Josh's European Adventures

Suspense kills...

The time leading up to this trip was probably the most excited I have been since leaving for Spain at the beginning of the semester. The suspense was killing me, and the fact that I would be spending the week with two amazing girls from home made it even better. My plan was to leave real early Thursday morning for my 6:50 flight, and meet the girls in Rome Friday afternoon, but because of the huge strike (huelga in Spanish) in Spain that Thursday, my señora and professors all warned us not to rely on public transportation that day and recommended that I head to the airport the night before. I wasn’t too big on the idea of spending a night in the airport before I had even left Seville, but the last thing I wanted to do was miss my flight, so I decided to take their advice.

Day 1/2...Haven't Even Left Yet

Wednesday night came around and it was time to start packing. Packing for 9 days on the road in a backpack is one of the tougher things I’ve ever had to figure out on my own, but as a guy with few necessities, I managed to get everything I needed in one bag. Aside from what I was already wearing, I packed a pair of black dress shoes (my first mistake), an extra pair of jeans, a t-shirt for almost every day, pair of athletic shorts and swim trunks, and socks and boxers for each day. Other than clothes, I threw in my camera, small computer that my buddy Jon let me borrow for the week, my Ipod, some survival candy, 4 bocadillos (sandwiches) made by my señora, and some other small things. It all fit once I figured out it was better to stuff things in my shoes and roll my clothes to conserve space. When 11:30 p.s. came around, it was time to venture to the train station, which is about a 3 minute walk from my house, in order to catch the last bus to the airport before the strike started at midnight. I wasn’t too enthused, but the excitement played a greater role and I managed.

I got to the airport and the first people I saw were my friends CJ and Lindsay, who said that their flight got canceled because of the strike and that they would be on the same flight as me to Rome. Things were already getting better. This meant that I would get to attempt to sleep at the airport and not have to worry about my bag getting stolen because there was no way all 3 of us would be able to fall asleep uncomfortably on the airport bench at the same time.

Day 1...When in Rome Alone...

I managed to get a couple hours of terrible sleep, and before we knew it, it was 5:00 a.m. and the gate for customs had opened. We got on our 6:50 flight, and it worked out so that we could all sit by each other on the plane. There’s nothing fun about flying alone, so I wasn't opposed to this. We landed around 9:30 at Rome Ciampino airport and caught a shuttle for the 45 minute ride to Rome, finally making it to the Termini train station at about 11:00 a.m. We split off and I made the trek to my hostel, using the directions I had written up the night before.

I checked into my hostel and decided I would get a start on seeing the city since the girls wouldn’t be arriving until the next day around 1:00 p.m. Aimlessly walking, I found the coliseum first, so I got some pictures and hung out outside of it for about an hour people-watching and eating one of my bocadillos. I walked through a few of the different piazzas (plazas) to kill some time before going back to my hostel to get settled in and get some rest.

I ended up meeting my hostelmate, Ernesto, who was from London and had been there for a day already, so we decided to go out and venture the city together that night. All of the monuments and sights of Rome looked 10 times better when lit up at night, and we didn’t have to deal with the hassle of thousands of tourists in the way of pictures and stuff. We had heard the cheapest place to get food was in a part of the city across the river called Trastevere, so we made our way over there to get some pizza for dinner. The pizza here in Italy is a little different than the pizza we’re all used to in the states. There’s no stuffed crust, it’s not loaded with meat and vegetables. It’s actually rather thin, and barely fills you up…Well at least someone with an appetite like mine. My constant struggle when eating out in Europe is trying to pick something I know will fill me up, and more times than not, I fail…Great feeling to know I’m paying more than I should for less than what fills me up. Nonetheless, it’s always delicious. I looked for something with more toppings than the others and the pizza I decided to get was actually pretty interesting. Called pizza “cappriciosa,” it came with black olives, sausage, mushrooms, artichoke, and egg. I was a little throw off by the egg at first but hey, can’t go wrong with a little extra protein. When I got the pizza, all of the toppings were separate, which was rather strange, and right in the middle of the pizza was an egg, not hard boiled, not fried, but it appeared as if it had been cracked halfway through the cooking process and resembled an egg cooked over easy right in the middle of my pizza. Without question, this was one of the better pizzas I’ve eaten in my day.

After pizza, it was still early, so we walked to the Trevi Fountain, which was one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life, especially when lit up at night. We found some gelato ice cream, so I couldn’t not get it…it turned out to be the best ice cream I’ve ever had, which was kind of expected as Italy is known for its authentic gelato.

Day 2

The next morning, I had to check out of my hostel at 10, so I said farewell to Ernesto and wished him safe travels throughout the next month of his backpacking journey around Europe. I found M&J hostel, which was the hostel I had reserved for the next 3 nights with the girls, so I left my bag there and ventured the city alone once again. I took a different route, seeing parts of the city I hadn’t had a chance to see the day before. I found my way to the Spanish Steps and a few other piazzas, stopping to relax and have a bocadillo in Piazza di Copulo. I killed just enough time to make it back to the hostel to meet the girls right when they had arrived. We walked around and explored the city that we would take on over the next few days, walking past the coliseum and some of the amazing little piazzas.

We found a place to sit down and get some pizza, which was the second of many times I would experience authentic Italian pizza during the week. We walked through some of the different buildings, and randomly happened to see my friends CJ and Lindsay from about a block away. I don’t know what it was or how I saw them, but it must have been the green Packer jerseys they were wearing that caught my eyes. I introduced them to Kelsey and Nikki and we decided to make plans to meet up later that night for some drinks. When the girls and I got back to the hostel we showered and met our hostelmate, Andre, who was from Sao Paolo, Brazil and was on a 2 month backpacking journey throughout Europe himself. We invited him out with us, and ended up meeting up with CJ and Lindsay at a bar for some pitchers. It was a lot to take in at once, as I was chilling in Rome with 2 friends from Whitewater, randomly met up with 2 friends from Seville, and our new Brazilian friend was tagging along. Small world to say the least.

