ANDALUCIA, nine days of travel

Hey all,
Wow its been a while, sooo much to catch up on, this is probably going to be my longest entry yet. It's gunna be tough to remember everything i've been up to, but here we go! Last thursday Sam, Laura, Florette, Biaggio (my former roommate), Sam (one of the guys from our program, he goes to Colorado College, nice guy; I will refer to him as Guy Sam from now on so as not to create confusion with my Kenyon roomie :) and I met up at the bus station to pick up our tickets and board the bus to Cadiz. The bus ride was 16 HOURS!!! Definitely the longest i've ever been on a bus, with a couple bathroom breaks and a meal along the way. Fortunately it was during the night, so I was able to get some sleep, but man that is a long time to be on the bus. I passed the time by watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall for like the fourth time (I bought it via Itunes and watch it on my Ipod), reading my David Sedaris book, and trying my best to fall asleep. We arrived in Cadiz at around 8 in the morning, all pretty sleep-deprived and sore from the ride, with our luggage in tow. Because all the hostels and such in Cadiz were booked, we were actually staying in a hostel in Jerez de la Frontera, about an hour away by bus. This meant that we didn't have a place to put our luggage, and unfortunately the lockers at the bus station were only available for certain hours, not very helpful. Not wanting to arrive to early for check-in at Jerez, we decided to head to the beach for a bit, and set off dragging our luggage. After searching for a Tourist office and successfully finding a map, we made our way to the coast, a significant walk from the station. We made it though, setting our stuff to the side and splitting off to enjoy the beach. I of course yanked off my shoes and wandered around enjoying the sand and even the cold, cold water, before setting off to do a bit of shell/sea glass hunting. Meanwhile Sam and Florette went off to a Carrefour to pick up some fruit and snacks, and we had ourselves a little picnic. It was really nice, the fresh air felt amazingly good after the long bus ride, and we spent a while just sitting around and enjoying it. After a while, we started back in the general direction of the station, stopping in at a cafe for some coffee, etc. After relaxing there for a bit, we decided it was time to catch the bus to Jerez, so we could check in, drop off our stuff, and get in a nap (as noone had slept much on the bus). An hour later we were in Jerez, a town not really noteworthy except for in its proximity to Cadiz, and its production of sherry (which we forgot to try, oh well). After much searching and stopping for directions, we found our hostel, which was actually a nice little hotel. Since Biaggio and Guy Sam had decided to come with us on the trip so last minute, they hadn't been able to book a hostel or anything. We decided that we would just try to sneak them in to ours, where they would either sleep on the floor or share a twin bed. Meanwhile, Ryan Lloyd had been trying to reach us, as he was supposed to arrive Friday morning to meet up with us. Unfortunately, problems with the bus to the airport had caused him to miss his flight, so he didn't get in until late Friday. This worked out well for the other boys, as it freed up a bed during the day, so we only had to sneak in one of them to the hostel. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, splitting some yummy tapas including shrimp, squid, and potatoes, we all took a long nap, with Guy Sam and Biaggio joking about sharing the little twin bed (i took there picture, silly boys). In the end Guy Sam just ended up sharing Florette's bed, as the two of them are dating, much to the delight of Laura (Florette's roommate) i'm sure, haha. In any case, we napped a long time, getting up at night to prepare to head into Cadiz to celebrate Cadiz. A little background info: Cadiz is one of the biggest party areas in Spain during carneval (i think I explained this in my last blog, it's like Mardi Gras, but lasts longer). The town of Cadiz itself isn't that exciting, it's really just known for the huge celebration, where everyone gets dressed up and goes crazy at night. So, we all donned our costumes; I went as a pink butterfly with some cute wings and a headband with little antennaes, and pink jewelry and such, plus glittery makeup and nail polish. Laura wore some red wings, a mask, with red highlights; Florette had boughten a kimono, but she bought it child size and despite how small she is she wasn't able to fit into the pants. Instead, she just wore some crazy fake eyelishes and a bright green wig. Biaggio found a Viking hat and a plastic sword, and Guy Sam went as a Native American, with one of those big feather hats and a Tomahawk. Sam got herself this great blonde wig, with long pigtails, with her short hair it looked real! So yes, we all got dressed up, and walked over to the bus station to get to Cadiz, getting some funny looks along the way. On the bus we met up with Lloyd, who had managed to take a later flight to Granada, and then a bus from Granada to Cadiz. We gave him a big white wig to wear, and we were set. When we arrived in Cadiz it was pretty quiet, not very many costumes, and mainly an adult crowd. We were hungry, and stopped to get some food from one of the various stands set up in part of the city. Since we wanted to be in Cadiz at night for the celebration, we had decided that we would just have to stay in Cadiz all night, and take the earliest