Craziness

So in between all of the traveling, I've also been trying to do fun things in Granada while I still can. Here's an update on what I've been up to:

A few weeks ago my program hosted a belly dancing class at a local belly dancing studio (yes, apparently those exist). I had no idea what to expect since I'm not all that familiar with belly dancing. Of course we all looked ridiculous, but I had a great time. The instructor warmed us up with small, simple steps and eventually we worked our way up to doing a dance with music. I considered the whole thing great preparation for our trip to Morocco, although the occasion to use my new skills didn't come up.

The instructor is the girl in the middle wearing black spandex and the jingly pink wrap. She claims the wrap improves your belly dancing.

On a more political note, on November 14 there was a national huelga, which is basically just a general strike, to protest the recent budget cuts, especially on education. They usually happen once or twice a year in Spain according to my professors. What makes it different than a normal strike is that everyone is given the option to decide whether or not they want to go to work. By staying home, they must forfeit their salary for that day in exchange for making a statement. Theoretically, everyone should be allowed to do what they want, but a lot of times the protesters will harass anyone who tries to go to work or any businesses that remain open. My professors told us not to leave the house until noon because sometimes the morning strikes can get violent. For me the whole day basically just felt like another national holiday because I stayed home all day and Aloana taught us how to make paella, which I will hopefully be able to reproduce once I'm back home!

The Friday after the huelga was Aloana's birthday so she threw a fiesta for herself. We spent a lot of time cooking and decorating on the day of the huelga. Aloana invited over her three girlfriends, who I had actually met before. Two of them are really old and weird, but one of them is pretty nice. Cristina, Francisco's oldest daughter, and her fiance Fran were also there thank goodness. The whole thing was a little awkward but I had a nice time.

My Thanksgiving this year was definitely a little unorthodox to say the least. Quite a few people had family or a boyfriend/girlfriend in town most of them kind of did their own thing to celebrate. However, my program planned a special lunch for us at this really nice restaurant. We had some strange appetizers to begin (I honestly have no idea what they were) and turkey with mashed potatoes for the main course.   For dessert, the restaurant attempted to make pumpkin pie but it was not successful. Begonia, the program director, was cracking up just watching all of us take our first bites of the "pie." The turkey and mashed potatoes were delicious though! Everyone was kind of sad being away from our families during a holiday that is completely based on family time, but it made us even more thankful for all the people we miss at home.

This is the CEA staff in Granada. From left to right: Juan, Jorge, me (obviously), Dani, and Begonia.

Morocco

About a month ago I went on a trip to Morocco with my program. One of my friends in my grammar class went in September with some of her friends and hated it. I had also been hearing rumors about a group of kids who went a few weeks before me and came back with bed bugs. Along with Aloana's warning that all of the girls they've had who have been to Morocco so far have gotten sick from the food/water, you can imagine the panic that set in before I left. Nevertheless, I signed up for the trip and tried my best to go in with a positive attitude.

In order to get to Morocco from Granada, we took a bus to Tarifa, Spain (along the southern coast) and then caught a ferry to Tangier, Morocco which is considered the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The bus ride took about four hours but the ferry was only about 45 minutes. Customs wasn't nearly as tight as I thought it would be so it only took a while to get through because there were so many of us.

When we arrived in Tangier, we went straight to lunch at the Darna Association of Women. I'm not quite sure why our lunch was there because it's not a restaurant so we were seated in a classroom. We ate couscous and chicken, which I soon learned was going to be the theme for the lunch and dinner menu. In the middle of lunch, one of our tour guides came in and handed one of the girls her passport. Apparently she's originally from the Dominican Republic and hasn't switched to a US passport yet so it was harder for her to get through customs because of the tense relationship between the Dominican Republic and Morocco.

After lunch we did a quick tour of Tangier. We saw the market and walked around the main streets. It was interesting to see how different it is from anywhere I've been so far, but to be quite honest the city is filthy. Once the tour was over, we drove to the outskirts of the city for a camel ride. As fun as it was getting to ride and pet the camels (I wanted to take the baby one home with me), the whole ordeal made me kind of sad because I doubt they're taken care of very well. The camels that people ride literally sit down, have someone climb on top of them, stand up, walk in a circle, sit down, and repeat the whole process over and over again.

The sun was setting as we rode the camels so by the time we were done, it was almost dark. We got back on the bus and drove to Tetuan, the city where are hotel is located. It's called Hotel La Paloma and it was actually extremely nice. It kind of exemplified all of the stereotypes you could possibly have on Arabic architecture so it reminded me a lot of the Alhambra (famous Moorish palace/fort) in Granada. We checked into the hotel and had some down time in the room before eating our dinner of chicken and couscous. We were told not to leave the hotel because there was nothing in the are, which I know they did on purpose because it can be dangerous to go out at night in Morocco.