Day 3

The first thing we did when we woke up was check out the 3 euro breakfast at the café downstairs. For being advertised as all-you-can eat, I had some pretty big hopes until we got there and saw that there were just some croissants, cereal, ham and cheese, and tea, OJ, and water. I made it worth my 3 euros and ate enough to hold me over for quite a while. We decided the first thing we were going to do was see the coliseum, so we walked there and let this guy talk us into a 27 euro tour, which consisted of that, Paletine, which is the ruins of an old Roman city, and the Roman Forums. It all turned out to be worth it, and I definitely got way more out of the visit than if we chose not to pay for the tour.

On the walk home, we stopped at a supermarket to grab some wine and sandwich supplies…essentials for a budget like mine. We decided that this would be the night we would dress up and get a nice dinner, so we got ready and took a bus to Trastavere for a late pasta dinner and some drinks. This was hands down the best pasta I had ever eaten in my life, which is expected in these parts I guess. We got back to our hostel rather late and met our hostelmates, who were from New Zealand. They were about the same age as us, so it didn’t take long to make friends with them and they turned out to be a great time. We tried walking to a bar that was apparently open late, but after an hour of searching, we came to the conclusion that this was an inexistent bar and we should probably give up. Upon getting back to our hostel at some ridiculous hour of the night, an older guy wakes up from one of the top bunks and he was wearing a Broncos shirt. We gave him crap for not being a Packer fan, and were in awe when he said that he actually grew up in Kenosha and the Packers were his first choice as a favorite team, and that he just lived in Denver for his job. He jumps out of bed and decides he wants to have some drinks with us. “Bronco” turned out to be a riot and he loved us, so we all converse and have a good time for a while before passing out.

Day 4

We didn’t wake up until 1 p.m. the next day, and by the time we got moving, it was already 3 p.m. We made some sandwiches for the day and ventured to see the Trevi Fountain since the girls still hadn’t seen it. We got some pictures and were sure to throw a coin over our left shoulder. Legend has it, if you do this, you are guaranteed to return to Rome someday, so there was no way we could pass this up. We splurged for some ice cream and then made our way to the Spanish Steps. There were hundreds of people sitting on the steps, so it was hard to get a good picture, but they all seemed to have the right idea. We followed suit and sat down to relax and eat some bocadillos. After this we decided to search for some more of the less common sights in Rome we had read about, such as the Mouth of Truth and the priceless keyhole view of St. Peter's Basilica...the keyhole view was amazing, as it was a perfect shot through the shrubs with an amazing view of the basilica dome.

Later that evening, we got back to the hostel to find out we had a new hostelmate, who had taken “Bronco’s” spot. Her name was Apolline, and she was French. She seemed a bit nervous and timid at first, but it didn’t take the 3 of us and our New Zealand roommates long to get her to loosen up a bit with some cheap wine. We all ended up having a great time without even leaving the hostel that night, exchanging different games that would keep us occupied for the next few hours. We ended up getting yelled at by the hostel night receptionist for being too loud so late at night, so we decided to call it quits for the night and pass out.

Day 5

When Monday morning came around, our time in Rome had ended quicker than we had hoped. Our next destination was to head to the Amalfi Coast so we woke up early and checked out in order to catch our train to Naples. It was a 2 hour ride, and when we got there, we had to figure out how to jump on a local train to Sorrento. What seemed too good to be true, an older guy at the train station had overheard us talk about Sorrento and helped us get our tickets and find the place where we would have to catch the next train. We would have never figured it out in a timely manner on our own, so this guy turned out to be a great help, but when we got to the spot where we would catch the train, it turns out it was too good to be true…he turned out to be a bum beggar who asked us for 10 euros each for the “help.” There was no way any of us could swing this, so we did what we could and gave him a smaller amount…much less than the 10 each he was asking. I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do. The ride ended up being another hour by train. When we got to Sorrento, we had to figure out how to get to the village our next stay was in. I had found directions online prior to the trip that said take a SITA bus, which was a local bus to the village of Nettuno. The bus took us on an hour roller coaster ride through the mountains by windy roads and dropped us off right in front of Villagio Resort Nettuno…too convenient, as this was where we had reservations for the next 2 nights.

I didn’t know what to expect when we got there, but when we checked in, it turned out to be a small private bungalow with an AMAZING ocean view. It was the smallest little house I’ve ever seen, but complete with everything one would need for a small peaceful vacation. There were 3 small beds and a king size bed, a kitchen complete with dishes, stove, and fridge, and a bathroom. On the patio was a table and chair set with some reclining beach chairs also.

We checked out the place real quick and got to the beach as quickly as possible. The beach wasn’t exactly what I had expected, as it was a rocky beach, much different than any I had ever seen before. Though there was no sand, I wasn’t let down one bit. I had been here for 15 minutes and this was already atop the list of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. The mountainous coast and the villages strategically built on the sides of these mountains was the most intriguing thing I had seen since I had been in Europe.

After passing some time taking in the amazing view and the idea of where we actually were, we figured it was time for a bite to eat. We had been traveling all day and hadn’t eaten anything since the sub-par breakfast we had at the café before checking out of our hostel that morning, so we decided to head up to the restaurant of the little resort we were staying at… I’m the kind of person that always likes to try something new so what do I do? Of course not order something else besides pizza…Once again, nothing on the menu sounded better than pizza, so that’s what we got, but I decided to switch up the toppings, and go with some other kind I couldn't pronounce. The rest of the night was pretty much a chill night. I had brought my buddy Jon’s small laptop and my external hard drive so we decided to relax and watch a movie so that the next day we could get up early and have a long, productive day.

Day 6

Tuesday morning, we woke up around 8:00 and ate our leftover pizza for breakfast and set out for an adventure. We packed a backpack with water, some munchies, and some other small things and went to the reception office to ask for a good place to walk to. They rattled off a few different routes that would put us up on top of the nearby mountains so I was immediately satisfied. We were told that there was a “sandy beach” on the other side of the mountain, which was supposed to be the only one on the coast for miles. They said it would be a couple hour hike, so we set off for our adventure.

We made it to the walking trail on the side of the mountain. It took almost 2 hours to get to the point that I had set as my goal destination as soon as we arrived, and I was in love with this place. The view from up there was AMAZING. I could look straight down and see the waves crashing up against the rocks, look another direction and see an even bigger mountain, or look the other way and see the most amazing coast I have ever seen in my life accompanied by a few small coastal villages built on the mountains.

