Morocco

Well, we're almost at the end of the semester here, which I still don't understand how that is possible-I hardly feel like I went to class at all! Monday the 17th is my last day of classes and then we have "exams" on the 19th-21st. Except...none of my classes have exams. Which is why I am updating my blog. To distract me from all of the papers I am currently writing!

So last weekend I went to Morocco with this program called "We Love Spain." It is a group that is based in Sevilla, and they do a bunch of different weekend and day trips to Morocco, Portugal, and some places in Spain. So there were about 70 or 80 of us in the group-mostly European students studying abroad in Spain (there were a ton of Italians) and some Americans studying in Sevilla. We took a bus from Sevilla to Algeciras, which is on the coast. From there, we took a very nice 35 minute ferry to Ceuta, which is autonomous city that is technically part of Spain, even though it is on the African continent. Spain was mostly left out of the colonization of Africa, but the French were kind enough to share the northern part of Morocco with Spain-admittedly it was only because they were concerned about the English having all the access to the Mediterranean with the Strait of Gibraltar, but anyway...Ceuta seemed pretty cool. We didn't really get off the bus except to take pictures at this one place where you can see the tip of Spain and the tip of Africa, but it was foggy so I didn't see anything. Then we went through border control to get into Morocco. They told us very specifically that we were not allowed to take pictures at the border, which was too bad, because I saw something really funny that I wanted to take a picture of. In the line of cars waiting to get into Spain, there was this one blue car that had broken down, so the driver put it in neutral and was pulling the car by the frame! It seemed to be going pretty well-hopefully he was planning on calling someone as soon as he got across the border.

Once we were in Morocco, we met our tour guide for the weekend, Mohammed! He spoke very good English and perfect Spanish (and Arabic of course) so we were in good hands. We drove to Tetuán, our first real stop of the trip. We took a short walk around the city, went through about 5 different markets (which is awkward with 40 people) saw the king's palace that he uses when he visits Tetuán, and learned some things about Morocco. Morocco is 98% Muslim, 2% Jewish, Catholic, and other, and according to Mohammed, Morocco has no problems with religion. Muslims, Catholics and Jews all live together and work together and there are no problems. (He told us this at least 5 times during the weekend). Also, Morocco is not very creative with their naming system. The current king of Morocco is King Mohammed VI. His father, the previous king of Morocco was King Hassan II, and before him was his father, King Mohammad V. In every city that we went to, there were streets, parks, restaurants, beaches, etc. named either Mohammad VI, Mohammad V, or Hassan II! They really love their king in Morocco.

We went to this spice shop where this guy gave a presentation about all these different herbs and spices Moroccans use for various ailments. They also had saffron, which I definitely should have bought because it was significantly cheaper there than in Spain-5 grams for 5 euros, instead of 1 gram for 5 euros! I would have bought some, but it seemed expensive at the time, so I didn't end up getting anything. I think that was all we did on Friday.

On Saturday they woke us up at 8 am to drive from Tetuán to Chefchaouen, or Chaouen (pronounced sh-ow wen - rhymes with wow) which was this little blue and white city. It's funny-every city in Morocco has a color, and they paint EVERYTHING that color. Tetuán was white, Marrakesh is red/pink, Rabat is green, and Chaouen is blue and white. Here is an example of what I mean:



In Chaouen we walked around the city, went through some markets, went to a rug/blanket/scarf presentation where they tried to sell stuff to us again but most of it was really expensive so not many people bought stuff (plus I just couldn't envision where I would put such a rug, and my scarf collection has more than doubled since coming to Spain anyway). Then we drove BACK to Tetuán for lunch at this really delicious restaurant where I had my first Moroccan tea of the trip! Moroccan tea is amazing. It is sweet and delicious and I don't know what is in it but I really wish I could make it. After lunch we drove to Tangier. On the way, we stopped to see the caves of Hercules. It was really cool but the guide did not speak English well and it was impossible to hear him because there were so many people and then I stepped in a puddle and my feet were soaked, so I was not in a good mood...thus I don't know anything about the caves except there is this opening to the ocean that looks like a map of Africa if you see it from the right angle. It's pretty neat.

Still on the way to Tangier, we stopped and rode camels! It wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be, but only because it wasn't a real camel ride. We each got to ride for about a minute in a circle around this little spot on the side of the road. Every time you want to get on or off the camel, they have to sit down. So the poor camels had to stand up and sit down every minute! They were not very happy about it, and I wouldn't be either.

