Barcelona

On Friday afternoon after classes, me and three of my friends flew to Barcelona from Sevilla which was about an hour flight. Once at the Barcelona airport (which is HUGE) we took a bus to downtown near where our hostel was located. We got off the bus at one of the major squares in the city and the first thing that we saw were hundreds of camping tents set up all over the square and even some tree forts. At first it looked like a bunch of homeless people, but then we saw all of the signs and realized it was a huge protest, part of the M15 protests that have been going on all over Spain in result of the recent presidential elections. The protest wasn´t violent and we knew we were safe because there are a million of other people around but it was interesting to see. From the square we walked down Las Ramblas- one of the most famous streets in Barcelona for toursists. It is a really wide street that has restuaraunts, hotels and shops on the sides and then in the middle of the two ways of trafiic there is a huge walkway down the middle of the road filled with small souvineir stands, ice cream stands, outdoor seating for restuararnts and the most street performers I have ever seen! There were definitely a ton of tourists but it was really exciting to walk down. We also soon notcied taht there were a lot of police walking around which made us feel really safe becuase we had been warned that the pickpocketing in Barcelona can be a problem.We walked to our hostel which was on a side street right off of Las Ramblas and checked in. When we checked we found out that for the private rooms (which we had) we were actually in a seperate aparmtent building that was actually right on the Las Ramblas street. We found the apartment and climbed lots of stairs to the top floor where our apartment was. In the apartment there were 3 private rooms and 2 bathrooms. Our room was actually pretty spacious and it was a lot cleaner/nicer than I was expecting and we had a balcony taht looked right out onto Las Ramblas! Also, we only saw the people who were staying in the other rooms once, so it seemed like we bascially had to bathrooms to ourselves which was really nice. Also, the apartment building was right next to the police station (I knew my Dad would be happy to hear about this) so we felt really safe. After dropping our stuff off we went to the ¨Pita Inn¨ for dinner and had really good filafel and hummus pitas. There were delicious and hummus is definitely a food I have been missing from the US!


After dinner we explored Las Ramblas a little more and signed up for a ¨Pub Crawl¨. We are definitely glad that we signed up for this because it took us to 3 different bars and then to a discoteca. We got to meet a bunch of people from all over and because we had just arrived in the city, it was nice to have people show us around! The discoteca was really fun, I am still suprised by how much AMerican music they play. Barcelona is definitely a night city though because when we tried to go to bed we could still hear people outside until at least 6am! I guess that was one downfall to being right on Las Ramblas... the noise from the street.


On Saturday morning we got up and went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and then to a fruit market to grab breakfast. I was excited to get iced coffee! Afterwards, we got tickets for a hop on, hop off tourist bus that we could use all day and took us to all of the major spots in the city. First, we got off at the Olympic Ports (sea ports taht were built specifically for the Olympics in 1992) and we walked on the beach and touched the Meditteranean! The beach was nice for being in a city, but the water was pretty cold!

Afterwards we went to the Sagrada Familia. We knew it was under construction, because it has been for many years, but it was still really cool to see and definitely had a style unlike one I had ever seen before.

Afterwards we went to the Park Guell which was designed by Gaudi and was filled with hundreds of scultupres and architecture with great views of the city. This was definitely my favorite thing that I saw in Barcelona and maybe even my favorite thiing in Spain! Although there were many tourists around all of the park it was really unique and beautiful and really spread out. I could have easily spent many hours exploring.

Afterwards we took the tour bus to the Olympic Stadium and the FC Barcelona (soccer team) stadium which were both really interesting.

Rachel, me and Alexis is front  of the Olympic stadium

From the bus we were able to see many different things like the Plaza Espana and Gaudi's house which was really cool because it is in the middle of all of these modern apartment buildings and has really unique architecture- it definitely looks like something from Disney World! The tour bus was definitely the best way to see the city in a short amount of time and we were so impressed by how much we were able to see in less than 24 hours.

Gaudis House

After the bus tour we went back to Las Ramblas and walked through the market there. The market is a huge covered space with many different booths of fruit, candy, nuts, meat, fish, ice cream, olive oil and bascially anything else you can imagine. I have never seen so much fresh fruit in my life. Afterwards we went to dinner and all had paella which is a very typical spanish dish. It is rice with veggies, chicken and often seafood and comes on a big skillet kind of like fajitas. It has a really good sauce and we were all excited to get it because everyone says that Barcelona has the best in all of Spain. After dinner we walked around Las Ramblas and watched all of teh street performers. We then headed back to the hostel because we had an early flight the next morning. When we woke up at 4 am to leave for the airport the city was definitely still alive. I couldn't believe when we drove by discotecas and people were still waiting outside to get in at 4am!