We took some pictures, attempted to climb into the old coastguard tower by the Napoli Kingdom back in the day but it was locked, and then continued our trek to the “sandy beach.” We followed a few signs, and finally found it. At first I was thrown for a bit of a curveball, as it was no longer than about 50 feet of coast in this little bay, and there wasn’t much for sand. Once we walked down there, we saw that it was a little sandy, but nothing like the sandy beaches we all know of. We hung out here and took in the sun for a few hours, but the water was too cold for me to be convinced to go in.

After chilling at the beach for a while, we decided to start heading back since we were all so hungry. We stopped at this little shop in a small village we passed through and bought some pasta, since our place had a kitchen. As amazing as the girls are, they cooked a pasta meal for a late lunch, which was pretty good, and great for my financial situation.

After eating, we decided that we should probably figure out our plans for the rest of the trip, so we went to the office and asked Tina, the extremely helpful receptionist for recommendations. She recommended we see Positano and Amalfi, which we had heard were 2 of the most beautiful coastal villages we would ever see. It didn’t take much convincing, so we decided to go with this. We booked a hostel back in Sorrento, which is the city where the SITA buses centralize and run from, and then decided to take another adventure, this time to the other side of the beach. We found another walking trail and took that along the coast for a mile or two. Along the way, we stumbled upon another old defense tower, but this one, we could actually climb in, which was real cool. We climbed to the top and took some pictures while taking in the amazing view. Continuing, we ended up near a boat landing where we saw some fishermen. One of our goals for the trip was to find some locals who could take us out in their boat, and we thought that if there was any chance of this happening, now was our chance. We approached them as they were emptying out their net, appearing as if they had no luck at all. We tried to talk with them but they didn’t know Spanish or English, so communication was really difficult. One thing about trips like these is that no matter what, it is always possible to communicate, even if it’s not verbally or in a broken language. I feel like this is one of the best things I have learned while abroad is how to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak the same languages as me, and this is something I will always be able to apply in life, especially in the working world with as international as things have become in the past few years. When it started getting dark, we headed back and made the leftover pasta from lunch, had a few drinks, and passed out, exhausted after such a long day.

Day 7

The next day we woke up super early in order to clean up the place, pack, and catch the 9:00 bus to Sorrento. After a 1 hour ride through the mountains, we finally arrived to the station in Sorrento, and walked a few blocks to Hostel Le Sirene, the place Tina at the last resort had helped us book. We dropped our bags off quickly and then headed back to the station to catch the first bus to Positano, which was another 1 hour ride. When we got to Positano, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing before my eyes. This was hands down the most beautiful place I had ever seen in my life. Between two huge mountains right on the coast, was a small city with buildings constructed basically on top of each other all of the way up from the coast, and at the bottom was a nice beach.

The bus stop was at the top of the hill, so we had to take the zig-zag streets all the way down to the bottom, through the village. The first thing we did was get some food, as we found a restaurant right along the beach where we could get pizzas for take-out. We grabbed some pizzas and took them to the beach, relaxing in the sun as we indulged in yet another Italian pizza. By this time I had lost count how many times I had eaten pizza that week, but it wasn’t a problem for me at all…it never gets old.

On the beach, we met some guys studying in Barcelona from the Midwest, so we started talking with them, and after an hour or 2 we realized they were feeling just as adventurous as we were. They mentioned something about cliff-jumping, and that if we found a place, they would be down. As terrified of heights as I am, of course I was down…I would probably only be on the Amalfi Coast just this one time in my life. We asked a few locals where a good spot to cliff-jump would be and some looked at us like we were idiots, some couldn’t understand our English, and others pointed us in the direction of another small village, Amalfi. The only destination that sounded promising, Amalfi it was.

We caught the next bus heading that direction, and a half hour later we had arrived in yet another beautiful coast town. It was getting late in the day so the first thing we did was ask some local kids where the best place to jump from was, and they laughed a bit and then took us about a half mile down the coast and pointed up. There it was…it looked high, but they said they had done it before, so we were definitely interested. Using broken Spanish, they tried to explain to us that we would have to swim across about 40 feet to the rock we would then have to climb up, and then said that it was roughly 13 meters up, which is roughly 43 feet. I definitely didn’t want to be the first one to go, so the 3 guys we met from Barcelona went first, and after going with no problem, I was convinced. Nikki and I swam across and started climbing. She led the way, scaling the rock wall like a monkey without any problem, and I tried to stay close behind. Climbing barefoot was tough enough in itself, and on top of that, it seemed to be almost straight up to a certain point. I got about halfway up and looked down as I started to doubt myself, but knew there was no going back at this point, because working my way back down would be more dangerous than anything with the waves coming in against the rocks. I quickly grew a pair and worked my way the rest of the way to the top where I could catch my breath. One of the other guys went before me, and I didn’t want more time to think about it and doubt myself so I had no problem going right after him. I walked up to the ledge, glanced down once, for no longer than a second and jumped. It felt like I was in the air for a couple seconds and then hit the water. It was pretty intense, and quite an amazing adrenaline rush to say the least. I swam to the shore and caught my breath once more. As much as I wanted to do it again, the water was freezing and it was so much work climbing my way up, I decided not to but it was definitely one of the better experiences of the whole trip. I have never done anything like this in my life. I loved it, and am excited to jump from another rock like that, hopefully this coming weekend in Lagos, Portugal.

By the time we had done this and dried off, the sun was going down, and it was almost time to catch our bus back to Sorrento. We had a little time to kill, so we grabbed some bocadillos at a local restaurant and got them to take on the bus.

We all passed out on the bus pretty quickly, and an hour and a half later, we had arrived in Sorrento…exhausted. The girls and I walked to our hostel and later that night checked out an Irish bar as we were walking around the city. We tried shots of Limoncello, which is a local alcohol very common in this part of Italy, as there were lemon trees everywhere. We didn’t spend much time out that night since we were all so tired from the long day, so we passed out in order to wake up super early the next day and be productive.