The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and were off to Chefchaouen, a small town at the foot of the Rif mountains. The reason the city is so special is because all of the buildings are painted various shades of sky blue, a tradition that was started by the Jewish inhabitants who sought refuge in the city after the Spanish Reconquest.

We started off at a hotel to meet some of the kids who would be our host families for lunch. They then joined us in a tour of Chefchauouen where we wandered around the streets for a while and walked through the market. Frankly, once you've seen one Moroccan market you've seen them all so I wasn't very interested in the whole thing. Between all the hanging meat, questionable looking fruit, and various bugs and animals, it wasn't really my favorite part of the tours. Fun fact: if there are flies swarming around the food, it's spoiled, but if there are bees, it's fresh.

At one point during the tour we stopped in a weaving shop where they make all kinds of rugs, blankets, and cloth by hand (well really with a loom). Apparently the weaving business has been suffering because of all the manufactured cloth these days so about five of the weavers in Chefchaouen have gotten together to form a kind of weaving union where they work together to have the same prices so they don't lose money through competition. It was really cool to see all the things they make there. Apparently the men make all of the big items like the rugs, blankets, cloths, etc. while the women make the thinner fabrics which are mostly scarves. Of course, we could buy whatever we wanted after the presentation so now half of  my program owns some form of Moroccan cloth. 

The tour ended in the courtyard of a school, where we met up with the rest of the kids who were going to be our host families for the day. We split up into our assigned groups of five and they took us back to their homes. The girl who I went with had a cousin doing the lunch too so our groups ate lunch together. No one in the family spoke English or Spanish other than the children and my host girl's uncle. The girls were fluent in English even though they had only been studying it a few years, which I still can't get over. They were so sweet and it was fun hearing about how different their lives are from mine. Most of their classes for school are in French even though they speak Arabic with their friends and family (Arabic and French are both official languages of Morocco). They were obsessed with Justin Bieber and American television so that was pretty funny. I also thought it was really interesting that no one in the entire family had ever left the country.

From left to right: me, Chaymae, Chaymae's best friend, and Chelsea (who goes to Tulane)

The house was different than any other house I've ever seen. Because they constantly have people over and eat in what we would call a living room, the main rooms of the house have seating aligning all of the walls. It was almost like a window seat but it continued throughout the entire room. When they set the food down on the table, everything was on one plate even though we each had our own cup and silverware. It's part of the Islamic culture for everyone to eat off the same plate so that's exactly what we did. I don't think I've ever eaten "family style" before, but it was pretty fun. Of course, once again we ate coucous and chicken. They usually drink this milky concoction, but it tasted like tart yogurt to me so I drank Hawaii (some sort of fruit drink) instead. 

This is the room in my host family's house where we ate lunch. 

After our time with our host family was over, we met back up in the center of the city and had some free time to wander around. We ended up just walking through the different streets and shopping a little bit. Juan and Jorge (the CEA staff) hung out with my friends and me for most of the time which was fun because they're absolutely hilarious. A lot of people bought these cloth Moroccan sweater shirt things that I have yet to see anyone where since the trip. 

After we left Chefchaouen, we went back to our hotel in Tetouan to rest for a few minutes before dinner. We had a special dinner that night that included non-stop andaloussi music and afterwards a show with belly dancing, candle juggling, and more. It was short but very cool and we headed straight back to the hotel once it was over.

The next morning we did a guided tour of Tetouan. I got to see the royal palace, and we went to the market which was the same as the ones in Tangier and Chefchaouen. The guide took us through a tannery where they skin the fur off of sheep and turn the hides into leather. Theoretically, it could be interesting, but between the smell and visual of raw animal hides in mysterious liquids, I mostly had to focus on not throwing up.

A more uplifting and better smelling part of the tour was the stop we made in a Moroccan pharmacy. The pharmacist told us about the different herbs, spices, concoctions they have, and of course we were able to buy anything they mentioned. 

This is one of the squares we walked through in Tetouan. As you can see there are flags everywhere, something that's not unique to just this square. There are also pictures of the king, Muhammad VI, hung up all over the country. There aren't any laws forcing people to display flags or pictures of the king so they do it willingly to show their patriotism and loyalty.

After the tour of Tetouan, we had to get back on the bus and head back to Tangier to take the ferry to Spain. The water was extremely rough so the boat rocked really badly. We knew it was worse than usual when the employees started passing out sea sickness bags. People were throwing up all over the bathroom (so I heard) and at one point the boat swayed so much that we could only see water through the window. I knew the odds of the boat actually tipping over were very minimal, but it was a little frightening. Needless to say, we were all extremely happy to get back on land and settle in for the bus ride back to Granada.

