The Alhumbra

The morning after Morocco we had a short drive to Granada, which was a really short trip but worth it to see the Alhambra, one of the most treasured sites in Spain. It was supposed to be one of the 7 wonder of the world but it turned out to be a good thing that it got ranked 11th, because if more tourists came than now, it would put to much pressure on the old buildings!  The huge palace and military fortress dates back to the 9th century when the Muslims still occupied this part of Spain. When the Catholics took over, Charles V added more. The architecture and gardens were unreal! Our cameras don't really do this place justice at all. Every single space of the entire castle was covered in decoration, a lot of it Muslim scripture and poems about God...carved over and over and over into the walls. We went into lots of different rooms, one where the Sultan met with all the other leaders at the time, the quarter for all the king's wives, and more.

a courtyard at the Alhambra

Most of the domed ceilings looked like this. They were meant to look like the sky and stars at night!

Like I said, our pictures don't really show how amazing this place is. This was the main reason we came to Granada. Afterward we checked into our hotel and then went to a tapas bar for dinner. We walked around the city a little bit and then headed to sleep. Valencia in the (early) morning!

Crossing Continents

On Monday we went to another CONTINENT! Africa to be exact. Morocco to be even more exact. It was a long journey to get there but very worth it. We left the hotel at 7:30am and watched the sun come up as we drove an hour and a half to the edge of Spain. Then, we got on a 45 minute ferry to Ceuta, a Spanish city at the tip of North Africa with a border to keep Africans from crossing over into Spain.

Southern Spain sunrise!

 Our tour guide, Abdul, was waiting for us with a bus in Ceuta to take us across the African border. Hmmmm how do I even begin to describe Abdul. Probably one of the most interesting people I've ever met. A native Moroccan, he spoke fluent spanish, english, muslim, french, and probably some more languages he didn't tell us about. The first thing he told us was that if we didn't want to call him Abdul, we should call him Michael Douglas (he thinks he looks a lot like him, but he doesn't at all). He asked if he could call us his family since he was spending the day with us. We only had day visas and would only be in Morocco for a few hours, so he kept telling us he wanted to share everything he possibly could about his culture and people.  He taught us some muslim phrases and immediately started telling us about the country while we were driving to the African border. Once we got across, it was about 45 minutes to Tetuan, the city we were spending the day in. He kept telling us hilarious jokes, like that he was a polygamist with three wives, looking for his 4th Catherine Zeta-Jones and that he really wanted an American girl and started trying to impress all of us girls. Halfway to Tetuan we stopped to ride some camels! It was really fun and really hilarious, 30 Americans on the side of the road in Morocco riding camels...but it probably happens a lot. Here is our friend Elaine on her ride...

We finally got to Tetuan and met Abdul's friend who was going to help keep track of us for the day. The two phrases Abdul's friend said the entire time were: "Keep walking" and "Don't worry, be happy." The city of Tetuan is extremely old and surrounded entirely by ancient walls. Its streets are very tiny, winding, and confusing. We had Abdul, his friend, and Sam (our tour guide) constantly watching us to make sure we didn't get lost. We also weren't allowed independent free time like we are in all the other cities because getting lost would be a disaster. Once we entered the city's walls it was like walking into a completely different world, almost fake like a movie set (it looked a lot like Aladdin). We walked in a single file line through the city, which looked more like back alley ways lined with people selling fresh fruit, fish, vegetables and really random stuff. Everyone seemed to know Abdul and stopped to say hi, maybe because he was so funny and nice, or maybe because he took Americans around their city...I'm not really sure but he was definitely somewhat of a local celebrity.

Abdul frequently stopped us to show us ancient ruins right in the middle of the markets, symbols on the walls, and facts about the traditional robes the men and women were wearing. After about an hour of walking through the city we were brought to an amazing building that housed a collective of traditional Moroccan rugs made from all the nearby villages. The man selling them spoke English and was also hilarious and joked a lot with us ("we trade rug for woman, new wife! no?") They all seemed to really love Americans and had a great sense of humor. We were shown tons of different rugs from all around and a lot of us bought one. Garrett bought a beautiful big blanket and I bought a small rug.

