Sevilla & Morocco, November 1-4

I'm finally going to write my post about Morocco! I'm only about a month behind! :P Hopefully I'll be able to catch up, if not I'll just have to write the rest when I get back to the states.

But first, I want to take a moment to talk about my study abroad experience. I know it's not exactly over yet but I feel like I've already learned so much. And by learned I don't mean classroom learning, I mean life learning. If I'm taking away one thing from this trip it's gratefulness. I'm so grateful for the amazing people I have in my life that support me and encourage me to do my own thing, to figure out what it is that I want in life, even though I change my mind all the time they've never been discouraging. I'm grateful that those people love me for me. I know I'm not perfect by any means, but I'm growing and changing and trying to become a better person, the person I want to be. I'm grateful that I have the things I have. Living in Spain where the young population has an unemployment rate of 50%, going on these trips and seeing the things I've seen, the ways of life I have seen, all of it just makes me so glad for the life that I have. And finally, among other things, of course, I'm grateful that I live in the United States, where we have endless opportunities to better our lives. There's no other place like it on Earth. This has been an eye-opening experience and for that I feel blessed.

So now I'm going to talk about my trip to Morocco, which was the most influential trip I've had. Of course, going into it we knew that it was a third-world country and that the poverty would be high, but there's nothing like seeing that first-hand. It was a beautiful country from what I saw and of course it had its good qualities, but I can't imagine living a life like that. It just seems so... behind. That's the best word I can think of. 

So we left Salamanca on Thursday because we had what they call a puente (it means bridge), where Thursday is the actual holiday but they give us Friday off as well. We got on a bus to take us to Sevilla, where we were supposed to meet the program that was taking us to Morocco on Friday. The bus ride was I think 6 hours long, which wasn't too bad. We spend Thursday night in Sevilla, which is a beautiful city. I wouldn't mind going back sometime to see more of the city. We only got to see a few things while we were there. BUT! I DID get a chai tea latte from Starbucks for the first time since I've been here! I was so happy! Thursday night we kind of wandered around the city and met up with a friend of Amanda's for dinner. We ended up getting Burger King because we had picked up some coupons at the bus station. It actually was super delicious and we had a great evening. Friday we leisurely got up and checked out of the hostel then walked around a different part of the city. We had promised Brittany the day before that we would go to KFC because she missed fried chicken so much, plus we had coupons for there too, so it worked our perfectly. I was SO HAPPY to eat some mashed potatoes! Delish!

We had to be at the meeting point at 4:30 I think, so we took a taxi from our hostel. From there we got on a bus with our group (DiscoverSeville) and headed to the border! The drive from Sevilla to the port was about 3 hours long, but our tour guide was hilarious. I wish I would have taken a picture of him, he reminded me so much of Russel Brand. The picture on the bottom left is our ferry... in the pouring rain. It was HUGE. It carried our two buses across with is. :) We got there kind of late, I think around 9, and it was a 30 minute bus ride to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel we went straight to dinner, where we had cous cous! It was so yummy, but so filling! It's in the collage below this one.

The next day we got up and got on a bus that took us to the Cave of Hercules and camel riding, and then eventually to the city of Assilah. They split the group up for the morning, so my group went to the Cave first, then to camel riding. I'm not really sure what the big deal is about the Cave of Hercules because it was pretty small and insignificant feeling to me, but I think Hercules supposedly prepared in the cave before one of his trials. Something like that. Anyway, it had a pretty view of the ocean! (top right picture) After that we switched and we got to ride camels! I was a little disappointed because I was expecting to get to really ride the camels, but instead we got to get on them, be led around in a circle, then we had to get off. Still, it was an experience! Every time you get on/off the camel they have to lay down, like the baby one is laying in the picture on the top left (yes, that is a baby. or maybe a teen). It was a pretty cool feeling when the camels got up, and a little bit scary! Gotta hold on tight!

