Who gets to be in college and go on field trips? Me :)
Anyways, this past week, I went on a trip with the school to southern Spain and Morocco! It was absolutely amazing. Here's my journal from the week. It's lengthy, but quite detailed... probably too much so... Oh well. We'll see if pictures can be included this time...(trys picasa..no success) ok that's going to be a NO. I need to spend more time on Picasa first. It'll happen, some day!
Note: all my quotes were in Spanish, so I'm "translating" what was said...hehe…ALSO. No proofreading done.. It took long enough to simply type this. By the time I actually finish this, I’m not going to care…
October 18, 2010
Left the school around 9 AM. Rode in a bus for way too many hours (7?8?) We watched Gladiator in Spanish with English subtitles. I couldn't believe that was one of the movie options on a school-sponsored trip. haha
First stop: Hotel in Granada. It was very close to the central area of town, super close to a supermarket, the cathedral, the tourist market, restaurants, etc. Ana (our awesome professor and one of two sponsors on the trip with 56 college students...), took us on a small walking tour of the city and around the Cathedral and then into the Cathedral. It was probably the COOLEST cathedral I think I've ever seen. (I'm saying this on Monday, and we have several more to see.. this actually wasn't the coolest...). It was so fun to watch people's faces as they entered the heart of the Cathedral.
She let us go for dinner, and said, "Be back at the hotel at 10pm. We have plans." Dinner was awesome. I went to a Chinese restaurant off one of the main streets with some friends. We had, well, some interesting food...not exactly sure what was swimming in Mark’s soup… BUT. We only spent 16 Euro for the four of us. Oh. Did I mention I was eating with 3 guys?? Ya, we did well that meal.
These plans Ana told us about involved a nighttime walking tour of the old part of the city, with spectacular views of the city as well as Al Hambra (the amazing palaces and gardens we were going to see the next day). At the end of the walking tour, the guide left us in front of a small bar. We all went inside and sat down for a Flamenco show. It was amazing how fast the dancers were moving their feet! I was so exhausted, I actually fell asleep, in my chair, with all the loud music, dancing, clapping, and "ole-ing". We got back to the hotel at 1 am. I was soooo ready for bed.
October 19, 2010 - Granada
In the morning, we went to the Cartuja de la Asuncion de Nuestra Senora. It had cool architecture, but it was kind of a let down after yesterday's amazing Cathedral.
Next, we went to Al Hambra. I could have spent the ENTIRE day there, walking around and looking at amazing, intricate designs in each room, as well as spending a lot of time in the gardens. We were told that Al Hambra was in the running a few years ago to be one of the 7 Wonders of the World. In the end, however, it was number 8. I loved to see the influences of the different people that lived in the area, which included the Jews, Arabs, and Christians. Different leaders that lived in the palaces included decorations and gifts from the other cultures in their designs of the different rooms to represent the peace and acceptance of different beliefs and cultures. Why can't we do that now?
The outsides of these palace buildings were rather plain and boring, especially in comparison to the inside! Upon entering the buildings, I found that the walls were all very intricately designed, with different moldings and carvings. It's incredible how much patience the people had in order to build something so magnificent, piece-by-piece. Everything in Spain is done more slowly, and with more care. But I think the finished product is definitely a better quality. Americans (especially me) need to take a look at the speed and patience of Spaniards. They understand the concept of taking your time, doing it right, and not rushing through life making yourself believe you enjoy running around like a chicken with your head cut off. A head-cut-off-chicken can’t build 8th wonders of the world.
OK. The outsides of the buildings might have been slightly plain, but the gardens, fountains, and pools of water were amazing! Arabs didn’t have much water in their homeland, so they wanted water everywhere in their new home in Spain. They had pools of water EVERYWHERE. But these pools were only for reflection and some were for bathing purposes, but the were NEVER used for swimming. I don’t know how they managed to keep kids out of them, because Granada has a high-desert type of climate. That would probably kill me to look at water and not be able to get in it.
