Saying goodbyes

I've noticed how horrible I've been at blogging. I'm sorry, but I've been having too much fun!

Right now I'm sitting alone in my room in Alcala. Finals are over, we've "graduated", we've said our goodbye's and my roommate has left!

I remember how new and exciting and nerve-racking everything was when I first arrived. I spoke terrible spanish! I didn't know the group! I knew so little about Spain! Three months seemed like FOREVER! And now I realize  how quickly time flies and how sad it is to say goodbyes. We've passed some awesome months here. We've seen more of Spain than even some Spaniards that we met.  We're fluent in a different language. We have a better global perspective. We've learned about ourselves. We made lifelong friends.



I can't think of a better way to have spent the last three months.

Paraiso en el sol!

Well, classes are over! And we had a few extra days to spend traveling around Spain. Guess where we chose to visit? The Canary Islands of course! We needed sun after the cold of Madrid!

We spent five days in the beautiful island of Tenerife. We had an average temperature of about 75 degrees with plenty of beach time ;)

I got burned-of course! But enjoyed every minute of it.

It was an island paradise that now seems only like a dream. A wonderful way to end an amazing semester!

Gracias, Merci, Thank you--however it's said

It has been awhile...but this week we took a trip to northern Spain-beach land!


First we stopped in Santander, after passing through the no-man's land of the mountains.

Santander is basically only known for its beaches...which we took advantage of.

It was way too cold to swim, but that didn't stop the guys from jumping in anyway.

 This beauty became the site of our impromptu soccer game.

Then we did some climbing and saw this:

And this:

Gorgeous right?

The next day we did some pueblo hopping-stopping in random little towns, and that evening we ended up in Bilboa.

 More beaches and cliffs, and I couldn't tell you the name of this place....

And then we walked by this old cemetary. It's famous for the angel up there in the top left corner.

In Bilboa, we found the outside of the Guddenheim-a famous modern art museum.

It's in the background, fyi.

Bilboa is in the middle of Pais Vasco. It's called "pais" Vasco because once upon a time they were their own country. They even speak their own language. Even today, many of them believe they should still be independent, so groups such as ETA (the terrorist group) exist that keep pushing for independence from Spain, while others think the opposite. So, there's a lot of contention about Pais Vasco-thus this sign.

It says, "We need peace." The top is written in the language of Pais Vasco. It has absolutely nothing in common with spanish.

Day 3:

We went to FRANCE! Saw some beaches, ate, and climbed some more things.

 The little french I learned, "I love you."

Last day:

What do you think we did?

Yep, more beaches and climbing-this time in San Sebastian. San Sebastian is literally the jewel of the beaches. The most beautiful, clean, amazing, ect, ect. 

 La playa de la concha: Shell Beach...can you see the shape?

Yeah, I don't understand...

(Oh, and I forgot to mention that we played bumper cars on the top of a cliff in San Sebastian with a beautiful view of the beach. Yeah. Pretty Cool)

I think I can speak for the whole group when I say that this trip was one of our favorites. We didn't step one foot in a Castle, Monastery or Cathedral. Now, yes we do like to see these things, but they sure get repetitive after awhile. The beauty of the Spanish beaches was a much needed change. So, gracias! Merci! Thank you!

Who knew?

I've always thought I would be the type to cry during bullfights....

Today was the Dia de Hispanidad-celebrating hispanic culture. So we went to a corrida de toros-a bullfight. Honestly I was not looking forward to it at all, and wasn't even sure I wanted to go. I thought for sure that after 30ish minutes I would either get sick, start crying, or  be ready to leave. But no, my morbid curiosity came out, and I couldn't stop watching. This sounds crazy, but it was sort of beautiful-like a dance between the torredor and the toro.


I'm not crazy-let me explain, with pictures

The torredor uses the cape to lure the bull into a series of passes. These are meant to show the torredores' ability to control the bull. The fun happens when the bull has a mind of its own and fights back.

