Trip to Ronda and a walk in the park

This weekend some friends and I made a short day trip to a little city called Ronda. We heard a little bit about it from some other friends and figured we'd take the short hour and a half bus ride out there and visit for the day. I honestly don't think the pictures that we took can explain the amazing views that this city has to offer but we tried our best.

Had to get just a little more sleep on the bus before our long day in Ronda. Photo credit: Kelsey Fuller

Ronda and the surrounding area was very mountainous. It was a great change of geography compared to Sevilla and especially compared to Florida.

Most cities here in Southern Spain have great bull fighting rings. Ronda was no exception.

This was a view from the far side of the city. Ronda is split between a giant gorge with a bridge connecting the divided sides. I was a little confused as to why the city was designed in such a confusing way but it makes for good pictures so I'm not complaining.

This is the bridge that connects the two sides of Ronda. It's an amazing piece of architecture to say the least

After seeing one side of the city and working up an appetite we decided on a little place to stop and refuel. I don't know why more places in America have the option to sit outside like this but I'm going to miss it when I leave Spain. It was such a nice day and especially being in the sun was a great way to spend lunch.

Unfortunately for the restaurant we had shortage of bills and a surplus of euro coins.

After lunch we took a hike down to the bottom of the bridge. The hike follows a path from the side of the city and goes all the way under the bridge. I definitely recommend this hike to anyone visiting Ronda.

This is the view from about halfway down the hiking trail. We still had a ways to go from here though.

We eventually made our way to the bridge which towered over us as we passed under it's huge supports. Under the base of the bridge is a little flowing water where the waterfall comes from.

We found a beautiful platform of rusty scaffolding to stand on and take a great picture.

When we made our way back up to the city we trekked over to the other side of the city and this was our view. Ronda was an amazing day trip from Sevilla and did not fail to impress anyone in our group.


So our trip was on Friday and on Saturday Kelsey and I went to a park and sat around for a while just people watching. Then our friend from UF, Ally, met up with us and the real fun started.

Sitting on a bench in the park just people watching. Some of the best time ever spent.

 

We stopped at this little cafe and tapas bar where one of our local Spanish friends, Gabriel, works. We got a few sandwiches and he treated us to free beer and sangria.

We probably saw 50 different groups of people having an amazing time on these bike/car things. It looked like a lot of fun dodging between pedestrians and ringing a bell all through the park.

After scrounging up 8 euros between the 3 of us Kelsey, Ally and I rented a bike/car for 30 minutes.

Typical Kelsey breaking all the rules.

After our day in the park we stopped at Haagen-Dazs to fulfill Kelsey's milkshake craving. While she sipped on her vanilla milkshake I treated myself to some chocolate ice cream and a waffle.

Ally decided on the Bruffin (a brownie cooked inside of a muffin)

We ended the night by having Ally and Gabriel over to our apartment for dinner. We cooked a big bowl of shrimp fried rice and talked about the Spanish language and how it compared to English. We also got invited to play poker with Gabriel and his friends tonight so we'll see how that goes. I'm glad I could sit down and get all this done at once. We are celebrating Día de Andalucía on Tuesday and we don't have school. Kelsey and I have purchased our bus tickets to Aracena to spend the day there on Tuesday. Hope you all enjoyed the update. Maybe I'll win some euros tonight at poker. Adios.

Before the weekend (Feb-23)

Just a few things I thought I'd write about before this weekend comes up. The other day I watched the James Bond movie, Golden Eye. I had the subtitles in Spanish but it was really cool to watch the famous international spy do his work in Spanish. Another point to make about watching TV here is that they do all their commercials in one GIANT block. I nearly watched an hour of James Bond before I saw any commercials, but then they threw 10 straight minutes of Spanish advertisements at me. I don't know if I like the American way where it is spread out with commercials or this Spanish way more. 

    I also signed up for a soccer league here at the school with a few other international students. Our teams are mixed together with local spaniards who go to the school and its really fun to talk to them and play some futbol with them. Unfortunately my team took a devastating 1-5 loss in the first game, but hopefully we'll play better next week. 

