Well I left us off after we got back from our super hokey night show. So Sunday we woke up at around 8 and headed out at 9 to go get our picturesque view of Tangier. We drove about 30 min outside the city and ended up seeing the Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the ride there it was very pretty and eventually we got to a point where we got to get off the bus and take pictures. Seeing as our tour guide wasn't very good, so when we saw the caves of Hercules he just said "here's some caves". haha luckily I knew what I was looking for so I got to see the Caves of Hercules! For those of you who don't know what that is, legend has it that Hercules slept there before he completed his 12 tasks. So that's pretty cool that I saw something of legends. The beach was also just plain gorgeous and I was so excited to see the Atlanice, I just kept thinking "on the other side is my home!!!" So we hung around there for a while and I got to take in the view. Every time I travel I get excited to see green grass, and the ocean, just because I see so little of it here in Granada. So it was really nice to just take it all in and look at the ocean. These beaches are also really popular in the summer time, our guide told us that they're all full of people, which I believe because they are gorgeous.
From there we got back on the bus and headed towards our CAMEL RIDE. Yup, the thing that pretty much everyone was looking forward too. We saw camels just chillin' on the side of the road on our way over there, we saw more beach, and some other animals as well. When we finally arrived everyone was very excited and rushed over to the camels. Well, I wasn't the first to go, merely because I'm not quite as cut throat about getting to places, haha. But I hang around, watch people go and soak in the beautiful beach view, again. The camels were on the beach, so it was a very nice wait.
Besides the four camels that people could ride there were also about 4
camels that weren't doing any work and were just tied down for us to
hang out with, pet, take pictures of/with. Our tour guide had no fear
and untied the baby camel, which was a very noisy baby camel and gave it
to people to pet and hang on to. The poor thing really hated us all.
haha but the others were much more docile and just didn't really care
that we were there. So between waiting around for our own individual
camel ride we got to hang out with them.
Camels are
smelly animals, let me tell you that. Smelly and loud, the baby camel
was always bleating, it was slightly annoying. But it was really cool
to see how the camels can like fold themselves up, their legs at least.
To watch them get up and down is really cool because they have so many
joints in their legs.
Soooo I'm really sorry to everyone
but I wanted to get this posted before I left. I didn't get to finish
it but you have the majority of the main things that happened. I will
elaborate and finish it when I return. In the meantime, all the
pictures are up on FB so you can go look at them to see the rest of my
trip. Basically the only other things that happened is that we went to a
small fishing town where they paint a lot of the walls every august, so
the paintings are beautiful. Then we got time to hang out, get henna,
buy gifts and what not.
THEN we went to the port and
ended up waiting for 3 hours!! Because we were there during"special
winds", like 80 mph winds and the boat couldn't leave because it was too
dangerous. We finally left at 11:30, when our original departure time
was 5. We got back to Granada at around 4 AM because of all the delays,
it was certainly quite the trip.
Oh Morocco...what other way is there to describe morocco...no other way. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to describing this trip. So I guess I'll start at the top, like always.
Me on the boat, and Africa's in the background!
Friday morning, we wake up and peaced out at 8. Well, when Paula said our adventure for Morocco starts immediately she wasn't kidding. We hit our first speed bump about 30 min into the trip when one of the kids realized that he forgot his passport. He only had a copy of his passport and for some reason didn't think to tell anyone until we were about 30 min outside of Granada. Well naturally he couldn't leave the country and get into another one without his passport, so we dropped him off, and he got a ride back to Granada from Paula. No worries, he ended up showing up the second night after returning, grabbing his passport and finding his own way to Morocco. Our second speed bump happened when we stopped for our mandatory bathroom break and rest stop for the driver. We pushed back our departure time an hour because they moved the ferry times on Wednesday. Well, things in Morocco are pretty disorganized so we stopped for our break, and Edu got a call from Imna saying "they moved the ferry time up an hour". So naturally we all scrambled back on the bus and didn't get our break. We hurried over to the port to make our ferry on time, only for the ferry to not actually be leaving when they said it was. So we rushed for nothing. Moroccan time is even slower than Spanish time, and I didn't think that could happen....but we didn't even leave the port until at least 30 min, if not an hour after we were supposed to. We were on a small little ferry that was kind of crappy and not very comfortable. But we finally arrived in Morocco at about 3, more like 2 Moroccan time because they don't do the time change.
My friends at our table
The weather wasn't the greatest, but we made it and when we got off the ferry in Tangier safely, headed to meet our tour guide and he immediately brought us for our lunch. Moroccan food! Yup, I ate Moroccan food, unfortunately, it wasn't my favorite. But the venue was pretty cool. It was this little hole in the wall and inside were people playing some cool instruments, and we got to sit on couches and low chairs to eat at low tables. Our meal consisted of a slightly weird tasting soup, chicken on sish kebabs, cous cous, baklava and mint tea. Most of it I liked, but all the spices were certainly interesting. The lunch was fun, but right then is when we realized that they weren't kidding when they said you have to tip for everything. These people expect a tip for everything they do, especially entertainment, even just standing in the bathroom doing nothing. So we had to tip the guys playing music.
After that we walked around a bit. We showed up on a Friday, which is the holy day for the Muslims, so there weren't many people out and about when we were walking around. We quickly walked around some main parts of Tangier, but the markets were pretty dead. There were some people out though, mostly men just smoking and drinking though. We stopped at a local spices store where we got our own private infomercial! Basically this doctor guy talked to us for about 30 min showing us all these things that were made from natural herbs and what not. He had his minions come out from around the corner and shove smelly things up our nose to "clear sinus" and rub lotions and perfumes on our hands. It was certainly fun, and at the end he then had a auction style sale where we all had to raise our hand if you wanted everything. He certainly knew how to sell stuff because many people walked out of there with more things than they need. I only got some lotion and sweet smelling perfume. By the end though, he was quite mad when people started realizing how stupid his deals were and that they didn't need all these things, so people stopped buying. But hey, sorry you can't scam us smart Americans. :) After that we left got a quick bus tour of the city. Since it was cloudy and icky we didn't go outside after our bus tour and we just were dropped off at the hotel and waited around for dinner at 8. Dinner was good, again, typical Moroccan food with all the spices and such. Nothing special, just like the hotel....which was in fact less than special. But what can you do. After that I just went to my friends room and we watched Batman Begins! It was on t.v. in English with Arabic subtitles, so it was a very easy movie to watch, and I've never seen it so it was excellent. Then it was bed time for our adventures for the next day.