Scoping each other out...

And the bull charges.

The torredor's skill level is determined by how he executes the passes. His feet shouldn't move, his form has to be just right, he needs to be a certain distance to the bull, ect.

At first I was super confused and didn't understand what was going on, then my buddy here helped us...He kept shouting at the torredores about all the mistakes they were making :D He was my favorite!

And this was my favorite torredor: he was the best. I mean, look at that power stance!

Now, I'm not saying that agree with bullfighting. Morally, I think it's wrong to kill bulls in such a brutal way. However, the other side of me sees the beauty in it. The bulls are built for this type of battle. They're in their element.

Well, there it is. I'm crazy: I actually liked a bullfight. Who knew?

Day trip!

Sept. 27th

This weekend we took a day trip over to la "cuidad encantada," or Cuenca. We drove two hours just for this view:

They're called the casas colgadas-"The hanging houses." Original, right?

This is me hanging over the edge of the bridge :D

I'm not going to lie- it was kinda a let down after our other trips.

No worries, though. We're leaving again on Thursday for another vacation. 

The Catholic side of Spain

September 19th

Spain is a hard-core catholic country.  To me it seems like the mindset is that "We're catholic; our family has always been catholic; and our children will also be catholic." This makes for some pretty awesome tourist sites-cathedrals, churches, and monasteries.


So this weekend we saw all these things when we took a three-day trip to the northern section of Spain, Castilla y León.

First off, one of the first things you need to know about Catholic Spain is the Camino de Santiago- the Road to St. James. The tradition says that around 814 AD the tomb of St. James was discovered in Galicia (Top left corner on the map.) A church was built on that spot, and as the news spread people from France, Rome, Spain, England, and other parts of Europe began making pilgrimages to "Santiago de la Compostela."

Santiago de la Compostala is still one of the most popular pilgrimages in world.

Pilgrims can be recognized by the seashell they wear somewhere on their clothes, and in the older days they usually looked like this.

Now they look like this:

Anyway, so specifically we went to two places along the Camino de Santiago-León y Burgos.

León

In León we saw the coolest cathedral. La Catedral de Santa María de Regla. It was built in the thirteenth century and in the gothic style that came from France. To me, it looks a lot like the Salt Lake Temple

                               

And it also has about 1800 sq. meters of stained glass-one of the largest in Europe. The cool thing is that it's mostly all original. Over the years, much of the stained glass in other cathedrals has been destroyed, but not here.

I really liked all the symbolism in the cathedral:

      

You can't see it very well, but the 12 flower petal-like things depict each of the 12 Apostles.

The cathedral was positioned so that the brightest light shines through these windows-it happens to depict the Godhead.

It started raining right when we finished the tour, so we waited in this patio-like area for it to clear up. 

This is my friend Rachel.

The next day, on the way to Burgos, we stopped at two cute churches along the Camino de Santiago. 

Burgos...

Next stop-Burgos. Burgos happens to be one of my favorite places we've been to so far in Spain. I basically loved the cathedral...which looks like this:

This was actually just a tiny little "relief" on one side of an altar, but I really liked all the details. This was probably one of my favorite pieces of art in the Cathedral.

This is the biggest orignal stain-glass window in Spain. León has the most, but Burgos has the biggest. 

  But we found the best part of Burgos when we least expected it.

1) Around 5 o'clock-just in time to wake us up from our siesta...

Sorry it's side-ways

2) This randomly in the street...

3) And this...which was epically awesome...

It turns out that the week we went to Burgos happened to be the week of "Las Ferias." So we were witnessing plays in the streets and random festival-like parades because of that. But, we loved it because to us it was so random.

Also Burgos is the birthplace of the legendary "Mio Cid." The story goes that he helped big time with the Christian Reconquest (taking back Spain from the Moors AKA Arabes. This took about 800 years by the way.) Cid is a genuine Spanish hero.

 "Mio Cid."

Yay for vacations in the middle of the semester :D