Then we all left and headed to the city of Assilah and we ate on the way. The bottom two pictures on the left are from our lunch Saturday. The picture on the left is of their version of "salad." It was a community serving style plate that had lettuce, cucumber, carrots, boiled eggs, potatoes, radishes  and I think cabbage. I really enjoyed the boiled eggs, potatoes, and the carrots. But you know what I really enjoyed? The main course! Hoooly moly, it was the most delicious thing I've eaten since I left the States. I'm not even kidding. It was a chicken breast/wing covered in french fries,but the chicken was soaked in the most delicious cooking sauce ohh my goodness, it's making my mouth water just thinking about it. It was really close to what we eat in the US with such rich flavors. Then you soaked the french fries in the sauce, too. My lord, I miss the food back home! The pictures that are inside a building are pictures from the inside of the restaurant. It was beautiful and in the middle of nowhere.

Then we continued our journey and arrived in Assilah. I'm not sure why they chose this city to spend 3 hours in because there was nothing to do, but it was kind of enjoyable to just relax a little bit. We were supposed to be "bargaining," but there wasn't much that caught my eye so I only bought a couple of things. The one thing I found really amazing was the woman in the first collage who was painting with her toes. Yeah, it was amazing. She had a couple of pictures that I really liked but another girl bought them before I could, so I asked her (in Spanish-basically everyone there spoke at least Spanish, and most also spoke English) if she could make me another one like that and how long it would take. She told me 30 minutes. In the picture, she's working on my painting and you can see the finished result in the second collage. Amazing right? And only for 5 euro. After Assilah we headed back to the hotel, where we ate dinner and spent the rest of the evening. One does not "go out" at night in Morocco. Number one it's not safe and number two I didn't even see any nightlife at all while we were there. Anyway, that night was also karaoke night for our group in the hotel bar/lounge! What entertainment, especially because it was Brittany's birthday and our guide knew it. She got called up to sing with him and basically had no choice. :P

The next day we had to check out and load up onto the bus by 8ish. That day we went to a city I don't remember the name of and saw a palace there. Prime example of why women don't go to Morocco alone: as we were walking through the city (as a group, mind you) this man kept talking to us saying things (in Spanish) like, "Ooh pretty girls, I like white girls. Do you want to come spend time with me?" Yeah, it was gross and creepy. I'm probably never going back to Morocco, not going to lie. Anyway, after the tour we got back on the buses and headed to Chefchaouen, famous as the "blue city." It was a pretty long drive, I think like 3 hours, but the views along the way were gorgeous. We stopped for a potty break about 2/3 of the way there and the place we stopped was gorgeous. The picture of me and the picture above it are pictures of the lake that was at that place. Isn't it lovely? It was so calm, I loved it.


Anyway, then we arrived in the city and did some crazy navigating (there is absolutely no organization to this city) to find our restaurant, "Aladdín." It was a good meal, not as good as the day before mind you, but the views of the city from the top of the restaurant were amazing. The picture on the bottom right is one taken from the top of the restaurant. Chefchaouen was one of the major refuges for Jewish and Moorish people trying to escape the Reconquista (718-1492) in Spain/Portugal. The rumor is that the city is painted blue because they believed it kept the flies away, but I'm not so sure about that. The blue parts are the Jewish parts and the white parts are the Arabic parts. The Jews painted it blue because of some religious purposes, but I'm not exactly sure why. Something I read said that they used to put a blue thread in their prayer shawl to make them think of the blue sky above and hence God in the Heavens, so they painted the city blue. I don't know, doesn't make much sense to me, but then again neither do most other religious things.