Cordoba and Granada

This past weekend we took a long weekend trip to Cordoba and Granada which are cities to the east of Seville. Friday we left Sevilla very early in the morning and drove about 3 hours to Cordoba. Cordoba is smaller than Sevilla and has a huge mosque in the center than we toured. The majority of the mosque has a lot of Arab influence from before Cordoba was conquered by Spain. Part of the mosque turns into a Cathedral similar to all of the others that we have seen that was a result of the Spanish taking over Cordoba. It was very interesting to see the direct contrast between the mosque and the Cathedral all within one builing. Although the Cathedral part was really impressive, I like the mosque a lot more because it was really unique and unlike anything I had ever seen. Walking through the mosque it really didn't feel like we were in Spain anymore!

The Mosque

A view of the Cathedral part of the Mosque

After the tour we had free time to walk around the city for a few hours. There wasn't too much else to see but we had fun exploring all of the narrow, windy streets. We then got back on the bus and rode about an hour and a half to Granada. The ride was really beautiful because we were going through the countryside with many olive trees and the mountains. There were hundreds of huge fields filled with millions of sunflowers- it was one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. When we got close to Granada I was suprised to see that there was snow on the tops of the mountains! Granada weather is a little cooler than Sevilla's, and it gets much colder and snows during the winter.

After getting to our hotel we all relaxed by the pool for a little bit and then went to the dinner that was included with the hotel. We were all so excited to see the salad bar and American style food, but we are used to eating small dinners here and we all were so stuffed afterwards! After dinner we walked up many small streets to the top of a hill that overlooks the Alhambra which was all lit up and really pretty at night. Afterwards we explored the streets. I was really suprised to see how much different the atmosphere was then Sevilla. There is much more Arab influence in Granada because it was the last major city in Spain to be conquered by the Spanish from the Moors. Instead of bars or pubs there were many Middle Eastern restaurants with foods like hummus and filafel. Also, there were so many hooka bars they serve hundreds of different types of tea and many flavors of hooka. ALthough I still like the atmosphere in Sevilla more, it was nice to see different types of architecture and stores. I felt like I was in Morroco!

On Saturday, after an American style breakfast at the hotel (aka more than just bread and cheese) we walked into the center of the city and toured 2 cathedrals. They were both very beautiful but I am getting a little tired of touring Cathedrals, especially because one of our professors gives us the tours (he comes on the trips with us) and he talks about just about every single aspect so the tours are always at least 2 hours long and in Spanish, which makes it really hard to concentrate and understand what we are actually seeing. After the tours we explored the city for the afternoon. There were many spice markets set up outside which were really unique and definitely more arab influence. One thing that I didn't really like about the city is that there were so many gypsies in the streets begging for money and trying to force you to be their spices.

After walking around the streets a group of my friends and I found a great tapas restaurant with really good food. I had sliced tomatoes with olive oil and goat cheese and then cooked spinach and garbonzo beans- my favorite tapa out of all the ones that I have tried. For the rest of the afternoon we just napped by the pool and did homework, then went to the buffet dinner again and went to a discoteca (dance club) later in the night.

On Sunday morning we woke up early to go tour the Alhambra, the most famous sight in Granada. It it a large Moorish palace full of many different gardens and plazas and lots of Moorish architecture which is really different and unique to see. Before going into the actual palace we also got to climb up a tower to see a great view of all of Granada.

Part of the Alhambra

View of Granada

Unfortunately, there was a 24 hour stomach bug going around and a few students, including me, were the first ones to get it on Sunday right during our tour of the Alhambra. The teachers were understanding and let us take it easy and went pretty slow through the tour but it definitely took a lot of my interest away from the Alhmabra becasue I really didn't feel well. As for the sickness, it lasted for our bus ride home to Sevilla and through Monday morning but I am back to normal now and glad that it didn't last too long. Overall, I really like Granada but I think Sevilla is still the perfect city to be in and I was glad to get home.