After that we went to the coolest place for lunch! The first course was traditional vegetable soup, then beef kebabs, then a huge bowl of cous cous with chicken and vegetables, and finally traditional spearmint chai tea with cookies. There was a man dancing with fire on his head and live traditional music while we ate! It was really really cool and soooo good. Finally we went to the local pharmacy, where a man in a white doctor's coat waited for us. He had 2 assistants with him both also wearing doctor's coats (one was actually a chef's jacket, but whatever). It was funny looking but they took it very seriously. They were the ones who sold all the amazing Moroccan spices, teas, natural medicines, etc. They had everything from ginseng tea, to saffron, to rose flower face cream. Everyone got a little something!

Morocco was a great experience. While we were there we also learned a little bit about some major issues that have been going on between Morocco and Spain, one almost identical to our problem with the Mexican-US borders. Some Africans spend several years traveling to Morocco in hopes to find a passport and cross over to Spain. Since the 90's, over 10,000 African people have died trying to sneak over. Just the night before we went there, 2 men were caught trying to swim over.  The Africans just sit on the hill that looks over the border all day trying to figure out a way to get across. It's crazy that as Americans, we were able to cross over in literally 5 minutes.

We loved it and Abdul was most definitely a HUGE part of that. Here is a shout out he gave to our parents...

After that we headed out of Tetuan's walls back to the bus, ferry, and then finally Costa del Sol around 8:30pm. A lot of us headed to a restaurant for our friend Charlie's 20th birthday. The waiter was a fun guy who brought out dessert with candles for him, turned off the lights and sang Happy Birthday, and poured us shots and took one with us! I didn't catch his name but he was really nice!

The waiter (far left) and us taking shots for Charlie's birthday!

-B

Southern Spain

After Seville we drove down south to Costa Del Sol and arrived at night time. This is the most popular summer spot of Spain and we really want to go back during the right season. The winter time is just like Florida: full of snow birds. Our hotel was literally 99% couples over 60... and then us, 35 really loud college kids. It was pretty dead there but we still had fun. The first night we walked down to the Mediterranean and found that the beach area looks a lot like Santa Monica! There is a path for bikes, skateboards, roller blades, etc. and tons of hotels and restaurants. We had dinner with a lot of our friends and an older couple came up and asked in really slow english if we wanted to take a group picture. We realized they thought WE were Spanish. They were from Massachusetts and since they have retired, they come to Costa Del Sol for the winter, about 2 months (hint hint to the parents). We headed back kinda early because we were leaving for Morocco at 7:30am the next morning!

Saw this on the way to the beach. This one's especially for you Dad!

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We started our morning in Seville with a bus/walking tour. Seville was the site of the World Fair in the 1920’s, with most countries being represented. When you drive down one of the main avenues, you see rows of huge buildings with that specific country’s architecture. It was so crazy that they put that much detail into each building. My favorites were Portugal and Mexico. Then we made it to Spain’s building, which was HUGE and so beautiful, wait for pictures when we get back for that one. After that we toured a bull-fighting arena which was pretty cool. Then we visited the Cathedral where there was Mass going on. Finally, we walked to the palace where the royal family still stays to this day when they are in Seville. It had Muslim writing everywhere and Middle Eastern architecture. Wait for pictures on that one too! We had free time where got lunch with some friends and found a new power converter! Seville on a Sunday is so cool. Every single family is dressed in their nicest clothes, either walking down the streets in with their babies and kids or sitting outside a café just enjoying the day. We all really loved it there and wish we could have spent more time.

