the rest of the adventure

day 5: sevilla

we started off the day with a trip to the plaza de toros and did a tour through it (even though there wasn't actually a bullfight..) and then went to the plaza de españa and then to the cathedral. we climbed up the tower of the cathedral (with all of our bags.. it was really hard) and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. that afternoon, we caught our flight from sevilla to barcelona for the last leg of our trip. our hotel there was right on la rambla, one of the main streets in the city, which was really convenient and exciting. turns out that we arrived on one of the biggest party nights/holidays of the year, with fireworks and bonfires going all night. woop woop.

day 6: barcelona -- the day of gaudí

we woke up early and went to all the gaudí stuff we could in one day: the casa batlló, la pedrera, the park guell, and of course, la sagrada familia. it really was amazing to learn about and SEE the innovations that gaudí developed in his architecture. it was unlike anything i've ever seen. la sagrada familia, in particular, was amazing. it's gaudí's temple for the catholic church that they've been working on since 1893. and it isn't going to be done until at least the 2020's. i made a goal when i saw it that i will come back here and see it all when it has been completed.

la pedrera, an apartment block/complex:

la sagrada familia:

park guell:

day 7: barcelona

we hit the other, non-gaudí sites on wednesday: the cathedral, the museum of history (which had a really cool underground roman archeaological (sp?) dig that you can visit), the olympic stadium, and the picasso museum. then that afternoon we caught a flight back to madrid and then made it back to alcalá de henares to pick up my bags. thursday morning we flew home and then were back at 1 green hollow in irvine by 11 pm.

it really was an excellent adventure!

first half of the adventure

day 1: madrid
thursday, we got everything set. that means, buying train tickets for our upcoming adventures and working on getting dad's credit and debit cards to work (the companies froze them because they didn't know he was going to a foreign country). we also managed to go see the royal palace, the puerta del sol, the plaza mayor, the prado museum, and the parque del buen retiro and eat some tapas right off of the paseo del prado. all in all a pretty successful day. this was a funny picture... we asked this man to take a picture of us in front of the prado and he did. just didn't actually include the prado behind us. hahahah.

day 2: córdoba
we made it via the ave SUPAFAST train to córdoba the next day. although it was over 100 degrees the whole day (it. was. hot.), we managed to have a good time and go see all of córdoba's hottest sites: the mezquita, the alcázar, the synagogue, and the archealogical museum. these are the pictures of us: me in the over-1000-years-old arab baths of the alcázar, a beautiful little courtyard we found, and 2 shots of the mezquita.

day 3: tangiers

we took the morning ferry over from algeciras, spain to tangiers, morocco. we had no idea of what we were going to do when we got over there but we did know that we wanted to visit the kasbah, or sultans's palace, and that we wanted to ride a camel. we managed to do it all with the help of our wonderful tour guide assan. he basically ran us through on a whirlwind 3-hour tour of the city, trying to get us to buy everything we saw and bringing us to a restaurant. it was really incredibly fun and i was glad we didn't get robbed or anything, which probably would have been likely if we hadn't had our guide. we got to see a lot of cool things there. we also got to ride on the ferry right past the rock of gibraltar!

day 4: church in córdoba and then on to sevilla

sunday morning, we took the train from algeciras to córdoba, where we went to church at the small branch there and were welcomed by the members there. then we hopped back on the ave and went to sevilla and ran to the alcázar there just before it closed and looked around. that night, we went to a flamenco show, which was really cool and i was glad that we got to do that, even if there were no bullfights going on while we were there.

quick update

this is a little bit of what we´ve been up to thus far... us riding camels in tangiers, morocco (they were really generous and gave us 4 minutes on the camels) and visiting the plaza de toros in sevilla (clearly not while there was actually a bullfight going on... there aren´t any going on this week. dang it.) we´re heading to barcelona in a few hours on a plane and then we´ll be back to madrid on wednesday to fly home thursday. so we´ll be back thursday at midnightish FYI, in case you were all curious. cross your fingers that nothing else goes wrong and that we make it home without incident. love you all.

safe and sound and went to africa

hey fans and friends and family,

we´re at a locutorio in algeciras, the southern tip of spain. we can see the rock of gibraltar with its friend the strait right outside the window and we are working on making reservations for our hotels in sevilla and barcelona for the next few nights. quick update on the last few days:

