Blogs from Andalusia, Spain, Europe

Hola mis amigos! :) Well, Jana’s wedding marked my last overnight trip until my parents arrive, as of the 19th of May I only have one month left here in Cadiz and two months left until I arrive back in the United States. It’s been nearly a year of crazy adventures, new experiences, and definitely testing my limits. I really thought that after Jana’s wedding the excitement would die down that things would be rather calm here in Spain with just papers and tests left as my “exciting” things to do, but Giorgio (my Sicilian geology professor) and his “field trip” added themselves to my long list of things that did not turn out how I expected. The only way to describe it is what I said at our last stop of the day, “Esta es ... read more

Journey through Spain You could tell it was disembarking time on the ferry – the rain was hammering down outside and you could see little more than a thick drizzle grey everywhere. As the motley collection of bikers headed down to deck 2, the perennial fat hard “characters” who were always on the ferry or the chunnel, usually on cruisers, these ones on Goldwings, cited they didn’t need waterproofs ‘cos the Goldwing shielded them from anything, and of course because they were “hard”. They were nice enough lads but any moron could see they would have been soaked within 10 miles. Shame about the weather because the route once out of Bilbao’s environs was really quite stunning, carving its way through rock formations, weaving through tunnels and winding along pristine, albeit wet, blacktop. Only a short ... read more

Last week had a lot of ‘lasts’: last meeting, last dinner, last group trip. Last Tuesday we had our last intercultural meeting with Veronica. We talked about reentry back to the US and what we can expect to feel. I’ve already gone through the reentry process coming back from China, but this will still be different. Last time, I was only home for three weeks, so I didn’t really have enough time to readjust completely. And it was during the holidays, so I was rushing everywhere and seeing all these people. This time, it’s the summer, I’ll be starting work again, and things will (hopefully) be less hectic and crazy. I think it will be harder too though because my study abroad experience will be completely over. I’ll be back to real life, working and going ... read more

In the morning we explored the mideval quarter of Cádiz and the Cathedral before heading to Jerez, another small town slightly inland from Cádiz. We met a guy in our hostel who is living in Cádiz and working as a tour guide. He and one of his friends (an ERASMUS student from Ceuta, Spain – the part of Spain that is in Morocco) were planning on going to the feria in Jerez and invited us to go along. We had heard of the festival and were considering going anyway, so we decided to join them. Word of advice to future travelers: go to every single festival that is happening while you are traveling. It is a great way to actually meet locals and see the local culture that is not just touristy. I’m sure there were ... read more

A quick flight to Sevilla on Thursday night with Ryan Air. Just like with Easy Jet there is open seating – something new for me – which makes the boarding process a little more competitive and frantic since everyone wants a good seat. I’m becoming quite an expert with public transportation at this point so I navigated my way to my hostel and even helped another American figure out her bus. Delana meets me on Monday in Sevilla, so Friday I left pretty quick to go to Cordoba for the weekend. I wandered around Sevilla a little in the morning, just to get the lay of the land, but am saving most of it for when Delana arrives. There are LOTS of tourists here, and the part of the city around the mezquita is pretty touristy, ... read more