Saturday! We woke up at a wonderfully pleasant time of 8, yay! And headed out by 9 towards a little city called Tetuan. Well, to be completely honest with you I didn't learn too much about the city itself when I was there because the tour guides there aren't very good at making sure everyone hears them. But I have my handy dandy pamphlet that AIFS gave us. So Tetuan is a city in Northern Morocco, in the past it was occupied twice by the Spanish and has since them occupied by the Jewish and Muslims, so that's it's main influence now. However, they all speak French and Arabic there, don't ask me why. So there's a small "jewish quarter" that pretty much every city in Spain has and then there's the Medinas and Mezquitas where all the people gather, and they have their markets. So we walked around the city and saw their markets. Here is where you saw a little bit more "classic morocco" that you would expect, although it's nothing like the videos with the grand squares of people singing, dancing and dirt, this part of Morocco is very green and different.
We also got to see the King's Palace. He doesn't stay there all the time, mostly just visits in the summer when it's very hot, so he comes to Northern Morocco to cool off. But we had to ber very careful when taking pictures because if there's police or guards standing in front you're not supposed to take a picture, they're a little testy that way. I was surprised by how many times I saw the King's face. I was wondering what he looked like and didn't realize that this dude is like a real king, not a fake one like in Spain. This guy has all the power, so I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that he had his face plastered everywhere. But the Palace wasn't all the special, but it was cool looking.
Here was another cool thing we saw when we were leaving! That's really all there is to the little city of Tetuan. We just walked around and got to be followed by annoying people selling drums. Literally, these guys followed us the pretty much the entirety of the tour around the city. That's what they do there, they latch onto a group of gullible tourists and just try to sell, sell, sell. So these guys hung around selling their coats, drums, guitars, bracelets, and just talked to us the whole time. A few people were talked into buying things, and granted they probably practically stole it, but still, I found them annoying. So we just walked around the city and on our way out we saw these sheep! Across the street our guide told us was a huuuge field that is for a giant sheep market every Sunday. So everyone from outside the city brings all their sheep there and they buy and sell. That was pretty cool to see, and it was certainly startling to see sheep, donkeys, bulls, horses and all other sorts of animals just chillin' around the city and in the grass outside the city. So after our short walk around the city we were off to the adorable little town of Chef Chaouen!
I think Chef Chaouen was my favorite city, although that might have had something to do with the fact that our tour guide was the cutest little old man I've ever seen Mr. Toto!!! He wore the fez with the typical Moroccan garb and called everyone Habibi (darling). He was the coolest guy ever and constantly said hello to people on the street and whipped out his iPhone to talk on it or show us how many friends he has on FB! I don't have a picture of him but he was literally the coolest guy. He said "hello!" and "hola!" a million times and shook everyone's hand, omg we all loved him.
Anyways. This was an adorable little city nestled in the hills. You really can't see it until you are there it's so hidden. The name of the city means "look at the horns" which directly refers to the two horns that the mountains give the city. You are really close to the Rif Mountains which are gorgeous and inside the city all I wanted to do was look at the mountains. But alas, there is so much more to see! This city is known for it's colors, yup, pretty much everything is blue. They painted the walls blue and white to keep away mosquitoes and to keep the temperature down the in the city. So after our lunch at that hotel, which was once again, only decent, then we headed out with Mr. Toto for our tour of the blue city.
There's not much else I can say about the blue city other than it was really pretty. We wandered through their narrow streets, and I'm sure Mr. Toto told us some things about these places but I couldn't hear him. I learned that if the floor is painted blue too it means it's a dead end, and that when we saw all the women flocking to one spot they were going to the baths. They all had all their buckets full of stuff to wash themselves and that was interested to see. Other than that we were able to wander around (guided wandering of course) through the town and marvel at how beautiful it was. So here's some pictures.
Just a cute little dead end
View of the mountain and the beautiful houses
Cute door
Terrible picture of me :P
Just another pretty picture of the houses
So that's pretty much what the entire city looked like. After wandering around the city we stopped in a rug store, where we once again got our own personal infomercial. The guys showed us all the different sized rugs they have, sheets, scarves, tapestries..you name it, they've got it. So after being bombarded again with beautiful work we were given time to look around the shop and buy what we pleased. I bought two scarves which were very pretty and thick heavy duty scarves too. I was glad for the chance to buy some of those things, I originally wanted a blanket, but then I realized that I can make warm fuzzy blankets at home so why should I pay that much. Of course it was corny and we didn't reeeally need to buy any of that stuff, but I was glad that AIFS organized that stop at the shop because it is quite hard to find these things on your own. We definitely wouldn't have gotten the chance to find a rug store on our own. After that we were given free time to wander around, use the rest rooms, do some bargaining and it was all very great. I stopped by a shop very close to where they left us, got some earrings and then hung around the for the next 15 min or so until we left.
From there our day was over, it was about 4 so we started our almost 2 hours ride back to Tangier to hang out in the hotel room before our "authentic Moroccan show". We got back around 7 and we had about an hour to hang around and "get ready" because our guide seemed to think we were all going to change into some elegant outfit or something for this show. haha. But we arrived at the tent where we would have our show and immediately outside we were greeted by guys on horses. Of course everyone wanted to take a picture with them, and then we all promptly forgot that they always ask for money. So me, Holly and Bree took a picture with the horse guy and paid him the 50 cents we had on us. After that we were herded towards a ring where there were stands to sit down and look at the cute little camels that were sitting in the ring. Some people paid to get a camel ride, but I knew that we'd get a much better camel ride tomorrow, and it was very dark so what's the point. Plus, it literally lasted like 2 sec and the camel like stood up, walked 2 steps and sat down again. It was super hokey. We all sat around while some Moroccan guy spoke to us in both Spanish and English and we had guys on horses come running towards us to "introduce" the show. Now...be prepared for my slightly pessimistic view point next up. THIS is where I realized what kind of night this would be...one full of cheesy phrases, hokey shows and pretty much all around bad performances only meant to "wow" tourists".
