¡Vale, vale, venga! Jessica's Granada Adventures: February 2012

Hello!

So I just got back from a 3-day, jam-packed trip to the Southern tip of Spain and Morocco! When I say jam-packed, I really, truly mean it. We visited FIVE cities in three days! Quite an adventure. :-)

A few of my friends and I found this three-day trip with a local company "We Love Spain." We decided to travel to Morocco with a travel group because Morocco is not really the place you want to go to alone and wander around. SO we met the We Love Spain bus in Granada early Friday morning and started driving!

Our first stop was Gibraltar! Now, I don't know how much you know about Gibraltar, but I am ashamed to say that I did not know ANYTHING about this English territory on the tip of Spain. I actually didn't even know until about 30 minutes before we got there that is was an English territory! So I learned a lot during our brief trip there.

We walked across the Spanish/Gibraltar border (where only had to flash our passports!) and the first thing we saw was an old, typical British telephone booth! Everything was in English and our tour guide had a British accent. Going right from Spain into practically England was pretty strange. We took a bus tour up the Rock of Gibraltar, stopping to check out sights such as the place where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean, St. Michael's Caves, and some cool lookouts of the city! The best part about Gibraltar, though, was the 300 wild monkeys that live on the Rock. These monkeys are super social and fearless! Not only do they hang out around the stores and cars, they actually hang out with the people.

The Rock of Gibraltar

Now we're in England?

Lighthouse on the tip of Spain (in Gibraltar)

Mediterranean meets Atlantic!

St. Michael's Caves


New best friend!

After our tour of Gibraltar, we crossed back over the Spanish/Gibraltar border, boarded the bus, and drove to the ferry port, conveniently located 20 minutes away. I'm usually a big fan of ferry rides (fond memories of the Cape May/Lewis ferry over Labor Day weekends!), so I was pretty excited! Well, I don't know if it was pretty windy that afternoon or what, but that boat was ROCKING. I am proud to say that I have not gotten motion sickness in well over a decade, but boy did I come close during that ride, and I wasn't the only one! Fortunately the ride was only about 40 minutes and soon we docked in Ceuta, a Spanish city in Africa.

We were all pretty confused because we did not realize that Ceuta was a Spanish city, so when we saw all the Spanish signs and stores and no Arabic, we were sort of disappointed. We were pumped, though, that we didn't have to go through customs! Well, that excitement faded fast once we reached the Ceuta/Morocco boundary and sat at the border for OVER AN HOUR while our guide took our passports (which wasn't my favorite thing to do--I've got a serious case of passport paranoia) to get stamped.

It was already dark when we finally crossed the border, so we drove straight to our hotel in the city of Tetuan. The hotel was very nice, but the city was SO dark! I've never seen such a dark city before. Anyway, we checked into our rooms and then had dinner in the hotel. Dinner was pretty good, although probably not too Moroccan. We did have fish, though, which is out of the ordinary for me!

On Saturday morning, we left the hotel at 8:30 and started our Moroccan adventures! We drove through some very curvy roads in the mountains for about an hour and a half and passed some very rural towns and houses. Some houses probably didn't even have electricity or running water! It was very interesting to see, though, that even in those tiny towns there was always a mosque.

Around 10:00am we arrived at ChefChaouen aka The Blue City. It was a very cool little city in the middle of the mountains where everything was painted blue! We walked through a ton of little streets, passing apartments and markets, pottery and woven blankets. We even got to see African cats! We got to end our visit with a little shopping in Morocco :-)

Moroccan Mountains

ChefChaouen!

Moroccan rugs

African cat!

"The Blue City"

Powdered dyes in the market!

Wearing a fez!

After ChefChaouen, we drove back to Tetuan to have lunch in an authentic (aka touristy) Moroccan restaurant! The lunch was pretty delicious (which really is something coming from me!). We had Moroccan soup, some beef, and this like pastry thing filled with veggies and meat. The meal ended with a little cookie and some mint tea aka Moroccan whiskey!

