Trips on Trips on Trips

So during my hiatus from this blog, I also traveled a lot. Each place was crazy, fun, different, and memorable for sure. So here’s a quick rundown of my three weekends in a row of trips:

Badajoz

So Carnival is a holiday in Spain the weekend before Ash Wednesday and a few of us went to Badajoz, a city about an hour and a half away from Trujillo, for a weekend in March. Badajoz is one of the most famous cities known for its celebration of Carnival. There, we all dressed up, as is expected for Carnival. We got there too early in the day because most of the celebrations start late at night, so we were kinda bored for a while, but soon after more people started coming out and the parades started, it was better. Seeing everyone dressed up and just having a good time was really exciting and cool to see a different cultural experience. We returned to Trujillo tired and ready to sleep.  

Andalucía

The Mosque in Córdoba

Our trip to Andalucía was planned by CofC and we had already paid for all the places we were going to, so not having to worry about transportation and hotels was such a relief. Andalucía is the southern region of Spain and we visited three different cities in it. Just travelling through the countryside was really cool too. Andalucía was a lot greener and warmer than la Extremadura, so I was really enjoying the shorts and flip flops weather. First, we went to Córdoba and explored around there first. We were able to go inside the mosque in Córdoba and it was so cool. I had learned about it in many Spanish classes before and it was really interesting to see it in real life. After Córdoba, it was back on the bus and on to Granada. There, we settled into such a nice hotel and were constantly spoiled by it. Buffet dinner and breakfast, huge showers. Just so comfortable. And then the Alhambra!! It’s an old Muslim palace from when Arabs lived and thrived in Spain. The Alhambra in Granada was the greatest palace and castle in their territory. It was so impressive and huge; we could have spent all day there. It’s so hard to describe so I’ll just post some pictures… We also went to a classic flamenco performance by gypsies that live in Granada. It was so dramatic and intense, but so cool. It was neat to learn more about that cultural experience and actually see something that I’ve only heard about.

View of Granada from the Alhambra

After Granada for a couple days, our group headed out to Seville. In Spanish it’s called Sevilla, which personally sounds cooler so that’s what I’ll use. It was definitely my favorite city during the trip to Andalucía. We were able to relax more there because not too much was planned, except for going to the Cathedral. That was my favorite thing in all of Sevilla…and of course my camera was broken. This massive cathedral in the center of the city which holds Christopher Columbus’ remains was so huge and just amazing. I’m planning on going back there with my sister when she comes to Spain in two weeks!! In Sevilla, I also met up with one of my friends from high school who is studying there this semester. It was a really cool blast from the past and awesome to meet more students from around the US studying in Spain.

After Sevilla, we came back to Trujillo tired and still dressed for the warm weather of Andalucía. Shorts and flip flops just don’t cut it in the brisk air in Trujillo.

London

Big Ben and Parliament!!

            Class for a week and then off I was again, this time to London with just two others from my group. Between sleeping (or not really) in airports, I had one of the coolest trips of my entire time here in Europe. London is so cool and big and just…it’s London. We stayed with a friend of a friend who we went with. She is studying abroad from CofC in London and was nice enough to let us crash on her floor in the dorm. While it wasn’t the most comfortable, it was fo free so definitely worth it (or vale la pena, as they say in Spanish). We didn’t get to do or see everything we wanted, but what we did was enough and definitely awesome. We went to:

The British Museum

Trafalgar Square

·         Buckingham Palace

·        Regent’s Park

·         Kensington Gardens

·         The London Eye (we were able to ride it and see panoramic views of all of London!)

·         Big Ben and Parliament (weren’t able to go inside, but the outside was cool too)

·         Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Also, one of my friends and I went to the Harry Potter studios, about an hour from London and were able to tour the sets and see the costumes that were used in the movies! So amazing. We also dropped by Platform 9 ¾. So we geeked out in London a little bit too. The last night we were there (which was St. Patrick’s Day by the way), we went out to a pub and had fish and chips and I tried a Guinness just for fun. It topped off an awesome time in one of my now-favorite cities.

            After I got back, it was time for my Spanish family’s vacation. They went to Disney World in Paris for the week and so I had the house all to myself. While yeah it was a little boring after a while, it was kinda nice to have peace and quiet. They came back with loads of pictures and fun stories about what the kids did there. Meanwhile, I definitely feel like my Spanish has improved a lot. While I can’t speak as well as I want, I can understand a whole lot better. I definitely over think and hold myself back sometimes cause I hate sounding dumb when I talk, but I am happy with how much better I am getting. So from now on I just need to not be afraid to talk and try my best to speak correctly. And now after two weeks of relaxing and just hangin out in Trujillo, I’m heading out again to Barcelona for the weekend! Hasta luego.