   This weekend I'm going to a city called Ronda for a day and then maybe to Malaga. Kelsey and I just bought our bus tickets to Ronda for tomorrow morning at 10am. We don't have return tickets or a hostel booked just yet but that's part of the adventure. Maybe we'll stay for a night, head to a different city or come back to Sevilla for the weekend and hang out with some friends we've made at school. Just wanted everyone to know that it's been great here and I'm loving every minute of this semester. After this weekend I'll have some pictures from the places we go and I'll do an update as soon as I get back. Adios

Roman ruins and Carnaval in Cadiz

This weekend was amazing to say the least. After a long week at school that included my first two quizzes, we went to see some Roman ruins that were only 15 minutes from Sevilla. The school planned our trip and paid for admission and a few of the Spanish teachers were our tour guides.

This is the foundation of an ancient Roman home. The picture shows the courtyard and a few pillars that supported the entire structure of this huge stone building.

A few kids enjoying the view over the Roman gladiator ring.

After a log day of touring and walking around Kelsey and I came back home, wrote some essays we had for homework and made some dinner. I am meaning to brag when I say that I am getting to be a pretty good cook. Kelsey and I are finding new things to make and the food is turning out great. That night we made some balsamic chicken over pasta with asparagus on the side.


On Saturday night most of the international students from school, Kelsey and I traveled to Cadiz for the celebration of Carnaval. It is basically a huge costume party that takes place in the streets of the city. There is music, dancing, and live theater that goes on all night. When I say all night I mean it too, we didn't get back until 8:00 am. Here's a few pictures to show how our night went.

Kelsey and I found some great chicken costumes before we left. We got a lot of laughs walking to the party. We got there at 10:00 pm and the party was well under way. We had a long night in front of us.

While walking the streets we found some other farm animal friends.

This was a huge plaza where everyone had gathered to see some live theater and music.

This was the view in front of the Cadiz cathedral. The streets were packed with partiers like us and everyone had great costumes.

Two happy chickens who were ready to go home at 6:00 am.

We got back to Sevilla around 8:00 am, just in time to see the sun rise. We got home safe then went to bed!

This weekend was definitely a fun one and I hope you enjoyed all the pictures from my trips. I can't describe how amazing these places are and the pictures only pale in comparison to actually being here. I know I won't be able to capture Spain in just a few photos but that won't stop me from trying. I hope you all enjoy everything and I'll have another update soon. Adios!

Weekend and other things

This past weekend Miriam, a woman who works in the international office at UPO and who studied abroad at UF, set up a dinner for all the UF students who are here in Sevilla. We all shared tapas and drinks and had a great time telling stories of how we figured out we were going to be studying here, what we have done so far and what we are looking forward to the most. It was a great experience and I'm glad I got to meet some more people who are so similar to me.
   Then a group of us went to the Sevilla bullfighting museum. It cost 4 euros and was only an hour long tour but we learned a lot about the history and the cultural impact that bullfighting has on Sevilla and Spain in general. The bullfighting season starts in late April so it will be warmer. It's somewhere around 30 euros for a seat but the price changes depending on where you sit and for what fight you want to see. The Matadors are like celebrities here and the calendar shows what 3 men are fighting that day. Hopefully I'll see a good fight and come back with some great pictures.
     After a long day in the city Kelsey and I came back to the apartment and decided to try our hand at cooking some sesame chicken. It turned out great and was crunchy yet spicy and we made a great sweet and spicy sauce to go on top. The only thing that went wrong was when I tried emptying the pan of hot oil into a plastic container to recycle. I thought that I had waited long enough for the oil to cool down a bit, but it was still very hot and melted our only measuring cup. We still have to go buy a new one to replace it but that shouldn't be too hard.
    This week has been pretty exciting at school. Today Kelsey and I received some packages that were mailed to the school. (Thanks mom and Mrs. Fuller!) We also went to a "spanish lunch" today at school with a lot of other international students and we sat and talked with some spanish students who study here. It was a great way to practice our spanish orally instead of in the classroom. I signed up for a soccer (futbol) tournament with some other students and we will all be mixed with spanish students and play against each other. At the lunch I learned that one spanish student had also signed up for the same tournament, so we might be playing on the same soccer team. It's good to know that the Spanish students over here want to get to know us as much as we want to know about them. Today we went back and forth abut how to say certain expressions in Spanish like "2 birds with one stone"and "we're on the same page." It was really interesting trying to explain those expressions to someone but once they finally understood it was pretty easy to go form there.
   I hope I haven't kept you guys waiting too long for this update, I've been busy with a lot of things here. I am a student here and I'm not just traveling and partying in Spain for a whole semester (no need to worry mom). But I really do love it here because every day offers something new to learn or some one else to meet. And with that I wish you all a Happy Valentines Day and I'll keep you updated with the rest of this week. Adios.