El Camino de Rocio

The Camino de Rocio is a cultural and religious tradition that takes place every spring in Spain. It is essentially a four day long pilgramage through the countryside consisting of a long procession of wagon-like carriages pulled by bulls, old-fashioned covered wagons pulled by horses and these little houses similar to motor homes that were pulled by huge tractors. All are decorated with many different colors and ornaments and each is very unique. The Camino began on Tuesday morning and ends on Friday and people from all over come to Andalucia (the southern region of Spain) to join in. They walk to the church of Rocio to worship their relgious figure, Rocio. People either walk, ride horses, or ride on the carriages or wagons through the dirt roads of the countryside for 4 days. There is a set route and the procession stops at night in small villages where the people camp out and have festivals all night with lots of dancing, singing and drinking. They start walking the next morning as soon as the sun rises. People can come and go or can walk for the entire 4 days.

The trailers that families would sleep in at night

Our host parents had been talking about the Camino for a few weeks and even showed us a few youtube videos about it. The festivals are more exciting in the morning, if you go to one of the towns where people stayed the night before and see them start on their walk again, but we have classes in the mornnig so our family was bummed that we couldn´t skip class to go see this. However, they really wanted us to be able to see it so yesterday afternoon our host dad, Ale, took me and Alexis to the countryside to follow the procession. We picked up his brother in law, Javier, on the way because he needed a ride to the procession because he is walking all 4 days, until Friday! We drove about 30 minutes out of the city and started to see lots of women dressed in flamenco dresses and people riding horses. We turned down this small dirt road and started to drive to meet up with the procession. There were already many cars ahead of us and they move very slowly (because they are behind the slow moving procession) and Ale was unable to park the car so me and Alexis got out of the car and walked with Javier up the dirt road to go see the procession while Ale followed behind in his car. Javier was the fastest walker that I have ever seen and we had to run at times to catch up with him! We soon learned that all of the women, and even small girls, wear flamenco dresses which was so pretty but me and Alexis definitely stood out as the Americans! We had to squeeze past many bulls that were pulling the wagons and it was crazy to stand right next to them and see how huge they actually are! While walking I was surpised to see how generous and friendly everyone was- they were all offering food and drinks to the people walking.

We finally caught up with the group that Javier was planning to walk with and then we slowed down our pace but continued to walk in the procession. We definitely got the authentic Spanish experience because we were the only Americans in sight. The women immediately asked us why we weren't wearing flamenco dresses, but they were very welcoming and were continually offering us food and drinks. We walked with them for a while and then met back up with Ale to drive us back to the city. We were exhausted after walking only 2 hours... I can't imagine doing it for a whole 4 days! Once again, I think I definitely lucked out with my host family because they really want to show us everything about their culture and make sure we have the best experience... most of the other students didn't even know what the Camino de Rocio was and none of them got the chance to go see it!

Italica Ruins

Last weekend our group toured the Italica Ruins which are right outside the city of Sevilla. The Italica Ruins are Roman ruins which reminded me a lot of the Colleseum in Rome. Before visiting, I thought that the only Roman ruins were in Rome, so it was really intersesting to learn that they are in Spain as well. The biggest part of the ruins was a huge amphitheatre were gladiator fights would take place for the public to watch. The theatre was almost exactly like a smaller Colleseum, but we got to walk inside of the tunnels where the gladiators would have walked and got to go right out onto the theatre floor where the fights took place. We could even get close enough to the tunnel where the lions would come out to see the claw marks from the lions on the concrete which are still left from when there were fights hundreds of years ago.

After the amphitheatre we went to see the ruins that are left from the Roman houses that were in the area. Most of them were houses of noble families and the only parts that were left were the floors of the houses. The floors all had beautiful mosaics that represented different things (kind of missed the details about this part because our tour was in Spanish so hard to catch everything). It was amazing that the color still stayed in some of the tiles of the mosaics!

After the ruins we headed to the beach. It was a good beach day because it was very very hot but we were once again suprised at first to see that basically all of the women and younger girls as well were topless!

Lagos, Portugal!

This past weekend a group of my friends and I visited Lagos, Portugal which was about a 3 hour ride from Seville. The ride was really pretty and it was cool to see more rural parts of spain and the millions of olive trees which were something that I thought were only in Italy. We traveled with a tourist company out of Seville that does trips to Lagos and other places around Spain for students who are studying abroad. We had 3 tour guides who were really enthusiastic and one actually grew up in Lagos so he knew all of the good places to go. One of the most interesting things about Lagos was that the natives hated if we tried to speak Spanish with them, they would much rather we just speak English. Most of the people working at the hotel and other places we went were all British and we found that most of the other tourists were from England as well. It was nice to take a break from speaking Spanish, but even only spending 2 days away from speaking Spanish it has been hard to go back to speaking it all of the time!