My favorite part of the trip was definitely the lunch with a host family. I'm taking an Islamic Culture class right now so I really enjoyed witnessing an Islamic country in action and being able to ask my host girls about what it's like to actually live there. Five times a day every day we were there I heard the  Islamic call to prayer (praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of Islam). Alcohol is nearly impossible to find in Morocco because drinking is forbidden by Islamic law. I couldn't care less about it, but some of the people on my program were seriously upset about that situation so that it was kind of entertaining to watch them freak out. I was even reminded of Israel a little bit because there are stray cats in the streets instead of squirrels or rats. Visiting Morocco was definitely a very unique experience!

Paris

Three weekends ago (the first weekend in November), I went to Paris. I was very, very excited, although I really didn't much about any monuments in Paris before I went except for Versailles. It was the first time I traveled to a country where neither Spanish or English are widely spoken, which was a very weird experience for me.

Our flight to Paris went from Granada to Madrid to Paris. Once again, we had way too much time in the Granada airport because security is a joke and it takes five seconds to walk to the gates, of only which two actually function. Our flights were fine getting into Paris. Long story short, Sophie and I were staying in a different hostel than Renee, Chelsea, and Mary so we split up at our respective Metro stops and went to check into the hostel. It took about two hours to get from the airport to Aloha Hostel so I was definitely ready to be done traveling by the time we got there!

We checked in and found our room at the hostel very easily. The wasn't the best one I've stayed at it, but it could have been worse. We had all decided that after we checked into the hostels, we would meet up for dinner. The only means of communication we had, other than my international phone and Renee's American phone which are both expensive, required wifi so when Sophie and I were done checking in, we hung out in the lobby to get in touch with everyone else.

Apparently disaster had struck during our check in process because Sophie had frantic messages from everyone saying that their hotel was absolutely disgusting and that they didn't feel safe staying there. They were all crying and freaking out about what they were going to do. Sophie and I tried to help them find somewhere to stay, but they weren't really listening to us so we realized there was nothing to do and went to eat dinner. We found this delicious Italian restaurant and ate pizza for dinner. Once we were back in the hostel, we checked in with everyone and they told us that Chelsea's mom ended up pulling a lot of strings (everything was pretty much booked for the night) to get them a room for the weekend in a hotel. Sophie and I found the hotel so we could check in with them in person, but everyone was so exhausted that after a while we went back to our hostel and called it a night.

We woke up early on Friday to go see the Eiffel Tower in all its glory. I don't know statistics about it or anything, but I'm guessing that a TON of people go there every year. In case anyone was curious, it is named after the engineer who designed and built the tower, Gustave Eiffel and was created in 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair. To be honest, I didn't really care whether or not I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower because even though it is a great view, the most iconic part of Paris is the Eiffel Tower, which I wouldn't be able to see because I was in it. Nevertheless, we waited in line forever to get our tickets and go to the top. By the time we actually got there, my feet and hands were so numb that all I wanted to do was run right back down, which we basically did because it was SO windy. About five minutes after we left the very top, they had to shut it down due to the wind and rain.

I actually got really lucky with my timing in Paris because the United Buddy Bears exhibition happens to be there this year. The United Buddy Bears is a huge collection of life-size bear sculptures that represent different countries all around the world, although only ones that are acknowledged by the United Nations. There are over 140 bears and each one was painted by an artist selected from that country. The Buddy Bears were founded in Berlin in 2001 and became so popular that they began a world tour in 2002. Every year they're moved to a different country to be put on exhibition. The whole idea behind the Buddy Bears is to promote tolerance, understanding, and peace amongst nations. Here's me with the Spain bear.

After spending the morning in the Eiffel Tower area, we made our way over to the Arc de Triomphe at the western end of Champs-Élysées. The arch is actually located in the middle of a huge roundabout so getting there was kind an adventure. As intellectual college students, we decided to make a run for it through four or five lanes of traffic to get the island that is the arch. Of course when we got there, we realized that there's an underground walkway that's just as effective and significantly less dangerous. Nonetheless, we got there and it was certainly worth it! Designed in 1806, the arch serves as a memorial to honor those who died in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. It actually has the names of all the French victories and generals inscribed on the walls. Under the arch is also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

Because the Arc is at the end of Avenue de Champs-Élysées, it was the perfect place to begin wandering down the avenue. It was so cool to wander around because there were tons of people and so many different things to look. At first, I mostly just saw rows and rows of designer stores. There were huge lines everywhere from Abercombie & Fitch to Louis Vuitton to the Ferrari store. After a while, we reached the part where all the museums are. We didn't go inside any of them, but they were beautiful to look at. We even had to take shelter in part of one of them because the rain had gotten so bad.

After Champs-Élysées, we made our way over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The line was insanely long to get in (pretty much the theme of the weekend) but even just the outside was worth the trip. It's a very beautiful gothic cathedral and one of the most famous in the world. Of course, it reminded me of the Disney movie - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame - which is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Here's Notre Dame.

