SOY EN MADRID!

Guitar player in the Jewish ghetto of Sevilla

Mosque in Cordoba

Toledo: a city shot

Hola!!!

Finalmente, I have arrived. My pre-trip (Azahar) was absolutely amazing. I saw everything from the Alhambra, the palatial city of Granada to the where Christopher Columbus's tomb is! My program directors were very nuturing and made us feel at home from the beginning. Here, are some of the highlights:

Toledo-

Very historical city, but very small. There was not much to do other than look at sights and we stayed there for almost 4 days...

Cordoba-

The hottest city on the trip by far. The temperature rose well into the hundreds which made us all VERY dehydrated. We saw the 2nd most visited/important Mosque in the world which was breath taking. Almost got approached by some gypsies trying to sell me some sort of leaf? But ran away with my purse in tact. At all of the stops, the instructors always told us to "find our way back" from where ever we were. Now, with no phone or map or sense of direction THAT was very hard. Needless to say I followed the boys of the group who for some reason knew exactly where we were.

Sevilla-

This city was awesome, although our hotel was in a strange part of town away from all of the commotion. We had a roof deck pool that overlooked the whole city where most of us spent our free time :) Hey! A girl needs sun. Our group of about 40 students on the trip went out at night together (every night, but this one was especially fun) to a Disco called La Catedral that played both American and Spanish music. One song "Moving One" by Macaco was played at EVERY club/bar and our instructor liked it so much that she would play it on the bus every time we traveled to a new city. Youtube it. It was our trip anthem.

Granada-

The largest and most bustling of them all. Unfortunately we didnt have much time there to look around but it was definitely the city with the most life. Our hotel was up a HUGE hill (took about 20 mins to walk to downtown) and in heels, it was nearly impossible but we still did it. Beauty is pain. We saw the Alhambra, an AMAZING city that was built soo long ago but had the most amazing tile work and sculptures I have ever seen. Our last night there our trip ate out at a restaurant that was built on a mountain and we could see all of Granada. It was beautiful.