The first night our guides took us to these 2 different places that looked out over the ocean to see the sun set. They were so beautiful and one of them was called "the end of the world" because in the early days explorers actually documented the lookout as the end of the world because it is literally just a cliff that drops off and you can't see anything else beyond it. I was definitely glad that we were with the guides for that because we never would have been able to get to see the sunset on our own. After sightseeing we headed back to the town center for dinner. Lagos is a pretty small city- definitely much smaller than Seville and it was the off season so there were not that many people there. Apparently it gets very crowded during the summer though. The Portugese claim that they make the best Sangria and I will have to admit, I think that I agree with them! On Friday night the guides showed us a really good restaurant that had great Sangria. They also had huge salads which was something that we all were suprised to find that we had missed!

Me, Joey and Alexis in front of "the end of the world"

The next day we were supposed to go on a cruise around the coast of Lagos and go on a smaller boat tour of the grados. However, the waves were too big so we couldn't go which was a little dissapointing. The tour guides made up for it though and took us to a place where we were able to walk down stairs on the side of the cliff (which was actually kind of scary because they were so steep) and go down close to the grados that we would have seen on the boat tour. After, we went to a really nice beach to spend the rest of the day. We were all taken suprise at first to see that it was topless beach, but we were definitely getting the european experience!

The grados

After the day at the beach we returned to the hotel to shower and get ready for the night. That night there was the big championship soccer game of Manchester United vs. Barcelona. One of our tour guides was from England and a HUGE soccer fan and his brother works at a bar in Lagos where many British people were watching the game. He took our group there at it was really fun to watch the game because they were all so in to it and went crazy when England scored a goal. Although Barcelona ended up winning it was really fun to be able to watch it although I felt like I was in England, not Lagos! After the game we went to another local place to get dinner (delicious salads again!). After dinner we explored the town center a little bit but were definitely ahead of all of the crowds. It is interesting how nightlife in Europe doesn't start until so late. Most of the clubs don't even open until 2 or 3 am... and after the whole day in the sun, none of us were able to stay up that late!

The next day we went to another beach next to our hotel. It was really beautiful because it was enclosed by huge cliffs and there were all of these secret beaches that you could find if you climbed up over small rocks. The water was really clear and pretty warm too. We spent the whole day at the beach and drove back to Seville in the late afternoon. It was  a very relaxing weekend but we were glad to be back in Seville! Also, we didn't have any class on Monday because it is a holiday in Seville, el dia de San Sebastian!

The beach next to our hotel

Bullfight!

Yesterday I went to a bullfight at La Plaza de Torros (Plaza of the Bulls) in Sevilla. The arena was very pretty and the bullfight was very exciting and definitely got my heart racing! The inside of the arena was pretty big and there were a lot of people and I am definitely glad that we paid extra for the seats in the shade. When we bought the tickets the day before we didn’t think the sun would be too bad because the fight didn’t start until 7pm but the lady selling them to us convinced us that we would definitely want the shade, and she was right… it was still about 85 degrees at 7pm! Going into the fight I thought there would just be one bull that they killed, however we quickly learned that this was not the case, there are actually 6! There are 3 matadors (the people who kill the bull in the end) and each “fight” 2 bulls. Of the 3 that we saw, one was only 18 years old and one was a woman!

 Me and Alexis outside of La Plaza de Torros

All of the matadors entering the stadium

The first bull that they killed was very hard to watch because we were actually sitting really close and could see everything. However, we knew that they donate the meat from the bull to the poor people of the city so that made it a little easier to watch. Also, there was a lot of ritual and tradition and Spanish pride during the fight so that was cool to see. As more bulls came out each one got bigger and stronger and had more energy so it got more and more exciting as it went on. Also, with the second bull one of the matadors (bull fighters) fell down in front of the bull and got tossed around by the bull a couple of times. It was really scary to watch, but the matador just got right back up and made it seem completely normal. After that I started to feel more nervous for the humans than for the bull and things started to get exciting. The only part that I always closed my eyes for was when the bulls charged at the horses that were part of the process. After the matadors tire the bull out a little bit (get him to run all around the arena) two horses with men on them enter the stadium. The men have long spears and are the first ones to injure the bull. The matadors call the bull over to the horses and the stronger bulls would charge at the horse (which is what the matadors want) so that the man on the horse can spear the bull in the back. The bulls run full force into the horses and it looks like the horses have both eyes covered. However, after the fight when I told my host family that I felt bad for the horses, the dad showed me a you tube video that showed how they train the horses so they know exactly what is going on in an actual bull fight. Also, the horses can see out of one of their eyes so they know that the bull is coming… so that made me feel a lot better about the horses.