We decided to just wander around the Notre Dame area for a while and ended up getting a snack in a little cafe. I'm obsessed with crepes so I took the opportunity to order hot chocolate and a sugar and butter crepe. I dipped my crepe in the hot chocolate which was a genius idea if I do say so myself. After that, we went back to our hostels for some down time before dinner.

Friday was actually Chelsea's birthday so we decided to find a nice restaurant to celebrate. The one we planned on going to (Sophie found it online) was actually closed but we found another one close by. The waiters were very patient as we painstakingly tried to decipher the menu and the food turned out delicious. We surprised Chelsea with dessert and sang Happy Birthday to her.

Afterwards, we went to Moulin Rouge to see what the area was like. We didn't actually go to a show in Moulin Rouge because the tickets are sold out months in advance and are quite expensive. One of the guys on the CEA staff, Jorge, told us before we left to watch out for the hookers (it was very funny in his Spanish accent). Although I don't think I actually saw any hookers, I understand why he warned us.   We ended up going into a few bars close to Moulin Rouge and everyone I was with did an Absynth shot, which is a ridiculously strong alcohol that is illegal in the US. I did not participate in the shots but I tried a sip and felt like I was going to vomit. The whole area wasn't really my scene so I was very thankful when everyone was tired and ready to call it a night.

On Saturday, we woke up early yet again to go to the Palace of Versailles, the royal palace of France. Even though I was exhausted, I was SO excited to finally see Versailles in person after having discussed it in school many times over the years. Versailles isn't actually in the city of Paris so it took a pretty long Metro ride to get there. I would do it again ten times over though because Versailles is more amazing in person than pictures can ever try to capture. We all got in for free with our student visas and basically spent the morning and early afternoon trying to see as much as we possibly could. We toured the chateau, which is the main building of the palace, and wandered around the perfectly manicured gardens. My favorite part was actually Marie Antoinette's estate, called Hameau de la Reine, towards the northern end of the grounds. It was built for her in 1783 as a rustic retreat of the chateau but it actually served as a fully functioning farm.

This is all five of us in front of Versailles. From left to right: Mary, Chelsea, Sophie, me, Renee.

This is the Hall of Mirrors, one of the most famous rooms in the chateau. 

 Hameau de la Reine, where Marie Antoinette went to escape the limitations of the palace.

After touring the wonder that is Versailles, we made our way over to Salon du Chocolat Paris, also known as the chocolate festival of Paris. I felt like I had died and gone to chocolate heaven. The second you walk in, the smell of sugary sweetness overpowers anything. There were chocolate fountains, chocolate sculptures, and even a chocolate fashion show. Everything looked beautiful and absolutely delicious! The first thing I ate was a chocolate éclair, which I had never tried before and am now a big fan. I also got a chocolate macaroon and lots of random samples. Sophie and I split this chocolate bar with fresh raspberries in it. I also got this fluffy thing that was homemade marshmallow on the inside and milk and white chocolate swirl on the outside. Needless to say, we were all completely sick (and very content) by the time we left.

Sophie and I both really wanted to see Sacre-Cour Basilica, yet another Roman Catholic church, so that's where we headed next. Mary and I had to stop to use the bathroom on the way and I have never felt so incompetent. It was some sort of automated public restroom in the street that somehow cleans itself (kind of). Getting it open was a big accomplishment but getting the door to close was even harder. A lot of laughter and about fifteen minutes later, we figured out how it worked and moved on to find the church. We had to walk up a very steep incline to get to the church from the Metro station, but I've basically been preparing for that all semester since I walk fifty minutes uphill three days a week to get to class. The church, which is located on the highest point in the city, was beautiful, and the area around it was so cute that we stayed there to eat dinner. I ordered a typical French cuisine called croque-madam, which is basically a a ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top, and it was really good! Here's Sacre-Cour at night.

Once we left Sacre Cour, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see it in all of its nighttime glory. Of course I've seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night, but I was unaware of the fact that every hour, it sparkles. The normal lights are beautiful but when it starts sparkling the tower is just mesmerizing. It actually started sparkling as we were getting off the Metro but I wanted to see it sparkle again from a good vantage point. At the time, we didn't know how often it happened so we waited and waited until finally we realized it was only every hour. By that point, we were pretty committed so I insisted that we stay. Even though it was freezing outside, I could have watched it all night!

The next day was Sunday, our day of departure, but our flight wasn't until 6pm so we had plenty of time to see a little more of Paris before going back to Spain. The plan was to go to the Louvre and see what we wanted. Jorge's advice concerning the Louvre was "run" which is probably the only way you could see a decent portion of it. Unfortunately, by the time Sophie and I got there, the line was so long that it was wrapping around all sorts of places and would have taken two hours to get through. Mary, Chelsea, and Renee had gotten in line about ten minutes earlier so they had a good spot and stayed while Sophie and I went searching for something else to do.