Day 8

Thursday morning had arrived quickly, and it was time to check out and get on the road. We were lucky enough to get free breakfast included with our hostel, but it wasn’t anything more than a roll and a coffee, which seems to be the typical breakfast of champions in these parts. We took a couple different trains and finally arrived back in Rome around noon that day. The first thing we did was went back to the hostel we originally stayed at and ended up negotiating a cheap room with them, since they had raised the prices for Easter weekend from 20 euros a person/night to 30. The manager was pretty easy to work with, so we ended up getting one rather cheap. We dropped off our bags in the room, and made our way to the Vatican, since we weren’t able to see it when we were in Rome over the weekend. We took a city bus there, and as soon as we got there, I was intrigued. This place was amazing…huge!! We took some pictures outside and then went inside St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the huge chapel part of the Vatican. I was in awe the whole time. Pictures can’t even explain this place…It’s something everyone needs to see for themselves in order to be fortunate enough to understand how amazing it really is. We spent about 2 hours here, and then headed back to the hostel to make some dinner. We had pasta left over from earlier in the week, so the girls cooked dinner and we called it a relaxing night.

Day 9...Homeward Bound

Since the girls had to be up and out the door by 4:00 a.m. for their flight back to Madrid, we were in bed early. They woke me up at 4 as they were heading out the door to say bye. Just like that, 8 days with the girls had already come and passed. As long and exhausting as the week was, it seemed like it flew by at the same time. I wished them a safe rest of their trip and flight back to the states and then went back to bed as they headed out the door.

I couldn’t really sleep because I was afraid I was going to sleep in on accident and miss my flight, even though I had set 4 alarms on my Ipod. After about an hour, I finally passed out and the morning came sooner than ever. I jumped up at the sound of my first alarm and in a matter of minutes I was ready to check out and grab some breakfast. Once again, I grabbed a tray of the mediocre breakfast at the café downstairs and headed to the train station for my bus. I got to the airport and had about an hour and a half of free time to spare before I could finally board my flight, but I couldn’t nap as tired as I was in fear of missing my flight…my one and only fear of flying alone. I kept myself occupied on my Ipod and the time to board finally came. Immediately after boarding the plan, I passed out and didn’t wake up until just before we landed. The 2 ½ hour flight felt like a matter of minutes, which was perfect…just how I had hoped it would go. I caught a bus back to the Seville train station and walked the 3 min back to my house.

I was relieved to be home. Not just exhausted, but 9 days of traveling makes for a lotttt of stress. As much fun as I had, it was nice to finally get home and just sit down with nothing to do. I finally had a chance to look back on the last week and take it all in. I had finally been able to cross a number of things off my bucket list all at once. The things I got to see and do throughout this trip are priceless, and things I will remember for the rest of my life. See the Vatican…check. Coliseum…check. Amalfi Coast…check. Cliff-jump…check. Climb a mountain…check. Just a few of the amazing things I got to experience, it’s safe to say I had more fun on this trip than I imagined myself having over the course of a whole semester abroad. The Amalfi Coast and Rome top the list as 2 of my favorite places in the world, and the Positano, along with the rest of the Amalfi Coast is hands down the most beautiful, most amazing place I have ever been in my life.

One of my last free weekends abroad, 4 other friends and I decided that we could use it to see one of the biggest cities in the country, Madrid. Since our program was already going to Cordoba for a daytrip on Friday, we decided we could catch a cheap bus from there to Madrid and spend the weekend there. Cordoba was about an hour and a half ride from Seville, and we left early Friday morning. When we got there, the first thing we got to see was the Mezquita, which is a huge Arabic mosque, and is actually the largest mosque in Spain. After seeing many different buildings from different eras and styles, the Mezquita is near the top of the list of my favorite constructions in the country. We took a bunch of pictures, got a tour from Reda, one of my professors and probably the smartest man I have ever met in my life, and then walked to a garden which was pretty amazing itself. By the time we got done walking through here, it was time to catch our bus to Madrid, which would begin a 4 hour journey to our next destination.

I was pretty excited to get to Madrid because Kelsey and Nikki, two of my good friends from Whitewater would be arriving in Madrid the same day for their two week long Eurotrip. When we got there and checked into our hostel, Kels and Nikki came to our hostel to meet up with my friends and I. It was great to see some familiar faces from home, especially two of my closest girl friends. We hung out at the hostel for a while, and then ventured out to find some food. We had heard about this bar called El Tigre, which had free tapas as long as you order a drink, so we made it a point to find this place, regardless of how hard or far away it was. After some searching and asking for directions, we finally found it. The plates of free tapas were amazing, and all we had to do was order one drink each and we got enough food to fill us up, essentially turning into a free dinner. After El Tigre, we all decided to call it a night, in order to be up in time for the free walking tour of the city in the morning.

The next morning, we got free breakfast in our hostel, and then went to meet up with Kelsey and Nikki and the rest of the tour group in Puerta del Sol, one of the biggest plazas in Madrid. The walking tour turned into a 3 hour journey through the city, where we got to see some pretty amazing buildings, monuments, and structures, with my favorite being the Royal Palace. We didn’t get to go inside because the line was so long, but it was still nice to see from outside.

After this, we found some food and explored the city some more. Of course the girls wanted to shop, so we had no problem wandering around with them and people watching, occasionally popping into a store to browse with the money I didn’t have. I did treat myself to some gelato ice cream, which always seems to be a legit exception to my budget. The gelato here in Europe is 10 times better than any ice cream I have ever had in America.

When the sun started to go down, we ventured back to the hostel to get ready for the night. We met up for a few drinks and tapas and then Kelsey and Nikki came over to the hostel the 6 of us had for the weekend and we spent some more time catching up while they got to know my friends from my study abroad program. Around midnight, the 8 of us embarked on our next journey, the long walk to El Kapital…the largest club in Spain. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, but for a 20 euro cover charge, I had some pretty high expectations. We got inside and this place was huge. I had never seen anything like it in my life…7 floors of people just raging. Each floor had a different atmosphere and a different DJ playing a different style of music. It was a lot to take in at once for a guy coming from a small college town with the nightlife of 7 small bars. It was a great experience in itself, and meeting people from other parts of the world always adds to the experience.

