The camera´s back

For those of you who didn´t know, my camera died in Tarifa, hence no pictures from there or Africa yet... lets just say there isn´t much that a bunch of euros can´t fix, haha.

And now for a photo tour of my weekend in Tarifa and Africa!

This was our amazing hostel.

This is the strangest bar every. We went to it the night before Africa. Not only do they serve beer, it is a shoe store. No lie. I asked which came first the shoe store or the bar and they said whatever you want. She then tried to sell me a pair of sandals...

This was the ferry we took to Africa. Don´t be deceived... the 35 minute journey to there is closer to an hour, haha.

Us leaving, Tarifa in the background.

Big boat make big wave.

Waiting in line to get our passports checked.

The group, the downtown quarter to our backs.

This could be a visa commercial. Yada yada yada, riding a camel in Africa: priceless!

The main park that seperates the new city from the old.

Winding yarn that will be used to make rugs in the room nextdoor.

I´ve come to terms with the fact that nobody other than americans know how to handle raw meat.

About to be given a demonstration in an herb and spices shop.

Begging children in Africa are a special breed. You don´t speek Arabic? Great, cause these 8 year olds speak English, Spanish, French and a little bit of German too!

The main port, right before we went back to spain.

Well, there ya go. Go ahead and just add a couple stamps to your own passport because that was pretty much what happened.

Week 5: I got some more stamps...Tarifa, Spain and Moroco, Africa

Well.... I did it. I went to Africa this past weekend. As I wrote that I was going to go at the end of my last blog, I was writing under the assumption that I would try but wasn´t sure if I would actually end up going. We really went, and it was unforgetable.

Our trip started out on Friday afternoon, after class, when 20 americans (including myslef) took over a bus going to Tarifa (southern coast of Spain). I´ve heard in the past that Americans are loud, but now I really understand. I almost felt bad for everyone else on the bus because we were so obnoxious, but I guess that is what you get on a Friday, after class, when you think you are going to Africa tomorrow.

When we got there after our 2 1/2 hr bus ride, we checked into our amazing hostel. 4 minutes walking from the center of town, 5 minutes from the beach and 4 minutes to the ferry that took us to Africa. The hostel was pretty small, and we got to know the staff a little bit. They were really nice people, mostly from around the world/spian and just working there for a few months to surf, relax, get away from the world.

We were tired that night so we ended up going out to eat at a pizza place where you cut your food with scissors. Lets just say it was incredible, and words wont do it justice. Pictures to come.

Saturday morning we almost missed the ferry to Moroco, but given that we live in spain, we don´t have to be anywhere on time. We got there at 11:00, same time as departure, but didn´t leave until 11:45am. Go figure.
The ride over was a lot of fun, but really opened up my eyes to what people go through trying to cross the Gibralter strait.

After going through customs, we were inundated with people that wanted to give us guided tours. To our suprise, we found a guide who was actually letgit, (Jamal, and our driver Muhammad). To give you an idea of how amazing this tour was, we did the following: had our own mercedes bus driving us around all day, just the 14 of us from CIEE, we rode camals, saw the summer homes of presidents and dignitaries from around the world, walked through all the shopping districs, walked through a rug factory (where they make rugs by hand with looms), saw a dance show in the streets, saw some of the 100,000 spices and herbs they have in Tanger, and the list goes on. Did I mention I rode a camel?!?!?!?!?!? We went back on the 5pm ferry (7pm spain time) and got back around 8pm Spain time.

All in all, amazing day.

The next day, we hung out on the beach and then went to a Tex-Mex restauraunt. Very needed. I like the food here, but sometimes you just needs some enchaladas, nachos and hot sauce with chips. We ended up having a chill day on Sunday because we were so beat from Moroco the day before. Tarifa was good times. The only thing we were disspointed about was that the festival San Juan was a bust. It was so windy, nobody was on the beach Saturday night. It is supposed to be this big festival with a GIANT bonfire to mark the summer solstice but the extreme winds kept the fire small and the crowd smaller.

Sadly my camera is broken. Don´t know why, but until I get it fixed/get a new one we will all have to wait to see pictures of me on my camel. I feel your pain... but they´ll be up soon, haha

Soy trianero pero vivo en Sevilla

So after reading Dan/Meghan´s simple blog with pictures and no history lecture I thought I´d give you guys a break and give you some pictures. Kubic/Butler, this should be easier for you without so many words...

First things first. This is where I sleep/siesta every day. Don´t know if the bed has ever been flipped/turned/moved so I lay in a big dip right up the middle.

If you couldn´t guess, this is the living room. I´m pretty lucky because we have A/C, a 20" tv and digital cable. Sadly, we don´t use the A/C most of the time because it is so expensive and the cable went out yesterday...

This is the outside of my apartment building. If you look on the top floor, dead center of the picture, with the orange antenna and the plants on the balcony, you can see my apartment from the street/the restaurant Tribuna.

My street, Concha Espina, from the viewpoint of when I walking home from school.

This is the restaurant I mentioned earlier. It is full around 3 in the afternoon and 10-12midnight. I can always here the laughter and talking from my living room.