After having horses run at us we were corralled into the tent to sit down and have guys place bad music for us on tambourines, drums, flute things and the presenter sing. We all bought our 2 euro bottles of water, because of course by that point we were all thirsty again. And we were given a hokey, touristy show. First we had the guys singing and playing music. Then we had some buy come out and balance a tray of candles in glasses on his head. He spun the tray around, did some tricks using gravity and bowed off stage. We also had guys playing extremely annoying metal castanet type things and spinning the little pom pom on their hat all around. I took videos of most of these things so I'll post on post of just the videos I took just so you can truly understand where I'm coming from here. After that we had probably like 13 year old kids come out and do some gymnastic tricks, again stuff my friend Sara can probably do. I think, in all honesty, the best part of that night was when the belly dancer came out. Not because she was good, no she wasn't that good, but because of the fact that she pulled someone from the group on stage with her. She pulled one of the guys TJ up on stage and promptly removed his shirt, put on a belly dancing skirt and bikini top, stuff it with his shirt and had him dance the belly dance with her. THAT was hilarious, and TJ was a great sport about it all, he did it all, shimming, shaking his chest, falling on the floor and waving his arms, all of it. It was hilarious and probably the best part of the night. After that we had a ridiculously hokey magician (I hate magicians, unless they are genuinely good). This guy was the worst, he used chemisty, physics, basic stuff like that to do these tricks and I of course did not act surprised, sorry why should I, he's not looking directly at me :) So I just sat around, politely clapped and mostly ignored his performance. He also walked on glass, which did honestly look painful. And that pretty much rounded out our night. It was over, we all took pictures with the baby camel and the regular camel, edu tried to trade 3 girls for the camels and then we returned back to the hotel room by 11:30. That was our last night there so I promptly went to bed and packed to head back to Granada the next day.
I'm going to leave it here and start another post about my last day there and our adventures in Morocco because I probably could write another very long post. Sunday in Morocco was certainly an interesting one, and probably my favorite day, maybe, Chef Chouan was very pretty as well. Oh well, so that was our first 2 days in Morocco.
Well before I get to talking about my trip to Morocco I realized some things on my trip that I think deserve their own post. Now, it is slightly related to my trip, but in general related to my whole experience here. I do a lot thinking, so I often come up with these ideas while I'm traveling, let alone to think and look out the window at the passing views and listening to my music. It's funny how music can inspire you and give you thoughts that you didn't really think of before.
Either way, this post is about my pride, and how proud I am to be a American. I know, that sounds super cheesy and cliche and you would think I should love being here in Spain and all, but to be completely honest with you. I am excited for the day when I return and I can say, I'm home. I love Spain, don't get me wrong, and their history is so much older and intricate that ours. But I have to say, that after sitting in class, learning about how the berebes have influence the town, the arabic influence, the discovery of the Americas and all the other things that have to do with Spanish history I still can't help but be proud of who I am and my country.
I think it really struck me when I was driving to one of the little towns in Morocco. Now I don't have too much against the Islamic culture, I'm all for religious freedom, live your life the way you want it and all that. But I still couldn't help but feel a little sad for me. I'm sure they are very happy with their lives, and I know that even many women there are proud of who they are and have no problem with their religion. In all honesty it's the super radical islamic people, those out in the Middle East, like Iran and Iraq who are the biggest problem and give them a bad name. But still, I was proud to be an American.
Everyone talks about how young our country is in relation to all of Europe. And they're right, we are a young nation. We weren't founded until many thousands of years after Europe. But honestly, I think we have made bigger strides than many other countries. In our short history, which isn't all that short, we've done soooo much. We rebelled against an oppressive ruler, fought against a strong army, created our own nation and constitution and have set up a pretty damn good political system if you ask me. We've also passed laws for equal rights, blacks, women, children, everyone. We've got a good free education system up until college, capitalism that perpetuates equal opportunity of success, and so many more things that I simply don't understand well enough to write about. Now, I think that for a country that's only been around for about 250 years or so....that's pretty damn good. We've become a nation that so many aspire to be a part of, we're a country full of foreigners and that makes us so much more culturally rich. It was funny when I had a conversation with my intercambios one day. We were comparing our two countries, as so often happens and were talking about the slight lack of diversity in this country and they asked me what my nationalities are. You all know that question, the one where most of us list off about 5 or so that we all are because we have distant family members from all over the world. Well, to them, it's astonishing that I'm Irish, Scottish, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, and whatever else I am. I can't even tell you everything because I simply don't know the percentage and the truth/ancestry behind it all to know what counts. But to them they couldn't fathom that my heritage was not just simply American. And to me, it's hard to imagine that Spainards are simply just that, Spainards, they come from Spain, and all of their family has been here forever. But I am pretty proud that I have all this heritage behind me. I'm proud of what our country has become and excited for it's future.
In Morocco I was stared at, a lot. A large group of about 30 or so girls without head coverings and wearing American clothing will attract a lot of attention. So will a large tourist bus in a small town. So all the little children were pointing at the bus, and many of the guys were just staring, not necessarily commenting, but staring. The comments weren't that bothersome because even here in Spain, if you're walking around with a few of your friends at night you'll get a few Spainards trying to talk to you in English. By far the funniest things I've heard shouted at me where Lady Gaga, and in Morocco "Obama be with you". People are downright hilarious when they try to get your attention. No, for me the most bothersome thing was seeing out in the streets, it was all men. You had the occasional woman walking around running small errands or with her child, but at all the restaurants: men; walking in the streets: men; just chilling outside in the plazas: men. Men were everywhere, and a lot of them did look like they had this haughty attitude about them. I don't know, just something about that made me uncomfortable. I also really didn't appreciate being stared at by everyone, men, women and children. It was just a tad bit uncomfortable, but then again, it's good sometimes to go out of your comfort zone.
Either way, this whole experience and reflecting on the past 3 months have made me realize how proud I am to be where I'm from. I'm proud of everything we have to offer in the U.S. of our country, our way of life, just everything. I guess that's what part of this is about too, realizing how much you love home. Yes, we're not perfect, there are always things we could change, but I'd say we're pretty well off. I'd say I love being in the U.S and knowing I have freedom to do pretty much anything I want (within reason and reasonable laws of course). But this weekend really made me realize that I love America. If you're ever feeling down about our country, remember this: there are places where woman are not comfortable being outside their homes, where workers don't have good labor laws, where the education system is below par and children are slipping through the crack, where people are hungry, where health care is underdeveloped, where children are doing a poor acrobatic show for tourists just to help their family make ends meet, where electricity and water are not givens and long 30 min shower is impossible Remember those things, and be grateful for what you have.
I know that was a bit deep, but hey, traveling sometimes does that to you.
Once again, I find myself becoming an insomniac and I can't sleep at night, or rather I can't fall asleep very well. But it's far too late to get any studying done because my brain is simply off. But I've been thinking about a few things lately that I'd like to share.