We were supposed to have an hour long tour of the city by a local, but since we arrived late to lunch he just took us to see/walk along the river. The river comes straight out of a mountain and the people certainly use it. The picture on the bottom left is of what I call a "laundry station," where the river water flows in and out for women to do the laundry.  The other pictures are from after the river/walking through the city to the main plaza to do more bargaining. Since we were behind schedule we only had like 15 minutes to do all the shopping we wanted to do, and if you know anything about bargaining you know it's not exactly a rapid process. Luckily I was able to get everything I wanted for the prices I wanted because I was literally having to walk away in order to be at the meeting point on time so they were much more willing to negotiate rather than lose a sale. Anyway, after Chefchaouen we headed to the port to take the ferry back across. We got to Seville around 1:30 am then we still had our bus ride back to Salamanca. We ended up getting back home at 8 am and still went to classes. We're simply that committed. ;)

So basically, I had a lot of fun on my trip to Morocco, but I think I'm going to credit it more to the company I was with rather than the country itself. I'm going to miss these girls like crazy, I can't believe our time together is almost over. Today is day 15 until I come home. It's almost hard to believe. But not really, because I'm ready to come home. So yeah, Morocco. Will I ever go back? No, almost 100% positive that I will not. But am I glad that I went? Definitely. It was such a nice trip because it wasn't rushed like other trips where there are so many things to do and see that you end up exhausted and hardly even enjoying yourself. This trip was relaxing (minus the constant concern for your safety/money) and it was nice to be more "in tune" with nature, but I prefer my cities to be hygienic and the water safe (more or less) to drink. I feel lucky because everyone else who went got sick from something but I didn't... unless I have some parasite hidden just waiting to be discovered. I'm going to hope I just got lucky.

Anywho, I think that's basically all I have to say about Morocco! I'll see you guys next time! (whenever that may be! ;P)

"Paris is always a good idea."

Audrey Hepburn said that. I most certainly didn't. Although I will say that fall is a great time to visit the city of love!

So I'm going to start by saying I'm so sorry that this post has taken 4 weeks to write! What kind of blogger does that?! Welll I'm going to say a blogger that's a student! The past month has been super busy, or so it seems. Hopefully from now on I'll be able to keep up with things a little better now that midterms and such are out of the way!

I'm also going to warn you ahead of time that there are a lot of pictures crammed into these little collages, so if you want to see the rest of the pictures or just to see the ones here full sized they can be found on my facebook! I wish I would have written this blog sooner simply because I've kind of forgotten the little details, but I'm going to share with you at least those things that I remember!

Day 1- Thursday October 18: Getting there-
There's an airport in Salamanca but since it's such a small airport it's expensive to fly out of, so instead we took a bus to the Madrid airport, which takes about 2.5 hours. If you're flying internationally, you have to arrive at the airport 3 hours ahead of time in order to be sure you get through security and such on time. I feel like that's forever ahead of time, but hey, I guess it's nice to be sure you don't miss your flight! We arrived at our hotel kind of late, around 9 I think, so the first thing we did was seek food. We ended up eating at a Chinese food restaurant right across the street from our hotel. Yeah, our first meal in France was Chinese haha, but it was delicious! I personally stayed in the hotel that night because traveling exhausts me.

Day 2- Friday: Bus tour and free time-
Friday we met up in the lobby in the morning around 9 to go on a bus tour of the city. I'm really glad API provided us with this tour because honestly, Paris has so much to do and to see that it's basically impossible to see it all just by walking. Well, it's possible, but it's no fun. Besides, a lot of the things you just want to see, you don't actually want to visit. Hence, the bus tour was the perfect option. Some of these pictures you can tell I took from my seat on the bus, but hey, can't help reflections!



During the bus tour they stopped at  L'Hôtel national des Invalides, which is the building with the gold dome. The building was originally started in 1670 by King Louis XIV for wounded soldiers and veterans. Now it's used as a military museum while also still serving its original purpose. I would have like to have gone there if only to see Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb, but there wasn't enough time.

The bus also stopped so we could take the pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower that you see here. It was fun to get to take silly pictures with my friends, like the one where I'm leaning on the tower or where we're touching the tip of it. I didn't have time to do that last time I was in Paris. We didn't get to go down to the tower at this point in time, but we had free time that we could use to go. Unfortunately, and this is the one thing I'm really bummed I missed, I didn't get to be under/in front of the tower during twinkle time! :( Luckily I've been before so I have seen it at some point in my life, but it was still a bummer to not get to be there with my friends. That's a different story though, we'll get to that later.

