Spanish Sightings

girls near beach in Malagala
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Christmas this year was a little different than in years’ past –okay a lot different! I spent the holiday travel Florence to Rome by bus, then from Rome to Barcelona by plane and from Barcelona to Malagla by plane. We spent our first night in Spain near the beach in Malagla. It was extremely windy – I really can’t remember the last time I saw waves quite that big! My first outing in Spain took place during Siesta when most things were closed, so us girls ended up at a Finish bar for happy hour and pizza margherita! Leave it to us to find a Finnish bar serving pizza margherita in southern Spain!

park with doves
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I think it appropriate and necessary to mention here that we quickly and flittingly titled our Christmas Tour the “gay and away” tour (a la in the film Under the Tuscan Sun). The ratio of males to females was Unreal – there was one “Man Bus” (that actually had females on it) and two all girl busses—this gives you a small idea of the ratio. I must say I was on a great bus with all of my friends, which turned out to be a VERY GOOD thing because we traveled on the same bus with the same people the whole trip, and we spent a good deal of time on the buses.

In Seville we went to a park where hundreds of white doves gathered, you could feed them or just stand there and they’d land all over you.

jumping for joy!
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So..back to the trip, from Malaga we traveled to Seville. From the sea we made our way over the mountains inland. I was sad to leave the ocean, but the view looking back was quite spectacular. Our first stop was made in Ronda where we saw the oldest bull fighting rink in the world- unfortunately the fighting season is in September so we didn’t get to see anything, but we were able to walk right into the rink and make some pretty hilarious interpretations. Also in Ronda we visited a beautiful old stone façade church with very ornate décor inside – gram, I bought you a candle there, make sure mom gives it to you the next time you see each other J -- A very old and high bridge also lies in Ronda, oh and I can’t forget to introduce you to our tour guide, Andreas. We actually had an entourage of about 9 people with us at all times, there was Dr. Burke (our Dean) and his wife, the bus driver, the bus drivers’ assistant, Peter (pronounced Pay-ter, he’s an Austrian living in Tuscany who works for Gonzaga on the weekend trips and accompanies us on our travels), Ryan Lynch (he’s 26 and plans trips), and Andreas, and also at times up to two other guides depending on the city we were in! Quite the pack.

the Cathedral
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Andreas was with us from start to finish – I know this, because he NEVER stopped talking! At one minute he’d be commenting on the diverse landscape of Spain and the next he’d be talking about his taxes, or his prodigal son. Through all his talking he warmed his way into our hearts and we were sad to say goodbye.

Okay, so we arrived in Seville (I LOVED Seville) and the first full day there we took an entire city tour. The Cathedral – which you really just need to see pictures of to believe, it is monstourous in size and inside our breathtaking wood carvings and an altarpiece done in ornate gold leaf with every scene from Christ’s life. This is also the supposed burial place of Christopher Columbus. Our very informational guide here told us that D.N.A testing in Houston, TX is currently deciding this debate. At the Cathedral I climbed the bell tower, well “climb” isn’t exactly the right word because there wasn’t stairs – I actually walked up 30 levels on a ramp. They didn’t use stairs so the donkey’s could get to the top, although I have absolutely no idea why they did once they got there, or why they’d need to get there in the first place!?

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In Seville we went to a park where hundreds of white doves gathered, you could feed them or just stand there and they’d land all over you. Not the place for a person freaked out by a certain Hitchcock film. We saw some important buildings and a square that is surrounded by benches with amazing mosaics on them. We went into the Latin Quarter, which was very quaint and beautiful with orange trees everywhere, there were actually orange trees all over Spain and Morocco. In Seville I literally leaped off the bus the minute it stopped and the doors open and I ran bright eyed into Starbucks!!! The first one I have seen since leaving the states, boy was it good!

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Seville by night meant a tapas trail- where a smaller group of us went to bars for tappas and vino, I think we went to four or five different places. Tapas are meant to be “toppers”, things that can cover the top of your glass, we were served everything from salami to calamari, it was more like hours ‘ dourves. From there we went to a Flamenco Show, it was a really good show and a very fun night. The next day was a free day, which I used to check e-mails, explore other parts of the city, drink more starbucks J and sleep in!!

STARBUCKS!!
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We spent Christmas Eve in Seville and attended midnight mass at the Cathedral. Before midnight mass I spent the evening watching Elf and drinking champagne with the girls- a different, but enjoyable way to spend the night. At the Cathedral for mass we were surprised by 6 of our friends (and one of their dad’s) who were supposed to be in Ireland for their Christmas Tour, really it turned out they had been planning to come to Seville from Ireland before going onto Scotland (I know REALLY out of the way), but it was great to see them and spend Christmas Eve with them. I have some sad news about their trip. On the last day of our trip, as we were making our way back to Spain, they pulled us all together to inform us that Matt Madison, one of the boys who was on the boys’ trip in Spain and Ireland had fallen to his death. He was not one of the ones who came to Seville, he had stayed behind with three others and his accident happened once everyone was back together in St Andrew Scotland. He jumped onto a ledge and then over, and the hill ended very quickly into a straight drop off. It was late at night and pitch black and we are told he died immediately upon impact. Things have been very different this semester with new students here and the loss of someone close to many people. I hope you will keep Matt and his family in your prayers. We’ve become like family here and it’s very hard to lose someone who loved life and lived it to the fullest as much as Matt did.

Tapas Trail
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From Seville, we headed towards Granada. On the way to Granada we stopped in Cordoba to see a mosque/Catholic Church there. It’s used now only as a catholic church, but was originally a mosque, most of the original interior of the mosque remains inside a huge structure that houses what you would expect a typical European roman catholic church to look like in the center. Quite interesting.

In Granada we visited the Alhambra, an old castle that lies high on the hill and overlooks the entire city. It had beautiful gardens, reflecting ponds, and carvings throughout. In Granada on Christmas day eve we had a secret Santa gift exchange and had a fun time of watching people do a white elephant with gifts. We even had one guy who dressed up as Santa, so although Christmas was different we made the most of it!

inside the church/mosque
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From Granada we crossed the straight of Gibraltar and headed to Morocco, which was like stepping into a whole new world. Crossing the border in itself was quite a feat. We had no problems, but you see Moroccan people walking across the border and the women are all draped in heavy clothing and they all look like REALLY BIG women, but then you see them 50 yards down the road unwrapping themselves. They have literally wrapped clothes around there bodies with something like saran wrap. It was unbelievable.