1. I can't believe I'm here and only have 2 months left, but I also can't believe that I still have 2 months left. Lately I have been waking up very homesick, but throughout the day I get better and better and by the end of the day I'm find and can't sleep. I've realized that I only have about 10 weeks left, although I'm sure my grandmother knows the exact number of days (love you grammy). In the 4 weeks I will not be here for 3 of those weekends and 1 whole week. Then I only have 2 weekends free here, 1 in Vienna, 1 in Lagos, Portugual and 1 in the Costa Del Sol. Now, that poses a problem you see. Because I still have a list of things I still want to do here; like go to the Parc de Ciencas, go to Nerja, go to Malaga, and other such things around here. Too bad I have so little time. I'm also regretting now planning a trip to Ireland now, but alas I have run our of weekends. But I'm glad I have so much planned, that means I'll be very busy. The last 2 weekends I have here in May will not be spent here, other than I believe the very last weekend.
2. Many people have their family showing up right about now, when we're all homesick and can't wait for spring break. Well, as much as I would love for my family to come visit me, and see where I live, what I do, I'm almost glad for it. After seeing one friend after her family left I know I couldn't handle it if my family came. She was just sad and missed them, and I know that if my family came I would have to do the whole grieving process all over again. That's not something I want to do. It would be very nice, but I'm also thankful for the fact that I have to push through this all on my own and it will just make coming home that much sweeter.
3. I have somewhat abandoned my private journal. As much as I try, as often as I try, I'm just not a journaler. Granted, sometimes I get the urge to write, I have to write out feelings or simply record something funny. But I have come to the conclusion that I'm horrible at it. I much prefer this public place where you can all hear about my adventures; that also means I don't have to write everything twice in two places.
4. Today went a lot better at the school. Lately I've been rethinking my whole life...I know, not a good time to be doing this when I'm 3 years into college and abroad, but what can I say? And somehow I lost sight of how much I enjoy teaching. While today was slightly challenge, I enjoyed it. My spanish isn't perfect, and when I have to deal with snobby little boys who think they're so funny and laugh at my Spanish, well, that's difficult. But with a stern look and merely standing near them that was enough. I felt really good helping the few kids that were a bit slow and just simply weren't keeping pace in class. It's those moments where I realize that I really do like doing this, and it will be soo much easier when I get back home and can speak English in class. Although it has given me the confidence that maybe it is a good idea to speak spanish to my students. When I was taking my class last semester I was like absolutely not, code switching is fine. But now, yes I still agree code switching is fine (switching between the languages) but I do believe that maybe it can help to do a lot more in Spanish than originally thought. We'll see how this turns out. Oh, also, I get to teach something on Thursday! My advisor finally told me I can do a grammar review and prepare a short lesson with the Spider-Man song with them. So we'll see how it turns out. Wish me luck!
5. Next school year. I just finished picking my classes and I have to say, sadly I'm not very excited about them. The Spanish courses offered leave something to be desired, although I supposed my literature class can turn out to be interesting. But the mexican rebellion may be a bit...dry... And Philosophy and Lierature with a writing emphasis with a hard grader...yay. I'm also taking two Education courses, which typically are my favorite, so we'll see. I'm just hoping that my second spanish class doesn't get cancelled, because I have no idea what I'll put in there if it does. I had one spot open, where I didn't need to fill anything in, so I have no idea what I'm going to do if that happens.
Just some gorgeous graffiti I came upon on Saturday. The city is filled with really pretty murals like that.
That's pretty much it. I guess all I did really was give a small update on what I'm thinking and the few things I've been doing in the past day or so.
I will leave you with a wonderful picture of street art/graffiti that was on a building, or rather, I think it was someone's house. :)
I'm so sorry for my very long hiatus lately. To be completely honest I got lazy. But soon I will have lots more to write about because I will now be gone for the next 3 weeks in a row. Up, 3 weeks...in a row...traveling. Oh the life I have.
But to update you on other things that have been going on in my life...not much has been going on. I seriously have been mostly going to class, coming back, eating lunch, sitting around, going to the park, eating, and sleeping. I've been doing a lot of reading and am coming quite far in my quest to watch the entire series of Friends while I'm here, haha. But in all seriousness, it's been quite the relaxing life.
Just another gorgeous view of the mountains
One thing I have failed to talk about a lot is something that's actually quite important to my stay here, and that's an intercambio. Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, and that's pretty much all of you, it's a Spaniard here who wants to better their English and speak with someone. So these people are all over Granada, and they sign up with various groups, some people go through the CLM, others go through various programs. AIFS has an intercambio program where I'm assuming Spaniards contact them and find out about these programs somehow. So we have a bunch of names posted in our office with names, numbers, email addresses, age, interests, all sorts of information. We can pick any of those names and contact those people that we want to talk to. So these people are looking to better their English, and we, obviously, are looking to better our Spanish, so we can get together and talk and help each other out. AIFS also holds Tapas with Intercambios in March, where it's about 8 of us and 8 Spaniards, we get two drinks and tapas and get the opportunity to meet people in a controlled and safe environment as well.
So I finally went to the intercambio that I signed up for about 3 weeks ago. I met at the Ayutamiento, the town hall building basically and met with Edu, the coordinator or tapas and a few other AIFS students and some Spanairds as well. Edu took us to this awesome bar called Pecados, which means sin. It was very fun, and it even had a little apple on the front of it, I thought it was cute and ironic.
Christopher Columbus, why is Alex
picking your nose?
So we all got situated alternating between Spaniard and English student and started talking with the people that were there. I was situated near a couple, Manolo and Maria Jose, and near another man whose name I unfortunately can't remember (sorry sir somwhere in the universe!). But I was very happy, I got to practice a lot of my Spanish, and they asked me tons of questions about myself, about stuff in the U.S. Since I'm an Education Major this guy in interested in being an English teacher here so he was asking me questions about how their school is different here from at home. We talked about some politics, mostly just economics, not that I know very much. And we just all sat and talked from about 9:30 to about 12:30. It was very fun, and I decided to meet with Manolo and Maria again. They both lived in England for a year so their English is very good compared to my Spanish. But they are very helpful and correct me when I make mistakes (although they tell me I speak well).
So I've met with them once since then, and hopefully again this week, if I can fit it in my schedule with studying and such. Then I leave for Morocco, and then Italy. So I'm hoping to meet with them some more because I really enjoy it. They are a very nice young couple and they give me a lot of feedback. I mostly need help with saying...well...everything. haha but they are very nice. Their English is very good, I only have trouble understand their British pronunciation of things sometimes, because they learned British English. But I'm very excited to meet with them again. Intercambios are a great opportunity to improve your Spanish because they're not just people who are used to speaking with foreigners and they tend to have a different take on things and different advice. I like listening to their ideas about life here and their life in England. It's very fun.