The next morning, we met up with the girls to say bye, although it was just another 4 days until I would meet them in Rome for the trip of a lifetime…8 days exploring Italy with the two of them. After wishing the girls safe travels on the adventure to Paris, the 6 of us from my program decided to pack up and head out into the city to see the last of it as we killed time before our bus. We went to the Prado Museum, which had artistic works from many of Spain’s most famous painters such as Murillo, Zurburan, Goya, Picasso, and Velázquez . The place was huge, with many galleries we didn’t even have time to see. We were kind of rushed, and only had the opportunity to spend about an hour and a half browsing before we had to make it back to the bus station for our 5 hour ride back to Seville.

Once again, the ride back sucked. Sleeping on a bus is the most uncomfortable way to try and catch up on sleep I have learned, but I still managed to get a few hours of bad sleep before arriving back in Seville. Another great weekend in the books, and it was amazing to see a small part of Madrid and two great friends from home. The only thing standing between me and a 9 day journey with the two of them was 3 days of class, mostly consisting of presentations and papers. Like every other weekend, the transition back to reality was rough, but the anticipation of another great trip ahead was all I needed to make it through the short week.

Through the trip agency I’m doing my internship for, a few friends and I decided to go on a planned trip to Morocco for the weekend a few weeks back. A change of pace from all of the weekend trips we had been planning ourselves, with this, all we had to do was pay a flat fee and everything was taken care of including transportation, meals, and hotels. It sounded like a pretty legit way to escape from reality for a weekend, and on top of everything, I would get to cross another continent off my bucket list…Africa.

Day 1...Friday Departure

We met early Friday morning at the bus and ventured to our first stop, Gibraltar. An hour and a half south of Seville, Gibraltar is the southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula. The program had an optional tour of Gibraltar for an extra bit of money, and since we had already seen it through our study abroad program about a month prior, my friends and I decided to just spend that 2 hours hanging out in the plaza to kill time. After that, the bus took us to the port where we would embark on a ferry for a 45 minute ride across the Strait of Gibraltar…my first experience at sea, although it wasn’t much. When we got to the other side, we docked at a port in Ceuta, which is one of the 2 Spanish cities in Africa. I was pretty amazed when I saw the same buses we had ridden on in Spain waiting for us to get back on in Africa…turns out they took a ferry ride too. We boarded the bus and headed toward the Morocco border. I was pretty excited, as I didn’t know what to expect at all. Crossing the border was exactly what I had imagined it to be like, with the border patrol monitoring the entrance to another world. Morocco was wayyy different than Ceuta, which intrigued me since they were neighboring lands.

When we got to Morocco, we had about an hour ride to our hotel in the city of Tetuan. The rides never seemed too long because we were fortunate enough to get Mohammad as our weekend guide. He was hilarious and always had some sort of joke to keep us laughing. My favorite one of the weekend was when he was talking about how the lives of women differ in their society and got everyone to die laughing when he told us about his kind of woman..."Strong woman provide good warmth in winter and big shade in summer." I should have known of all places to find a good woman joke, here's the place to go.

The hotel we stayed in was actually a really nice hotel on the coast, and I roomed with my brother from another mother Jon. All of the meals were included for this trip, so we had some spare time to kill and then had to meet downstairs for dinner, which was an authentic Moroccan meal. After traveling all day, we all went back to the rooms after dinner and turned on the TV to see what was on. Who would have thought Jurassic Park would be the first thing we flipped to? It was in English, with Arabic subtitles, so that was rather interesting. Exhausted, we called it an early night.

Day 2...Saturday

The next morning, we had breakfast and departed to the city of ChefChauen, the first city we would actually visit. It was nice to see the countryside, as it was nothing like I had expected. It was en extremely dry mountainous area, so instead of grass, there were few trees and mostly rocky hillsides. We spent a few hours in ChefChauen roaming the city, which was rather interesting. The city had a blue theme, so all of the building and doors were painted a light blue color, but just up to about 8 feet hiogh, which was probably as far as they could reach without busting out a ladder. I saw an African graveyard here, and some different shops, which were real interesting. After a few hours here, we then headed to Tetuan for lunch and a visit of the city.

Tetuan was probably the most interesting of the 3 cities we visited during the trip. We had a guided tour of the city, where we walked through all of the streets in the city center and saw hundreds of little shops. Our group got to visit a little shop where they made scarves and rugs, which is what Morocco is known for. We then went to eat lunch at this Moroccan restaurant where we had the option of Kabobs or CousCous, which is the Moroccan version of rice or pasta with vegetables, and is actually really good. There was a live show at lunch, where this guy did some crazy dance with a tray of candles. It was pretty intense watching him do work without dropping one or having them slide off the tray. After lunch, we got to go see a demonstration at an “all-natural” shop, which was kind of like a pharmacy for us in the states. They showed us a bunch of different natural medications and goods such as hangover reliever, lotions, zafran, teas, hair oils, massage oils, spices, and even natural enhancement roots. Everything was real interesting, knowing they only use it because it is all natural. A lot of them were just different leaves or roots that you put in water to drink and get the effects. We then had the opportunity to buy the different products for real cheap. I’d love to say I bought the Viagra roots to try it out, but had to resist thanks to my tight budget.

After this shop, they took us through the tight windy streets to see the little markets and shops, called souks. What’s real interesting about these markets is that it is part of the culture to bargain with them. For example, they will say a lamp costs 100 euros, you say no, I’ll give you 3 for it, and they will settle at some crazy low price like 5 euros. Most of the stuff is hand crafted goods, which make for nice authentic Moroccan souvenirs. The people that ran the shops were so persistent, it was pretty annoying, but I guess if that’s what you have to do to put food on the table, then do what you have to do. If you made any sort of eye contact with a product of theirs, they wouldn’t let you be peacefully unless you just walked away ignoring them, which isn’t what I usually like to do, but there was no other choice. Thanks again to my tight budget, I couldn’t buy anything. There were also hundreds of little market tents that sold junk, like used shoes, and everything you could possibly imagine one would find in a dumpster. It was strange, but eye-opening at the same time. Most of these people probably can barely feed their family because this kind of stuff doesn’t sell. Of course there were a lot of fake designer products like handbags, sunglasses, and shoes too, but not too many of us were suckers to buy anything. We got about an hour of free time to roam the streets and check out the shops, and then headed back to the bus to depart to our 3rd and final city, Tangier.