We ended up stumbling upon Musée d'Orsay, a former railway station turned museum that houses mostly French art from 1848 to 1915. The museum is best known for its extensive impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. There was a temporary exhibition there on Impressionism and Fashion which was really cool and included everything from paintings to design sketches to clothing. In the museum itself, I saw works by Edouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Jean-Francois Millet, Henri de Toulousse-Lautrec, and more. My personal favorites were Van Gough and Monet, but honestly everything was beautiful. It was so cool being able to see the brush strokes and true colors of the paintings. I liked that I was able to see pretty much the entire museum whereas if I'd gone to the Louvre, I would have seen almost nothing.

Sophie and I ate lunch at the museum restaurant and then wandered around the area for a while. We found this bridge called Pont des Arts where people go and put locks on the sides, similar to the one I saw in Dublin. This one had a lot more locks than the one in Dublin though!

We then walked over towards the Champs-Élysées area and found the Obélisque de Louxor.

After that, we found a little cafe and got chocolate eclairs as our last hoorah to Paris before heading back to the hostel to get our stuff and go to the airport. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and our flight went fine. We didn't get into Granada until late but Chelsea and I did homework on the plane so it made me feel a little more confident that I would be able to get all my work done before class the next day. All in all, I felt like I saw a lot of Paris and absolutely loved every inch of it!

Sevilla and Cordoba

Two weekends ago, I went on an overnight trip with my program to Sevilla and Córdoba. Sevilla is the capital of Andalucia as well as the fourth largest city in Spain. Córdoba is a much smaller city but has a very rich cultural history.

We went to Sevilla first and the bus ride only took about three hours. When we arrived, we went straight to our first tour. We began at Reales Alcázares, which is the royal palace in Seville that started out as a Moorish fort. It's the oldest royal palace in Europe that's still in use. Because of its Moorish influences, the palace reminded me a lot of the Alhambra.

After the tour of Reales Alcázares, we went to Seville Cathedral, which in Spanish is called Catedral de Santa María de la Sede. It's the largest Gothic cathedral and third largest church in the entire world. A lot of famous figures are buried there, including Christopher Columbus and some of the most important kings in Spanish history like Ferdinand III of Castille. The church is gigantic and beautiful, but since I've seen a lot of Gothic cathedrals already, the only thing that made this one extra special was its size. Here's the cathedral. It's so big that it doesn't all fit into one photo, but this was my best attempt.

Below is the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The story behind his remains is ridiculously complicated. According to our tour guide, they started out in a monastery in Valladolid, Spain, where Columbus died. After about forty years, they were transferred to the Dominican Republic. A Few hundred years later, France took over Spain (then known as Hispaniola) and moved the remains to Havana, Cuba. When Cuba gained its independence around 1900, what was left of the remains were moved to Seville where they still are today. The four figures holding up the box where the remains are actually stored represent the four kingdoms of Spain during Columbus' life - Castille, Aragon, Navara, and Leon. 

My favorite part of the cathedral was the tower. It was about thirty five stories high and you walk up a never ending ramp to get to the top. The reason it's a ramp instead of stairs is because people used to ride their horses up there, which worked out better for me since 35 stories of ramps is a little more manageable. Here's the view of Sevilla from the tower. 

After we were done wandering around the cathedral, we had some free time to walk around the Santa Cruz quarter and eat lunch. It was fun wandering through the shops and all of the little alleys, but everything looks very similar so it's really easy to get lost! Córdoba is better known for its confusing alleyways, but I made sure to be extra aware of my surroundings in Sevilla too. 

The next thing on the itinerary was Plaza de España which is located in Parque de María Luisa. It was built in 1928 for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition World's Fair. The whole area was absolutely gorgeous. You can't see in these pictures, but along the building there are little tiled alcoves representing each of the fifty provinces of Spain.

We had some free time to explore Plaza de España, but after a while there wasn't much else to do there so we went over to this festival we found on the way to the plaza. It was the Festival de las Naciones (Festival of the Nations), which basically consisted of little booths with food and trinkets from various countries around the world. It was really cute and I ended up buying a scarf from one of the booths. 

After that we all went to the hotel, checked in, and ate dinner. I had a cold and wasn't feeling well at all so I didn't want to participate in any night activities. I walked around the neighborhood of our hotel for a little while but there wasn't much there. I went back to my room, put my pajamas on, watched TV, and went to sleep.

That night was daylight savings, which is a week earlier in Europe for some reason. I'm not quite sure what happened, but all of our alarm clocks were messed up so we woke up an hour late. My roommates were freaking out which was super funny but we had plenty of time to get downstairs before check out so I wasn't concerned. It took about two hours to drive from Sevilla to Córdoba. You can't drive in the old part of the city because the streets are so narrow so we had to get off of our bus outside the city and walk in on this bridge.