Avenida República Argentina; This is the main avenue that takes you to the plaza and towards the bridge to cross the river. You can barely see it but there is a Citibank on the left. I really lucked out that it is about 2 minutes from my house and that I don´t have to pay withdrawl fees...

In case you don´t know, I will be working for ALDI foods as an intern this fall and spring. If all goes well, I just may be baging groceries in this store one day. I found it on a run and it is 5 minutes from my house.

Plaza de Cuba; This is one of the large plazas in Sevilla and also the meeting location for all of us who live on my side of the river.

This is the view of the bridge I cross on the way to school, looking towards where I live (opposite direction of school).

Opposite view of the same bridge. On your left, you can see Torre de Oro (Tower of Gold). This is where much of the money and plundered property from the Americas was kept. We are visiting it in my 3 cultures class, so expect a better explanation later.

This is the Puerta de Jerez. It divides the pedestrian only streets from the normal streets. It is the next thing you see after crossing the bridge and walk for 1 minute.

Past Puerta de Jerez is Avenida Constitucion. Very touristy, and leads me to La Catedral on the way to school. If you were to keep going it would take you to El Ayuntamiento (town hall).

After following the Constitucion for a bit, I turn right and walk past Real Alcázar, seen in the back of the photo.

This is the last thing I see before getting into little windy streets. From La Catedral it is only 6 minutes more to school.

Total Travel Time: 25-30 minutes walking

Famous Monuments: 4

I definately have the best walk to school.

Week 4: Cádiz, Córdoba and Granada

It happened, just as I knew it would, but it was still not welcome... sesion 1 is over and part of the progam is back in the states. Sadly, many of my friends are gone too (Joanne, Meredith, Alison...) but the show must go on. Session 2 is now here, and as you would expect, there seems to be an invisible wall seperating most of session 1 from 2. Anybody that has gone to school for the first time knows what it is like; you get there, don´t know anybody and its easier to stick with everyone thats in the same boat, so naturally its been slow going mixing the group, but I think it is now finally happening. Without further ado, this is what I did last week.

Cádiz:

Cádiz was the day trip for session 2. It is one of the southernmost cities in all of Spain and it is the oldest city in Europe. It was plundered by pirates, besieged by the french and was the site of the Spanish constitution (Washington on the Brazos ring a bell ???). When we got there, we started on our trip through the city. We saw the wall that seperates the new from the old, what used to protect the city (I´ve seen a lot of these walls this summer...). Then our group moved through the city too see all that was to be seen. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but was FULL with people for two reasons: 1. It is the time of the year that spaniards travel, 2. It was the celabration of Corpus Cristi. We were actually really lucky to be there the day we were because I missed the parade in Seville and they were celebrating it later in Cádiz. It is an 800 year old celebration of communion in the Catholic church at is supposed to increase followers faith. While we were touring the cathedral, a marching band (hats of to spaniards... meghan would be proud cause these bands are popular here) was playing through town and went into the Cathedral too.

Not long after our trip through the cathedral it was free time, so we went to the beach. The same beach that they filmed James Bond´s movie "Die Another Day". It wasn´t as nice as Lagos, but we didn´t have to get rental cars to get there so I´m not gonna complain... We went there along with about 3,000 of my closest vacationers from all over Spain. It was packed. All those boats you see are the fishing boats that the locals use, and by the time we left the tide went out so far that they were all resting on sand.

Córdoba:

Córdoba was a trip we took for my 3 cultures class. This is pretty much the best class ever. We are in class talking about the history of Spain for about an hour and a half, and then we walk somewhere in the city and see famous monuments/sites/ruins that are hundreds of years old and we go with someone who knows more about stuff in Sevilla than I do about all things period.

So, when we got off the bus, we saw old Roman aqueducts that remained from over 1000 years ago, then we walked up a hill and saw once again the old wall that protected the city (again over 1000 years old) and then we went into what is now a Catholic church that used to be an Islamic Mezquita. It would take me way too long to describe everything on this trip, and it is hard to know what is relevant because we were hearing facts, stories and legends for about 3 hours, but suffice it to say that it was good times.

After we walked around the city and saw the Mezquita, we had free time. This meant we walked around the city, got hit up for money/food from beggars and ate tapaz. Me and couple friends went to a small hole in the wall restaurant and ate some good food instead of going to Burger King... big mistake! The kids that went saw the American soccer team that was there on a day off between games. They didn´t get any pictures because they didn´t want to be "that guy", but believe me... they were there.

Granada:

Granada was the overnight trip for Session 2... guess they are trying to pack it all in early. We got there Saturday afternoon and checked in to our 4 star hotel at the top of a mountain (I know... roughing it). Next to where we were staying was La Alhambra, the most visited monument in Spain and candidate to be one of the new Wonders of the World.