We had the afternoon free, so we hit up the Mercadona (favorite grocery store) and ate in a pretty park. Picnics with one knife and one fork for 5 people is the best. Haha! After lunch, we were tired and FULL. Money goes so much farther at the supermarket than at restaurants and street vendors. We went back to the hotel, napped for an hour, and then went and found the street markets designed to trap tourists in a labyrinth of small storefronts with no way out unless you buy everything you see. I am proud to say I only bought two items for myself (besides food), and one was at this market. Harem pants. I have a picture of them on Facebook. They’re the orange and green ones, if you really want to go look for them…
Got some gelato before heading back to the hotel, even though I was freezing. (Pretty sure I ate Gelato every day… yay for being allergic to everything else. haha)
October 20, 2010 – Marabella, Puerto Banus, Gibraltar
More bus time. My favorite. So we had three memorable stops on the way to Gibraltar …
1. Bus leakage. Gross. So, here’s the gist of what happened. All of a sudden, while almost everyone is sleeping, dirty, brown water/oil starts coming out of the ceiling on the left side of the bus, and gets everyone dirty/all the seats. We pulled of the road, and chilled in an empty field for a while…
2. Marabella. Lunch stop/beach time. 1 hour. Not enough time for me to actually want to go swimming, and the water wasn’t incredibly warm, either. It was pretty, but nothing too special.
3. Puerto Banus. I really wanted Gelato. So, I went in search of a little shop. Unfortunately, the only place cost 6 Euro for a SMALL. Ridiculous!! But, I did see some pretty amazing cars and yachts in the port. Everyone walking around us was in their 60s + and they only spoke English. It was super weird to be in Spain and have to talk in English. Ana told us this was where all the rich people vacationed. I could see why. It was beautiful, and the weather was amazing.
Finally, we ended up in Gibraltar. The Californians in the group likened the border control between Spain and Gibraltar to that of California and Mexico. Essentially non-existent, but still a pain to wait in lines… We only had 3 hours or so to spend in Gibraltar. I could have spent 10 minutes and been done. There was one main street through the city, and that’s it. It was just a huge tourist trap with pound signs on everything (since it’s an English colony), making it that much MORE expensive. I ate one stupid French fry from someone else’s plate, because I was hungry but couldn’t really buy any food at the 3 places available, and got sick from Gluten. Bleh. Becka, Chowder and I wandered around the city a little, looking for random other things to see, off the main road. We found a sweet old church up on the side of the mountain, but still surrounded by houses. It made my 3 hours spent there worth it. I didn’t go see the monkeys because I didn’t understand how it all worked, and heard it was going to be super expensive. Oh well. (Not even going to say maybe next time, because there won’t be a next time.)
October 21, 2010 – Morocco
Crazy day! Woke up early, because we had to make our Ferry. Hung out on a sweet ferry for 2 hours while it took us from Spain to Spain… yes, because there are two cities or colonies or something in Morrocco that are Spain’s… So, the Ferry landed in Spain, and there was a tour guide there to take us into Morocco. Then, they told us to split into two groups, since we couldn’t all fit on one of their busses. Spanish group, and English group. I went with the Spanish group. Border patrol here was much more strict. As soon as we crossed the border, I definitely noticed lots of differences. I found all the cars built in the 1990’s and before! They’re hidden in Morocco.
We took the road that followed the coastline into the city. The water, for the first 100 feet or so out into the ocean was brown, murky, and disgusting. There were tons of what must have been beautiful hotels along the shoreline, but all of them were run down and deserted. Clearly, this wasn’t a high-traffic tourist area, as it had once been. It was quite sad, really, because the area would have been beautiful with a little up-keep.
On our way to the city, we stopped at what appeared to be a rest stop. There were two younger gentlemen with two camels, ready to ride, and an older gentleman with two more camels to take pictures with. I was super excited to say I rode a camel in Morocco, until I hopped off the bus, and saw how horribly mistreated these camels were, and how long the rides were (10 steps) for 1 Euro. I was not going to give those guys any of my money. I felt super bad for the camels. Clearly, the camels were miserable. I was not going to support what those guys were doing to their animals so that they could make money of the Americans…
We get into the city, pass by lots of interesting things, and finally stop. We get out, and we’re told this is part of our walking tour. We walk into the food market area… Now, this would have been awesome and fine, except for the meat market and the fact that there are TONS of people, and I don’t want to get separated because I was slightly scared I was going to get pulled into an alley (there were lots of them…). Meat market. Fish smell HORRIBLE when they’re somewhat fresh, but dead on ice. The melted ice was making rivers down the street, and I was wearing sandals. GROSS!!! I wanted to throw up, but I was too scared I’d lose sight of the person in front of me, making it difficult to keep up with the group, and therefore getting pulled into an alley. (OK. I thought about this a little too much. But I didn’t exactly feel safe in my surroundings…)
We walked through a maze of houses and shops and other buildings. I was completely disoriented. We went to a rug store, where everything was RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, but it was pretty cool to see all of the designs and the beautiful work done by hand.
