Lagos, what you always want to see, but never do!

This past weekend my program took us on our last excursion to Lagos, Portugal.  As some of you may have seen from my facebook album name, I have found my honeymoon destination!  Lagos was absolutely gorgeous.  It looked like places you see in pictures, but never actually see in person.  When we first got to Lagos CEA took us to some natural park (I think?) where we got an amazing view of the coastline.  Words do not describe what I saw in Lagos, so I will post a few extra pictures.  The rest of our time we spent at the beach.  The first beach we went to we basically had to ourselves.  It was pretty chilly with a constant breeze, but the sun was shining so it wasn’t terrible.  The second day CEA took us to another beach called Dona Ana.  The beach we went to on Friday was nice, but it was nothing like what we saw when we first got to Lagos. 

Dona Ana on the other hand was exactly what we saw.  It was absolutely picturesque.  Some of you who know me very well (or have just been to the beach with me) know I’m very timid about getting into the ocean because usually it’s freezing.  I’m not sure what convinced me, but I got into the ocean both days even though the water was ridiculously cold!  At Dona Ana we swam/walked out to a rock that was sticking up out of the water.  The swim/walk was rather painful with the rocks under us, but we eventually made it out to the rock and got some pictures.  The whole day we spent laying out on the beach.  It was great finally getting to relax and enjoy nice weather.  A lot of the people in my program extended their stay with a program called Discover Sevilla, but Julie Kelsey and I decided we didn’t want to pay what they were charging and went home Saturday night with our program. 

  The next day we went to a beach about an hour away from Sevilla in Huelva called Matalascana.  I’m not sure what all I have said in my blog thus far (I have a horrible memory!) but, the day I got back from Paris I met Kelsey at a park in our neighborhood area to hang out and we ended up meeting a group of Spanish guys.  One of them got our numbers to hang out later.  It took him two weeks, but he eventually text me and we’ve hung out since.  We asked him to get some friends together to go to the beach with us on Sunday so we met him and his friend Antonio at Matalascana.  (He had asked more, but the other backed out unfortunately, but their loss!)  Again, we spent the entire day out on the beach.  By now I’m sure you’re wanting to ask if I got any sun… possibly a little burn and unfortunately the answer is yes even though I was a nazi about sunscreen!  Julie and Kelsey were both calling me a mom about the sunscreen, but I took that name with pride personally.  I felt like I was constantly smothering myself in sunscreen yet I still managed to get a little burnt.  The sun here is brutal; I’m not sure how people survive here on an annual basis!  This past weekend was very relaxing which was definitely needed, especially with my first Spring Break coming up here in a few days!

Heather's first time in Spain!

Two weekends ago Heather came to visit me in Sevilla!  I got to be tour guide for the weekend, which ended up being incredibly tiring!  She got here Friday afternoon with her friend, Blair.  Overall I thought the weekend went well if you exclude my lack of knowledge of Spanish words for foods.  But, in my defense, I am in a homestay where I get 3 meals a day 7 days a week.  I never eat out so I never learn the Spanish words for the different foods.  I took them to Plaza de Espana where we got a little row boat to row around, the Cathedral along with climbing up the Giralda, the Alcazar, my homestay so they could see my home and meet my Spanish family, we walked along the river where we got churros at a churros stand and got a drink at a little bar stand.  It was good seeing Heather again and it was exciting for me to get to show someone my home for the semester! 

Gaudi

A couple weekends ago Julie and I made it up to Barcelona.  As some of you may know I’ve been to Barcelona once before with my parents and younger sister, Dinora.  But, our visit last time was very short and did not consist of much site seeing.  We left early Saturday morning for Barcelona because on Friday our program took us to Ronda which ended up being a sub-par trip to a tiny town in southern Spain.  The entire time all I could think about what how I could’ve been in Barcelona if I had known how boring it was going to be.  The tour we went on was long and treacherous.  There’s a huge gorge in the city which is supposed to be the main point of interest, but our tour didn’t bother going down to get a good view of it.  Oh well, such is life.  So Julie and I got to Barcelona before noon and we wanted to drop our stuff off at our friend Jim’s place before we went out into the city.  Of course, me with my wonderful memory and all forgot to write down the directions I got to get to his apartment.  Jim’s phone was off (we later learned it had taken a swim in the Mediterranean the night before and was broken) so I made a few calls and finally got a hold of my friend Todd to get into my facebook for the directions.  After dropping our stuff off we headed out with Jim, our tour guide.  We went down part of Las Ramblas then headed towards the beach.  The marina and beach were gorgeous!  First impression of Barcelona made me wish I had studied there rather than Sevilla.  (don’t get me wrong, I love Sevilla, but Barcelona is amazing!)   

