Saturday, October 5, 2013

Weekend Update: Life Moves Fast

The view of Granada from inside
the Alhambra
     So, things have been moving pretty quickly here in Spain. All the weekly activities have mostly started by now, and they keep me pretty busy for sure! It definitely is fun to stay busy, but it makes it hard to keep family and friends updated on my life here! If you have been keeping track of my Facebook pictures you may have noticed that I have been gone from Sevilla almost every weekend so far. I took a trip to Cádiz, then to Córdoba and Granada, the next weekend was a group trip to Sagres, Portugal, and last weekend we went to Sanlúcar de Barrameda - a beach town with very few tourists! =) So, to summarize my last few weekends, here are some pictorial highlights:

My roommates and me in Córdoba

Mara and I atop the Sierra Nevada peak 

Hanging out in the Alhambra in Granada

Mara and I learning to surf in Portugal
My banged up knee and Chacos overlooking
the cliff we attempted to climb and the rock
we jumped off of into the ocean











 



The whole group watching the sunset from a cliff in Sagres.

A relaxing boat ride on the Guadalquivir River
The girls enjoying the guided tour of the Doñana National Park


   
   

     With all of these weekend trips, combined with my first round of tests these last two weeks, I have been swamped with catching up and keeping up with everything here! It is definitely fun, but this weekend I realized I needed to slow down and take some time for me. So I decided to stay in Sevilla this weekend (after our school excursion to Toledo on Thursday and Friday of course!)

Toledo - the most beautiful Spanish city I've seen so far!

Mara and Brenna and me checking
out the windmills in Consuegra
     Our school excursion to Toledo was led by my art professor Carmen and the goal was to see the two things we recently studied in art history: a painting by El Greco - El Entierro del Señor de Orgaz and the Cathedral of Toledo. So we took a 6 hour bus ride up to Toledo, stopping in Consuegra along the way so that we could see the windmills of Don Quijote. We were able to see the painting by El Greco, which was so cool to see after studying it! I always feel like I have a good understanding in class, but when you see it in person and can pick out the details as Carmen is mentioning them (into our awesome touristy headsets!) you earn so much more from the class and the experience in general! We were also able to see a beautiful monastery before heading out for tapas in Toledo. We got to stay in a really nice hotel on Thursday night and Friday we went to the cathedral. The day started out pretty rainy, but when we got free time to explore on our own, the skies cleared up and God gave us an exceptional day to see the beauty of Toledo! Mara and I separated from the group to wander on our own - we ate lunch atop the old city walls, got lost in small neighborhoods, went shopping for cheap and fancy souvenirs, and found some delicious gelato! We had a great time in Toledo and were super excited to head back to Sevilla to rest and get to know our own city a little more!

Epic jumping picture with Brenna!
The main altar of the Cathedral

 
With Mara on the edge of the city

An old monastery 
Dill pickles on the city walls!

   
      And today we decided to explore Sevilla... We got some great advice from our señora Chari about where we should go first. She told us that a beautiful morning like today would be perfect for a trip to the historic neighborhood of Macarena. She told us what bus to take, where to get off the bus, which monuments were worth visiting, and she also made sure to tell us to take our time and enjoy it because it is such a beautiful day. She is the best at giving advice like that because she is so convincing and repetitive with her arguments! It is so entertaining and helps us a lot with our Spanish! So we ventured out to Macarena on the bus and were able to visit the historical church of the virgin of Macarena, which was breath-taking! So beautiful and full of decoration! During the feria in April, they make a float with the virgin in the background. They carry her throughout the city for the parades and Chari told us lots of stories after we got home about funny things that have happened during feria regarding her float. She told us that usually when the float of Macarena passes by, all the men shout at the statue saying ¡Ay que guapa! (How pretty/beautiful!) which I thought was an interesting thing to yell at a virgin saint, but we all have our quirks!



    We also visited the Plaza de la Alameda which has statues of Hercules in it. We did not quite understand the history of this plaza as told by Chari, but I plan to look it up later, or ask one of my professors this coming week. We did not understand the history of it because Chari mixed the history of it with a story of her own past, which was actually really fun to hear a story from when she was younger! Spaniards do not tend to open up much about their history (Chari may be an exception to that generalization) but it was still exciting for Mara and I to learn more about her when she was younger.


     After seeing the plaza, we went on towards the center of Sevilla, a familiar place, but were still able to encounter something new and exciting! First we found a new and yummy ice cream place! Always a goal and fun thing to accomplish! Just down the street from our new ice cream place we saw the Setas! The Setas are a metal structure that definitely does not fit in where it was built, but still a fun thing to see! They are fashioned after giant mushrooms, and I do not really know their purpose other than to have a cool place to overlook the entire city! So Mara and I went up to the top and it was definitely worth it! Such an amazing view up there!

Me and my new city!



1 comment:

  1. Beautiful photos. Toledo looks amazing. I love El Greco. Guess I gotta go there someday!

    ReplyDelete