Updates...

WOW, I haven't written on this in a long time...
Some highlights on the things I've done since the last time I wrote:

1. Ronda! A couple of friends and I took a bus to Ronda, a city about 2 hours away from Sevilla, for a day trip. It's a city that's on the top of a mountain so it was really neat. The bus dropped us off at the top, obviously, and we walked down this trail so we could see the whole city above us. It was really awesome. There is a famous bridge that is huuuuge that connects the 2 parts of the city. A long time ago when they didn't have running water, slaves had to climb down 200+ steps to get to the river that is at the bottom of the mountain. We walked down the steps (it was really dark and wet and hard to see) and went to the bottom of the mountain to see the river. Quite the workout. Ronda is definitely one of my favorite cities in Spain, it is absolutely beautiful!

2. Warmth! It is sooo warm here now that the rain is gone. Right now it's about 75 degrees... beautiful! Whenever I come home and comment on how warm it is outside Pepi looks at me like I'm crazy. This weather is still really cold for them. It's wonderful to be able to sit outside and enjoy the weather instead of lagging around an umbrella praying it doesn't rain.

3. Valencia! Last weekend a couple of friends and I rented a minivan and drove to Valencia for their festival called "Las Fallas." The drive took about 7 hours both ways but it was totally worth it. The view was really cool the whole way there and it was fun not having to take public transportation for once. We camped out at this nasty trailer park-type place (it was supposed to be a beach, but they lied to us), but it was still a blast. The festival basically consists of local artists making these huge paper statues, a contest on which statue is the best, and then setting all the loser statues on fire. It was probably the biggest/hottest/coolest fire I will ever see in my life!

4. Family!!! My mom, dad and brother Sam arrived last week Monday. I went to the airport to pick them up so they wouldn't look like idiots trying to find their apartment in the mess of streets that is Sevilla. It turned out that they missed their flight from Madrid to Sevilla, so I waited about 4 hours for them in the airport. Thankfully they were on the next Madrid-Sevilla flight. The apartment they rented is really nice... really close to the University, and it isn't too far from Pepi's house either. I had exams the week they got here, so they did a lot of sightseeing on their own. We went to tapas, a flamenco show, the cathedral, Alcazar, and Italica... Thursday I finished classes (spring break!), and on Friday we all went on a day trip to Granada. Since I've already been there and it's a pretty small city, I was their tour guide there as well. This morning, Krista finally joined us in Sevilla! We tried getting her to see the cathedral since it will probably be pretty busy during Semana Santa (Holy Week), but it was closed so (naturally) we went shopping. Semana Santa starts on Sunday, and there are crazy parades going on all week in the city. Pretty excited to see that, it should be interesting. This week we plan on going on day trips to Cadiz and Gibraltar... hopefully that works out!

The fam leaves Friday morning at 7am, and at 10am I leave for a weekend in Lagos, Portugal. It should be an exciting spring break!

Besos,
Emily



Pictures #1-5: Ronda
Picture #6: Our wonderful "beach" accommodations in Valencia... haaaha good joke

Granada!

This past weekend I went on an overnight trip with my program to Granada. Our bus left early Friday morning, and it took us about 3 hours to get to our hotel. Driving into the city I instantly fell in love... (I think all Katers must be born with an innate love for mountains). Our hotel was located right next to the Alhambra, so as we were driving up to it we got a sweet view of the city from above. We stopped at the hotel to drop off our bags, ate lunch at the hotel buffet (which had AWESOME food), and went to the Alhambra. There are literally no words to truly describe how beautiful and amazing the Alhambra is. It is located on the top of the mountain, so you can see the whole city in pretty much any area you're standing in. Granada was the last Muslim city in Spain until Fernando and Isabel, the Catholic king and queen who ruled the rest of Spain, took it over in order to unite and have power over the entire country. The Alhambra was the last big "Muslim accomplishment" in Spain. I was kind of disappointed because "El Patio de los Leones" (the patio of the lions), one of the most famous parts of the Alhambra, is under construction right now so we didn't get to see it. After the Alhambra we walked about 15 minutes (downward) to get to the town, where we went to a "Teteria," where we ate arabic sweets and tea. It was a really cool cafe and I liked the tea although I didn't think the sweets were all that great. After tea, we had two hours of free time to walk around and do whatever we wanted. Our group decided to just walk around and enjoy the city. There were a lot of little shops that we went into, but I didn't buy anything. We eventually ended up in a tiny restaurant that sold gyros for about 3 euros...... sooooo delicious. By the time we finished eating, it was time for us to head back to the hotel for another dinner buffet. We picked up a couple of 40s of "Alhambra," the wittily named beer of Granada, and spent a euro on a bus ride back so we didn't have to walk 15 minutes up the mountain.

After dinner we drank our 40s in our hotel room and later met up with some of the CIEE spanish guides and other students to go the bars and discotecas. On the walk down the mountain (keeping in mind that they are cobble stone streets), I tripped and fell.... to make matters worse, I was leading a group of about 70 people, all who I'm pretty sure saw me fall. I have a jynormous wound on my knee now and it feels like my foot might be broken (it's not really that bad, I'm just being dramatic)... Anyway, we went to a bar first, where we got free shots and had a few drinks, and then headed for the discoteca. It was kind of annoying because we were a big group and nobody knew where we were going, so basically we were aimlessly following the person in the front of the group. It took us about 40 minutes to find the discoteca, and once we got there we found out if was 15 euro to get in. We obviously ditched that since it was a rip off (Buddha for life!), and started walking to find the other discoteca. We walked for about 30 minutes and then got annoyed because no one knew where we were going, so my group decided to go get food somewhere and call it a night... best decision ever (the rest of the group never found the discoteca). We found this janky little restaurant that cooked really good burgers. They put really weird stuff on it (carrots and mayonnaise?) but it somehow ended up being really good. After our binge-fest we got a taxi back to the hotel. It was only supposed to cost us a euro each, but conveniently got stuck behind a garbage truck so we ended up having to pay 4 euros each... mierda!