Another fun little thing I've done in the past few weeks was celebrate La Fiesta de Primavera (The Party for Spring). Now, since spring doesn't officially start till tuesday, the fiesta is celebrated on the weekend. What better way to celebrate amazing weather than to go botelloning. Botelloning is basically when people go outside and drink in a public place. There is only one place where this is legal in Granada and it just so happens to be pretty much right outside El Corte Ingles. There's a large radius around and near the store where it's legal to go drink, and the Fiesta de La Primavera is when all the young people celebrate the first warm day where you can botellon. Well, let me say that was an experience. The youth start heading over there at around 2, and everyone brings their own alcohol. Then they basically just stand around, hang out and drink in a large group. Well, as you can imagine this has turned into more than just a little gathering over the years.
There's most of us at the Botellon
Me and some friends decided to go and experience it. It's one holiday that pretty much only Granada does and in some cases people from quite a bit aways come to Granada to participate. This lasts from about 2 in the afternoon allllll night until people leave, pretty much. This is basically the opening of the season for botelloning, when people will go there in much smaller numbers throughout the summer and merely hang out. However, this is simply a giant mass of people that are all very drunk in one place. Me and my friends headed over at around 5:30 and as walking there it's quite comical. You just see tons of people swarming to this area, with bags of alcohol, mixes, ice, I even saw a grocery cart filled with juices, alcohol and mixers. We got there and you just saw a giant mass of people. There were police everywhere directing the traffic of those poor people that needed to get out of the city. And then there were just lots and lots of people. We settled down in one area, and my friends and I opened our bottles of wine, sangria, whatever else they had. One friend even had enough ingredients to make her own sangria. Pears, oranges, apples, knife...juice, wine, sprite..the works. So naturally it was very comical when she popped a squat on the ground and wiped out her knife to cut up the oranges and started mixing the drinks. It was hilarious and made for a very good memory. The pear came in real handy when we were all hungry later too, we all got a piece of the pear. :)
So we hung out there until around 9 or 9:30, after making 2 bathroom breaks. There aren't bathrooms so most of us took turns stay where we were and others popped into their houses to use the bathrooms, those of us that were close enough anyways. I finally got home by 11:30 after a minor detour on our way home. It was a very fun night and I'm so glad I went out and experienced that. The next day it was all over the news and we saw clips of them uses bulldozers to move all the garbage that was left on the ground from that night. Those poor people, but it was very, very fun.
Oh and Sunday I worked on a photo contest with some friends. Winner of the contest gets 75 euro or a free dinner!! We're obviously shooting for winning and getting a free dinner. So we went around on Saturday and took some pictures. It was a fun way to see more of Granada and get some awesome pictures for ourselves too. These pictures can be seen throughout this post. We traveled all around different parts of Granada, post parts I haven't actually been to yet either, which was really nice. We went to a cool garden, which is where I saw the peacock! And this gorgeous view of the mountains. It's very pretty over there and I definitely can't wait to return.
That has pretty much been my life for the past few weeks. Fairly boring, not much happening, which is explains the lack of posting. I booked a trip to Vienna to visit my sister's friend who lives there. Free housing, I'll take it. :) And this weekend I'm going to Morocco, next weekend I'm leaving for Spring break and heading to Rome, Florence and Venice. Pretty exciting life coming up ahead and I'll be sure to keep you all updated on that. I've been continuing going to my internship which has still proven to be pretty much useless other than to make my blood boil and see how how their school system works here.
Alright, you would think that I'd be done by now with last weekend, but nope. Unfortunately for you, you're reading someone's blog who is waaay too detailed with my information. But in all honesty I prefer to be detailed. This is after all, more or less, a recount for myself as well.
I guess the last place I left off was being in Sevilla. So Sunday morning we woke up, left the hotel and headed over to Córdoba. This lovely little town was one of the first towns that had a strong Arabic and Roman influence. There is tons of Roman history and Arabic history there, but most of the Roman stuff is gone because the Arabs built over it all, or used their pieces, or the Christians then built over that stuff. So what we get is a big mash up of cultures and different architecture.
So we arrived in Córdoba and were greeted with a lovely view of the city. Córdoba is actually quite a small city, in relation to pretty much every other place I've visited. But it's quite a cute little town. This is the lovely site I saw when out bus pulled up and we were dropped off at the bus stop. If you think this view is pretty, wait till you see what I saw when we were leaving. This whole little town is amazing, I wish I could have spent more time in it.
We got there at around 12 and had about an 1 or more to just wander around until it was time for our guided tour around the city. In all honesty, I was tired of walking around new places, it was warm out, there was a perfectly nice sun spot right where I was sitting. So there I sat. Yup, there were about 15 of us that just hung out right outside the Mosque. There was also a convenient Ice Cream shop right across the street, so most of us went over there and grabbed some ice-cream. So I ate ice cream and sat in the nice warm sun while we waiting for our tour guide. We couldn't go into the Mosque because it's also now a Church, and they hold mass in there, and when there's mass you're not allowed in. Not gonna lie, I like that policy, I feel so weird when I enter a Cathedral and a mass is being held. It's awkward.
Most of us eating our ice cream
and enjoying the sun :)
So I hung around and our guide showed up at around 1:30 or so. And she started to take us around the city. One of the first things we went to was the older part of Córdoba. There was still some part of the wall left from when the Roman's built this wall many many years ago and this is pretty much the only part that's left that the roman's built. As I said earlier, they tore down a lot of stuff. So this section of the wall and a few others are really all that's left. Originally though, this surrounded most of Córdoba to protect it.
After we visited the wall and saw some statues of prominent people we entered into the oldest part of the city, what is now called the "Jewish Section" of Córdoba. This section was home to many of the Jews that lived in the city. Córdoba used to have a lot of people of all three religions, Jewish, Christians, and Muslims. This section of the city was where all the Synagogues used to be, and where the wealthy people lived. It´s a very pretty section and we saw a very small old private Synagogue. It's very small and was even converted into a small church at one point, when the Jews were all expelled from Spain a long time ago. Now it's just a monument that people go visit.
