Excursion to Ronda & Malaga

Last weekend we went on our first excursion with our program to two cities in southern Spain, Ronda and Malaga. The first day we toured Ronda for the afternoon. Ronda is a small but gorgeous city in the mountains. Ronda is famous for a bridge that Ernest Hemingway wrote about in his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, which takes place in Ronda. During our walking tour of Ronda we visited Los baños Arabes, the Arab baths. This was one of my favorite parts of the walking tour because of how amazing the baths are. These baths mimic ancient Roman baths in that they have three separate rooms, the hot room, warm room and cold room. The Arabic people would use these baths frequently in the past, men in the morning and women and children in the afternoon. These baths exemplify the Arabic influence in southern Spain, a very interesting part of Spain's history. When the Christians southern Spain the idea and purpose of the baths changed completely. The baths were looked down upon and became an area of town inhabited by prostitutes. After visiting the baths, which are now a museum, we visited a mansion in Ronda that had spectacular views of the valley below. The inside patio of this mansion was built to create a natural air conditioning and heating system in the house. The house always stays the same temperature, no matter what the weather is like outside, as they use a patio cover to control the amount of light that enters the home. Very environmentally friendly, I would love to build a house like that one day, imagine the amount of electricity they save!

After visiting Ronda for the afternoon we got back on the bus to head to Malaga. After checking into our hotel a group of my friends and I walked down to the beach to watch the beautiful sunset! The next day we went on a long walking tour of Malaga and learned all about the rich history of this city. We visited the Alcazaba, which is another palace like the Alhambra (the one in Granada). The Alcazaba has more Roman influence than the Alhambra and even has a Roman theater that was awesome to see. Malaga also has many museums dedicated to Picasso because he was born there. We saw many different signs dedicated buildings to him and explaining what he did inside those buildings, such as where he was baptized.

Overall I really enjoyed our trip to Ronda and Malaga, it was awesome to see other cities in southern Spain. We still have two more excursions with our program in November, to Alpujarras (a pueblo in the mountains of Granada) and another excursion to Sevilla & Cordoba (two more cities in southern Spain). My roommate Jill's parents and sister are coming to visit over Thanksgiving break. We just planned a trip to Barcelona for a weekend, which I am really excited about! We leave for Morocco next Thursday, I can't believe how fast it is coming up!

La belleza de Paris

The beauty of Paris:

Jill and I stayed in Paris for four nights (we stayed there longer because we had a free place to stay in Paris!). Paris is a beautiful city with so much to offer. Jill and I took the train out to Versailles on the first day we were there. The Palace of Versailles is gigantic, but gorgeous! We did a walking tour of the Palace listening to head phones that explained the history of each room and what the kings and queens used to do in those rooms. My favorite spot in the palace was the Hall of Mirrors, which is breathtaking! It has beautiful paintings all over the walls and ceilings and it lined with mirrors that match up with windows looking out onto the immense gardens outside (I will post some pictures!). After Versailles we went back to the city and walked along the Seine river. The river is beautiful and seemed to be the heart of the city. That night we went on a Seine river cruise which was awesome. Even though it was freezing cold that night, I still enjoyed seeing the whole city lit up at night (especially the light show at the Eiffel tower!). On the cruise Jill and I met an Australian couple from Noosa (a place Julia liked to visit, it is close to where she lived), so needless to say we had a lot to talk about :) They were very nice people!

Our second day in Paris we went to the Louvre museum. I can't even begin to describe how big this museum is!! There was a pretty long line to get in because every first Sunday of the month it is free to get in (yay!). After finally getting inside and orienting ourselves, we went to see the Mona Lisa. I was surprised at how small the painting is in real life. Even though there were a million people surrounding the painting, it was really fun to see in real life :) After that we went to another wing of the museum where all the ancient Egyptian art and artifacts are, it was awesome! We walked all around that side of the museum (and even got a little lost haha). After we left the Louvre we stopped at a little cafe near the Seine and treated ourselves to a delicious banana chocolate crepe, yummy! Then we walked to the Notre Dame cathedral and waiting in line to go inside. The cathedral is also very big and beautiful. The stain glass inside the cathedral is amazing! That night we went treated Manu & Slyvain (the people we stayed with) to dinner because they were so nice to let us stay at their apartment for free!