 The bus dropped us off at Notre Dame, so we went in and took pictures there, then promptly began the hunt for food. A lot of us were just looking for something cheap like McDonalds, but when we asked around there wasn't a McDonalds nearby. Bummer. However, we walked across the street and voila! there was a Subway! Yes, the sandwich place! I haven't seen one in Spain so far, so I was super thrilled to get a turkey sandwich, which is something I haven't had since I left the states (crazy, I know).

Anyway, after that we went back to the hotel because Ginny's feet were dying and a few people needed to charge their camera batteries. Later that night we went to the Louvre because after 6 pm it's free for people under the age of 26. Yay! I love it when things are free! So I had intended to be there from the time it was free to the time that it closed (10pm) but I had seen everything I wanted to see by the time 8 rolled around, and my feet were ready for some rest. I was honestly a little bit disappointed in the Louvre. I mean don't get me wrong, I loved getting to see works by Jacques Louis David (one of my favorite artists), but like I said, I feel like I saw all there was to see within two hours. I was honestly not that impressed; I was bored. So I left with a couple of girls from our group and we set out to find dinner. They also wanted to make it to the Eiffel Tower by twinkle time, so we figured we would walk towards the tower and find dinner on the way. Welp, I neither got to eat dinner that night nor did we make it to the tower. Instead, we got lost and spent an hour and a half walking in the biggest circle. We LITERALLY ended up exactly where we left off. Then we had to walk home! It was a miserable, miserable evening for me, and I ended up back at the hotel with swollen toes and no dinner. By that point, I had determined that I hated Paris and that I was never going back, ever. This was the night that my friends ended up drinking wine under the Eiffel Tower while I was stuck in the hotel room. Like I said, I was really sad that I didn't get to experience that with them. After that experience, I figured the rest of my time in Paris wouldn't be all that great, but thanks to some good friends I had a wonderful time Saturday evening and Sunday.

Saturday: Garnier Opera House tour and free time-

We met around 9 in the lobby on Saturday to get on the metro and go to the Opera House. Paris actually has two opera houses, one is more modern and one more traditional. The one we went to was the more traditional, and where they do mostly ballets. I think they said 75% of the time they do ballets, and at the other opera house it's the opposite. This is the opera house where the Phantom of the Opera took place. In the picture you can see the door of Box 5! Supposedly it's a true story, but the author took his liberties with the book and added a few things. For example, the chandelier never fell- what did fall, however, was a counterweight. Haha, huge difference there! Anyway, it was a really pretty building to see! I don't have many pictures here but on my FB you can find more, plus the pictures of the mosaics I'm about to tell you about! So this Opera house was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III after there was an attempt on his life at the other. The emperor held a competition in 1861, and Charles Garnier won, hence Garnier Opera House. Unfortunately, during the construction the Franco-Prussian war started, which put a halt to both the funds and the construction of the building. After the war, the budget was minimal, but Garnier still managed to make the building beautiful. What amazed me the most were the mosaics everywhere. Every step you took (outside of the theater itself) was done in mosaic tiles. Well, for those of you who don't know, mosaics are NOT cheap, so how did Garnier afford it? At this time in France there was nobody who knew how to do mosaics well, so he hired an Italian artist to do it. See, details like these are why I wish I would have written this sooner! I think it was going to cost him like 3000 bucks (not sure on the price) to do a part of the ceiling, but he made a deal with the artist saying that he would advertise his works and such, so he got it for really really cheap. Meanwhile, Garnier brought in local art students to study how the artist did the mosaics, then got the students to do all of the floors for basically nothing! Smart man! Anyway, the opera house was beautiful and I would LOVE to go back one day to actually see an opera (hint hint future husband).