Finally we made it to Tangier, where they gave us some free time in the center of Tangier for shopping. I hate haggling, and I didn't really see anything that I wanted to buy, so I left with only 2 postcards! Finally we reached our hotel, which was very strangely shaped. Our room was in a basement of sorts and when we looked outside we saw...camels. Just chilling in the yard by the hotel. They weren't wild, but I'm still not really sure what they were doing there. We went to a show with Arabian horses and other traditional performers (belly dancers, some dude that balanced a plate of candles on his head) but the camels were not involved. We had more tea with dinner that night, and it was delicious!

On Sunday we woke up late, drove back to the border, went through border control, ate lunch in Ceuta, took the ferry back to Algeciras, drove back to Sevilla, frantically took a taxi to the train station, and barely made our train back to Córdoba. All in all it was a pretty exciting weekend.

Granada

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Granada with my program. We spent 2 days and 1 night there, and it was fantastic! The first thing we did was the Alhambra, the world-renown attraction that is a walled-in fortress containing the palaces of Moorish Sultans and some beautiful gardens. Since our bus was late picking us up from Córdoba, we almost didn't get to see the Alhambra, because we had missed our reserved time. Fortunately, we were able to use our connections to get in at a later time. However, since we were late, that threw off our entire schedule for the day. After the Alhambra we were supposed to see the Capilla Real, where Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic Monarchs (the Inquisition and all that) are buried, and Granada's cathedral. We did get to see both of those things, but our visit was cut short because some people wanted to go sit in the hotel rather than see stuff. That night, we took a walk in the Albycín, a neighborhood with small, windy streets that has a beautiful view of the Alhambra. Even though we got very lost on the way back, it was definitely worth it!


View of the Alhambra at night!

The next day, we went on a tour of Federico García Lorca's house in Fuente Vaqueros, which was really not that cool because FGL only lived there until he was 7. There was a cool exhibit there with some of his poetry, which was worth seeing. We then went to a park with some mini palm trees and pretty flowers and spent some time there. Then we had a very expensive and not very delicious lunch...and then we got very delicious ice cream...and then we got on the bus to go home...and that was Granada!


Generalife-one of the gardens inside the Alhambra

The rest of Semana Santa...and more!

Well Semana Santa was so long ago now that I hardly remember what happened! I shall just write the highlights in order to catch up.

Tuesday March 30: Last day in London. We went to Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, and had tea at this really fancy tea place that wouldn't let us take pictures. That night we saw Chicago, which was a mistake because Chicago is a very American musical and the Brits just don't have the accent quite right.

Wednesday March 31: Spent all day on the bus from London to Edinburgh. It was a 10 hour trip, but it didn't seem that long for some reason. It was really cool to see all the English countryside as we went by. We got to Edinburgh and checked into our hostel, which was a great find. Called Castle Rock Hostel, it was voted the #1 hostel in Scotland for 2009, and with good reason! The rooms and bathrooms were very clean, the people were very friendly, and the location couldn't be better-right at the base of the... rock...that the castle was on! That night we did a "Ghost Tour" which was a walking tour around some of the haunted parts of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was a crazy Canadian girl named Kate who told us lots of very entertaining stories.

Thursday April 1: We did a free walking tour of Edinburgh during the day, also with Kate the crazy Canadian. It was a 4-hour long tour but for some reason it didn't seem that long! We went all around the city and learned some really interesting things that I'm not going to recount because a) I don't remember a lot of them and b) I'm supposed to be just writing the highlights. I forget what we did that afternoon but I'm sure it was fun. That night, we did a tour of a "close," which is somebody's former house in an underground city!

Friday April 2: Started the day with a tour of Edinburgh Castle: definitely worth it, although the lack of student discounts was disappointing. Then we walked all the way down the Royal Mile (the main tourist street in the Old Town of Edinburgh that has the Castle on one end and the Palace of Holyrood House on the other) to go to the palace. As our luck would have it, we happened to be there on one of the 3 days that the Palace is closed during the year (Christmas, Boxing Day, and Good Friday), so we couldn't go in. Fortunately, I noticed a large mountain behind the palace that people appeared to be hiking up, so I convinced Courtney that it would be a fun idea to hike up a mountain instead of visiting the palace. She agreed, and we started climbing up the very muddy slope of what I later learned was an extinct volcano. The views of Edinburgh from the top of Arthur's Seat (the name of the mountain-volcano thing) were absolutely incredible! Plus, I was so tired from the hiking that I was more than happy to sit on the bus for another 9ish hours that night on the way back to London.