-i met up with dad at his hotel and then his credit card and debit card weren´t authorized so we spent a while figuring that out on thursday. it was a great adventure.
-we made it to córdoba and visited all the sites there. it didn´t take very long.. the most exciting thing there is the mosque.
-last night, we made it to algeciras and this morning took the ferry over to MOROCCO and spent a whirlwind half a day in tangiers. it was really cool and guess what: nobody stole anything from us! shocker!
-we´re safe and sound and planning on going to sevilla tomorrow and then barcelona monday night, tuesday, and wednesday. then flying home on thursday.

woop woop things are going great! love you all. hasta luego,

your favorite world traveler (alyse)

last day in madrid

i guess i shouldn't be so sad: i'm going back into madrid tomorrow with dad and we're going to see everything that i love again. it's not like it's the end of the world or anything or that i'm actually leaving... yet. i've still got one more week here in this country, which i am excited and grateful for. but it's like the end of an era: half of our group is already gone and other than my one roommate who is still here, i'm not going to see any of them again because everybody else is heading out tomorrow at different times. IT'S OKAY though: we're all going back to provo so random run-ins on campus are inevitable and everybody's already set for the beginning of semester get-together reunion that's been planned.

anywho, for our last day here, we went and hit the last museum that i hadn't been to (the thyssen, a private collection that was absolutely incredible. i was a huge fan. lots of impressionist stuff and all that.) and then went and rowed boats again in the parque del buen retiro, and visited the peacock gardens. oh yeah and i also bought the last of my gift/souvenirs for my family. i really hope you all like them! only one week until i'm back at home kiddos.

okay but FYI: i am going to be traveling for the next week with dad (alyse and blake's excellent adventure, remember?) which i am totally excited about. we have really no idea what we're doing... which kind of scares me... but we will see. but i am not bringing my computer so i won't have internet for the next week, other than what the hotels have to offer/locutorios we find. so i'll try to post up on this, if we get the opportunity, but if not, i love you all and will talk to you soon!

good-bye, alcala

today was our last day studying at the university of alcala de henares. we went over our exams (i did great on one of them and i am pretty sure i got the worst grade in the class on the other one... oops) and had a totally informal "graduation ceremony" where our spanish professor, jesús, gave us these diplomas that he just made himself. then, we went over to profe's house for an end-of-the-trip party. there was lots of food (paella, etc.) and good company. and this one girl in our group made a video/slideshow of all of the places we've visited, and we all did individual interviews just briefly telling profe how great he was and how much we appreciated him--he got all teary-eyed when he saw it and it was awesome. we gave him the gift that we bought him (this mini-triptych that was his favorite thing in spain) and he loved that too. so basically, overall, it was a successful day.

i am seriously SO SAD that this program is over. it's funny: you always hear how study abroads are all life-changing and all that, but it really was. i hate being dramatic and sentimental. but we're all getting so nostalgic now that tomorrow is going to be our last day together (well, at least for most of the people who are still going to be here). it had to end sometime, though. and it's like mom says about family reunions: it's better for them to be too short and leave you wanting more than for them to be too long and make you want to leave. too much can be too much. and i'm sure that i could get tired of this at some point. i'm sure i could.

dad's flying in on thursday morning, which will start blake and alyse's excellent adventure... we currently have plans but no reservations or bookings. which i am slightly worried about but we have no choice any more. we shall see what happens! oh yes, and on that note: this may very well be one of my last posts because i am not bringing my computer on our travels because it's so HEAVY so we'll be using locutorios/hotel internet until i regreso a los estados unidos.


this is just a good pic from our trip to teruel last week.

fro'd

i almost forgot to post about this! i froed my hair today (and by today, i mean monday) and it was huuuuuge and pretty sweet. i didn't get that great of a picture of it, now that i think about it, but this is a pretty good one at our last trip to the monday mercadillo and our delicious purchase of nectarinas. it was a celebration for our final exams. you should see the side view. i think it will become a more regular process when i need to look ridiculous for some occasion.. it was incredibly easy (all i did was brush it out with a comb) and actually pretty cool with a headband.