We got to see the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, known as the Juderia, which was really fun for me because there's not much Jewish life in Spain these days. Jews don't live there anymore, but in its hay day Córdoba was known for its tolerance amongst the three main religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity). We toured La Sinagoga de Córdoba but it literally took two seconds because it's about the same size as my bedroom.

Another popular attraction in Córdoba is Calleja de las Flores which just translates to the flower alley. It's very pretty and has the traditional flower pots on the wall. The reason people started putting flower pots on the outside of the buildings in Spain is because the walls would crack pretty frequently. Instead of fixing the entire wall, they just put flower pots over them to hide the problem and make the building prettier at the same time.

The last thing we did in Córdoba was visit La Mezquita de Córdoba, which is considered one of the biggest monuments in Islamic architecture. It was built in 600 and is famous for its big red arches as well as the giant cathedral that was built smack dab in the middle during the reconquest in 1236. Our tour guide pointed out that when you walk into the mosque, you feel at home but not overwhelmed, whereas all the cathedrals we saw were built to intimidate whoever walks inside them. 

You can see in the picture below the transition from the mosque to the cathedral. It's very clear where the mosque ends and the cathedral starts since the styles are so dramatically different. Because of how the cathedral was built into the mosque, the structures can't survive without each other. The building is still considered a cathedral even though it's called the Mosque of Córdoba so Muslims aren't technically allowed to pray there, which in recent years has been quite controversial.

My weekend in Sevilla and Córdoba was a bit of a blur because it went by so quickly, but I really enjoyed getting to see some of the buildings I've studied for years in my history classes!

My Fake Birthday, Parque de las Ciencias, and Cold Weather

On Sunday, the same night that Brittany and I got back from Ireland and Sophie came back from Rome, Aloana decided that we needed to celebrate my fake birthday. Because Sophie and Brittany have October birthdays, we celebrated both of their birthdays here. They each got a cake with candles and we sang to them. Aloana is from Brazil and in Brazil they make a big deal about birthdays so she insisted that we celebrate mine too since she likes for all of the chicas (girls) to be treated equally. She baked some sort of cake with pineapple and coconut that was actually very tasty and made everyone sing to me. We were all exhausted from a long day of travelling, but it was very sweet of Aloana to make sure I got a day of celebration too. 

Last Friday was the first Friday I've spent in Granada in weeks. I went on an immersion activity with my program to La Parque de las Ciencias de Granada (Science Park of Granada). We went to an exhibit on the human body. Then, we played in the exhibit on the perils of daily life, which was mostly just comical, especially the dangers of slipping and tripping section. My personal favorite, however, was the one on puppeteering. The puppet exhibit is an homage to the Granada puppet company that's celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year. There were two puppet masters who gave a presentation about the different kinds of puppets that exist. The presentation was very informative and entertaining because they used all the puppets in the exhibit for demonstrations. We were watching it with a bunch of kids who were probably in fourth or fifth grade and knew all of the answers to the puppeteer's questions (none of us, the college students, knew any of the answers). We also walked around the outside are of the Science Park a little bit. There was some sort of bird exhibit which I wasn't a huge fan of because I hate birds, but a few of the owls were super cute. We also went up in this tower thing. It was alright, but it had already started raining so I was ready to go home. Compared to science museums  in the US, the Science Park wasn't that exciting, although I'm glad I went. I spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing because it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel well.

Speaking of being cold, it's absolutely FREEZING right now. It's been raining on and off for the past week so that's been fun (and by fun I mean horrible). The rain is annoying but usually manageable. What's really driving everyone crazy is that our apartments are cold, even colder than it is outside sometimes. Why is it so cold, you ask? Well, in my apartment anyway, the community (apartment complex) decides when everyone is allowed to start using the heaters because like the water, the heat is shared. We won't be able to use our heat until the second week in November (I think) so until then, we will continue wearing our coats in the house. Francisco wears his robe all the time, Sophie lives in her puffy coat, Brittany bought warmer pajamas, and Ana Clara walks around in a ski jacket, at least two shirts, and countless pairs of socks. Thank goodness Aloana gave us all a second comforter because I've taken to living under both of them when I'm home. I know everyone else in the city is in the same boat, which makes it a little better, but I appreciate my heater at home so much more now!

Ireland

Not this past weekend but the weekend before, I went to Ireland. We spent most of our time there in Dublin City. The most important thing to know about Dublin is where the River Liffey is because that's the easiest way to figure out your location (well for people who have a sense of direction, which I do not). The Liffey flows straight through the center of Dublin so you're bound to run into it at some point.  Here's a picture of the Liffey with Dublin in the background. 