Anyway, then we left the opera house and went back to the hotel to relax. We were all tired and wanted a break, soo we went and took 3 hour long naps! It was really a great decision. :) That evening Danielle, Ginny, and I went out looking for dinner in the Latin Quarter. Just FYI if you ever go to Paris go to the Latin Quarter for food. It was the area where students lived and hung out, and it has kept it's student prices (mostly). ;) It's close to Notre Dame and easily accessible by metro. We found this place that had a three course dinner for 10 euros and we decided to sit outside and eat on the patio. I started off with legitimate French onion soup. O.M.G. it was TO DIE FOR. I don't even like onions, but this soup was so delicious my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. Then I had steak and some potatoes (as close to the good ol' US of A that I've had so far!) which was good, and for dessert I had ice cream! It was such a good dinner. A couple came and sat at the table next to us and asked Danielle if she could take a picture. Turns out it was a couple from the US on their honeymoon! They were so nice, and their story was so cute! I loved getting to talk to them, I miss Americans! After dinner we just walked around Paris. We were trying to make it to a coffee shop that a friend of mine recommended, but by the time we got there it was too late. It was also raining so poor Ginny's feet were freezing so we decided to go back to the hotel and drink champagne and just hang out just us girls. It was such a good night, the way nights in Paris should be spent. I hope you can see some of the pictures that despite the rain, Paris at night was somewhat magical.

Sunday: Time to check out!-

So Sunday we had to be checked out of the room by 11, but we didn't have to meet back at the hotel to catch the bus until 6 so the hotel let us leave our stuff in a room there. Danielle, Ginny, and I decided to go the the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery. It was literally right up the road from our hotel, and it was a pleasant walk on the sunny day. Those of you who know me know that I absolutely hate cemeteries and funerals and all things related to that kind of stuff. They just make me uneasy, uncomfortable, unhappy, all of the above. This cemetery, however, was probably my favorite part of the trip. Not because I got to see the graves of famous people (I mean, sorry, but they're already dead, not that exciting) but because of the beautiful day. This cemetery was decorated by the colors of fall that we don't have here in Salamanca (there aren't really trees around here) combined with the warm autumn sun. It was just so serene and warm, like a hug. I really loved it. Anyway, while we were there we saw the graves of Oscar Wilde (the writer), Frederic Chopin (the pianist), Jim Morrison (the American singer), and a few others that I didn't really know.

After that we were on a mission to make it to that coffee shop we had missed out on the night before, and afterwards to a famous ice cream shop. I didn't get any coffee because I don't like coffee, but I sure as heck got some ice cream! I got fig on the top and gingerbread on the bottom. The fig actually was not tasty at all, but the gingerbread? Holy moly, I was in heaven. It even had chunks of actual gingerbread in it. It just made me so happy. Then we got on the metro to take us to the Arc de Triomphe/Champs-Élysées. It was funny because on our bus tour the woman told us that the Arc was commissioned by Napoleon I after he beat Russia... If you know French history, you know that Russia was actually the reason Napoleon failed! The Arc was actually commissioned after his victory at Austerlitz. It was kind of comical to this history nerd. :P Unfortunately we didn't have time to actually walk down the avenue but we did get to eat at the McDonald's there! Haha, I got a McBaguette! It was so good! Basically, French food is so delicious, even if it is just McDonald's. We had to scarf down our food and get back on the metro in order to make it back to the hotel in time, and we made it RIGHT ON TIME.

Overall, I had a great time in Paris. The day we walked in a circle will be one that I will forever try to block out of my memory, but otherwise it was an amazing trip with great friends. I'll always remember my time spent with these girls, and I'm going to miss them dearly when I go home.

If you're going to go to Paris, I advise that you go in the fall! I went in 2008 in March and it was FREEZING, and my host-aunt here says that she's been in the summer and it was really hot. So basically, unless you want to go in the winter to see the city in snow (which would be pretty to see), I would definitely go in the fall. It was really, really pretty, and much more pleasant to this Texas native than the last time I went.

I'm hoping that maybe this weekend I can get caught up on my other blogs too (Morocco is next!), but no promises! I have a presentation to give on Monday, so we'll see how the weekend goes!

See you guys next time!
Krysta

P.S. Pardon any typing errors. It seems as though since I've been in Spain my ability to type has gone out the window, along with my English vocabulary. Everything just kind of gets mixed up in there. :P