The next morning we woke up bright and early for a breakfast buffet (I swear I gained 10 pounds from all this buffeting we did)... We left the hotel shortly after breakfast to visit el Barrio de Albaicin, the oldest and most authentic neighborhood in Granada. There were lots of cute old streets and it had a really beautiful view of the city since its on top of a mountain. In one area of the neighborhood there is a really amazing view of the Alhambra (President Clinton said it was his favorite view that he has ever seen). After taking a million pictures, we walked downward again toward the town below (my favorite pastime), and headed toward the Capilla Real. The chapel was built by Isabel and Fernando (los reyes catolicos) as a symbol of their defeat of Granada. Inside you can find their tombs along with those of Juana la loca and Felipe el hermoso (Juana is the daughter of los reyes catolicos). Their grandson (Juana's son) is buried there too; he died at a young age, otherwise he would have been the king to unite Spain and Portugal into one nation. Sorry, I'm boring you..... anyway, they have these huge marmol tombs, but their actual caskets are in the ground. We were able to walk down steps and look through glass to see their caskets. Kind of creepy. After visiting the Capilla Real, we had some more free time which we used to sit in a cafe and drink coffee (we were tired from our eventful night)....... Went back to the hotel afterwards, had yet another buffet, and we were off! Overall really fun weekend. I would recommend Granada to anyone visiting Spain... absolutely beautiful.



Picture #1: The Alhambra
Picture #2: Me inside the Alhambra
Picture #3-4: My friends and I in the Alhambra, with the city in the background
Picture #5: Patio in the Alhambra... usually there's a cool reflection in the water but you can't really see it very good in this picture because it wasn't the best of weather

A weekend in Amsterdam!

Amsterdam was a blast! We had a lot of traveling and a couple of unlucky complications on the way there (the highway was flooded on our way to Madrid causing us to almost miss our flight, and our plane to Brussels was delayed because the French were on strike), but we eventually made it. Amsterdam is such an awesome city... we got in on Friday night and found out that our hostel was located right in the middle of the red light district. It was a Christian hostel and was a lot nicer than I was expecting... we even got free breakfast! We spent the first night walking around the red light district and checking out a couple of the coffee shops. The red light district is pretty crazy... it's so bizarre/disturbing to see prostitutes standing in their doors waiting for customers. We ate dinner at a really good restaurant, and all of us took advantage of the American food they served (you can't get good hamburgers in Sevilla)! Afterwards we walked around the city some more, and at the end of the night we went to a coffee bar and got hot chocolate..... little did we know it would become our obsession for the weekend. Literally, Amsterdam has the best hot chocolate I have ever had.

The next day some of us got up early to go to the Anne Frank house, while others slept in. I definitely chose to go, and it was an experience that I'll never forget. I don't have any pictures of the inside of the house (we weren't allowed to take any), but it was really interesting to see how they were able to hide 8 people inside without anyone knowing for quite some time. There were videos, different items that belonged to the people in hiding, and quotes from Anne's diary that were pasted on the walls around the house. We also got to see the actual diary which was cool. It was pretty depressing, but at the same time it was neat to see how a young girl could be so inspirational while going through something as difficult as she did.

After Anne Frank's house, we met up with the rest of the group and walked to the Van Gogh museum... my absolute favorite part of the trip. I was the navigator of the group (pause for laughter). The museum was about 25 minutes from our hostel, but I liked the walk because we got to see different parts of Amsterdam. Once we got to the museum, we waited in line for about 10 minutes and finally got in. The museum was really cool because next to each painting was a story or a description of why he painted that particular piece. It made the museum a lot more interesting and made me appreciate each painting a lot more. That was probably my favorite art museum I have been to ever..... but we'll see if that changes once I go to the Prado in Madrid!

We also went to the Heineken brewery where we went on a tour called "The Heineken Experience." We had big expectations for this after hearing from several people that it was a really good time, but it ended up being not that great. It was neat to see the factory, but we were expecting a little more out of it (especially since it cost 15 euro!). Afterwards we went to a coffee shop for a while before heading home... we played a little bit of cards in the hostel (I know, we're such party animals...), and went to bed so we could get up early to walk around again before leaving.

The weather wasn't the greatest in Amsterdam as it was pouring the entire weekend we were there... this was unfortunate for me because the soles of my boots decided to fall apart this weekend. I didn't bring any other pairs of shoes because I didn't bring a lot of luggage, so I walked around with broken shoes and soaking wet feet all weekend. It was totally worth it though! Thankfully one of my friends brought a pair of shoes that I changed into at the airport. We had another extremely long traveling day (literally... 25 hours, including spending the night on the floor of the airport) before returning to Sevilla. We were glad to get back after a very long, but fun and memorable weekend. Home sweet home...




Picture #1: Picture of a river between streets in Amsterdam
Picture #2: Me standing in front of the "i am amsterdam" sign
Picture #3: Me!
Picture #4: View of the street across from Anne Frank's house
Picture #5: My friends and I inside the Anne Frank museum
Picture #6: Me at the Heineken brewery