After about an hour and a half bus ride through the mountains, we finally arrived to Tangier at like 8:30. We checked into the hotel in and had some free time until our dinner show at 10:30. With this dinner, we got salad, a heaping plate of couscous in the middle of the table, and we snuck in our own drinks so that we wouldn’t have to pay for the ones there. It turned out to be a great experience, and we even got to see a belly dancer. They told us there was a club connected to our hostel, so we were pretty excited, until we got down there and there was nobody there…at all. It didn’t take long to realize alcohol wasn’t a part of the Muslim culture, so the club was rather lame. We still found a way to make it a good time for a while, before heading back up to our rooms to hang out and chill for the rest of the night.

Day 3...Sunday

The next morning was Sunday and our last day of the trip. We had breakfast in the hotel and the ventured to the coast by bus. Here, we got to see the Cave of Hercules, which was amazing. It was a cave we walked in and inside, was one of the coolest views of the ocean I have ever seen in my life. The rock walls of the cave formed a perfect view of the ocean in the shape of Africa.

The next part was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend, the part we had all been anticipating the most…the camel ride. There were 5 camels tied together and we got to take turns riding them for about 5-10 minutes and taking pictures on them. Ride a camel…cross that off my bucket list.

This was the last part of the trip, and as we finished, we boarded the bus for our venture back to Ceuta. When we got back into Ceuta, the bus took us to the top of a mountain where we could take pictures of the ocean and the small Spanish city of Ceuta itself. The view was amazing.

A ferry ride and an hour and a half bus ride later, we finally made it back to Seville. Like every other weekend trip, I was exhausted. We had spent probably 12 hours throughout the weekend on an uncomfortable bus, so it was nice to be back home to relax and share my stories with my roommates, who had spent the weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. As amazing as all of these trips are, it never fails that one of the best and most relieving parts is arriving home to share my stories with everyone else and get back onto a normal schedule. Nonetheless, the back to reality part always sucks.

Granada Weekend

The first weekend trip I went on was organized by the program I am studying through and consisted of an all-inclusive trip to Granada. I didn’t know too much about Granada at the time, but was pretty excited to see the Alhambra, which is an old royal palace fortress from the time of the Christian conquest in Spain in the 15th century.

We stayed in a hostel for the weekend and got both nights, and about half of the day Saturday free to do whatever we wanted. We got a tour of the city the first night and then got ready to go out. My friends and I decided not to spend money on dinner when we found out that in Granada, the norm was for bars to serve free tapas with a drink. This meant that after each round of drinks we got, we got a little bit of food, like an appetizer to go with it. This worked out pretty good, as we ended up spending most of the time at some Irish pub that served the best free tapas. A little later that night, life decided to throw me a curveball. I left the bar and the noise to go out into the alley and call my roommate for the night and meet up with him. I wandered around the corner just outside the bar and next thing you know, I heard a slamming noise, turning to see that the gate of what seemed to be a garage had just slammed shut, locking me inside. It turns out I had just gotten locked into a parking garage and began to search for a way out. Every door needed a key to get out. I finally saw a few buddies walking by and got their attention. They kept telling me there should just be a button, which was frustrating me even more since I had been looking for one for the past 10 minutes. One of them went to get some help, and meanwhile, I was trying to stay calm locked inside this garage. I pressed the buzzers to every apartment like 3 times at least, getting no sign of life, and then some random guy said he would try and call and get some help. At the same time, one of my friends was walking around the street asking for help. About a half hour went by and I finally got let out by some guy who had a key. I was pretty relieved I made it out, but I’ll never stop hearing about the night I got locked in a garage from my friends.

The next day, we got quite a bit of free time to kill, so a few buddies and I decided to make our own adventure. We walked through the city and decided we wanted to walk up the mountain and see the gypsy homes built into caves in the side of the mountain, which was called Sacramonte. After a couple hour walk, we finally made our way up to the area where the gypsies live, and what we saw was pretty interesting. We didn’t actually see any gypsies but got some pretty amazing views on the walk up and got to see what their homes looked liked from the outside. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed and we went out for free tapas again that night. We ended the night at Mae West, which is supposed to be the 2nd biggest club in Spain. It was huge and that made it tough to stick with everyone we came with. Early the next morning, we began our 3 ½ hour back to Seville on an uncomfortable bus to end a good weekend

Milan, Italy

6 other friends and I decided to take a trip to Italy for the weekend on a whim. We found a cheap flight to Milan and made quick plans to go. Of course the girls in our group were all for it, as it was supposed to be the fashion capitol of the world. I on the other hand, had never heard of Milan. Nor had I ever been to Italy before, so I decided to go anyway. We left super early on Friday morning, and after about a 2 ½ hour flight, we arrived in Milan. It was way different than what I had expected. While Seville was about 60 and sunny during the day, Milan was cold and there was snow on the ground. This was the first snow I had seen since last winter, since we still hadn’t seen a snowfall in Wisconsin when I left in December. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, sightseeing and exploring. We found the Duomo of Milan, a gothic cathedral and took some pictures. The cathedral took 500 years to build, from the 14th century until the 19th century, and is the most amazing building I have ever seen, inside and out. Outside of the Duomo, we decided to check out the stores around the plaza. We went through stored I’ll never be able to look in with intentions to buy things like Louis Vuitton and Prada, and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night. My buddy, Jon, and I had to share a room with some guy we had never met before, but he was actually pretty cool. He was a Columbian architect, living in Russia and traveling the world for work. He gave us tips and suggestions for the cheapest ways to travel Europe after our program, and then told us about his job, and how he was going to Dubai the next day for work. Later that night, we went out and got some authentic Italian food, and then checked out a few bars.