Me in the courtyard
After that we headed over to only the second most famous part of Córdoba. La Calle de Flores, The street of flowers. Now, be forewarned, the pictures I have of this street is not at all good. Luckily I bought a postcard to show the real beauty of this place. The street is very, very, very narrow, and it's literally just filled with tourists going in and out of the street to look at all the flowers that are in the courtyard, and all the little flowers hanging on the wall. While we were waiting in line to enter the little courtyard area we were waiting in the tiny little street. We all looked up and jokingly said "haha, hope none of these are loose", as we were all standing under potted plants mantled to the wall. Of course, nothing did break, but it was an amusing thought.
We were also in Córdoba as the same time as a bunch of other programs with students. It's amazing how many programs take their students to the same places, at the same time! So naturally we ran into another huuuuge ground. Then this guy heard my friend Gracie talk about Boston, or at least I'm assuming that's how it happened, because when we passed them the second time the guy shouted "Hey Boston girl!" Then proceeded to ask us if we were all from Boston. It was quite an entertaining thing to see. I do believe that he was overly excited that she was from Boston.
We continued to walk around the city with our guide and learn about some famous people that are important to Córdoba. For example, there's some scientist doctor guy that was known for I think being an eye doctor. So he has a statue in one of their plazas and it´s a fairly new statue. Rumor has it that if you rub his foot you'll have good luck. We all rubbed it, although I'm not too sure he was very good luck for me....all things considered that conspired that week.
After some more aimless wandering, and honestly not paying much attention, we finally arrived at the Mosque turned Cathedral. I was really too busy enjoying the sun and the views. This Mosque! This Mosque was about a million different things. It started off as a Mosque when the Arabes had power in Córdoba and ruled there for a long time. There are multiple parts of the Mosque and additions were made to it multiple times. The first part, which is very cool was made of lots of different parts from the Romans. Yup, that´s what it looks like. All the columns are a bit different, and they were polished. This was the original part of the Mosque. This part was built by, ready yourself...Abd Ar-Raham I, he was a calife, or the head guy of the Muslims in those ages. I'm learning about all this in my Islamic Culture in Spain right now. :) This was the first part of the Mosque, ironically built on the remains of a destroyed Basilica (weren't they so nice back then? :P). The arches were hispano-romanic and they alternated brick and stone to give it that cool criss-cross look.
Then Abd Ar-Rahman II added onto the Mosque and just added more space for the courtyard and isles of the prayer hall. He kept the same design as above. After that A Hakam II built the 3rd addition to the building. This area is a bit more decorative and looks very pretty. There are about 3 different doors that look like that, and it's all fenced off so you can't get any closer than that, but it's still very pretty.
Finally, this guy Al-Mansur added the last portion of the Mosque. He added lots more naves, basically more rows of the columns and arches. This time though they had less money so they didn't use real brick and stone to do the red and beige coloring that's up there. Instead they painted it so it looks like it has a pattern, and they didn't polish the columns. So they look a little bit different, but they didn't reuse the columns this time. It's a huge space but looks very much the same as the first picture of the Mosque shown above.
Finally, the last addition, but not by a Calife, by King Ferdinand III. The Christians conquered Córdoba in the 1200's and King Ferdinand III decided he'd be nice, and instead of destroying the building he'll just add onto it too. It was too beautiful for him to destroy, so this changed this mosque into a church...Or at least added a church part to it. So it's quite strange to be walking around a Mosque and then poof, all of a sudden you are surrounded by the glamour of the Christian decorations. So we went from seeing all of that to...this... it was pretty magnificant. I love the cathedrals and things that they built then. It's nothing like what we have now, these are just...breathtaking. Every cathedral I see just keeps topping the other, they are all amazing in my eyes.
The Sacristy was also amazing. There was a huge box that held the Eucharist when they travel with it. But the word escapes me, either way it was amazing. I loved it, and was very happy that they simply put this amazing thing inside the Mosque and didn't destroy the beautiful building. It was sooo strange when we walked out of it though and went back to the old arabic designed stuff. Such a weird feeling, haha But I loved the church part of the mosque.
Me in the courtyard
That pretty much rounded out that the mosque. From there we left the Mosque and went outside to the courtyard. We were given free time, about another hour to walk around and grab some food, touristy gifts and use the rest rooms before we left for Granada again. But not before taking some more stunning pictures. Once again, I got ice cream, grabbed my touristy gifts and soaked up the sun with most of our AIFS group. It was just too nice out. And Córdoba is pretty small, there wasn't much other there that we hadn't seen.
Just another view
After our free time we simply headed back to Granada, getting back at around 6. That was nice too, because it was a Sunday afternoon and we needed to get back so we could organize ourselves and get ready for class the next day.
Overall, my weekend was amazing. I saw some awesome things, and they're things that I now get to learn about in my classes. That's my favorite part about traveling. I'm learning about all these things that I'm seeing. For me, I love seeing history. I love seeing some obscure things too, but the history to me is amazing. Where I'm living is so central to Spainish history. So much started here and there's such a rich history. I love it. Just one more reason for me to be so grateful. Sometimes all it takes is reflecting to understand how lucky you are. And for me, reflecting on here and recounting my memories and travels helps me realize how lucky I am. Not everyone gets to experience these things. This is an experience of a life time and sometimes I still can't believe that I'm here, and that this is my norm...so strange.
Well, next weekend is Morrocco. But who knows what this weekend will bring. I have midterms next week so probably not too much, although this weekend is fiesta de primavera (festival of spring). AKA: Lots of young students botelloning (drinking outside) at the one legal botellon area. So who knows. I guess I should do some school work too huh?
Well hopefully I'll write about this week and my intercambio experience, but I think for the night I'm done with my blogging.
I´m back, sorry for my little hiatus with posting this week, I obviously needed the time. Also, I've been quiet busy distracting myself and getting some work done. But I decided it's time to finish up posting about last weekend so I can move on and post about other such mundane things.
So Friday was full of monkeys and traveling and I arrived in Sevilla to our beautiful hotel room. Well Saturday morning we had our wake up call at about 7:30 so we could be ready to go by 9. We left the hotel, after a delicious breakfast, and headed into the centre of Sevilla to kick off our tour of the city.