Lunch was included in part of the tour. It was a traditional meal of couscous, veggies, and chicken. With a salad soaked in oily stuff… I got to eat the oily salad thing… Delicious. The only other people in the restaurant were Americans in another tour group thing. They were probably about our age, as well.
After lunch, we went to a farmacie. Yes, that is how they spell it! They, again, tried to sell us stuff. This time it worked. I bought Henna… because it was actually cheaper there than anywhere else I’ve seen…
After that, we were pretty much done with the tour, and just headed back out of the city, thru the border, and back to the ferry. Unfortunately, they never really checked our passports, so I don’t have a cool stamp in it from Morocco L
October 22, 2010 – Sevilla
Woke up, packed up, and headed to Sevilla. Saw the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world. AMAZING!! It had an absolutely ginormous organ. Definitely a Gothic cathedral. I found a little piece of paper that says it’s the Guiness World Records certified largest area covered for one cathedral… or something like that.
Later in the afternoon, we went on a surprise horse-drawn carriage ride through a small section of the city, a sweet park, and the Plaza of Spain. I think we were all more excited about it because our teacher was excited more than the fact that we were all super excited about what we were actually doing…
When we got back to our starting point, next to the cathedral and in front of a fountain, a group of people decided it would be fun to take a jumping picture off the fountain. I was wearing a dress, but thought I was holding the right parts down enough to be OK. Haha. Oops. Ya, that was a fail. I don’t want to find out if people got pictures or not. I was thoroughly embarrassed.
We essentially had free time for the rest of the day. I walked around the city with Becka and Daniel. We went to the major shopping area, looked around, and when we went into H&M and split up, I got followed around by a creeper with a scar over his right eye. As we continued walking, we found a market. I found the same bed coverings we’d seen in Morocco for 16 Euro, while the ones in Morocco were around 120. Ya. Ripoff. Really, America? You have to buy it in Morocco? What if it just says Made in Morocco… Sounds good enough to me at that much of a price difference.
October 23, 2010 - Sevilla
I woke up sick, but actually rested for the first time the entire trip. Too much gelato. We had church in a park, which was absolutely beautiful! The people leading out in church had an awesome plan to involve everyone. They split us up into groups, assigned us different portions of the service, gave us twenty minutes, and said, “How can we worship in a different way during this part of the service?” The theme was “Crossing Boarders”. It was amazing to see how creative all the groups were.
The rest of the day we had free to do whatever we wanted. I spent a lot of time writing in my journal, drinking tea, and walking around. It was awesome.
In the evening, Becka, Chowder and I went to a supermarket, bought some stuff, and took it to the river front. We sat on a rock wall overlooking the river and bridge. It was sooo beautiful! We walked around the river for a little while, walked over a few bridges, then stopped in the middle of one because it had lights facing down toward the water. Becka threw in a piece of bread. It took the fish a few minutes to figure out what it was, but once they did, it was super fun to watch them take huge bites out of it and fight for it. People walking over the bridge gave us the funniest looks. Here are 3 college students, intensely watching fish eat bread, and laughing and exclaiming over the fish. Quite amusing.
We went and found another café for the evening, because we wanted to sit around, journal, and people watch. We went to “Café de Indias” which Chowder described as a “racist Starbucks.” It was essentially a mirror image of the Starbucks across the street. We could hear a concert going on from the café, so we went and checked it out, but it wasn’t that great. So we went to find the Roman Ruins. Turns out, it’s just two small columns… that’s it… So we called it a night and went back to the hotel.
October 24, 2010 – Sevilla, Cordoba
Went to another palace this morning. It was similar to Al Hambra, but I didn’t think the actual palace was as cool. However, the gardens were amazing!
Afternoon: Cordoba! Ana took us on a short walking tour of the town, and then we were free for the evening. I walked the Roman Bridge with a group of people, and then we headed back to the hotel. The town was pretty much dead. Of course, it was a Sunday night… probably part of the reason
October 25, 2010 – Return Trip
Went to a Mezquita in the morning, which was cool, and then headed back towards Sagunto (7.5 hour trip with stops).
By this point, I was SUPER sick. I was pretty much miserable the whole way back to school, but I would not have traded all that gelato and no sleep for anything! However, healthier food/food I could actually eat would have been nice…
When I got back to the school and they told us to run to dinner before it closed, I was ecstatic that they gave me a bowl of lentil soup. I never thought I would be so happy to see lentils in my life. I can honestly say I missed the cafeteria while we were travelling. How crazy is that?!