After the meal, we walked the streets of Tetuan. Tetuan was very different from ChefChaouen, even though it was only 1.5 hours away! The city seemed way more rundown and there were TONS of people following us around, trying to sell us things. It was a very cool experience but somewhat shocking. We did get to learn about some Moroccan herbs and spices, though!

Moroccan dish

Mint tea and cookie

Tetuan

Spices and herbs!

The king's summer palace

We left Tetuan and drove toward the coast to the city of Tanger! Instead of going straight into the city, we went to the beach and rode camels!!!! The sunset was BEAUTIFUL and the camels were so fun.

After riding the camels, we drove into Tanger to our hotel! Then we went to dinner, which was also a show! The whole night was really fun and we got to eat more typical Moroccan food like cous cous! The entertainment included acrobats, musicians, a guy who did tricks while balancing candles on his head, and a belly dancer! What a fun night :-)

Sunday morning we left Tanger and headed to the Caves of Hercules. They were pretty cool, although I never did find out why they were named after Hercules. We then basically drove back to the coast, crossed back into Ceuta, waited for the ferry, took the ferry, and drove back to Granada. It was a lot of traveling! But we did get to stop in Ceuta and see the breathtaking view of the sea and the city!

Inside the cave

Ceuta

Ceuta!

WOW! That was quite a long post. Hope ya'll read til the end!!

I admit that I've been putting off this post for a few days. There is just so much to say about our three-day trip to Madrid and Toledo! We jammed so many activities into those three days! So let's get started...

Since we had a week off between the placement test (on which I placed into the advanced classes, woo!!) and the start of the semester (which I will talk more about later), our program was able to take us on a three day, whirlwind tour of Madrid and Toledo. We left at 7am from the center of Granada, so I had to wake up at 6am! Now, I am a morning person, but the sun doesn't rise until around 8am here, so I was NOT excited to get up at 6am when it was still dark. However, Madrid is worth it! The drive to Madrid took over five hours, which was not the best. Most people slept for most of the ride, but being a morning person, I did not. Luckily, the scenery driving north was pretty and I had Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal to keep me company. We finally arrived at 1pm!

Our first stop was el Escorial, which is just a bit north of the city of Madrid. El Escorial is a palace/church/monetary/crypt located on the side of a mountain. The town was very beautiful but it was COLD. I know I've complained about being cold in Spain before, but none of that holds a candle to how cold it was here. It was actually snowing! We braved the wind to walk from the bus station to the el Escorial, but we didn't really get to see much of the gardens outside the palace. The inside, though, was gorgeous. The palace was the Autumn Home for the king and queen up until the early 20th century, and they have conserved much of the decoration on the walls and ceilings. They had VERY elaborate ceilings! Inside the palace was also an art museum with some of the former kings' favorite pieces. Most of the paintings depicted scenes from Jesus's life, although there were many paintings of various saints and members of the royal family.

My favorite part of el Escorial was "la Galeria de las batallas." This room, used as a hallway back in the day to connect one part of the palace to another, has scenes from battles all over the walls. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside el Escorial but I secretly snapped a photo of this room.

Another area I liked a lot was the room where they placed all of the past kings' and queens' coffins. They only royal couple NOT in el Escorial is Isabel and Fernando los catolicos. Oh, and the current king's (don Juan Carlos I) father, don Juan. Fun fact about don Juan: He is the son of a king and the father of a king, but was never a king! Franco ruled Spain during what would have been his reign. Still, when he died, Juan Carlos I gave him the funeral of a king his body as well as that of his wife will eventually be placed in el Escorial.

After spending several hours in el Escorial (which, by the way, was freezing), we had a chance to eat the lunches that our host mothers packed for us before boarding the bus to go to our hotel in the heart of Madrid.

