and then decided to come back to the hotel and sleep! Tomorrow we go back to Segovia for the last 3.5 weeks of the semester :(
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