 

January 1st, 2011

It was somewhat of a rough morning, but the first day of the year turned out to be great! We had a 6-hour bus ride to Seville, but we stopped 3 times, 2 shorter stops and 1 big stop in Cordoba. Cordoba was once the largest city in Europe (it’s where the Queen of Spain gave Columbus the OK to explore!). We walked over a 2000 year old bridge into what looked like a Spanish medieval theme park at first. It was AMAZING. The city is built around a gigantic Mosque that was later turned into a Catholic church, which made the architecture and statue combination really interesting. It’s a small area, so we spent about an hour and a half and drove the rest of the way to Seville.





Even though we arrived at night, we could tell right away how beautiful it was. All the streets are lined with orange trees and the buildings are the exact same color as the sand found on the ground. We got to our hotel, a really cute place called the Hotel Monte Carlo in a back alleyway in the ancient quarter of the city. We had 2 hour before the flamenco show so the three of us went exploring for some dinner. We got an outdoor table at a quiet German café and finally got to relax after a whole day of driving. All of a sudden, we heard farting noises coming from inside the restaurant. We all just look at each other and kind of laughed…but they were LOUD. Then, two really hyper ten year olds, a boy and a girl, ran out of the restaurant to our table with silly putty making more farting noises and speaking Spanish at a rapid pace. Garrett started speaking to them in Spanish but they wanted to try out their English. They asked us the questions that we first learned in our Spanish classes; “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?” ‘WHERE ARE YOU FROM?’ “DO YOU LIKE BANANAS?” “MERRY CHRISTMAS’ ‘SEE YOU SOON.” We learned that they were cousins, Eric and Sara. We also learned that yes, they had seen the Mask with Jim Carrey (Garrett was POSITIVE they had seen it even though Lauren and I thought they were too young, and had to ask). They were so silly and made our night.

Sarah and Eric!

Afterwards Lauren and I went to the Flamenco show where we had 2nd row seats. It was really fun to watch and the live music was my favorite part. We finally got to the hotel around midnight and got some much needed sleep!!


-B

New Year's Eve: Pt. 2

  Oh 2011, you were started off on the right foot. The NYE festivities began with the entire tour group going to an early dinner. We had 9 or 10 different tapas dishes and endless Sangria. In Spain on New Year’s Eve, everything closes between 9pm and 12am since all the families celebrate new year’s with a traditional dinner before going out and celebrating, so we stopped by a convenience store, picked up 3 bottles of champagne and some grapes, and headed back to the hotel to get ready. We hung out on our balcony with until around 10:30 and then met up with Garrett’s childhood friend, Katie, who is currently teaching English in Madrid. Her friends apartment happened to be right across the street from us. We met all of her friends who were also teaching English abroad, all recent college grads from Georgia, Virginia, Florida and two friends from England. We played some good ol’ American college drinking games before heading to the Plaza del Sol to watch the bell drop. When we got off the subway into the Plaza del Sol, it was pure chaos. EVERYONE was running through the winding streets and screaming, all in the same direction towards the center of the city wearing masks, wigs, glasses, noisemakers, etc. By the time we made it to the plaza, it was completely full but we managed to all squeeze into a really good spot to watch the clock strike twelve and eat our grapes. Hopefully the videos can illustrate how crazy and fun it was.








We were really lucky to be with some Americans living in Madrid who let us come along. Afterwards, we went to some bars and roamed the streets and ended up getting hungry (of course). Oh… and we found some big pink glasses along the way which we really took a liking to...




-B

New Year's Eve: Pt. I

Okay after blowing out our first converter, we’re up and running again. New Year’s day was spent touring around Madrid. We had a local guide who took us all around the city by bus, and then we got off at Don Quixote statue and flea market. From there we walked to the AMAZING royal palace, which Garrett pretended was his own.

After that we walked through some winding streets to my favorite place in Madrid, the San Miguel Market. Us three wandered away from the group and stayed in the market for over an hour trying different tapas, sangria, and other treats. It was SO fun, especially since it was New Year’s Eve. Everyone was relaxing and having a good time with their family and friends. We took the long way home to our hotel and took siestas to prepare for what was to come…

-brookeeee