bus or train possible back to Jerez (at like 6am). After eating, it was time to find the party, and we set off into the city. We heard some music and saw some big crowds of people in the city. there were a copule little performances, some Spanish comedy troups consisting of men dressed as women, singing loudly. We didn't really get any of the jokes, but the Spanish people seemed pretty entertained, so we watched the end of a couple. By this point we were getting worried, everyone we saw seemed more like families, or adults, and almost noone was wearing a costume. I had heard that the carneval in Cadiz lasted an extra week more than in other cities, but we were beginning to doubt that was true. We walked around the city, but kept seeing more of the same. It seemed that the party was over; we were convinced we were wrong, and that the celebrations had ended. Discouraged, but with many hours to kill before our early train back to Jerez, we found a bar and sat and talked for a while, drinking and hanging out until they closed. After a bit of walking we found another bar that stayed open later, so we killed some more time there, eventually breaking out some cards to help pass the time. After spending a lot of time just sitting around talking, it got to be about 5 am, and the bar closed. Half of us decided to go down to the beach, and the other half wanted to just walk around a bit in search of something open before heading to the train station. We split up, and Me, Biaggio, and Laura walked around for a while. We ended up getting a bit lost in the city, but in our wanderings we manged to stumble across the remains of the huge party. WE HAD COMPLETELY MISSED IT! IT WASN'T OVER, IT WAS JUST FARTHER IN THE CITY! It looked like it had been insane, this big street was just completely trashed, bottles and food wrappers and garbage everywhere, with lots of drunken people are age wandering around looking dazed but happy. It was absolutely rediculous. The three of us stopped to admire the destruction, and were approached by a group of guys; a few were Irish and there were a couple americans, and they stopped to chat for a bit. They were all pretty drunk, and just kept talking about how great the party was, so crazy, and so on and so forth. Biaggio, Laura and I pretty much just wanted to cry at this point, we could not believe that we had missed the whole thing, we were so freaking close! Dejectedly we made our way to the train station, meeting up with the rest of the group, who had also accidentally stumbled across the remains of the party in there wanderings. We all laughed bitterly, feeling like stupid Americans, and then joined the crowd of people waiting for the station to open at 6am. The night couldn't get any worse, right? Wrong. The train to Jerez was canceled, as in there amazing intelligence the Spanish had decided to run less trains because carneval is a holiday...WHY??? in another amazingly intelligen moment, we had already bought the tickets to Jerez, to be used for the cancelled 6:10am train. The tickets only were good for like an hour or so, so basically they were worthless. The next train wasn't until like 8:15, so we got another two hours to kill...great. Also, it was really cold by this point, which we hadn't really anticipated. Exhausted and freezing, we found a spot on the ground and all sat down, snuggling together and then essentially lying on top of each other to keep warm. we were quite a spectacle, what with our costumes and rediculous snuggling, but we were warm! Finally, the train arrived, and we boarded to head back. The ride was pretty entertaining/annoying. The seat next to me was of course filled with this creepy couple, sharing a seat, the guy wearing an unbelivably short skirt and making out with his girlfriend for a good portion of the trip...perfect. There were also a big group of drunk guys in our car, all dressed up as if they were in a mariachi band, carrying fake guitars and really high-pitched whistles. They decided it would be a good idea to yell and sing the entire ride back, serenading people getting on and off the train. this was amusing for a while, but considering we hadn't slept at all all night it got old fast, especially with the whistles. We were releived to finally arrive in Jerez, and began the walk back to the hostel. Because Lloyd had joined us, this meant that we now had two people that needed to be snuck in...which is problematic considering they have a 24/7 reception. Dismissing the idea of streaking or throwing a bag over the receptionists head, we decided just to walk in and deal with the consequences. The receptionist was there, and immediately stopped us to ask about the extra two guests. We were pretty tired an pathetic at this point, and just kind of begged to let the two other people in, offering to pay a supplement so they wouldn't be out in the street. The receptionist relented, and he made a note of the extra two guests, so we all trudged up to our rooms, sharing a couple beds so everyone had a place to sleep. We slept until 1, when we had to check out, and left to find some food and walk around Jerez, leaving our bags at the hotel in there storage room. Unfortunately the train to Granada wasn't until 8pm, and there wasn't a whole lot to do. We basically just had a long lunch in Jerez, killing time, as anything of interest was closed anyway. After a few hours we got our luggage and caught the bus to Cadiz, where we set up camp in the bus station, taking turns watching the luggage as the others went and walked around