The next day, we got up and went to do more sightseeing. It was too cold to walk around the city aimlessly, so we got day passes for the subway. This was my first time ever riding a subway, so that was a new experience for me. Realizing there were only a few cool sites to see in Milan, and having started with the Duomo, everything else kind of seemed boring compared to that, so we had a lot of time to kill. We walked through some stores, walked the streets, and did some people watching, which is one of my favorite things to do in Europe. That night, we decided not to pay for another hostel, since our flight back to Seville left at 6:30, and we would have to leave at 4:00 am for the airport anyway. This was a pretty bold decision, because we didn’t really know what we were going to do until then. The last bus to the airport was at midnight, so we ended up taking that and killing the rest of the time at the airport. For a few hours, I actually felt homeless for the first time in my life. For a small airport, I was shocked with how many people had the same idea. The tile floor of an airport is the most uncomfortable way I’ve ever passed the hours of what should have been a decent night’s sleep. I probably only ended up passing out for about an hour, but it seemed like an eternity that we had to wait before 5:55 when we could finally board the plane, and we got back to Seville late that Sunday morning.

Gibraltar and Carnaval in Cadiz

February 17th was our next planned Friday daytrip through our program. We left early that morning and took a bus 2 hours south, to Gibraltar, a UK colony on the Southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, and just 7 miles from Africa. When we got there, we had to go through British customs, and then had a tour up the rock of Gibraltar. Our group split into smaller groups of 6 to get into the taxi vans that took us up the mountain. We made multiple stops for different views and to take pictures, and at the same time, our driver was giving us quite the history lesson about Gibraltar. It was actually quite interesting, and everyone in Gibraltar speaks English, so it was pretty easy to understand. As we got about halfway up the rock, we started to see monkeys everywhere. They were actually Barbary Macaques, which is a breed of ape and were some of the most interesting animals I’ve ever seen. We got to see them fight, take care of each other, eat, and it didn’t stop at that. They would jump on you, stand on your shoulders, sit on your head for a little while, and then jump to the next person. A little strange at first, I can now show pictures of an ape sitting on my head. It was so interesting to just watch how these little apes interact with each other and see how similar they actually are to humans.

We got to walk through St. Michael’s Cave, which is a cave that was used as a hospital during World War II and now holds concerts and fashion shows. We got about ¾ of the way up the mountain in the vehicle and this is where our driver let us off. We walked through the Great Siege Tunnels to end our adventure on the Rock of Gibraltar. These tunnels were built by the British army in the late 1800s and were used as a defense system during the war…Amazing. They still had cannons set up so that you could get a good picture of what it was like during the battles. After we made it back down the hill, we spent some time exploring the city. When it was time to leave, we met up and ventured back across the border to get to the bus, which was still parked in Spain, about a mile down the road. We actually had to walk down the road, which is set up across the Gibraltar Airport runway, which is supposedly the 3rd most dangerous runway in the world.

The next night was Saturday, and a bunch of us had planned to go to Cadiz, on the Southwestern coast of Spain for their annual celebration of Carnaval. Carnaval is a pretty big celebration in parts of Spain and other countries such as Brazil. Cadiz’s Carnaval celebration is the 3’r biggest Carnaval celebration in the world and is pretty comparable to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, except instead of beads and boobs, everyone dresses up in costumes like Halloween in the states. We went with We Love Spain with a group of 17 other buses, leaving at 9 pm and getting back around 8 am. Cadiz was an hour and a half trip by bus, but when we got there it was ridiculous. I dressed up as “un gallo,” which is a rooster in Spanish. It was pretty legit, as I ended up being one of the finalists for the costume contest on the bus ride. I ended up having to compete with 2 girls trying to look like zebras, and in order to determine the winner, we had to have a danceoff…on the bus. I’m not much of a dancer, but with a little bit of alcohol in me and a chicken costume, it didn’t take much to dance like a chicken down the aisle of the bus. I ended up winning by audience decision, and got a bottle of champagne I decided to share with my friends. When we got there, there were thousands of people dressed up, drinking and having a good time in the streets. The next 5 hours were spent meeting people and having fun in the streets, and then we headed back to Seville bright and early in the morning. I spent most of the next day sleeping and recovering from such a long weekend, but this night is one night I’ll never forget.

Malaga

After spending one free weekend in Seville, I decided I didn’t really want to spend the next one in Seville also, so some friends and I decided we would plan a weekend trip to the coast. This time, we decided to head 2 ½ hours East to the Mediterranean Coast called Costa del Sol. This is supposed to be one of the most popular beaches in Spain, and we decided to stay in the city of Malaga. We got bus tickets that Thursday, booked a cheap hostel for the weekend, and left Friday afternoon for our next adventure. We arrived in Malaga early that night and got settled into our hostel. It wasn’t a super nice place, but the staff was nice and invited us to the bar downstairs, which was all part of the same business, for some drinks. We spent the night down there meeting people from Spain, America, and other European countries, all while taking advantage of the free sangria. The next day, we decided to head toward the beach. Not knowing where we were going, we ended up on a beach that looked pretty dull and there were no people present. We stopped at some beach side restaurant for a beer and some tapas, and ended up not leaving for 3 hours. After leaving the restaurant, my friends and I went back to the hotel to relax and later that night, ended up joining in on a bar tour that someone invited us to. It took us through 5 bars and was a pretty nice way to see some of the more popular places without having to go to every place we saw. The next day, we went to the other side of the port, where the beach was actually nice and there were people all around. We set up and spent most of the day here. We liked it so much, 7 of the 10 of us decided to go to the bus station and change our bus ticket to stay for another night. We reserved our hostel for an extra night and stuck around so that we could do the same thing all over again on Monday since we all decided we could afford to miss a day of class. Monday came around and we spent another few hours on the beach. On the way to the train station, the 2 people I was walking with and I stumbled across a Taco Bell…in Spain. We had to stop, there was no way I was going to be able to pass this place without trying it. They had the 3 for 2 euro deal, so I bought 6 things off the value menu for only 4 euro and had the best fast food I’ve had in 2 months. Oh and our cashier’s name was Nacho…Ironic to say the least. Makes you wonder how he got the job…did they even look over his application? An interview had to have been pretty irrelevant when his name is Nacho, he was hired right away I’m sure.

