The Beginning of the End

I knew that after Feria my time in Sevilla was going to go by really fast. After our break we had one full week of classes left. I started to prepare for my final exams during this week while doing some last minute exploring. I have lived in Sevilla for over 3 months and feel like I have seen a lot but I know that there is still so much more to see. Every time I headed home during this week I purposely got lost (it's the best way to discover new places!) I got ready for a fun and busy weekend.

Saturday I went on my last day trip with CIEE to two places in the region of Cádiz. First we stopped off at a town called Pueblo Blanco and exploring it for a bit. We then headed to Puerta de Santa María, which is a beach town. I was so excited to head to the beach but the weather, which had been great and spring/summer like the two weeks prior, started to revert back to the cold and rainy weather that I have grown accustomed to in Sevilla. Luckily it didn't rain but it was definitely not beach weather. However it was warm enough to sit on the beach, which was still really nice.

Sunday I went on my last of threes mandatory trips with my program, the first was the day trip to Ceuta and the second was the weekend trip to Cordoba and Granada. This trip was to Serendismo (mountains in the region of Cádiz). We went with some Spanish students from the university and both groups got to practice our new language while hiking through a really pretty forest. The weather again wasn't ideal, it was cold but wasn't so bad when we were hiking.

We hiked to another town to eat and relax for a bit. Then we were supposed to hike back but Mother Nature did not want us to. While we were eating lunch it started to hail so we made our way to a cade to see if we could wait out the hail and make our way back. A short while later it became obvious that we were not going to be walking back. The bus ended up coming to pick us up and we headed back to Sevilla.

View from where we ate lunch (before the hail)

That night was spent finishing homework and studying for finals. Also I started to plan out my final weekend. It's hard to believe that in less than two weeks my program will be over and I will be traveling with my parents. Here's to a great and productive (can't forget about the ¨study¨ part of this experience) last days of this journey!

Feria de Sevilla

There is a week-long festival in Sevilla every April called Feria de Sevilla, which was my second week-long break. For the first part I went to Morocco (see previous post). I got back Wednesday night, which gave me the rest of the week to explore the festival.

I went out Thursday night with friends from my Morocco trip and it was a cool experience. It was cool to see all of the dresses and the area that Feria was at was very pretty with all of the lights and decorations. We mainly hung out in a public caseta (Spanish for little house). The main part of Feria consists of hundreds of casetas where most of the dancing and drinking take place. Most of these are private, with a few being open to the public, which was where we found ourselves at. After watching people dance for a while (due to our lack of Sevillano, the dance of Feria) we headed out to explore the rest of the area. The other part of Feria, besides the casetas, looked just like a county fair in America. There were rides, places to buy deep-fried and other unheathly food, and games. It was good to walk around for a while, especially with it being nice weather wise. However we didn't stay long because we were all still exhausted from out trip but I was glad that I got to experience Feria at night.

The following day, a few of my friends and I went out to explore Feria during the day. It was a great day weather wise, if anything it was too hot outside but I tried not to complain because it was one of the first days like that in Sevilla since January. Feria during the day ended up not being as fun as during the night. There weren't as many people and when we tried to get out of the sun for a little bit there wasn't any room in the public casetas. So after a while, and some ice cream, we headed back to our places.

¡Hasta luego!

Riding off into the Sunrise on a Camel

It is hard to believe that I am writing about my second week-long break. There are times that I feel like I have been here for a long time, I have my routine and see the same people, and I feel like I am home. But then there are other times like now when I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that its mid-April and I have less than one month until this chapter in my life comes to an end. During this time it feels just like last week that I took the longest and most nerve-wracking taxi ride to meet my host family for the first time. Now I am thinking about how to spend my last weeks with them.

However, that was going to have to wait, for at least the first 6 days of my break. During my break I went on a group tour to Morocco!! I had been wanting to go to Morocco since I applied to my program in Sevilla because it is relatively close, well as close to Morocco I was going to get for a while.

Day 1:
I had no idea what to expect from this experience and knew that there were going to be a lot of surprises. However I wasn't expecting one to come so soon. I woke up extremely early, 4:30am and took a cab to the meeting point. When I got there I realized that I was the only American and the only one who natively spoke English, and to answer your question, yes this entire trip was going to be in Spanish. At least I was going to get to practice my Spanish.

I decided to go on this trip by myself, I felt adventurous and was going with a group so I was bound to meet some people to hang out with. While on the bus I started talking to someone from France who was also traveling by herself and I felt a huge sense of relief meeting someone right away.

After a 3 hour bus ride and an hour ferry ride we arrived in Tangier, Morocco and met up with our local guide that was going to be with us for the entire trip. Our first stop was Casablanca, which took about 4 hours to get to. I quickly realized that I was about to spend a lot of the next 6 days on a bus because all of the places that we were going to were very far away from one another. But I couldn't complain because Morocco is a gorgeous country and plus it's hard to complain when you are visiting such an amazing country.

Again, our first stop was Casablanca, where we stopped off for lunch and then made our way to the Mezquita. We weren't allowed to enter but were able to take pictures from the outside so we at least got to see some of it. After exploring the area for a little bit we went back on the bus and made our way to our hotel in Marrakech. And during this time we started watching the movie Casablanca, which I was extremely excited about because how many people can say that they watched Casablanca for their first time on their way out of Casablanca?!