and got some dinner. Eventually 6 rolled around, and we all got on the bus to Granada, only about 6 hours long. We got in at about 2am, and caught taxis to our respective hostels (Biaggio and Guy Sam had managed to get spots in a different hostel right by the Alhambra). Exhausted, we checked in and fell into bed, sleeping in the next morning. Sunday, we grabbed a nice breakfast in our hostel, which was a really cute little hostel not far from the Alhambra and in a really beautiful old part of Granada. Then it was off to the Alhambra, including a pretty walk through part of the city. Granada is absolutely beautiful, definitely one of my favorite cities i've been to so far, a really great city. The walk up to the Alhambra took us through a hilly, forest-y area, and the perfect weather made it really nice. The boys had picked us all up tickets to go in to the palace at 3, so we spent a little time checking out some nearby shops and getting snacks, and then we headed over to walk around the gardens. They were really pretty, i'm guessing even prettier in the Spring/Summer time, and the views were amazing, what with the mountains backing the city. Soon it was time to go into the palace, so we got in line and were soon inside. The Alhambra is absolutely amazing, the architecture is so ornate and gorgeous; we spent a long time walking through and taking it all in. We spent at least a couple hours there, and then went and got some Kebab for lunch, very yummy. Afterwards we decided to split up and wander around the city for a bit before heading back to our respective hostels for a bit to rest. We took a little nap, and then the boys came over to our hostel to meet up before going out. Guy Sam has a friend from high school who is studying in Granada, who wanted to show us around, so she came by as well. Her name is Dana, a really nice girl who goes to a little school in the states (I totally forget what it was called…hadn’t heard of it). She was really nice, and took us on a little walk around the city, stopping in at a little place for some yummy baked potatoes as tapas. She also introduced us to a delicious spanish drink called “Tinto de verano”, which consists of red wine mixed with lemonade...delicious! We hung out there for quite a while, talking and relaxing, and then we went back into the more Arabic section of town and found a Teteria-a tea house. It was a really cool place, beautifully decorated, it was essentially a fancy hookah bar. We had such a great time, smoking apple-flavored hookah and drinking these amazing teas (I had raspberry tea, it was the first tea I’ve ever liked, delicious). After a long, relaxing time there, we headed out and headed over by the cathedral, and found another tapas bar to stop in at. Another “tinto de verano” and then it was off back towards the hostel, and we all went off to sleep. On Monday we slept in a bit again, and got all of our stuff together to check out. Lloyd had left early that morning to fly back to London, but the rest of us met up in the middle of the city for some coffee and to plan our day. First, we headed over to the cathedral, which Sam, Laura, and I paid to visit. It was really cool, they had the tomb of the Catholic Kings of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, which I found extra interesting as we just finished studying them in my Transatlantic Spanish history class. After the cathedral we met back up with the others, and decided to walk over and check out the gypsy caves. The caves themselves are known to be an overrated tourist trap, but we figured it was worth a look, so we hiked up a ways to check it out. A long, up-hill walk later we stumbled across what were labeled “caves”, essentially just little houses along the hill, but we had a really pretty view of the mountains and of the pretty white houses characteristic of southern Spain. After admiring the area for a bit we headed back down the hill, stopping in at another Kebab place for lunch…again, very yummy. By this time it was getting to be about time to start heading to the train station, so we did the walk back to the hostel, where we collected our belongings and caught a taxi to the train station. We got there plenty early, getting our tickets with no problems, and settled in to wait for the train to Ronda. A couple hours later we arrived, and we found a map and set out to locate our hostel. At this point, the rest of the program had already arrived, having flown down from A Coruna, so we headed over to the hostel and checked in, setting our stuff down before heading out to find some dinner. The kenyon girls headed out together to grab some dinner, walking down some of the little streets not far from our hotel. On the way, we ran into some people from our program, so we stopped to chat for a bit. After dinner, Guy Sam ran into us, and we all headed over to a little café where some of the other kids were to get a drink and some tapas. The tapas were delicious, and very cheap, although the service was rediculously slow. It was nice though, we had fun just sitting around and catching our breath; I think we were all releaved to be with the group, it’s so much easier/less stressful to travel with them, and have everything already all planned out. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, which was really nice, a TV and everything! The next morning we were reunited with the rest of the group, which was very nice, good to see some different faces. Our director had the trip planned nicely, giving us a fair amount of free time, and not making us get up too early, which is always nice. We also got the breakfast buffet every morning, where we all loaded up before heading out. Tuesday we all met in the morning to do a guided visit of Ronda. It was sooo nice, Ronda is this adorable little town tucked away in the mountains; we had so many amazing views on our little walk, where we also saw the huge, ancient bridges in the city, and then the Casa de Don Bosco, an adorable white house with a beautiful garden, tiling, and another amazing view. We then stopped in at the Palacio Mondragón, a gorgeous islamic palace very similar to the Alhambra, possibly even prettier. We then went down to see some old Arab baths, which was neat, and we watched a little video about how the baths worked and such. After the baths we had a bunch of free time, so a bunch of us headed out to find some lunch. We went into this amazing pizza restaurant, delicious!, and had a nice, long lunch together. After that, the group split again, with some people going off to go shoe shopping, and others heading over to check out the bull ring of the city, one of the oldest in Spain. The museum attached to it was really cool, featuring lots of richly decorated matador costumes, as well as drawings/paintings and objects related to bullfighting. Although I personally don’t think I could ever handle seeing the cruelty of the bullfight, it’s still a really interesting cultural aspect of Spain, and parts of it (the costumes, the movements) are really beautiful. After the museum it was time to meet back up at the hotel, so we boarded the bus and set off to Sevilla. It was only about two hours away, so we arrived that evening, heading up to our hotel rooms to rest a bit for dinner. Again, the hotel was really nice, another positive aspect of group trips . That day was Kelly’s birthday (one of the girls in our group), so we all decided to go out together as a group to celebrate. We ventured out, eventually coming across a big Chinese buffet, where all 21 or so of us could fit. It was delicious, reminded me of Chinese 35 back in Chapel Hill, haha, and it was really fun to go as a group. We had a long dinner, and at the end the restaurant gave us all a free shot of some Asian liquer (I think it was suki). Afterwards about half of us headed back to the hotel, full and worn out from the traveling, while others went out with Kelly to celebrate her 21st, from what I hear they had a pretty good time, haha. I headed back though, with the rest of the kenyon girls and some others as well, and had a fun time hanging out with them before heading off to bed. Wednesday we enjoyed the hotel breakfast and then met up to walk to the Alcazar of Sevilla. It was really cool, another palace clearly influenced by the Islamic presence, with pretty gardens with plants from all over (including orange trees, which are all over the cities we visited). After touring the Alcazar and its gardens, we had more free time, so the Kenyon girls plus Guy Sam and our friend Fattin (she goes to KU, really fun girl) headed out to find some lunch. We ended up walking through a really cute, old part of Sevilla, and found a place and split some paella, calamari, etc. After lunch we still had some time to kill, so we split up to do various things, Florette, Laura and I ending up at a little café, where we got some drinks and hung sat for a bit, enjoying the area. Then it was time to meet back up with the group for a walk around the city, with my Transatlantic professor pointing out specific buildings and giving us some historical background. He even pointed out the Plaza de Espana, where a scene from Star Wars was filmed! After the walk, we hung out at the hotel for a bit, and then the kenyon girls plus Marnie and Kim headed out to find some dinner. Unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of options around the hotel, so we ended up at an Italian place that was a little pricier than we would have liked. The food was great, though, and it was nice to be only a short walk from the hotel. The next day we had a group trip to Palos de la Frontera, which played a big role in Christopher Columbus’ first voyage. First we checked out el Monasterio de La Rábida, where he stayed and got the necessary support for his trip. Then we headed over to a little lake, where there were exact replicas of the three boats used for the trip. It was really fun, as we could walk all over all of the boats, and take the necessary Titanic-style pictures and stretch our arms out yelling “I’m the king of the world!” We also got to watch a hilariously intense video about the voyage to America, which we enjoyed quoting for the rest of the day. After a while it was time to get back on the bus, and we returned to Sevilla, where we had free time for the rest of the day. Despite my initial inclination to nap, I went out with a group of girls to grab some lunch and visit the Cathedral. We found a nice, cheap place for lunch, but unfortunately we got there to late to visit the cathedral. Instead, we decided it was time to get some shopping in, and we all headed out to find the shopping street Mar had recommended to us. It was fun, and I got to know some of the KU girls a little better, bonding over our love for H&M (my favorite clothing store). We all left, bags in hand, and continued shopping around for a while. I was a good, just got a couple little things that I really liked, and eventually Laura and I split off from the group to make our way back. Unfortunately, we got a little lost, but in the process we saw more