Saturday April 3: Got to London Victoria Station at about 6 am. Took a train to the airport, sat there for a couple hours, and then flew back to Málaga! All in all a very successful trip with no travel glitches like the last time!

Sunday April 4: Easter! Holy week (Semana Santa) in Spain is a huge deal, but Easter is surprisingly not a big deal. I went to Easter Mass at the "cathedral" in Córdoba (the Mezquita with the cathedral in it) because 2 of my friends who are not Catholic wanted to go to church on Easter and they wanted someone to go with them who would know what to do so they wouldn't stand out. They didn't really need to worry about that though, because most of the people there were tourists and quite a few of them were definitely not Catholic. Other than that, I didn't do anything Easter-like except eat a chocolate Cadbury egg that I had bought in London.

Semana Santa in London and Edinburgh!

I am definitely going to have to break up this entry because I have done so much in the past week that I cannot possibly fit it all in one entry. So Saturday I returned from my spring break trip to London and Edinburgh. I had a great time-met up with some old friends, made some new friends, and saw some really cool things.

Last Saturday, I woke up at 6 am, took the train from Córdoba to Málaga, then took a train from the train station to the airport, and then flew to London, where I met up with my friend Courtney from Mount Holyoke, who is studying abroad in Finland this semester! We stayed at Palmer's Lodge, which is a relatively nice hostel, though it was somewhat out of the city. Fortunately, there was a metro station really close by, so we were able to navigate our way around the city very easily. After we checked into the hostel the first day, we met up with Lynne, Claire, and Dan in Leicester Square for dinner and a show. Unfortunately, since it was a Saturday night, all the places we tried to go for dinner were full, so we ended up running around for an hour and finally grabbing a quick bite at Victoria Station before heading to the theater. We saw Wicked-I had already seen it, but it is one of my favorite shows, so I was only too happy to see it again. They did a really good job with it too.

The next day, we went to the Westminster area of the city to see Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, and the outside of Westminster Abbey. We didn't go in Westminster Abbey this day because it was Sunday, so it was mostly closed to tourists. We walked around this general area for a while, and then we went to the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground bunker where Winston Churchill and his government planned their strategy during World War II. Afterward, we did some more walking and met up with Lynne, Claire and Dan for lunch-we got to go to a real pub this time. It was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and it was an authentic, delicious English pub. We had to wait an hour for a table, so while we waited, we walked up to Saint Paul's Cathedral. Since it was Sunday, it was also technically closed, but if you say that you're going in to pray, then you can go in and see certain parts of the church. So that was a nice little visit. After lunch, we walked to the Tower of London, but by that time it was 4:30, and the tower closes at 5:30, and they recommend at least 3 hours to see the whole thing, so we decided not to go. Instead, we went to Harrods! Somehow, I left without buying a single thing except for a Diet Coke! I was very proud of myself. Then we went to Covent Garden, which is the Fanueil Hall of London. We sat outside and enjoyed a glass of wine while listening to a group of street performers playing various string instruments. We didn't eat dinner that night because we were still so full from lunch, so we just walked around some more-we saw the Royal Opera House and Trafalgar Square, and then we went back to the hostel.

On Monday, we had a plan. We went straight to the Tower of London first thing in the morning, spent the required 3 hours there doing the beefeater tour, seeing the Crown Jewels, and just walking the grounds of the Tower. Then we went to lunch at this little sandwich places that Rick Steves recommended-and it was delicious! Always trust Rick Steves-though apparently there was one restaurant in Rome that he recommended that people don't like at all! Anyway, after lunch, we went to the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Unfortunately, since it is an open air theater, they only have plays from April-October, so we couldn't see a show there. We did do the tour, however, which was pretty cool. Then we went to the Imperial War Museum for a little while, and then we went to dinner at this pub called The Lord Moon of the Mall pub. It was also Rick Steves recommended, and it was absolutely delicious! Good cheap food and cheap beer.

Okay, I think that's enough for one entry. Stay tuned for the next one!

Nick's visit & Sevilla!