Weekend in Cordoba

This weekend Kelsey, Ally (a friend who also goes to UF) and I took advantage of the 3 day weekend and visited the city of Cordoba. It was great, a little colder than Sevilla but filled with culture and history at every turn. Over the years I've learned that I'm a straight forward thinker so I'll do this blog entry without any fluff or too many long paragraphs. I also took about 50 great pictures so you will get a pretty good idea of what we did when you see them. I'll give some short captions for most of the pictures but feel free to email me or comment on whatever you like and I can explain further. Hope you enjoy.

                                            We had the bus to ourselves on the way to Cordoba.

           Kelsey packed a few snacks for our trip. Completely necessary for the grueling 2 hour bus ride.

 This is the lobby of Hotel Boston. I definitely recommend this place to anyone interested in Cordoba

     We each paid 16 euros a night for a triple room with a great view of the plaza in the center of the city

                           A room with this kind of view is worth much more than 16 euros a night

           We woke up on Friday morning and got a quick breakfast at Cafe y te before exploring Cordoba

          Kelsey doing a little shopping. Luckily she was standing there long enough for me to snap a picture

                   This was a parade of school children singing and dancing. They were pretty excited about               being in our pictures too.

 We found a huge plaza with people enjoying drinks and tapas for lunch. These are a few local men playing a friendly game of dominos instead of taking their afternoon nap.

 Found this little fruit shop on a tiny street on our way to lunch

We stopped in a mexican restaurant to check out the menu and saw that there were little quotes written on the walls around the place. This one translates to "We are all forks in a world of soup."

                               Kelsey the navigator showing us the old gate on the edge of the city.

 Ally and Kelsey enjoying their visit at a museum. The audio guides were free (hence the huge smiles)

 

 A painting depicting the Arab influence on Spain and Cordoba especially.

 This is a model of the main cathedral in Cordoba called the Mezquita. I tried to reproduce this picture later in our trip as you will see.

 The view from the top of the museum across the bridge that covers the Guadalqivir River

After the museum we found a place called Miguelitos. We got a some fried grouper bites...

                                                                         pork kabobs

                                                                         fried calamari

 and what they call "croquetas." They are pretty much chicken nuggets but they put fish or ham in them

 and of course we ate every last bite of the food. We were scraping the plates because the food was so good

 And between the three of us it was about 27 euros. We were definitely full afterwards, and our wallets didn't have to take that bad of a hit either. Only 10 euros each.

After lunch we headed to the Cordoba Alcazar. Its just like the Royal palace in Sevilla and has great mosaics like this one.

 I used my hand as a scale to show how small these tiles are. The close up below is the same mosaic as the above picture. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

We headed outside to check out the gardens. I think I like the gardens in Cordoba more than the ones I saw in Sevilla. Kelsey and Ally loved to lead the way while I hung back and got some pictures.

This statue depicts the meeting of Columbus with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It was really amazing to be in the city where he received his funding to leave Spain and discover the new world.