cute parts of the city, including some stores displaying some beautiful, hand-made flamenco dresses. We stopped in at a grocery store, picking up some Sandwich supplies to do a picnic dinner at the hotel, and after a long walk we found our way back. Florette and Samantha joined us for a little picnic dinner in Sam and I’s room, followed by some cards (I taught everybody how to play hearts). We kept the door open, and random people came in and out, informing us that the boys were planning on hosting a Toga party in there room that night, hahaha. As our group had the entire sixth floor to ourselves, we figured we could get away with it, so everyone headed over to Chris, Guy Sam and Taylor’s room in our togas (aka bedsheets). It was really, really fun, complete with homemade sangria (which was not so good, but it was a good effort), plus plenty of other booze that the boys had bought from the nearby supermarket. I had a really fun time, again got to know some of the Kansas girls better, and we spent a long time hanging out and being silly. Eventually Sam, Laura and I decided to call it a night, so we headed back to Sam and I’s room to sleep (Laura was locked out of her room, so she was just going to sleep with us). We were all in bed (two twin beds pushed together) drifting off to sleep when a significantly intoxicated Biaggio came by, looking for the case to his playing cards that we had bothered. We tossed him the case, but he decided to hang around, walking on our bed and being silly, until we were all awake again (this was probably around 4am). He jumped in bed between Sam and Laura, deciding to spend the night with us. We watched a bit of the Life Aquatic on Laura’s computer, and we all eventually fell asleep, the four of us crowded onto the two little beds. Such a fun and random night. The next morning Sam and I were awoken by Guy Sam, who was looking for Laura, but she and Biaggio had left already. I later heard that Biaggio had waken up earlier, and needed to go down to the desk to get his key (there was only one key between two rommates, and his rommate had left really early that morning). He went down wearing my jacket and his toga, haha. Frankly, I’m amazed by how nice the hotel people were to us, at one point a couple people even went down in there togas and asked for a wine opener at the front desk, and they gave it to them. I’m guessing they get pretty bored around there, and we provided a bit of entertainment. So yeah, that was Thursday night, kind of rediculous. Friday we had free time until 2:30, so I slept in a bit and then went out with some of the Kansas girls to go check out the cathedral. It was really beautiful, very big and open, and all-around gorgeous, with some displays of paintings and a treasury. I climbed up the tower and got an amazing view of the city, probably my favorite part of the visit. Then it was back to the hotel to meet up, and we all got on the but to go to el Rocía. Rocía is a really little town, with dirt/sand roads, and lots of little white buildings scattered around. From there we did an excursion trough the National park “Doñana”, which is known as being one the best ecological reserves in Europe, particularly for endangered species such as the lynx! Unfortunately, as they are endangered, there are limited amounts of them in the park, and they are very shy, so we didn’t actually get to see one. In any case, we divided up and all piled into jeeps and went for a long driving tour through parts of the reserve. The drivers pointed out various types of birds, and we saw a fair amount of deer and rabbits…pretty exciting, haha. Although the animals may not have been particularly interesting, it was still nice to ride around out in the marshland, and get out of the city for a bit. After the long jeep tour we waited around for a while and then got back on the bus, returning to the hotel at around 9. Not wanting to walk real far, the kenyon girls and I headed out to a café not far from the hotel for dinner, and then just went back to the hotel to relax. At this point I gave my friend Elina a call; she was a friend from the Paris program who is studying in Sevilla, and we decided to meet up for a drink. It turns out that she lives real close to the hotel we were staying in, so she walked over and met me. It was really cool to see her, we walked a little ways to an Irish pub, and grabbed a couple “tinto de verano”s and went and sat outside. We talked for quite a while, catching up and reminiscing a bit about Paris. Like me, she had a little trouble at first transitioning to her new program in Spain, but we both agreed that we like it here, just maybe not as much as Paris ;). After our drink we decided to head back, as I was really tired having slept little the night before, so we hugged and parted ways. I’m really glad I got to see her, it’s so nice to have friends to visit around Europe, hopefully I will get to see more Paris buddies at some point. The next morning it was time to leave, so we headed over to the airport and flew back to A Coruna, followed by a bus to Santiago and getting in at around 4pm. We were all happy to be home, me and the other Cadiz/Granada people especially, and I must say I missed little Santiago, I’m really starting to feel attached to this city. Tomorrow I’m going to have to really buckle down and get myself organized, I’ve got an exam on Monday in my grammar/conversation class that I really need to study for. Phew. Well, there you go, my last nine days in a nutshell. I’m going to go to sleep now 
Love, Brit