We flew into Dublin on Thursday and arrived late in the afternoon because we went through Malaga instead of Granada. Our hostel was called Generator Hostel and it is by far the nicest place I've stayed in so far. The lobby was gigantic and looked like a lounge/bar area (aside from the front desk of course). Even though I went with five other girls, we booked the hostel at different times so I was in a mixed room with my friend Jen while the other four girls had a private room. My only complaints were that we had a community bathroom that was kind of far away and the lockers required an actual lock. Luckily one of the other girls brought one so Jen and I shared a locker. 

After checking into the hostel, we were all completely starving so we headed off in search of food. I keep forgetting that Spain is pretty much the only country in Europe that has a different eating schedule than the US so it was kind of refreshing for 8pm to be considered a very late dinner when in Spain that's considered early for dinner. We got a recommendation from some random Irish guy on the street who seemed reliable and ended up eating dinner at a gourmet burger restaurant. I don't remember ever eating a hamburger before in my entire life so it was very exciting. Sophie wasn't in Ireland with us, but she refused to talk to me for 10 minutes when she found out that I had never eaten a hamburger. This is me with my first (delicious) hamburger and Jen creeping in the background. 

After dinner we wandered around the city for a little bit and stumbled upon a famous bridge. It's called the Ha'penny Bridge. A lot of couples go to this bridge and put locks on it with their names on it. I'm not sure why they do it, but it's super cute to see all the locks. 

We woke up early Friday morning with big plans in mind because it was really our only day to explore Dublin. We ate breakfast at this adorable little cafe near our hostel called Cinnamon Cafe. I had my first bagel since I've been in Europe with a nice cup of hot chocolate. It was by far the best breakfast I've had in the past two months because breakfast isn't a big meal in Spain (I usually just eat toast).

The first stop on our list of things to do was the famous cathedral in Dublin. During our search for the cathedral, we stumbled upon another cathedral called Christ Church Cathedral. I didn't know this at the time, but I found out later that Christ Church is the diocean cathedral of the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. 

We oohed and awed over that cathedral for a while and then returned to our search for the (more) famous one. We eventually found it and it's called Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It was founded in 1191 and has been designated as the National Church of Ireland. To be honest, my favorite part of the cathedral was the random old man we met who works there. His name is Terry Ferry (Terry is short for Terrance and no I didn't make his name up). He's a retired attorney who has decided to spend his retirement informing tourists on the history of the cathedral. He literally knew everything about the cathedral - from the origin of each stained glass window to every statue in the whole place. 

Here are some tidbits of random information from Terry Ferry: The old tattered flags hanging in the cathedral were taken from other countries when Ireland was victorious in battle and haven't been touched since so they're all originals. The idea of copyright comes originally from Saint Columba, who was exiled from Ireland after causing a war because he was copying another saint's manuscripts and claiming them as his own (there's a statue of him in the church). There were actually three Saint Patricks, but two of them were deemed illegitimate at some point when the church reevaluated all of its saints. Also, Terry Ferry has a cousin named Joe Ferry who's a somewhat famous attorney in Boston. 

After we were able to tear ourselves away from the extremely chatty Terry Ferry, we wandered over to Dublin Castle. It was very disappointing on the outside so we didn't go inside. Our next monument, however, was even better than anticipated. 

Trinity College of Dublin was founded in 1592 and is Ireland's oldest university. The campus was pretty, but the real reason why it's so exciting to visit is the old library. Because of the college's historic standing, it's considered a legal deposit library for the United Kingdom and is therefore legally entitled to a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland. The library receives over 100,000 new items every year and currently contains about five million books. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but it was literally a huge room with two levels lined with beautiful, old books. Some of them were laid out on display for you to look at, but most of them were just sitting on the shelves (blocked off of course). Pretty much all of the books are accessible to students to use under heavy supervision, but I couldn't figure out how they got to the books on the second floor because each section of shelves went all the way to the wall with no walkway. I asked one of the guards about it and he pointed out a small archway close to the wall in the bottom left corner of each bookshelf so apparently they built the doorway into the bookshelf. It was the coolest room and I felt smarter just being there. 

Along with the old library of books at Trinity College, we were able to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament that was written in 800. It's widely considered as Ireland's greatest historical treasure. The book itself was pretty, although we could only see two pages of the inside - one page with an illustration and one with a text. I mostly enjoyed reading about how it was made. There were four scribes, each with a unique style of writing, and when they made mistakes, they would just draw decoration over them. There are a few pages that were accidentally written twice so they turned them into giant crosses or whatever they felt like drawing at the time. The Book of Kells is the main reason why people visit Trinity College because it's permanently displayed there, but I liked the library better. 

