A nice week in Spain

Sometimes it's nice to just be able to relax and hang out in the house with my roommates.  For you're viewing pleasure, here is a picture of our fridge at its ultimate capacity.  12 girls and one fridge? It's not the easiest combo but we try to make it work haha.  Also me and Keliana have resorted to putting a lot of our food in our bathrooms storage cabinet.  

In previous posts I talked about the mushroom, which is a huge architectural structure in one of the plazas in Sevilla.  I'd hung out around there a lot but never had the opportunity to actually go on top of it! So, one of my roommates Carley and I went on top one day, there is a cafe up there and a pathway where you can enjoy the view of Sevilla.  

Me and Carley! 

Carnival Cadiz

In addition to our large trips I have gone on several day trips to different cities around southern Spain.  One place we went to was Cadiz, which is apparently a beautiful beach town but we went at night for this Carnival they have there every year.  It is like the 3rd biggest carnival in the world and people from all over get dressed up and go to Cadiz to drink in the streets.  We signed up to go with this organization and got on the but at 9 pm to go to Cadiz, we arrived at 11 and stayed there until 5 am.  Intense yes, but that's the Spanish way!  The first couple hours were pretty fun, we wandered around and joined in some parades through the streets.  But as it got later and later we all started to burn out, so ended up getting chocolate and churros and hanging out in a tent. 

Our whole apartment did a Mardi Gras kind of theme, but there were people in all types of weird costumes, it was like halloween on crack! 

Below is a picture of these two guys making giant spirals of churros, I just really liked the picture. 

Gibraltar

We had another CEA led trip to an English colony in southern Spain called Gibraltar.  It was an interesting place because it is known for this massive rock in the center of the city.  Also it's funny because there is both Spanish and English influence, they follow all the laws and are ruled by England but are located deep in Spain.  Our tour guide was born and raised in Gibraltar and he was telling us in his odd Spanish/English accent, about how everyone learns Spanish and English in elementary school. We went on a gloomy day and throughout the trip it would start to sprinkle here and there but it was still so beautiful.  

Gibraltar also overlooks where the Mediterranean Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet, we went to this lighthouse to see where the oceans merged and across in the horizon we could make out Morocco! 

Here you can see the Strait of Gibraltar, the name of the body of water that separates southern Spain from Africa. 

This is the rock of Gibraltar, which is apparently the most famous rock in the world. 

We drove around the rock in this van thing where we got to enjoy all the gorgeous views, but it made it a little difficult to take pictures. 

Here's a view of a port near Gibraltar, it was such an amazing look out and the gloomy clouds kind of gave it a cool touch.  But I don't mind clouds :)

What we had all heard about before we went to Gibraltar was the monkeys!! So when we finally saw them we all freaked out and took a million pictures.  Some people let the monkeys jump on them and stuff but I wasn't about to let one on my shoulder, especially after I saw one kid get bit by one. Regardless, they were fun to watch and take pictures of. There's are a couple legends that have come up around the monkeys, one they told us is that if the monkeys ever disappear then the British will leave Gibraltar. 

hehe, this ones yelling at the other one. 

Ronda

I also went on another day trip with some of my roommates to a town called Ronda.  The town is known for this massive bridge that separates the old town from the new one.  It is build in this giant gorge and it reminded me of Lord of the Rings.  Haha, all the beautiful old stuff reminds me of Lord of the Rings.  But everywhere we went in the town there were amazing views of the Spanish countryside with mountains in the distance. 

Here are the views from each side of the bridge.  In the picture on the right you can see there is a restaurant balcony that overlooks the gorge, so great, I wish I could have eaten there! 

The bridge

Me on a rock in front of the Spanish countryside, it again was one of those things where you couldn't believe what was before your eyes.  We hiked down to the gorge and walked through to this area where we were really close to the water. It was so nice to have a day in a natural place, I needed a little break from cities.  After we explored in the gorge we found a nice spot with an amazing view, had lunch, and did a little sun bathing.

Later we walked around the town and just took in the day.  Overall it was a relaxing and enjoyable little  trip, with some phenomenal views. 

This weekend I'm off to Paris to visit my friend Becca who is studying there, it should be a great time.  Paris is one place I knew I needed to go to while I was in Europe, so I'm beyond excited to get there.  Hopefully everything will go smoothly!!