Of course Kelsey found a great picture opportunity in the gardens again.

After walking around the city and asking some locals about the best places to eat we ended up at La Cazuela for dinner. I got the bull tail with artichokes, a classic Cordobes dish.

As always the girls ordered dessert. I'm not complaining or anything, I just had to act fast because it was almost gone 5 seconds after I took this picture.

This is the inside of the Mezquita, the Arab influenced Cathedral that is near the south of Cordoba. See the similarity between my picture and the model from before? Pretty good photography right?

This is the Mihrab, the part of the Cathedral which points east towards Mecca.  

This was originally 4 separate pictures and I had to use some photoshop magic to piece them together. Even this picture can't demonstrate the grandeur of this Cathedral or the high ceilings and arches.

                                                  This is the main alter in the Mezquita.

This is a view from Calle de Los Flores with the Mezquita in the background. Usually the flowers are much brighter but winter isn't the time to visit this area if you want bright flowers.

This is what the street looks like if you move my picture down a little bit. A very popular area for tourists just to take a picture. I can't say much about that because I was there doing the same thing as them.

After getting lost in some winding streets and situating ourselves again we made our way back to that Mexican restaurant we found on Friday. I got a huge chimichanga and the owner "insisted" that I get a Corona with it. She really had to twist my arm on that one.

After lunch we headed to the Museum of fine arts which had some of the most stunning paintings I've ever seen. Even up close they looked as real as ever.

This painting was so realistic I swore I could smell these oranges. Cordoba has some real talent.

We made our way to the modernism/ abstract art section of the museum. I'll let you take this all in, it's a strange group of art pieces to put together in one room.

We made our way through the streets of Cordoba and stumbled upon one of these mechanisms that blocks the road from traffic. Unless you have a special key to get past it, the middle part will stay up.

Kelsey informed us that it was on her bucket list to "ride the metal thing up after it was lowered." So after the car went through Kelsey ran into the street, stood on the metal part and waited for it to rise back into place. You can cross that off the list now Kelsey, I'm sure Cordoba was glad to help with your life goals.

We found the archeological museum of Cordoba which was very interesting (and free.) The museum is situated on top of the remains of an ancient Roman theater.

This big piece of stone doesn't look like much. The lines and flat parts on the rock were actually where spectators would sit while watching the shows.

This staircase remained perfectly in tact since the Roman times.

After the museum we wanted to get something to snack on. We found "Duffin Dagels" which is the same thing as the American donut store "Dunkin Donuts." I don't think the translation went as planned.

While walking around the city we would find beautiful fountains and parks everywhere. These are just the few that I had time to stop and get pictures of.

On our way into another museum Kelsey found another animal friend. This is a Spanish water dog and they are very popular over here. Kelsey has decided that she wants to get one and bring it back home. She had to restrain herself from taking this guy though.

On the last day we found a little restaurant that is known for its "Tortilla." Tortilla in Spain is a potato and egg omelet. This place is famous in Cordoba not only because of how delicious the tortilla is, but also because of the size that they make them.

So we got a slice of tortilla and made our way across the city to a place that we saw a day earlier. As the name suggests the restaurant had 101 different dishes to choose from. The 3 of us ordered 15 tapas in total and our food took up the whole table. Again, we all felt that "full feeling" that we've all been missing.

The city of Cordoba is very old and known for it's history and specific culture. Because the city hasn't changed much, the streets are still small and only meant for pedestrians. However, the taxis in the city will drive wherever they can fit. Getting this picture was a little dangerous as well. Spanish drivers don't like to slow down for people, they assume people will get out of the way.

While we were waiting for our bus Kelsey made some more animal friends. With a handful of bread and her sweet smile she charmed these pigeons into getting within arms reach.

Wow, ok that was a lot. As you can see Cordoba has a lot to offer a tourist in just a few days. I'm very excited to travel more and keep track of all the places I go. I hope you guys enjoyed this post and all these pictures. Feel free to write me an email or comment on the blog if you want to talk about anything! Adios.