So we had gotten our itinerary for the trip a few days before leaving and they told us the name of our hotel, Hotel Regina. I thought the name sounded familiar and when we arrived there on Thursday afternoon, I realized it was the hotel that my family stayed in when we visited Spain in 2002! How weird! (I have to thank my father for giving me his stellar sense of direction and observation skills, otherwise I never would have remembered). Anyway, we spent an hour settling into our hotel, then we took a walking tour of some important parts of Madrid! As the sun was setting, we visited el Puerto del Sol, Kilometro 0, la Plaza Mayor, and several other statues and monuments in the city. Although I'd pretty much seen everything on the tour before, it was still fun to see it all again! After the walk, some friends and I decided to grab some churros with chocolate at the most famous churros place in Madrid. They were fantastic!

We had such a huge day, so my friends and I decided to have a relaxing evening of shopping, eating, and chilling in the hotel. I really honestly love living with Ana in Granada, but it was SO nice to be able to turn the heat in my hotel room up as high as I wanted and take a 30 minute shower with excellent water pressure! What a great evening :-)

Friday we boarded the bus at 11am (after breakfast, which included three bowls of cereal!) and took a driving tour through different areas of the city. We ended up at the Royal Palace and I got to tour it for a third time! El Palacio Real is only used now for important events, so we were able to see all the main rooms. They are GORGEOUS. Way more elaborate than the place at el Escorial. The ceilings and walls were incredible, and the chandeliers were amazing! I imagine that state dinners and other royal events must be quite awesome.

Next stop was the Prado, home to paintings by Goya, Velasquez, and more! I was quite a little art enthusiast in 2002, so I'd already explored the Prado, but it was very cool to go again! In 2002 we were allowed to take photos, but now you are not, so I am especially glad I got to go when I was 11! I loved seeing famous works like "Las tres gracias" and "Las meninas" again though. Art is really inspiring sometimes.

After grabbing a quick lunch (which for me was a bocadillo with tortilla espanola, which is the best thing ever), we headed to La reina Sofia, a modern art museum with works by Picasso, Miro, and Dali. This museum is home to Picasso's super famous "Guernica," which is a giant representation of the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. I took a class about the Spanish Civil War and we studied Picasso and this painting, so it was very interesting to see it again after learning all about it. I love the Spanish Civil War!

The rest of the day was a blur of very cold walks, fantastic hot chocolate, dinner with the group, and tapas and sangria! Madrid is a great place.

Saturday we got an early start (after just two bowls of cereal!) and headed to Toledo! Toledo is about an hour outside of Madrid and has a very medieval feel to it. We got to go to a sword factory and two synagogs and got to see a ton of awesome buildings. Toledo is a very cool city.

The four-hour drive from Toledo to Granada turned into a six-hour journey because we stopped at the Don Quijote's windmills, a small cute town, and a rest stop. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted and glad to be back in our own beds. The trip to Madrid and Toledo was really awesome but it sort of felt like a marathon. I am very lucky that it was my second or third time at most of these places!

Again, sorry that this post took a whole week. I was totally putting off writing it! Plus I did spend this week getting started with Spring Semester! Classes started on Monday. Here is my schedule:

Monday/Wednesday
8:30-10am Spanish Grammar
10-11:30 Spanish Theater (a literature class)
5-6:30 The Art of Flamenco in Society and Culture

Tuesday/Thursday
11:30-1 History of Spain (Franco to present)
1-2:30 Speaking and Writing Skills

It should be a pretty good semester! The 8:30 class is a little early for my taste, since school is a good 25 minute walk away, but I am adjusting. Soon it won't be so dark in the mornings, hopefully, so that will help. We have class on four Fridays during the semester, which is pretty random, but not so bad. Honestly though I'm already planning on skipping one to travel!

Speaking of traveling, I've booked two trips! I'm going to Morocco for 3 days at the end of February and visiting my German relatives at the end of April. I'm in the process of booking a trip to visit my lovely roommate Kyla in Denmark and (hopefully) a trip to Valencia in the beginning of March. Planning trips is stressful, but so worth it!

Now that you've read about my life, here are some lovely pictures!