On our third day we took the train to the Eiffel tower. We had planned on having a picnic in the park by the Eiffel tower but it was pouring rain on that day :( We waited to go up the Eiffel tower until Monday because we thought the line would be shorter on a week day, but it turns out that we probably should have gone over the weekend because we couldn't see much at all from the top of the Eiffel tower due to the fog. Even though we couldn't picnic and couldn't really see much, it was still an awesome experience to go up the Eiffel tower! We sat at the cafe on the second level for a while and had some coffee and tried to enjoy the view (what we could see of it!). That night (our last night in Paris) Manu and his friend Gabriel took Jill and I to an authentic French restaurant. We tried some authentic French cuisine which was a fun experience! Are you ready for this?...I tried goose liver!! Goose liver is the typical dish they eat at Christmas time. I didn't really like it at all, but I tried it! I am so happy we were able to stay with people that live in Paris because we definitely experienced some things we probably wouldn't have, had we not stayed with them.

On the fourth day we got ready to leave on our 14 hour adventure to get back to Granada :( We had to take a bus to get to the airport that we were flying out of (it is outside of Pairs) then fly to Madrid. In Madrid we had to wait a few hours before we got on our bus to head back to Granada. After a five hour bus ride we arrived in Granada at 5am...only to wake up for the first day of classes at 830am the same day! To say the least, we were extremely tired! However, we were able to travel cheaply which is all the matters on a starving student's budget!

Oh, how I LOVE Ireland!

Hola familia y amigos! Sorry this update on our trip to Dublin & Paris is a little late, but with school starting the day we got back it has been a little hectic! Dublin was absolutely amazing! I fell in love with Ireland and already want to go back! We got to Dublin late at night on the 30th of September. Oct 1st was our first full day in Dublin and we toured almost the whole city! The people in Ireland are extremely nice and welcoming, it was so nice for Jill and I to be around friendly people because the Spaniards have not proven to be very nice people so far! There is even a word for their rudeness in southern Spain, it is called "Malafolla," and my teacher even said that some Spaniards from southern Spain pride themselves on their Malafolla! So to say the least it was very refreshing to be around wonderful and friendly people in Dublin. We got lost trying to find our hostel in Dublin and a very nice older man stopped to ask us if we were lost and he offered for us to use his cell phone, he was so helpful! We did a "City Siteseeing" tour again (like the one we did in Florence) because it makes it really easy to see all the sights in one day. We got off at the Guiness Factory, Trinity College and Stephen's Green park. Stephen's Green park was one of my favorite places. The park had ponds, beautiful trees and wonderful gardens...it was very peaceful!

After touring the city all day Jill and I got ready to go to an Irish dance show. The show was at a pub called Merry Ploughboy's a little outside the city. The Irish band that played before the dancers came on was called Merry Ploughboy's, they played some amazing instruments and were awesome vocalists. When the dancers came on they picked people out of the audience halfway through the show. They came over to where Jill and I were sitting and thankfully they picked Jill because she has over 6 years of experience with Irish dancing! She was awesome on stage and the dancers quickly figured out that she had some experience! I took video and pictures :)

The next day we woke up early again and found a place to have a "real" breakfast! They don't eat breakfast very much in Spain (Jill and I usually get crackers) so we were dying for some eggs! We found a great breakfast place and had a big breakfast and some very tasty coffee...what a treat! After that we walked to the Dublin Castle, which was beautiful! Then we took the "Dart" train to the outskirts of Dublin to a town called Dun Laoghaire. Dun Laoghaire is a port town right on the water and is extremely green! It was gorgeous! We walked all around and had lunch in Dun Laoghaire, it was very relaxing :) We had to be at the airport around 5pm that day so we had to cut our day in Dun Laoghaire a little short, but it still was a wonderful day! We went back to the city and did a little shopping for some presents and then left for the airport! It was a short trip to Dublin, but I am so glad we went! I would love to go to Ireland again someday and see more areas of the country!