Road Trip!! Cadiz, Gibraltar & Tarifa

Last weekend was awesome!! My friends Melissa, Nicole, Sherman, Jill and I rented a car and went on a road trip through southern Spain. We stopped in Gibraltar on the first day, which was beautiful :) Gibraltar is a very small British territory, so we parked the car on the Spanish side and walked across the border. Once in Gibraltar, I felt as though I was in England and Spain at the same time...very neat! We stumbled upon a fun tour guide company that drove us up to the top of the little mountain in Gibraltar, where we were able to hold the monkeys! The monkey experience was really fun, they are very feisty haha. We also went to St. Michaels Caves, which were awesome caves that felt like they went on forever. There was an awesome lookout point where you could see the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.

After spending an afternoon walking around Gibraltar, we continued on our way towards Cadiz. We stayed in a small beach town called Conil de la Frontera, which is really close to Cadiz. We rented an apartment, which worked out perfectly because it was cheap and we could cook our own meals for once :) We spent a whole day walking around Cadiz, which is a gorgeous city with so much character. We walked all along the beach and had so much fun finding our way around the city. On the third day, we headed back towards Granada and stopped in Tarifa on the way home. Tarifa is a small city that has landmark of the lowest point in Europe. You can also see Africa perfectly from Tarifa, which was incredible. It felt so surreal knowing that we were just there last month in Morocco! Overall, the road trip was an incredible experience filled with many memories I will never forget! Below are some pictures from the trip!

Can't wait to see everyone! I will be home in exactly one week! It is so crazy how fast this experience has gone by, I really feel like I was just leaving yesterday. There are no words to explain what an amazing time I have had living in Granada and traveling. I have learned so much about myself and the world, it has truly been an unforgettable experience. Thank you to everyone who helped make this dream of mine a reality! xoxox

Our last ISA excursion: Sevilla & Cordoba

Last weekend we went on our last excursion as a group, to Sevilla and Cordoba. I fell in love with Sevilla! I would definitely have to say it is my second favorite city that I have visited in Spain (next to Granada of course!). We left Friday afternoon and spent Friday and Saturday in Sevilla. Sunday morning we left on the bus for Cordoba and spent a few hours there, then headed back to Granada. On Friday night we walked around the city with our directors as they explained historical aspects of the city. The beautiful river that they city was built around is called El Rio Guadalquivir. The river is navigable and was extremely important throughout history, as ships would come from the colonies in America bringing goods to Spain. Christopher Columbus set sail from the river in Sevilla. My favorite part of the trip was walking along the river, it is gorgeous!

On Saturday morning we woke up early to get started with our sightseeing plans. We had professional tour guides showing us around, which is always really interesting because we learn so much history from them! First we went to the Royal Palace in Sevilla, El Real Alcazar. The palace has many different buildings, built during various centuries in Spanish history. One of the most beautiful buildings was built during the ninth and tenth centuries when the Arabs ruled Spain. Arabic architecture is extremely detailed, intelligent and beautiful. The building does not look like much from the outside, but is incredible on the inside. The Arabic rulers, and the culture in general, did not like to show wealth to everyone which is why they kept all the beauty to the insides of their buildings. The Arabic buildings were so well built architecturally that they were the only ones that were not damaged during a huge earthquake in the 1700's. The Arabs also engineered their buildings to create natural air conditioning and heating systems. It is amazing to see how ingeniously these buildings were built so long ago. We also walked through various other palaces built in later centuries by the Catholic Kings and Queens.

After visiting the Palacio Alcazar, we went on a tour through the Cathedral in Sevilla. The cathedral is the third largest cathedral in Europe...it is gigantic! La Catedral de Sevilla houses the remains of Christopher Columbus, or at least some of them. The Dominican Republic also claims to have some of his remains, but no one is certain. One of his sons is also buried in the Cathedral. The Cathedral also has a beautiful tower, La Torre de Giralda, which we walked up at the end of our tour. The view of Sevilla is beautiful from the top. After spending the morning and afternoon touring the historical sites of Sevilla, my friends and I took a carriage ride around the city! We thought it was appropriate considering it's now Christmas season :) The carriage ride was really fun, especially since we were able to see different parts of the city that we otherwise would not have seen.

On Sunday we left the hotel and took the 2 hour bus ride to Cordoba, another city in Southern Spain. Cordoba is a lot smaller than Sevilla, but still beautiful! We spent most of our time touring the Cathedral of Cordoba, which is a very unique cathedral. Originally, this cathedral was a mosque which began being constructed in 785 by Islamic Kings. Construction and expansion continued over various centuries. When King Ferdinand III conquered Cordoba in 1236, the Catholics began destructing the mosque and building a Christian cathedral within it. The entire mosque was not destroyed, and it is now the only mosque still standing in Spain. Although it is not used as a mosque, it is extremely fortunate that it was not completely ruined because the original building is beautiful and encompasses rich history, art and culture of Arabic Spain. The mosque portion of the cathedral is filled with arches that look like candy canes! Overall, I really enjoyed this excursion! I can't believe it is already our last excursion with ISA. Time is flying, I only have 18 days left in Spain!