Señora Carmela

My señora is about 50 years old, and is divorced, with a grown son who has his own place somewhere in Seville. Though she doesn't speak any English, I consider this a good thing, as my ultimate goal here is to become fluent in Spanish. She is one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met, and although she likes to pick on us all the time, you can tell she just has a good sense of humor. She passes her time in the kitchen, and walking through the apartment singing Spanish serenades. Her name is Carmela, and she is an AMAZING cook. Every meal starts off with a main course, which is typically a stew, pasta, or something else along those lines. Also on the table to follow the main course is a large plate of salad, a basket of break, and another large plate of delicious food. One meal, this dish was fried fish and shrimp, and another was homemade egg rolls. Here in Southern Spain, they cook a lot of fried foods, but since olive trees are in abundance, they always use olive oil, which is actually healthy for you, rather than the vegetable oil that we Americans can't seem to live without. After we are full, Señora always offers fruit, but it's usually a struggle to even think about more food. As convincing as she is, she can usually get me to eat a juicy orange from right here in Southern Spain. It was funny the first time I had one, she peeled hers in less than 15 seconds, and mine took me a good 4 minutes to peel. I had a mess in front of me and sticky hands, and of course she had to pick on me. The next meal, I made sure I asked her to show me how she does that so fast, and sure enough she taught me how to peel an orange the right way. I can now peel an orange in like 20 seconds, thanks to her. I'll try and snap a picture of a few of our meals one of these days so you can see how amazing it really is.

Classes

After the first week of classes, I'm thinking this is going to be a pretty good semester. I am taking 16 credits, with five 3 credit classes, and 1 credit for an "intercambio," which is finding a Spanish-speaking friend and conversing with them once a week for at least an hour in order to better integrate myself into the culture and learn the language. The classes I'm taking are Spanish Civilization, Spanish Folklore & Popular Customs, Artistic Monuments in Seville, Business Spanish, and Spanish Culture in TV and Cinema. They are all real interesting classes, as I am taking a culture-intensive courseload that focuses on Spain in general. My teachers are all great teachers and have been part of the institution for at least 10 years or more. My Business Spanish professor might be one of the coolest professors I've ever had, and he's hands down the most hilarious. Though the school is very small, it is something I am definitely used to, as I graduated from one of the smallest high schools in the state of Wisconsin. All of the staff here are real personable and on a first name basis with the students.

Typical Day

A typical day here in Seville is quite a bit different than one in the US. Since my first class isn't until 10:00 am, I wake up around 8:30 and eat breakfast that Señora has left on the table from my roommates, who are already at class. I eat and talk with her for a while, and then get ready to head to class. It's about a 20 minute walk to class through the city, so I leave my apartment at like 9:30. I have 2-3 classes, depending on the day, and then head home at 3:00 pm when I'm done with classes. When we get home around 3:30, our señora has lunch ready to eat. Going from 9:00 until 3:00 without eating is probably one of the biggest adjustments, but it's the standard here, as Spaniards usually settle for a light breakfast that holds them over until lunch, which is never before 3:00.

After lunch, most people take a siesta, which is a midday nap. As Americans, I was told we somewhat abuse this siesta concept by taking 2-3 hour siestas, while the Spaniards never take one longer than an hour, but it's a pretty sweet concept, one that I feel can be abused from time to time. Lately, I've been passing on the siesta to get outside and enjoy the amazing weather. By about 4:30 when we're all done with lunch and stuff, it is usually like 60-65 degrees here (late winter), so I've been taking advantage of it with a run through the city. A few of us usually meet up and go for a run down by the Guadalquivir River, and dodge people and traffic, as we run through downtown Seville. When we get back, we usually just chill for a while, and sometimes go meet up with some friends to kill some time until dinner, which is anywhere between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Another long break between meals, but staying busy, this time usually flies.

After dinner, it's pretty typical to go out and meet up with friends downtown. It's normal for Spaniards to go out every night of the week for drinks, as their style of drinking is much different than that of ours in Wisconsin. It's normal for them to meet in one of the plazas and drink a few beers, sangria, or tinto de verano, which is a mix of wine and orange soda. Another habit typical of young Spaniards is called botellón, which is to go and get either a 1 liter bottle of Cruzcampo, which is the local beer, a bottle of wine, or a jug/box of Sangria, and meet with some friends and just drink in the plazas. All of the young Spaniards tend to botellón, instead of meeting at each other's apartments/flats and drinking, as that's not customary here. If we go out during the week, we usually call it an early night after a few drinks, and then head back to the apartment. Spaniards often stay out later, knowing they get a siesta the next day.

Weekend Plans

Usually, our weekends start on Thursday when class is done since nobody has Friday classes, but since we will be getting a week off of school in April for Holy Week, we have to make up the 4 days of classes we will be missing. The system here is to make them up 1 Friday each month, so that it's almost like we don't even realize it. Today, Friday, is the first day we have to make up, so it is actually like a Monday for us, as I'm sitting here at school waiting for my next class to start. Not exactly what I want to be doing on a Friday with weather like this, but we don't really have a choice.

This weekend is the big cross-town rivalry between Seville's 2 professional soccer teams, Real Betis and Sevilla FC. From what I hear, the rivalry is comparable to the Cubs/White Sox cross-town rivalry X10. A bunch of us went to get tickets on Wednesday when they went on sale. After an hour walk to the Betis stadium and a 2 1/2 hour wait in line, we finally got our tickets! Although I've never really gotten into soccer at the professional level, this should be an AMAZING experience, and I'm looking forward to getting into it. Europeans take their soccer pretty seriously, so it should be quite a good time. 2 of my roommates have played soccer their whole lives, and the other one watches quite a bit on TV, so I feel like they might influence me to get into it a little more than I was planning on.

We Love Spain

Another great opportunity, I am doing an internship for a student travel agency here in Seville called We Love Spain. I interviewed over Skype with one lady from the agency last week, and after meeting with her in person for coffee, she told me I had the internship if I wanted it. I was glad to accept the offer, as it would be a great opportunity to gain some professional experience while studying here in Spain. With the internship, I will be doing Public Relations, consisting of trip promoting to students studying abroad from the US and all of Europe, promoting social parties here in Seville, and will also be doing some administrative duties at the office downtown, such as booking, planning, and other duties as they arise. I am excited for this amazing experience, and look forward to the PR experience I will gain, while at the same time, being able to meet other students from many different cultures all over the world. Some of the trips I will be promoting are weekend trips to Morocco, Lagos in Portugal, Carnival Festival in Cadiz, and more. I posted the link to We Love Spain under the links section of my blog if you want to check out some of the things we will be doing.