Parc Guell with one of Gaudi's animals

Anyway, we ended up running into some people we had met in Granada a few weekends before and went to Parc Guell with them which is a park in the middle of an unfinished Gaudi housing area.  I loved the park.  Julie and I got a lot of cute pictures around the park and one of the girls we were with pointed out an area that was used for the finale fashion show for America’s Next Top Model!   After seeing the park we headed back to Jim’s to cook dinner and rest a bit.  That night we went to watch the magic fountains (fountain show), but were too late and ended up walking into the old bull-fighting ring (now a mall ever since bull-fighting has been banned in Barcelona).   That night we went out to Razzmatazz, which is supposedly the biggest club in Europe (so I was told…).  It was cool, but all of the room looked identical save the music and it was like a maze trying to get from room to room.  It got to be really annoying trying to find new music!  The next day Julie and I decided to go out alone.  Jim was nice to have along with us, but he was the world worst tour guide! (no offense to the kid) But, he didn’t know what or where anything was, he was more along for the ride.  Basically, mine and Julie’s touring style is much different than his.     

In front of Sagrada Familia

Sunday we set out to see Sagrada Familia, the unfinished church designed by Gaudi.  According to Rick Steve’s it isn’t expected to be completed for another quarter of a century!  We wanted to go in, but when we got there it wasn’t open yet so we set out to see Casa Mila and once we got back they were closing.  Casa Mila is another one of Gaudi’s buildings (this one is finished, haha!)  I loved the house, but I think the highlight of the visit inside was the roof where we finally got to see what Rick Steve’s put on the front of his Spain book.  I got the same picture he did, unfortunately there is a gate in my version and not in his (I’m going to call photoshop on his part).  After Casa Mila we went to go see Casa Batllo though we only saw the outside, yet another work of Gaudi.  After going back to Sagrada Familia and discovering we weren’t going to be able to go in we decided to head back to Las Ramblas and walk the entire street.  We started at Placa de Catalunya and slowly made our way down towards the Columbus Monument.   We stopped in all of the little shops to do some tourist shopping.  The workers were so obnoxious!  I couldn’t pick up one thing without be swarmed by workers trying to make a bargain with me.  One place I found a really cute crescent and picked it up to look at it.  When the guy came up to bargain (or so we thought) we asked how much it was and he told us the price was on the back.  We then tried to bargain with him and he said no, so then I put it back because I wasn’t’ interested in paying the labeled price and he freaked out on us!  We had been talking Spanish to him, but he went off about how you can’t pick up things and not buy them and that we were typical Americans blah, blah.  I just raised my eyebrows and starred at him in utter surprise at how he was talking to us. 

The same picture Rick has on the front of his book!

I was dumbfounded!  All of the other workers may have been annoying, but they weren’t rude.  After he went off on us we just walked out.  I looked in every other store I went in, but couldn’t find another crescent, which was really sad, but there was no way I was going to go back and buy something from that man.  I ended up getting a little Sadraga Familia magnet with the Gaudi pattern of the colorful mosaic art.  We ate dinner in a little plaza a few blocks off of Las Ramblas, which was good.  Once we reached the end of Las Ramblas we roamed around the streets and chatted just killing time.  It was too late to really go see anything, but we didn’t feel like going back to the apartment to sit around.  At one point we were sitting and chatting somewhere on Las Ramblas and this creepy man snuck up behind us (shirt unbuttoned with his belly hanging out) leaned over between us and just starred at us.  Julie noticed first and hit me in the arm.  I turned towards her and saw him and freaked!  We both jumped up and ran off.  When I turned around to make sure he wasn’t following us he was just standing there laughing at us.  He was such a creeper! But thankfully didn’t give us anymore trouble.  We ended up getting a bottle of Cava (apparently a Barcelona drink, but it ended up just being Champagne?) and walking down Rambla de Mar.  Our flight left really early Monday morning because we had to get back for classes on Monday so we took about an hour long nap then headed to the airport.  Over all consensus, I absolutely loved Barcelona.  I wish we had had more time there/I wish we had time to go back, but unfortunately we don’t.  I am glad we decided to go though as it was one of our last minute trips we booked.  Definitely one of my favorite places I’ve been to yet!