Feliz Día del Pavo :-) gobble gobble

I know this is a little late, but HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day (or Día del Pavo hehe)! Although I really missed being with my family and friends on Thanksgiving, I had a wonderful time experiencing a very unique Turkey Day in Spain. The directors of our program organized a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant for all of the students. They know how much we love eating turkey on Thanksgiving, so they rented out a whole restaurant and asked them to make us turkey and mashed potatoes. Of course it cannot compare to my mom's amazing Thanksgiving dinners, but it was still a great time! One of my friends, Sherman, is an opera singer and he performed a few lovely songs for us. It was truly a great time! Here are some pictures from the night!

Amigos! Sherman (the performer!), Kate and Melissa

One of our directors Manolo, Kate & Melissa

A very unique Thanksgiving dinner :)

Two of my directors, Marisa & Noelia...& mis amigas!

In front of the ISA (International Studies Abroad) office before dinner

Two of my favorite directors, Marissa and Noelia

Two of my good friends, Melissa (from Colorado) and Randall (from New Jersey)

Jill & I with all the directors at Thanksgiving dinner!

Finde en Barcelona!

From November 19th-22nd I spent the weekend in Barcelona! My roommate Jill's family was visiting for a week, so we planned a weekend trip to Barcelona for all of us. We flew from Granada to Barcelona which worked out well because it was a very short flight. We rented an apartment in the heart of Barcelona for the weekend, which turned out to be a lot cheaper than staying in a hotel and more convenient because we could make our own meals! It was so nice to actually have a real breakfast :) We made eggs, toast and cut up some fruit for breakfast! Not having a real breakfast here in Granada has definitely been one of the most difficult things for me to get used to.

When we arrived in Barcelona we spent the day walking around the city, which is absolutely beautiful! We walked down Barcelona's most famous street, Las Ramblas, which leads you down to the harbor. Las Ramblas is a very wide pedestrian street line with beautiful trees and filled with all kinds of vendors and interesting people dressed up in costumes. On the second day we went sightseeing and stopped at the various Gaudi buildings. Gaudi is a famous architect who designed many innovate buildings. One of his most famous designs is the cathedral called La Sagrada Familia. The cathedral is very different looking and monumental when you're standing next to it. We waited in line to go up one of the towers of La Sagrada Familia, which was definitely worth it beacuse of the beautiful view of Barcelona from the top. The construction of La Sagrada Familia began at the beginning of the twentieth century and it is still under construction. The whole project is funded by personal donations and entrance fees, so you can imagine how much longer it will take to complete! Jill's sister was very excited to see all these architectural masterpieces because she is an architect.

One of my favorite parts of the city was Park Guell, a park designed originally by Gaudi to be a development of homes. The park is set a little back from the city and up on a hill so it has gorgeous views of the city and the ocean. All of the benches in the park are beautiful mosaics. Gaudi wanted this park to show how architecture and nature can intertwine, which I think he did a great job of! The park is very peaceful to walk around in, I absolutely loved it! During the bus tour we stopped at the FC Barcelona soccer stadium, which was really fun for me to see! I really wanted to go see a game, but they were not playing that weekend :( On our last day we walked down the beach and through another beautiful park called Parque Ciutedella. It was pretty cold so there weren't many people on the beach, but it was still fun to walk around la playa! Another one of my favorite parts of the trip was eating at Maoz! Maoz is a delicious self serve vegetarian falafel restaurant. My cousin Quinn just opened a Maoz franchise in Washington DC, so it was really fun for me to try Maoz for the first time in Barcelona! I know he is going to do really well because Maoz is delicious! After packing in lots of sightseeing and visiting every part of Barcelona we could fit in, we headed back to Granada Sunday night. Overall it was an awesome weekend trip and very nice to spend time with Jill's family!


Jill and I with the beautiful view of Barcelona from the stairs of El Palacio

La Pedrera, an apartment building designed by Gaudi

Another building designed by Gaudi


Las Ramblas, my favorite street!

Park Guell, designed by Gaudi

Jill and I in the entrance of Park Guell

La Sagrada Familia

Morocco!! Day 1...the adventures begin!

October 30th

We left Granada at 3:30am to take the bus to a city at the southern most tip of Spain called Algeciras, where we got on the ferry to cross the Straight of Gibraltar. The bus went on the ferry with us so we had the same bus driver the whole trip. Once we got off the ferry we had to wait a while at the border to cross from the Spanish territory to Morocco. After about two hours we were finally on our way! We arrived at our hotel in Fes that evening and had dinner. Fes is the third largest city in Morocco, after Rabat and Casablanca. We were all exhausted from the long trip and went to bed early.


Our awesome director Noelia, Jill and I!

Our awesome directors EU and Manolo!