After our tour of the Book of Kells and the old library, we did a tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. I wasn't that excited about the tour because I don't particularly like whisky and didn't have much interest in learning about its history, but I was pleasantly surprised. Our guide was funny and the tour itself was very informative. I learned that Jameson whisky is different than Jack Daniels because Jameson is distilled three times while Jack Daniels is only distilled once, making Jameson smoother. Also, whatever Jameson uses in the kiln eliminates a smoky flavor that some whiskeys have. In order for a whisky to be considered and whisky it must be aged for three years, and to be considered Irish whisky, it must be produced and aged in Ireland. Scotch is basically the same thing as whisky but it has to be produced and aged in Scotland.

We grabbed dinner at a random restaurant after some down time in the hostel. We wandered around the pubs again in the Temple Bar area. The actual Temple Bar is basically just a famous pub, and the street it's on is very lively at night. I really liked the pub scene because you basically just sit or stand and listen to live music. We heard an array of American songs including Brown Eyed Girl, Galway Girl, Sweet Home Alabama, and Chasing Cars. I got hit on by some old Irish men which made me uncomfortable, but other than that it was really fun.

All day Saturday was dedicated to one of the Seven Wonders of Ireland - the Cliffs of Moher. When we booked our trip to Ireland, we also signed up for a tour with Extreme Ireland to take us to the Cliffs of Moher. It was an all day extravaganza that started very early in the morning, but it was totally worth it! The bus ride itself was really cool because we literally drove from Dublin on the eastern coast of Ireland, straight towards the Galway area on the western coast. Once we were outside of Dublin, the drive was pretty much all rural land. I have never seen so much green in one place and everything was the greenest green. The best description I can give is that it was very lush.

Even though the main attraction of the tour was the Cliffs of Moher, we made some stops along the way there and back. Our first stop was the River Shannon, which divides the west of Ireland from the east and south. It was pretty with the big bridge and random castle in the background.

This is everyone I went to Dublin with in front of the River Shannon - Nicki, Janel, Hannah, me, Brittany, and Jen (from left to right).

After River Shannon, we went straight to the Cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher are one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland. They actually appeared in the movie The Princess Bride as well as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Cliffs don't really have any historical significance, but they're breathtaking to look at. The visitor center is also really cool (it's won a lot of awards) because it's built into the side of one of the mountains. 

As you can see they're extremely high up. The highest point is about 700 feet tall and is near O'Brien's Tower, which is just a stone tower built by Sir Cornelius O'Brien to impress female visitors. In the picture above, there's a wooden fence, but most of the fence surrounding the edge of the cliffs is actually giant stones. There's even a large part of the cliffs that's blocked off with a sign in front of it as a memorial to the people who have fallen/jumped off the cliffs. The reason it's blocked off is because they haven't built a fence there yet, but there's already a path so people just climb over the flimsy fence (someone even built a stone staircase there to make it easier) and wander around in the fenceless area. I went over there for a while and it was really cool to see the cliffs without the manmade fence, but after a while it made me nervous because people were getting way too close to the edge and it was extremely windy.

Right after we finished up at the Cliffs of Moher, we went to a different set of cliffs. I don't know the name of them is or if they even have a name, but they were so cool! It was a similar idea to the Cliffs of Moher except it was really rocky on top so we were jumping all over the stones to get to the edge. You could literally just walk over to the edge and look down, which is exactly what we did.

We made a quick stop at Corcomroe Abbey on our way back to Dublin. Corcomroe Abbey is a Cistercian monastary in Burren region of County Clare, Ireland and it's known for its detailed carving and decorations, which were rare for an early 13th century structure. The first thing you see when you walk into the abbey is the cemetery. Normally I don't like cemeteries but this one was quite beautiful, and I enjoyed wandering through the inside of the abbey too.

After we left Corcomroe Abbey, we went straight back to Dublin. We were all exhausted so we got dinner and went back to the hostel. On Sunday morning, we took the bus to the airport and our flight went smoothly. We were all ready to be home by the time we got to Malaga so the bus ride from Malaga to Granada was kind of painful.

Other than the fact that Ireland is in fact the greenest place on earth (from what I've seen anyway), I also learned that other Irish stereotypes are pretty accurate. The weather was dreary the whole time were there. It rained a little bit and was cold and windy. So far, the Irish are the friendliest people I have ever met. They're also very superstitious, historically and even still today in the rural areas. Our tour guide kept telling us stories involving ferry castles and various things people do to ward off bad luck.

I noticed that the Irish have a great sense of humor too. The first time I realized it was when we were walking over a random bridge across the Liffey and there was a painted stamp on the bridge that said "Troll Below?". Then, when we were wandering around Dublin City on Friday, we kept seeing these giant tour buses shaped like Viking boats, which was funny in and of itself, but everyone in the boat buses had to wear Viking hats to participate in the tour.

My favorite Irish joke though was the signs we kept seeing that pointed tourists towards a leprechaun museum that doesn't exist. I thought Ireland was a fantastic place and I would love to go there again some day!