Last week, Nick was here on his spring break, and even though I had classes, we still got to hang out and see some really cool things. On Saturday morning I picked Nick up at the airport in Madrid! We stayed in Madrid for the weekend, and it was actually sunny and warm for a change. Saturday night we went to el Museo del Jamón, and then el Museo del Vino, neither of which are actually museums. In fact, they are both restaurants- Museo del Jamón is a tapas bar, where we got drinks and 2 sandwiches-very delicious! Museo del Vino was more of a sit-down place-we each got a Menu del Día and I don't remember exactly what we ate, but I remember it being delicious. The next day we went to Starbucks and got a frappuccino (don't judge, Córdoba doesn't have a Starbucks so it's not like I go there every day) and then we walked in the Parque del Buen Retiro- it's this huge park behind the Prado Museum and it is filled with the coolest and weirdest trees and plants. These trees look fake, but they aren't.



After we walked in the park for a while, we went to the train station and took the train to Córdoba! We spent the week in (fittingly) Hotel Boston, a nice little hotel right in the center of the modern part of Córdoba known as Plaza de las Tendillas. We did quite a bit of walking around Córdoba, and we went to the Mezquita, the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (The Christian Kings' Castle), Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and other various adventures into parts of Córdoba that I had never been before! Somehow Nick managed to find his way around the city better than I can-and I've been here for almost 2 months! It's not fair.

On Friday we went to Sevilla for the day. The weather was GORGEOUS-probably 75 degrees F. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see very much in Sevilla, because the president of Spain, Zapatero, was in town for a meeting with his government ministers. They had the meeting at the Alcázar, so we didn't get to see it, which was really disappointing, because I've heard that the Alcázar has even nicer gardens than the one in Córdoba! Oh well, I get to go back in a few weeks when my family comes to visit! We did get to see the Cathedral in Sevilla. It's a huge gothic cathedral-the 3rd largest in the world! There is a really cool tower that people can climb up, but because it was a holiday in Madrid, everyone and their mother came to Sevilla for the day, so the line was really long! Another thing to do when I go back. The cathedral houses the remains of Christopher Columbus-supposedly. I forget exactly what the story is, but somehow his remains were confused with his son Diego because originally they were both buried in Havana, Cuba, the last remaining Spanish colony. After Cuba became independent, Spain wanted Columbus' remains back, so they shipped them back, but according to some, they shipped back Diego's remains instead, which Spain refused to believe. So for a while, both Spain and Cuba claimed that they had Christopher Columbus' remains. Recently, they did a DNA test with the remains in the cathedral in Sevilla and compared them to the remains of Columbus' OTHER son, who was definitely buried in the cathedral. The relationship between the DNA confirmed that the remains belonged to a father and a son, thus putting an end to the battle over Columbus.

So that was last week. This week was just another regular week in Córdoba...classes and dance and such. Semana Santa (Holy Week) starts today in Spain, so everyone is on vacation! Tomorrow morning I am going to LONDON to meet up with Courtney from Mount Holyoke! Can't wait!

Quick Entry

It's so weird to think that I've already been in Spain for a month. It still feels like I just got here. I finally have a routine for the week that is fairly consistent. I don't have more than 2 classes per day, and Monday-Wednesday I either have flamenco, sevillanas (another traditional type of dance) or both. I was really committed to trying some new things this semester, and look what happened-I end up taking 2 dances classes! I am trying something new though-tomorrow I am going to a cooking class to learn how to make paella! We cook for 2 hours and then we get to eat what we make. In the last cooking class they made sangria, which I was very sad to miss. But then again I was in Italy, so I wasn't that sad. On Saturday I am heading to Madrid again to meet up with Nick, who is coming to Spain for his spring break!

In other news, it has FINALLY stopped raining here in Córdoba! I think they are expecting another few days of rain in the near future before it really starts turning nice, but it's definitely a welcome change to see sunshine on the weather forecast for the week!

Well, I think that's all I have for the moment. A week from tomorrow we are going to Sevilla for the day, so I will be able to talk about that in my next entry! Hasta pronto!

Italia!

So this weekend I went to Italy with Alex, another PRESHCO student. We had a BLAST except for some minor transportation issues that resulted in us living in airports for a couple of days, eating way too much junk food and not sleeping. But other than that, we had a great weekend! We stayed at a hostel in Rome that was close to the train station, and since we got the "Roma Pass," we could take the metro as many times as we wanted for free within 3 days. In addition, we got free entry to the Colosseum, Forum, and Palantine Hill, all of which were really cool. Our tour guide for the Colosseum was less than entertaining...he kept pointing out really inappropriate things and making bad jokes. Here's me with a gladiator outside the Colosseum!



