Gibraltar, Nerja, Ronda

Hi! This past weekend we took a trip to Gibraltar Nerja and Ronda, as you might have guessed. This was a trip planned by the program, but not for class. The other trips with the program we have gone with our teachers and had to learn stuff. For this trip, they rented a bus to take everyone everywhere for the three days. Anyways, so about 20 people from the program decided to go.
The first place we went was Gibraltar, which really is just a big rock from which you can see Africa and Spain at the same time. Here we are from the bottom of the rock.
We took a cable car up to the top of the rock, where there are monkeys!
The monkeys are mean and try to steal people's food. We all had packed lunches from our host families. One monkey tried to jump into a girl's bag because she had a plastic bag hanging out. It didn't get anything, but there was lots of screaming involved. Another monkey stole a peach from another girl. They were okay if you didn't show them you had food though. Gibraltar was very pretty from the top.

Here is Spain:and here is Africa!
This photo is only slightly picasa-altered.
On the way down, several of us decided to walk half way to see "the monkey house". However, we did not make it that far. Apparently we went the wrong way, and wasted alot of effort going down a very steep path for about half an hour that eventually ended at a gate that said "private property". So we turned around and went right back up to the cable cars and took the easy way down. There was not much else in Gibraltar besides a small touristy area near the rock.

We went to the hotel that night which was in between Nerja and Malaga. The second day we went to Nerja. We only saw two things at Nerja, a cave and the "Balcon de Europa" (balcony of europe). The caves were cool, but not the most amazing caves in the world. The Balcon de Europa was pretty though.
I wish that I could have explored that part of Nerja more though. We didn't get very much time to explore on our own. That's why I would rather plan my own trip, even though this was cheap and convenient. Here I am at the Balcon in sepia.The rest of that day we spent at the beach near the hotel. We swam out to some rocks randomly placed in the sea.
The next day we went to Ronda, which was probably my favorite place because it has a nice town and pretty scenery. One of the main attractions in Ronda is a bridge that goes over a gorge.
Here is the gorge.
Then we went to the "Casa del Rey Moro" - house of the Moorish king. There were some pretty gardens next to the gorge, and a mine. The mine wasn't so much of a mine as just a staircase that went that went down to the bottom of the gorge. Here we are at the bottom of the gorge.
And here is Sarah in the gardens.
We came back to Sevilla that night. University classes don't start until next week, but EUSA - the UNC at Sevilla part- classes start this week, so I am going to my first class tonight. This weekend we are going to Lagos, Portugal.

Italica, cordoba, cadiz, sevilla... etc

Okay, so we went to Italica, which was basically a bunch of Roman ruins. It was cold and rainy. Here is a house with a mosaic in it. Italica was vaguely interesting, would have been more interested if I was distracted by trying to point my umbrella in the direction the wind was pushing the rain.
We ended up skipping the beach because of the bad weather. I did get to see Mama mia in Spanish that afternoon though, which was good. It was all dubbed except for the singing.

On this last saturday we went to Cordoba for the day with the program. On the way I saw this giant bull in the desert we drove through on the bus (its not real).

Cordoba was nice. The point of going there was to see the mosque/cathedral there, but before and after we got to wander around in the small alleys and squares. You can see the cathedral through the alley in this picture.
I say cathedral/mosque because originally it was a mosque then the Christians conquered and built on top of part of it their own cathedral. However, alot of the original mosque is still standing. In the patio there was a 600 year old tree and a fountain which supposedly will grant girls that drink from it a boyfriend. Here is my friend Kerry drinking from the "novio fountain".

Here is the patio, 600 year old tree, and random guy sitting next to it:
The inside of the mosque was pretty interesting. It was full of candy cane striped arches.
After the tour of the mosque, our teacher told us some traditional Cordoba foods such as bulls tail. He also told us about some tapas to try and a wine that were Cordoban. We went to a restaurant and ordered the traditional Cordoba wine and gazpacho. The gazpacho was good, but the wine was disgustingly viscous and sweet, so I didn't drink mine. We came back to Sevilla that evening and bought bus tickets to go to Cadiz the next day.
We left at 9 am to go to Cadiz on Sunday and got there around 10:30 and there were hardly any people on the beach. By 11 the beach was completely full with thousands of people. We soon found out that Sunday was actually the air festival in Cadiz, which explains the number of people. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I don't have pictures, but the air show was pretty cool. There were lots of fighter planes and stunt planes and helicopters and parachuters. After the air show there were slightly less people on the bus. We took the 9pm bus back to Sevilla.

Yesterday, we went to the Cathedral of Sevilla, which is the biggest cathedral in the world - not the biggest religious building, basilicas are bigger than cathedrals. This is the cathedral from the top.
and from the bottom.
And here is a view of Sevilla from the top of the tower.
Plans for the next couple weekends:
This weekend, the director of the program organized a trip for us to go to Gibraltar, Nerja, and Rhonda.
Next weekend we are trying to go to Lagos, Portugal. Still have to book the hostel for that.

first weeks

From Madrid, we took a train to Sevilla then a taxi to our hotel. Almost everyone else just got to Europe on that day, so they were jetlagged. I was glad I already went through that! That night we went out to dinner and got to know people.
I cannot currently upload entire albums to facebook so I will add a couple here for you to see.
Here is what I see on my walk to class everyday:
we cross the Guadalquivir riverthen we walk through el parque Maria Louisa. This isn't the part that we walk through. The park is very big with lots of fountains and birds. Then we walk through the beautiful Plaza de Espana. (We is me and the other people that live in my neighborhood).
We also visited the Alcazar with a teacher from EUSA (where we are taking our first class that is only a month long before the University of Sevilla starts).
These are some gardens next to the Alcazar
There are gardens all over the city:
The girl in the picture is my friend Monika, a girl in the program.
I will try to take pictures of my host family and the house sometime. This afternoon we are going to the Museum of Archeology and tomorrow we are going to Italica (ruins near Sevilla) and the beach!