The woman matador

The fifth bull was definitely the most exciting because after the bull is speared by many different men he is left alone in the arena with the main matador us only has a cape and a sword. He uses the cape to attract the bull and tire him out and all of the previous bulls were very tired out by this point. However, this bull still had tons of energy and when going for the cape he charged the matador and bucked him into the air. The matador was flipped over the bull and landed on the ground behind but it didn’t faze him at all… he got right back up and kept fighting.

Overall, I am so glad that I went to the bullfight because it is definitely a huge part of the Spanish culture and it was very interesting to watch. It was sad, but it was more about the pride of the matador and the pride of man vs. wild. Also it is really interesting to see all of the traditional and ritual that goes on throughout the entire event. But I am definitely not planning on going back anytime soon to see one!

In Sevilla!

I am all settled in with my host family in Seville! My and my friend Alexis are staying with a family that has a husband, wife and two twin boys who are 4 years old. They live in a modern apartment about 15 minutes away from my school. The only negative about the apartment is there is no air conditioning and it is already really really hot. The boys names are Alejandro and Ignacio and they are very cute and full of energy. They call me and Alexis "las americanas" because they can't remember which of us is Lexie or Alexis. I think I will learn the most spanish from Alejandro and Ignacio because they don't speak any english and talk really fast and yell at me if I start speaking english with Alexis!

Ignacio playing his guitar... he LOVES to have his picture taken

The culture is very unique because the "siesta" is a huge part of the day. From 2 to 5:30 basically everything shuts down in the city and everyone returns to their homes for lunch. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day usually eaten around 3 and then they eat dinner around 9 or 10 and it is very light... usually salad or sandwiches. On the weekend it is very common to go out for tapas in place of dinner which are really small dishes that you share with other people. One misconception that I had was that during siesta people actually napped, but talking with the family I found out that it is more of just a rest time and very few people actually nap. I was also surprised that our famiy's dining room table is in front of their TV and they watch TV when they eat every meal. Also, I am very suprised that none of the spanish people wear shorts and I am so hot in shorts and a tank top!


Today I had the chance to explore a lot of the city. There are orange trees everywhere and I tasted an orange last night and it was delicious, so I definitely think I will be eating those a lot. Seville is a very beautiful city and it kind of reminds me of Florence because it is on the smaller side and has many tiny streets filled with places to eat and small markets and shops. All of the buildings are very colorful and many have cermaics on the sides of them that are very "spanish looking". The two most beautiful places I have seen so far are the Plaza  de Espana and the Catedral de Sevilla. The Catedral reminded me a lot of the Vatican... but a smaller version obviously and there were no guards or security. We actually saw a wedding going on in the Catedral and got to see all of the guests walking in and it was really cool to see all of the styles. Many women were wearing big hats that reminded me of the royal wedding! Although there are lots of winding, small streets that pretty much all look alike it is pretty easy to find your way around because they all lead to a major street.

 A ceramic banister in front of the Plaza de Espana.

Lexie (Me), Alexis and Lexi (very confusing when the 3 of us are together) in front of a part of the Plaza de Espana.

La Plaza de Espana

La Catedral de Sevilla

The food is very good and my family eats pretty healthy and fresh which I like. For breakfast it is usually wheat toast, cereal or yogurt, orange juice and coffee. Which is really similar to what I eat in America. They use a lot of potatoes in tomatos in their cooking and use a lot of oil and vinegar for dressings. Meat is definitely very popular... it is hanging in many stores that we walk by which is kind of gross but my family doesn't seem to eat much meat... or at least not yet.


Tomorrow night me and a few other students are going to a bull fight! I am a little nervous but it was definitely something that I wanted to see. I start classes on Monday... we are about a 15 minute walk from the school which is good because some other students are more than 30 minutes away!