After we saw the Colosseum we were supposed to follow the same guide to the Forum, but we hadn't eaten lunch yet so we ditched the group and found a restaurant nearby that had really good pizza. After lunch we went back to the Forum to try to meet up with another group, but it didn't seem like there were any, so we walked around by ourselves, with the help of Rick Steves. We stayed in the forum until it closed, and then we went back to the hostel, where they had a pasta party! We got pesto that was quite delicious. After dinner, we saw the Spanish Steps, Trevvi Fountain, and we ate our first gelato of the trip! Unfortunately, in our eagerness for gelato, we went to a chain restaurant where only half of the ice cream was gelato and the other half was just regular sorbet. It was still pretty good though.

The next day, we took the fast train to Florence for the day! We went to the Accademia and saw David, which is bigger and far more impressive than I had ever imagined. The sculpture room was also pretty cool-hundreds of plaster sculptures that served as the rough draft before the actual stone or cement statue was created. We had lunch at Za-Za's, a really delicious restaurant that I have now been to three times in my life! I ate gnocci and a caprese salad, which were absolutely delicious! After lunch, we went to the duomo, which is the big cathedral in the center of the city. We elected not to climb the dome even though it was an option, because we were planning on climbing St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican the next day! After the duomo, we walked for miles and miles down by the river, crossing back and forth until we got to the Ponte Vecchio. We also went to Vivoli for gelato, which is one of the best (if not the best) gelato places in Florence :-D

On Sunday, we got up early to go to the Vatican, but not nearly as early as we probably should have. The line for the Vatican Museum (Sistene Chapel, etc) was 3 1/2 hours long and it went all the way from the entrance of the museum to St. Peter's Square! At first we weren't planning on doing a guided tour, but when we realized that the tours get to skip the line, (and since admission was free anyway since it was the last Sunday of the month so all we had to pay for was the tour) we decided to join a tour group. Definitely one of the best decisions we made on the trip. Our tour guide's name was Mateo, and he was excellent! He really knew his stuff and he was really passionate about it. I actually learned a lot that I definitely would not have learned if we had gone by ourselves. The museum was really cool in general, but of course the most amazing thing was the Sistene Chapel. They say that you aren't allowed to take photos in there but EVERYONE does-and some people even leave the flash on! Scandalous! What is perhaps most impressive about the Sistene Chapel is that Michelangelo wasn't even a painter-he was a sculptor! He had never painted anything before in his life! And since he was painting a fresco, there was literally ZERO room for error, because if you have to fix one spot, everything around it will be ruined. In fact, Michelangelo only made one error in the whole damn thing-in the first panel he painted, he made the people too small. What a travesty! So anyway, in addition to the Vatican Museum, we also went in St. Peter's Basilica AND climbed the dome! Check out this picture that I took from the very top: you can see all of Rome!



Later on, we went to the Pantheon and on our way we stopped for gelato. We saw this gelato place that was very crowded, so we assumed it must be good, so we went in. It was definitely the best gelato I have ever had in my entire life. Later on, we learned that the place we had been to was Giolitti, the oldest and most famous gelato place in all of Rome! Sweet!

And now the nightmare begins! The next morning we made it to the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight. Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:15, and we were at the gate by 9. Our tickets said that the flight was leaving at 10:15, but the board said 10:40, so we assumed that there was a slight delay, so we sat there, waiting for them to call our flight. At 10:15 we still hadn't boarded, so I went to ask the woman at the counter what time the flight would be boarding. Her response? The flight left 5 minutes ago! Aaaaaaaaah! Not only did they not announce the flight, we did not see any people lining up to get on the plane! It was probably because all of them missed the flight as well-I know of at least 20 people who were in the same situation as us, and all of them were very angry. So we had to find a new flight home. Easyjet only had one other flight to Madrid that day, and it was completely full, so we had to find a different airline and pay for a whole new ticket. We ended up with Vueling, and the plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:45 pm, nearly 12 hours later than our intended departure time. So what did we do? We sat. In the airport. All. Day. Long. When our plane finally left, we arrived in Madrid at 11:30 pm. Of course, there are no buses or trains at that hour, so we sat in Madrid's airport. All. Night. Long. At 6 am, when the metro opened, we left the airport and went to the train station, where we got on the first train we could get back to Córdoba! Oh man. We were traveling for over 24 hours straight. I'm so glad to be back in Córdoba again!