What I Love About Granada

The roses.

And the fountains... (generally surrounded by roses)

  

The teas... and the lovely smells that wafted through the streets around them.

 The view from the terrace on the roof of IES (and the red-tiled roofs themselves).

 The Moroccan shops.

The peacocks (and the peacock photography opportunities they provided).

Views of the Alhambra.

The food. Gelato, tapas, palmeras, shwarma, and the fruit (particularly when it was free)! Thanks to Anna for the picture.

The beautiful churches. (The one below is the cathedral.)

Flamenco (both watching and learning it). Thanks to Mara for this picture (and Atalie, who took it).

Views of the city from the hills that surround it.

And the long strolls around the city, my favorite activity.

And now I feel that some sort of conclusion is necessary, some sort of grand statement to wrap-up this semester in Granada, but the words in my head don't sound right. What can I say, except that this semester was incredible, that I changed. They were little changes, all of them; little, insignificant changes that seem irrelevant. But little changes can pile up, and suddenly, you find yourself a different person. Somewhere in those four months, I gained an appreciation for olive oil, I developed an interest in photography, I learned how to dance flamenco (though certainly not well). I left Ganada tanner than I have ever been in my life, feeling strange if I did not consume at least a half of loaf of bead a day, restless if I didn't walk at least two hours a day. I left with confidence--enough to wear my hair down, to wear a bikini, to wear teal pants. I left with two families. Suddenly, graffiti was pretty, coffee was pleasant, strangers putting their hands on my back to physically move me out of the way was normal. That used to freak me out.  In Spain, I found another home. I miss it sorely. 

Cabo de Gata

As the final trip of the semester, we went to Cabo de Gata, at the bottom edge of Spain. The first day was spent hiking through the nature preserve, along the coast. 

 The landscape was quite different from all other parts of Spain that I had seen, much more like a desert. Apparently, many Westerns are filmed in Cabo de Gata due to this, as well as an Indiana Jones movie.

 We spent the second day on the beach, which was lovely. Sparkly water and sparkly sand.

And the travels continue (Gibraltar and Morocco)

My second trip to Gibraltar, and much the same. Monkeys... 

...on a giant rock...

...overlooking the city.

 And, of course, some fish and chips. As the only British place anywhere near Spain, it was an appropriate place to be on the day of the royal wedding.

 After spending a night there, we took a ferry to Morocco. The wind was rather exciting.

First stop in Morocco: Tangier.

 We did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked in Tangier, but moved on to the next city, which was fascinating in turn. The best thing about Morocco was simply how different it was... I never realized that I had never seen a donkey pulling a cart as an actual means of transportation until I saw it there.

 It was in this town by the sea that I rode a camel, which was an exciting experience in itself. Mostly because I was not all together confident that the saddle was going to actually stay on the camel.

 The camels were very cute, though.

After that, it was off to some ruins. I'm sure I have an itinerary somewhere that will tell me what these ruins were, but frankly I am quite a bit too lazy to go searching for it. Whatever the place was called, we stopped to wander around there for a while and though it was drizzling mildly, as it seemed to be for the majority of this trip, it was rather cool. There were eels there and, legend has it, if they eat the egg you throw into the pool, you will become pregnant or have a child or something of the sort. I, personally, did not try my luck (little too early to be thinking about that), but our guide did.

Next on the agenda was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. I had to look that name up, and came across the name of the ruins above as well... They are called the Chellah Necropolis, and they are Roman and Medieval ruins, according to wikipedia.

We stayed for two nights, I believe, in Rabat in a homestay. The homestay was an interesting experience, to say the least. We ate Moroccan food from a giant communal dish, drank large amounts of sweet Moroccan tea, and tried on Moroccan clothing and head scarves. Also in Rabat, we got henna, went to a public bath, and toured the markets, which were strangely reminiscent of the many Moroccan shops in Granada. 

Next, we traveled to a small rural village in the hills. The scenery was breathtaking, though our walk was cut short by pouring rain. 

In the village, we talked with a family (with the help of a translator), and had another delicious meal of couscous (delicious, but I think it will be a while until I eat couscous again... one of these delicious meals resulted in almost two weeks of miserableness). And then it was off to the last city, Chefchaouen. Chefchaouen was a fascinating place, filled with shops, and when the shops were closed, very blue and very beautiful.  

 It was in Chefchaouen that I discovered my talent for bartering. Unfortunately, there are not many places in Minnesota where I can practice those skills.

A Couple of Days in Paris

We stayed in an apartment in Paris, which ended up being a pretty sweet deal... discounting perhaps that one incident when we got locked out and the other when the power went out and we spent the night in the dark. Apart from that, however, it was lovely. Much better than the hostels. Paris itself was lovely as well, of course, though my memories are once again rather jumbled. 

We may have first gone to Notre Dame.

After visiting Paris and Barcelona, I have decided that I would like to construct a house solely out of stained glass. Particularly after visiting the Sainte Chapelle, pictured below.

I have absolutely no recollection of the order in which the rest of the trip progressed, but through many strolls about Paris, we came across the following:
-Locks of love (or is that the name of the organization that takes donations of hair for wigs? Whatever they are called, I saw this phenomena on many a bridge in Paris. Apparently, it's all the rage...)

-The Arc de Triomphe (possibly not spelled like that). The arc is surrounded by busy streets on all sides, and it took us a surprising amount of effort and time to figure out how to get under it, in spite of signs in English telling us how. We took one tunnel and merely ended up on a different corner of the intersection, confused and no nearer to reaching our goal. Eventually, however, we figured it out.

-Toy sailboats that you can rent to sail in the fountains in the parks. We spend a good long time watching these particular boats drift from side to side, crash into each other, and nearly get stuck in the center. They were surprisingly resilient and very amusing to watch.

-Many interesting statues within those parks... Including this one, which has not ceased to intrigue me. 

-The Eiffel Tower (of course)

We also visited the Louvre, easily the most overwhelming museum I've been to. We went on a mad race to see as much as humanly possible in the time that we had. Always a challenge. I could spend several months in there without getting bored.

Also on the agenda was a visit to a cemetery, though I'm not sure which one. It was very beautiful, in a grim sort of way.

Next (in this blog, not chronologically), there was Versailles. Speaking of sensory overload...

My favorite part was Marie Antoinette's fake village, which was adorable. If it weren't for the fact that it was fake, I would probably move there.

And, of course, there were purple trees.