Travel Seminar-Part 2

So, as I said in my last post, the travel seminar was way too much to write about in one, so I'm splitting it up into 2 separate posts. So now I will tell you about the second half of the trip- which was Granada, Sevilla, and Córdoba.

GRANADA
Granada was an absolutely beautiful city- maybe one of the most impressive places we went, architecture and history wise. The downtown area was pretty calm compared to Barcelona, Madrid, and the bigger cities, but I really liked the feel of it.

• La Alhambra- Of course you cannot go to Granada and not see La Alhambra. This Islamic Royal Palace is one of the top 3 major tourist attractions in the world, and I can definitely see why. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful- from the well kept gardens, to the intricate designs on the buildings, to the amazing architectural talent, to the incredible location and views of the city...it's impossible to put into words. My pictures definitely don't do it justice, but they help to show how grand it was.

View from the top of the palace

The girls :)

• Exploring the City- Other than going to La Alhambra, we didn't do too much in Granada- just explored the city on our own. Court and I had some time so we walked around and did some shopping- bought some necessary heels, a couple shirts, a couple other things, and of course, after a long hot day, had to get some gelato :) We really haven't had that much dessert since we've been here- at our host moms, she serves us fruit for dessert, which is pretty typical with Spanish meals. So I definitely have been missing my chocolate, and the gelato helped fill that craving.

SEVILLA

Sevilla was right up there with Barcelona in being one of my favorite cities. Our hotel was actually right near one of the main streets, so we were in walking distance to lots of cafes and shops and things like that, which was nice for a change to not have to pay for a cab or the metro.

• Tour of the City/Cathedral de Seville- So, at this point, we definitely had all seen quite a lot of cathedrals and to be honest, they were starting to merge together a bit. As you can see from the pictures, a lot of the architecture and layout of the different palaces/cathedrals looks very similar. However, it still was amazing, and was incredible to see. This cathedral also is known for its bell tower, La Giralda, which we climbed up to (all 35 flights of ramps....yeah that wasn't fun) and were able to see the entire city from the top.

The front of the Cathedral

 One of the views from inside

View from the top of La Giralda

Throwin up our diamonds! Reppin ADPi <>

• City of Sevilla/Food and Drinks- With it being the last place we went on the trip, of course we wanted to explore the city and see what Sevilla had to offer. As I mentioned already, it was so great that we could walk around without taking a cab or other form of transportation to the restaurants and everything. So during the day, we found a cute cafe for lunch where we only had to pay 4.50 euros for a sandwich, drink, and dessert...so that was wonderful in helping us save some money. For dinner, we went to another neat restaurant near the hotel-however, it was quite the complicated and detailed menu-and with it all in Spanish, none of us had any idea what we were ordering. We recognized words here and there, so we decided to just be adventurous and order something at random. Rachel and I ended up with a piece of meat that resembled steak, with some potatoes on the side. It was scrumptious- found out later that it was bull. Courtney had quite the surprise, as she ended up ordering duck. We all tried it, it had a very unique flavor, pretty salty- lets just say I don't think we'll be ordering that again. Sami and Mary had what looked very similar to a burrito- we were all jealous because we all miss Mexican food so much! Afterwards, we decided to have a low-key girls night, and found this little bar with absolutely AMAZING drinks. We each ordered a fancy drink (I got a 'Chocolada'- kind of like a piña colada with chocolate:))) and just had a fun night enjoying the city.

• Night Life- Our last night, Friday night, everyone wanted to go out and have some fun. So after another yummy dinner, a group of us went out and found an inexpensive place to order some 1 euro pitchers of sangria and beer. Afterwards, we took a cab to a bar, where we spent a couple hours- ordered some drinks and just had a good time with everyone (lots of USD people were there). Then, around 2:30, we made our way to the club- it was so much fun! Tons of people there, it was all outside, with dance floors, tables, bars, dancers, great music...awesome night. Didn't get back to the hotel till around 5:30, so waking up at 8 was definitely a challenge. But so worth the experience :)

the dancer at the club ;)

 the group!

CORDOBA

So on our way back to Madrid on Saturday, we made a stop in Córdoba to see the Mezquita of Córdoba- a really famous Jewish mosque that has been turned into a Catholic Christian Cathedral. We only stayed for a few hours, but we got to tour the mosque and the city, and it was absolutely beautiful.

 

Alrighty, well I suppose that is about it for the travel seminar! Sorry it took so long to post all this...but its finally up! Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday morning with a bad cold, so I've been trying to get lots of rest to get rid of that, and we also started classes yesterday, so its been busy! But other than being sick, everything is going great- I'm so excited to be back in Madrid, so I can actually settle in, get to know the city, get into a routine, and really feel like I'm living here. I've got quite the semester ahead of me!

Thanks for reading! More posts coming soon :)

*FIESTAS Y SIESTAS*