We started by just driving into the city and we saw an are of the city that has a bunch of Pavillions that were made for a World's Fair, I think...I'm pretty sure I'm actually wrong about that. But there are 20 something of them representing a bunch of different countries that were made for some really big event in Sevilla. They are really pretty and are designed to reflect the traditions of that country at the time. Although the U.S.'s is really really boring, it's just white. Does that mean we were boring then? haha
After that we got off the bus to do the rest of our tour, which was mostly walking around and seeing beautiful sights. The first place we walked into was Plaza España. This is the most gorgeous plaza I've ever seen. The picture to the left does not really accurately portrait how gorgeous this place was. Luckily, I have a video of it for you! So we walked in and we see this ginormous plaza, which oddly was empty. Maybe that's because it was only about 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday. Spain during that time of day on a weekend is pretty dead. Just like a college campus!! All the young adults were out till the break of dawn the night before so there weren't many people around at the time. That was nice for us though, because that meant our pictures were uninhibited. So that's me on one of the many little bridges that they have in there. At the main entrance of the Plaza there are 50 something columns that represent different parts or provinces of Spain. Also, along the wall are a bunch of murals that represent different provinces of Spain. There's Granada's! So me and my friends decided to take a picture in front of Granada's gorgeous mural.
Granada's main painting is this picture of the Arabic Sultan handing over the keys to the city to King Fernando. This did not actually happen, but it's symbolic of when Spain finally conquered over the Muslims and that's when they gained control over Granada. I'm fairly certain that is the picture here on the wall. Either way it's absolutely gorgous tilling.
So we walked into Plaza España and our tour guide was telling us all about the Plaza. About how all the columns represent one thing, and the bridges represent another, none of this which I recall.
But there is something really cool about this place. It was in a movie!! Do you know which one? I bet you do since I've talked about it on Facebook. But if you don't, and in case you don't recognize the place...STAR WARS. Yup, this place served as a Planet I believe for a few scenes in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. In case you don't know what I'm talking about...here's a link! Star Wars in Sevilla Don't kill me though...the scene is in Spanish because that's all I could find. But you'll still be able to see what I'm talking about. I also made my own little video of the Plaza. It shows the whole Plaza so you can see how big it is. I ended up back at Plaza España later that day with my friends and took a nice video. But we basically just got to hang around the Plaza for a good 15 minutes and take pictures and enjoy the sites.
From there we walked over to the Alcazar (click on Alcazar for the link to their website) that they have in Sevilla. Before Granada was conquered Sevilla was a pretty big hot spot for them to create big buildings and rule from there. It used to be inhabited by a lot of people, and today is the capitol of Anadlusia. For those of you who don't understand why Spain has more than one capital...well it's kind of like in the U.S. Except, instead of states, they have autonomous communities. So each community has their own capital, just like each state has it's own capital. So Sevilla is now the capital of Andalusia and it has a lot of history in it.
So we went over to the Alcazar, where we were told by the guy greeting us at the gate to not touch anything or do anything really that requires common sense otherwise we would be kicked out. It always astonishes me what people do and sometimes I wonder why some of these rules need to be said, like who's really that stupid to do things like that. Either way, it was comical because Imna had to translate for us what the guard was telling us, because there are some kids in the program who aren't fluent enough to understand.
So our guide started walking us around the Alcazar. Alright, now don't kill me, but I honestly don't remember a whole lot. I think I'm starting to reach my saturation point and my mind kind of just goes weeee when someone starts talking about all the history and cool things there are to know. I've just seen so many places that I can't always concentrate on everything they're saying to us. But I'm going to look through my pictures and hopefully they will job my memory. This is a musical fountain! It was playing music when we got there. It's powered by the water, and it sounded really pretty. We didn't spend much time there though. Just enough to see it, hear it and then continue, because the Alcazar is huge.
From there we walked into the Alcazar and got to look at a bunch of gorgeous rooms. There's a lot of arabic influence in this Alcazar also, because the whole of Andalusia has a long history which being inhabited by a lot of Muslims. So there is a lot of arabic design and they did a lot of the construction. Also in the Alcazar you can see evidence of the three main religions. For example, here on the wall you can see the Star of David, the Arabic star and then the Christian cross (which is more or less a regular star). Star of David is in dark blue. Arabic star is in orange and the christian one is the lighter blue between the black pieces. It takes some looking, but you can see that is pretty much every place you go. Which I think is pretty cool.
Also, in all of these places they reused a lot of things, or what my tour guide liked to joke about, recycling. They really did recycle a lot though. You can see the evidence of that in this photo with the columns. All of those columns are different, because they took them from older roman buildings. Oh yea, another thing they did here was knock down the old stuff and rebuilding something else where it once stood. So Andalusia has a lot of Roman history from when the Romans came over here. So there's Roman influence and Arabic influence. So these columns were once in a Roman building, and they reused them to build the Alcazar. So these columns all look different, but I think it's a pretty cool look. It gives the place character.
Oh, did I forget to mention that this is the place where Christopher Columbus was given permission to cross the ocean? Oops, yea, it totally is. So this picture here his a painting in one of the rooms in the Alcazar. This represents the maiden voyage that they took, and Mary watching over them. It's one of the first paintings to depict/describe/embody the time period. It's obviously not at all acurate but it has the three ships in it and a bunch of other people. I did stand in the room though where they had that interaction. It was pretty cool. That room had a lot of people in it because it became a center for making trades and stuff. But, yea I guess I totally forgot to mention that, sorry guys. haha. And this is just another really pretty room, you can see the ceiling and the walls. Everything is covered in design, it's gorgeous. And that pretty much rounds out the Alcazar. There's not much else, just a lot of gorgeous rooms, that all have a lot of designs on them. There's a lot of reoccurring designs hidden in the place, like shells that represent the Patron Saint of Sevilla. So I'll just round out Alcazar with a video I took while inside.
After that we went over to the Cathedral in Sevilla. This Cathedral is the second biggest cathedral, second only to Saint Peter's Basilica. Isn't that cool! But it's techincally only the biggest square footage wise. I can't remember how much it was, but it's a lot. So I thought it was pretty cool to be there. There are also many cool little factoids about the place, and things in there that you would not have expected. For example: Christopher Columbus' tomb is there. He actually has a lot of places where they say he is buried, because his body/ashes have traveled to so many places. But his actual tomb is in Sevilla. So that was actually very cool to see.
They are also doing a ton of restoration in the Cathedral because after years of oil lamps and burning candles the dirt has just settled and covered everything. Our guide was pointing out places where they have restored columns and paintings verses places they haven't. It's amazing how dirty things get after a few hundred years...haha. But it's amazing that almost all of the stain glass windows, after several hundred years of having sunlight shine through them, are still just as brilliant as ever.