Near where we ate lunch 

Day 2:
The morning was spent exploring some of the historical sites of Marrakech. Throughout the entire morning I couldn't believe that I was seeing everything with my own eyes, it was so definitely like nothing I have seen before. Towards the end of the morning part of our tour we stopped off at a natural medicinal store.

My local guide petting and talking to a donkey, too cute not to share.

Medicinal store

We had the afternoon to ourself, which everyone spent lounging in the sun by the pool at our hotel. It felt great, especially after the lack of sun and warm weather in Sevilla. After our free time we headed back out to explore the city some more. One of our stops was a huge open-air market, definitely nothing like any markets I have seen before! I got a picture with a snake around my neck (I didn't ask for it, a guy just put it there while the group was looking at the snakes) and after that lovely experience (sarcastic tone) I got some fresh orange juice, which made me feel so much better.

Don't let the smile deceive you, not happy here!

We then had about 30 minutes to explore the market by ourself and I of course headed to get henna. I have never had it before and what better place to get it for the first time than in Morocco!

During...

...After!

The market as we were leaving

Afterwards some of us headed back to the hotel to get ready to go to an optional dinner/show. My guide got a few of us Moroccan tea, which is my favorite type of tea ever! The show was amazing and I am so glad that I paid the extra money to go; great time with new friends, great food, and an gorgeous place, couldn't ask for a better night.

Day 3:
The long travel day that was ahead of me started out kind of early. We had about 14 hours to go, between driving and stops along the way, by the time we left the hotel in Marrakech to the arrival at our next destination. What was our next destination you may be asking. Two words: Sahara Desert.

The trip was amazingly beautiful and I was kind of glad that I wasn't able to fall asleep, even with the knowledge of another long day coming up. We stopped a few times, one was in a town that is known as the entrance to the desert and there are two movie studios there, where many films (or parts of them) have been filmed, one being The Gladiator. We just drove by it but it was cool to see.

Lunch ended up being really late but was well worth it. I am not referring to the food but rather the location.

After lunch we made our way towards our final destination. It took about 3 more hours until we stopped and grabbed our things for the night before we got into jeeps and headed to our hotel, which was located on the border of the Sahara Desert. The trip in the jeep was a lot of fun, we were in the middle of nowhere and it was completely dark outside. Also our driver ended up following the wrong jeeps and we got lost for a little bit. But hey, it was all apart of the experience.

After dinner we headed to our tents to get a few hours of sleep, and by a few I mean 2 hours.

Outside the tent. My part was only half of it.

Inside- it is really as small as it looks.

Day 4:
By 4:30am we were all in the lobby and getting ready to experience something I will never forget. We each got on a camel (it was still dark at this point) and started our journey. By the time the camel stood up I was completely awake (almost flipping over a camel wakes you up really fast!). Our ride to a sand dune was about 30 minutes in the Sahara Desert and it was incredible to look up at the sky and see all of the stars! When we got to the bottom of the sand dune we got off our camels and were then told to climb to the top, which was so much harder than I was expecting. In total we spent about 1.5 hours sitting on top of the sand dune. Unfortunately the sunrise wasn't great but it still happened and it was something I will never forget- watching the vibrant red color of the sand come to life was incredible and impossible to put into words.

We then headed back, via camel, to our hotel and I loved this camel ride because we were able to see everything around us and it was just a breath-taking experience (and I didn't almost flip over the camel when it stood up this time!). That morning was truly something that I will never forget.

After breakfast and a little bit of time to relax we headed back to our bus for the ride to our next destination: Meknes.

The trip took a little less time than coming, about 11 hours this time. On the way we drove through a huge forest (another thing I wasn't expecting to be in Morocco) and we ended up seeing some monkeys!

So beautiful!

So cute!

Before we headed to our hotel we stopped off at a few places to take photos.

Day 5:

This day was spent in the city of Fez. We were supposed to spend our last two nights there instead of in Meknes but the King decided to visit and the organization was unable to get hotel rooms. Nonetheless we still got to spend the day exploring the city. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed walking throughout all of the markets.

Color-dying fabric

That night we had free time in Meknes and after dinner a few friends and I went out to try and find a place for tea. However, the one place we were told was open was in fact closed. Our tour guide from the travel organization came with us to find it and after we found out it was closed we went with him and two of his friends to explore the city a bit (he is originally from Meknes).

Day 6:
Our final day of the trip was spent traveling from Meknes back to Tánger to take the ferry back to Spain. On our way back we stopped in a town called Chaouen and it was gorgeous! We only had about 1.5 hours there and this included getting lunch as well. In the end I got a sandwich to eat on the way back to Sevilla and I was glad that I spent most of my time exploring the city.

View of the city 

So many beautiful streets!

The rest of the day was spent traveling to the ferry terminal and then once we got to Spain, heading back to Sevilla. When we got to the terminal we said our goodbyes to our local guide and headed back to my home away from home Sevilla.

This trip was a beyond amazing experience, something that I will never forget and I am so grateful for everything that I experienced!!