Time to update you on my latest adventure! This weekend was our big program-organized trip to Sevilla and Cádiz, two beautiful cities in Andalucia. Almost all 30ish of us, as well as our director, Alberto, and my Catalan professor, Laia, left bright and early on Friday morning to explore and bond in Southern Spain. It was a wonderful trip!
When we got there we took a tour around the city, through the Cathedral, and finished with a trip up the Cathedral's tower. The Cathedral used to be a Mosque, and the Muslims used to have someone go up to the top of the tower five times a day to call everyone to come to pray. Because they had to climb up the tower so often, they built a ramp inside instead of stairs so that they could ride horses up the tower. So we walked up said ramp to the top of the tower where we had a 360 degree view of Sevilla, and it was beautiful. Here are some pictures:
That night we went and saw some Flamenco dancing, which was absolutely incredible. It was smaller than I expected, an audience of about 100 people or so in a little courtyard with a stage in the middle. They started off the show with just the guitar and the singing, and that alone was beautiful and impressive enough. Then the lady dancer came out and danced some Flamenco, followed by the guy dancer. With each part it got more and more impressive, and at one point in the guy's performance there was an audible "woah!" from the audience. Pictures can't really do it justice, so I'll skip that, but being there in person was absolutely amazing. That performance might have been one of my most memorable experiences of the semester.
On Saturday we got on a bus and took a day trip to Cádiz, a smaller city on the coast. It's actually on a peninsula: it looks like this from the air:
It was fun to get an even smaller-town feeling of Spain. We took a tour around the city and then had some free time to see what we wanted to see. We walked to the beach and out along a bridge to an old castle, and then back through the town again, stopping to eat in a little local place, and to check out some of the stores.
On Sunday we went and visited the Royal Palace in Sevilla, which was probably the prettiest place we saw in Sevilla. When the royal family isn't staying there, it's open for people to come and visit. We got to take a self-guided tour around the palace, and then wander through the gardens. Here are some pictures:
Overall it was a wonderful weekend. I took around 400 pictures, some of which I will be putting up on facebook soon. I can't believe I ever seriously considered not studying abroad.
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