So as we were taken around the guide stopped to show us this painting. Well I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo, but right above St. Francis' head is a big dark line, and it goes all the way around a little bit past his hand and around the other side of his body too. Well, that's there because long ago something stole that part of the paniting. Yup, someone cut out the circle of where St. Francis' was and just walked away with it. It was gone for a while, but luckily someone noticed at an antique art shop what it was and alerted the authorities. But I thought it was pretty comical that someone literally just walked up and cut him out. So now there's that scar there, and if you look carefully you can pretty much see the whole part that they cut out. I thought that was an interesting tid bit of info. It's crazy was some people will do. But it's a beautiful painting, so I guess I can understand why someone would want it.
After we looked at that painting we got another amazing surprise. I guess they had just finished restoring this gorgeous room. I looked up and that's what I saw. It looks a lot bigger than it is, the person who designed this room was an excellent illusionist, basically he was a genius. The whole ceiling is curved, there are gorgeous things written in Latin I believe all across the room and up there is a stunning painting of the Virgin Mary. Our guide told us that when they were restoring it they had the painting down on the ground and it looked so strange because it's actually a concave painting. So when it's flat on the ground it looks all distorted, which makes sense. Well this room was breath taking and apparently was actually suppose to be in the designs for St. Peter's Basilica, but the Pope turned it down. So instead, he built the room here. Guess who designed this room and made this stunning photo, guess, guess. I bet you don't know. LEONARDO DA VINCI. Yup, he designed this room. The moment our guide said his name we all just gasped and went omg, lol. Then of course everyone started snapping pictures. Not me, I knew this room was special when I walked in. So we just gawked in there for a little bit and I just stared, not really being able to believe that I was in someplace like that. It was an amazing experience.
After that was pretty much the end of the tour. We saw more parts of the Cathedral, we saw some gorgeous pieces that the church still uses, a really amazing crucifix, some crowns, and a ton of other pieces in a small room that held all these pieces that are actually still in use. From there we were told our tour was over and we were welcome to climb the 32...yes 32 flights of ramps up to the top of the tower. So what do we do? We climb 32 flights to get to the top of the tower to see the beautiful city of Sevilla. Well getting up there was quite comical because everyone had heard different numbers. We started out hearing 14 flights. Yay! That's not bad, we can totally do that. Then we surpassed 14, and got to 16. That's when we realized that person was very very wrong. Then people started shouting out bigger numbers, like 24! and 44!. 24 was something we could handle, but when we heard 44 we were all like WTF? haha so needless to say the rest of the way up was interesting as we continued to go higher and higher, and we couldn't tell if it was every going to stop. Luckily it was ramps, not stairs, which helped. But still, we finally got to the top at flight number 32...yup...32. Granted the sight was 100% worth it, but it was quite comical when we were all trying to guess the number. This is what I saw at the top. Gorgeous! So we all hung out there for a good 15 minutes and just took in the view. It was so nice and definitely worth the climb. After that we all split up and were set loose for the rest of the day. It was only about 1:30, so me and my friends grabbed some bocadillos literally right next to the Cathedral and then wandered around Sevilla.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention how HOT it was in Sevilla. I had on a short sleeve shirt, jeans and my boots. In the morning it was cold so I thought I'd be okay with what I was wearing. Well I should have heeded that warning telling me that it would warm up. Because warm up it did. I was hot, sweating even at one point. But it was a breath of fresh air because I'm tired of the cold. haha as most of you are probably too.
After we walked up to the top of the Cathedral we decided to just wander around and make our way to the Parque Maria Jose. The route worked out very well that we would see things that we wanted to see, and we wouldn't have to ever go out of our way. So our first stop was the Torre de Oro, Tower of Gold. It was incredibly uneventful and underwhelming. I think it used to be a place where they store stuff, but now it's just a tower to go up. And it's not made of gold, that's just what it's called. It's just a tower that you have to pay to climb. We weren't about to do that, so we looked at it, said "cool" and continued on, lol. Sorry to disappoint people.
Then we continued on and saw the Bull Ring. That was pretty cool to see. Again, we didn't go inside because we were cheap and didn't really care that much seeing the museum they have in there. It was very pretty though and huge. And to think that they actually have bull fights in there is crazy. We just looked at it for a bit and then continued on. lol, I know we were boring. But I was also getting tired of walking.
We headed over to the big park from there and on the way we decided to stop by this ship that was docked near the pier. It's a replica of one of the ships Christopher Columbus took. I don't think it's the exact size that it was, but it's the same type of ship. It was just chilling, anchored right next to the pier that people were walking along. So me and my friends decided to go down and check it out. Our tour guide pointed it out to us and said it's not there very often. So we took some pictures, and even got a group shot after I asked a nice parent to take a picture for me.
Then we just wandered around the park, looked at some of the pavilions they had in the park and oh yea...my friend totally got pooped on by a bird. haha it was kind of comical actually. I felt so bad, and then we walked into the area of the park filled with birds and he was like "nope, not going near them". But we had fun just taking pictures in the park, and wandering around. After having stayed in Granada for almost an entire month I was really starting to miss greenery, trees, flowers, fresh smells, and silence. So it was a nice change of pace. We spent some time in there and then made our way back to our hotel. We returned by returned by about 5 and then hung around till our dinner at 8:30. After that a bunch of people just grabbed some wine at a local store and we hung out in a friends room. It was a nice relaxing day and night, a great end to the weekend. The next day was Cordoba. But I had an excellent time in Sevilla. It's a beautiful city and I wish I could have spent more time there. But all is well, and it was an excellent day, full of exploring.
Well I left us off after we got back from our super hokey night show. So Sunday we woke up at around 8 and headed out at 9 to go get our picturesque view of Tangier. We drove about 30 min outside the city and ended up seeing the Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the ride there it was very pretty and eventually we got to a point where we got to get off the bus and take pictures. Seeing as our tour guide wasn't very good, so when we saw the caves of Hercules he just said "here's some caves". haha luckily I knew what I was looking for so I got to see the Caves of Hercules! For those of you who don't know what that is, legend has it that Hercules slept there before he completed his 12 tasks. So that's pretty cool that I saw something of legends. The beach was also just plain gorgeous and I was so excited to see the Atlanice, I just kept thinking "on the other side is my home!!!" 
So we hung around there for a while and I got to take in the view. Every time I travel I get excited to see green grass, and the ocean, just because I see so little of it here in Granada. So it was really nice to just take it all in and look at the ocean. These beaches are also really popular in the summer time, our guide told us that they're all full of people, which I believe because they are gorgeous. 