First on our list of things to do was as you might guess... walk around the city. Granada was under Islamic rule until 1492 (it didn´t stop just because Columbus found the Americas, but that was my guess too) and because of that, the older part of the city is all built with elements of Muslim arquitecture. What does that mean? Building contructed with bruick, plaster, arches and homes that don´t have windows to the outside. This was all done because the materials were cheap and functional. The windowless buildings was supposed to make it so outsiders couldn´t see what happened inside. They muslims were a people that valued family privacy (where they spend most of their time), so they had open patios in the center of the house to get sunlight and fresh air without the Jones´prying eyes next door. Also, the streets were all kinds of messed up. Dad, you thought you needed a compass to get around Brenham at first? You should of seen this. Instead of laying out streets and then building houses like sensible people, they built their houses wherever they wanted to first and THEN built the roads. You really couldn´t go more than 30 feet without having to turn.

After walking through the city, we saw the Capilla Real, the resting place of D. Fernando of Aragón y Queen Isabel of Spain, Juana I, Felipe I y of prince Miguel. We got to walk all around the Cathedral and then went down where there was a viewing of the coffins of all those listed above. Some of the things we saw were 500 year old clothes, memoires of somebody listed above and old artifacts of the royal family.

Interesting story. When Christopher Columbus needed funding for his trip to America (India), he came to the Queen. Story has it that she sold her jewelry to fund the trip. We saw that jewelrey box! Picture mom´s wooden box, then imagine the exact opposite (sorry mom...).

That night when we went out, the night was cut short because we wanted to get into this club that apparently had a dress code, and my friends shorts and sandals didn´t fit the bill. But on a lighter note, watching him change into someone else´s pants and try to get in throught the same people as before had to have been the funniest thing of the entire trip. The bouncer told him "Did you think I couldn´t see you behind that car? go home." Priceless...

The following day, we saw that Wonder of the World hopeful. Again, too much to describe, but it was the size of a small city, within Granada. It was were the king lived until the Christians conquored Granada in 1492. The chair I´m sitting in that picture is where the king did all his official business. The room was REALLY dark, and that was to make it hard to see the king when you came in from the very bright adjoining room. To make him seem untouchable or something to that effect.

________

Wow. That was a lot of writing, so congrats to those of you who read to the bottom. Just for that, you can go to sleep easily tonight knowing that I´m going to Africa on Saturday.

PEACE!

Week 3: Lagos, Portugal y Parque Nacional de Doñana

Lagos, Portugal:

Last weekend, my friends and I rented cars and drove to Portugal for the weekend. Lagos is about 3 hours west by car from Spain. Ever since Spain and Portugal joined the European Union in the mid ´80s, the border checks have been taken down completely. You didn´t need a passport to get accross the border, and to be honest, you couldn´t even tell where the old border checkpoint used to be.

We left Seville at about 2pm and got to Lagos at 5, leaving us plenty of time to hang out on the beach before we ate. The picture of the beach is taken from our hotel parking lot. The hotel we stayed at was on a cliff overlooking one of the most famous beaches in Portugal. The water was pretty cold but felt good because it was really hot and sunny while we were there. While there, we snorkled, climbed big rocks that we shouldn´t have, explored different caves, and basically got toasted in the sun all day. That night we ate at a restaurant that also overlooked the ocean. Very classy. The funny thing is that this was all cheap, a meal was only 6€, or $8.

We went out the first night in Lagos, which was pretty good, but there were also a ton of creeps so we ended up going to Portimao (20 minutes west of Lagos). This town was much more tourist/American friendly and had some really cool bars that were open roof and on the ocean. Good times.

We came back Sunday night and then were supposed to return the cars on Monday morning. The crappy part about the trip is that I got into an accident in Seville about 1km from where I was supposed to drop off the car. I was in the middle of 3 lanes going the same direction, and when didn´t see anyone in the lane to my left I started to change lanes when this guy came flying out of nowhere and cliped the front left bumper. There was no damage done to the car other than to the bumper and the front left headlight, but I still had to pay the deductable because it would cost more than that to get it fixed. All in all, interesting experience... I had to fill out the accident forms and deal with the rental car company, none of whom spoke English...you should have been there, haha.

Parque Nacional de Doñana:

This park is the largest state protected park in Spain (i think)... It covers a lot of the beach, and then back through the dunes and the marshlands. When my class when on the visit, we rode in the giant Mercedez jeep/bus that is in the picture above. It held my whole class and a few others.

To give you an idea of how big this park is, we drove around for 4 hours and only saw a taste of what each of the different terrains are in the park. We started out by driving on the beach, and then made it through the dunes. We got to get out and walk barefoot through some really soft sand and see a lot of wildlife.

The rest of the trip was through the marshlands, which looked almost identical to the everglades in Florida. We almost saw 2 Iberian Lynx cubs, (which are now an endagered species which are only found in Doñana and one other place I don´t know where) but from where I was sitting I couldn´t see them.. But we did get to see the huts of the villiagers who still live on the beach and fish for survival. They don´t have electricity, and only get water from a well next to each hut. All in all, a trip back in time and we saw some pretty amazing wildlife.

Here are some websites if you want to see more about the park, but there aren´t good ones in English, so if you want to see the good one I hope you can read spanish...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doñana_National_Park

http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/parques/donana/index.htm