Maybe my next language will be French

HA! What a joke, if I could ever get Spanish down I'd be content with the rest of my life.  But, I did go to Paris and I loved the language, almost as much as I loved the city, but not nearly as much as I loved visiting Heather! (an old roommate and good friend of mine).  As much as I love everyone here in Sevilla, especially my closest friends, I must say it was a great breather getting away from everything for a weekend and seeing a familiar face from home.  I left Friday morning as the plane ticket was cheaper and I didn't want to be traveling the night of St. Paddy's Day! (more about that night later).  Anyway, so it was a VERY early morning after a very late night unfortunately.  When I got to the bus stop I waited around for about 45minutes.  People started taking taxi's because they were worried they were going to miss their flight, but I decided to stick it out for another 10 minutes or so.  At that point I had started talking to people around me and met a guy, Lucas, who was on the same flight as me to Paris so, he became my travel buddy.  The bus eventually came, basically the one we were supposed to catch just decided not to show up.  Once we got to the airport we had to skip the line to get our boarding pass stamped and skip the entire security line.  Yes, I was very embarrassed, but desperate calls for desperate measures.  We made the flight, but if we hadn't skipped those lines we definitely wouldn't have.  We got to Paris and took the bus in.  Lucas had a friend there he was meeting up with and they were going to get food first so I decided to join them before I made my way to the embassy to meet Heather.  Turned out we walked to get food in the direction I needed to go so instead of taking the metro to the embassy I decided to walk the rest of the way.  (Living over here has made walking far distances much more doable... 20-30 minute walk? no big deal).  Anyway, I got to the embassy and had a huge process of getting in.  Heather had put me on the list to go in so they had to check that with my passport, do some other business that took a good 5-10 minutes, check my bag, take all of my electronics (including headphones), take my bag, give me a visitors tag, and who knows what else.  It was insane!  But, good to know they’re taking several precautions at the US embassy in France.  Heather showed me around the embassy and took me to the ease where they have American food products you can’t get over here.  I wanted so many things, but I wasn’t going to be able to bring them home so I only got some reece cups for my house mom and brownie mix to make later that night.  Heather got off of work shortly after I arrived so I waited for her to go to her place.  That night two of her friends came over and we made pancakes and potatoes for dinner along with the brownies (very healthy right? Haha).  It was yummy though!  For the rest of the night we just hung out with her friends and went to bed.  The next day we slept in a bit then got up to go around the city! Our first stop was right around the corner from her street to see my first view of the Eiffel Tower, or full view because you could see the top of it from her street.  After that we headed to Notre Dame.   

In front of Notre Dame

The church was so nice!  We went inside and walked around.  I hate to say this, but at this point I can’t really remember what all we saw inside.  After the church we went to a little bookstore nearby called Shakespeare and Company.  All of its books were in English.  It reminded me of a little bookstore you would see in a movie (I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been used for a movie before honestly).  Anyway, we ended up spending almost 2 hours in there I believe?  It was packed with books!  The stairs going to the second floor had books stacked a good 10 books high on each step.  Upstairs there was a little hole with a typewriter open to anyone who wanted to write something.  The back room is where we spent most of our time.  It was a great setting for photos and we ended up going crazy!  It was so much fun though, and I ended up using one of the pictures for one of my photography projects.  After we made our way out of the bookstore we went in search of a restaurant for lunch.  As most people say and have heard, the French people are not friendly people, especially to Americans.  But, I must say I was able to avoid all of these unfriendly Parisians.  The waiter we had at this restaurant was very friendly and talked to Heather in French.  After lunch we did some shopping then headed to the church of the Miraculous Medal.  It was pretty amazing going to this church.  We got there when one of the daily prayers were going on and were able to sit through it.  The body of St. Catherine Laboure, who Mary appeared to, to make the Miraculous Medal is incorruptable.  It was insane being able to see her body!  Unfortunately the shop was closed when we got there so we had to go back the next day so I could buy one of the medals.  After the church we walked down one of the main stretches in Paris, Avenue des Champs-Elysees.   We did some shopping and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe.  We ate dinner on Avenue des Champs-Elysees, and again had a very friendly waiter.  When he asked what I wanted to eat I just looked at Heather so she could order for me.  He asked her if I did not talk and she laughed and said not French, but English and Spanish.  The rest of the night he talked Spanish to me, which was so cute!  After dinner we went to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle at Trocadero which was amazing!  I got some pretty pictures of this, but couldn’t figure out where or if I have a video on my camera so I wasn’t able to get a video of it.  The next day we slept in later than planned and weren’t able to go to Versailles (which was the original plan), but instead went to Parc du Champ de Mars, which is the park that leads up to the Eiffel Tower.  

Heather and I in Parc du Champ de Mars

Of course, I got some more pictures of the Eiffel Tower and was able to see it close up this time.  After this Heather had to go tutor so I went to the Louve on my own.  The museum was pretty cool.  I’m not one much for museums or art, but I went through Rick Steve’s walking tour and felt I got a good overview of all of the important pieces in the Louve, including the Mona Lisa.  Unfortunately, the Mona Lisa was rather underwhelming.  The piece itself is very small and to emphasize this, the museum decided to put a massive piece of art on the opposite side of the Mona Lisa, ha.  Heather and I met up afterwards where I got Angelina’s hot chocolate (so good!) and headed back to the church of the Miraculous Medal so I could get myself one.  We then headed to the Artists Square in Paris.  We went to Basilique du Sacre-Coeur church then walked around the Artist’s District.  This area was so cute!  Probably one of my favorite areas I saw in Paris.  Because it was close by we went and saw Moulin Rouge then headed back to the Eiffel Tower to go up it.  Going up was really fun!  The line took 5 years, but we eventually made it up.  It also was freeeezing at the top, but I got some cool pictures while I was up there.  After this we called it a night.  The next day we got breakfast at Laduree and I headed to the airport to go back to Sevilla.  The trip was so much fun.  I loved Paris and will most definitely make it back at some point in my life!