The Beginning of an Adventure: Northern Ireland, Ireland and Portugal

As I am trying to wrap up my time in Barcelona -only today and tomorrow left :( - I don't have a lot of time to write, but I am going to put the highlights of the last week on here!

When I got back to Barcelona from Morocco and Semana Santa in Sevilla, I had finals week - the least stressful finals week of my life- and I got my grades... I passed! I tried to soak up my last week in Barcelona while continuing to make travel plans. At the end of the week one of my friends from school and sorority sister, Sarah was here. It was good to see someone from home and catch up about all of our study abroad adventures!

 

:::Sarah and I by the beach:::

Belfast, Northern Ireland

We flew to Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was beautiful, but there was not a lot to do - since we were there for such a short time - other than look at churches, gardens and other various tourist spots. 

:::St.Peter's Cathedral:::

:::The last place that the Titanic was on dry ground:::

:::Queen's University:::

Dublin, Ireland

We took a bus to Dublin after 2 days in Belfast. We got there at night, so we just went to the touristy part of town to hang out for the night. Then the next day we walked all around Dublin to see the Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, old churches and the Guinness Storehouse - since it is probably the largest tourist attraction in the city- to see how it is made - and since I am a science geek... I thought it was pretty interesting! The next day we went on a tour to the coast of Southern Ireland - saw the beautiful coast, countryside and AMAZING Powerscourt Gardens.

:::Never know when you are going to find people from Spain and get to practice your Spanish!:::

:::St. Patrick's Cathedral:::

:::Looks like I must be Irish! Haha!:::

:::In Powerscourt gardens... (photo thanks to VGirl's artistic skills):::

:::Let's see how many times I can use the word beautiful... THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE OF IRELAND:::

Lisbon and Cascais, Portugal

We flew to Lisbon, Portugal and walked around the city all day to see the town, cathedral and castle. This was a little more difficult than Ireland since they understood our Spanish, but we could not understand Portuguese. The next day we went to Cascais - a wonderful beach town - and layed on the beach and I got burnt and look like a lobster... but it was worth it. :)

:::Sao Jorge - Castle in Lisbon, Portugal:::

:::Cascais beach:::

Now I have two days in Barcelona then I am off to The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, Romania, Austria, Poland... then USA.

My 21st Birthday and the surrounding week…

Well my “Spring Break” was this past week because in Spain the whole week (Semana Santa – Holy Week) before Easter is celebrated, so stores close, schools are out, etc. I flew down to Sevilla Spain Thursday, April 2^nd so that the next day at 4 AM I could get on a bus to go to Africa. I went along with other students from my study abroad program and with students from other ISA programs in Spain and Morocco.

 We arrived in Morocco, after a long bus ride and ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar,  and stayed in a 5-star hotel – not American 5-star, but still very very very nice!  (nice Spring break, huh?) and the next day we went on a tour of the city. The main part of the day we spent in the old part of the town – the Medina- where we went to an herbalist (which I had a great time in since I love learning about medicines of any type!), a rug co-op (where we got to look at SOOOOOOO many cool rugs, drink really good green tea, and, of course, buy the beautiful rugs), a leather tannery (they gave us mint leaves to smell to keep us from getting sick because the smell is so bad), and a weaving place (where they made the MOST beautiful fabrics!) In the Medina there are thousands of tiny streets – so small that cars can’t get in – the only method of transportation is mules and donkeys. That night we went to a traditional Moroccan show with music, belly dancing, and other stuff that I can’t remember –it was a long day!

:::The only mode of transport in the Medina:::

:::A really really REALLY old university:::

:::With the children when we stopped for a little while:::

:::Having a nervous breakdown after buying really expensive rugs:::

:::The tannery:::

We woke up the next morning and got back on the bus to go to the Sahara desert. After we arrived in Erfoud, we got in 4x4 vehicles to go to the desert since there weren’t roads that went out that far. We got there that night and just got settled into las haimas (the tents). It is crazy how cold it gets in the desert at night, so we all had to snuggle to keep warm!

:::On the way to the desert in the 4x4:::

The next morning watched the sun rise ---- BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, SPECTACULAR----- the pictures cannot even begin to show what it looked like that morning, and it was probably just as spectacular that we were able to drag ourselves out of the tent into the cold air at 5:30 AM! We rode camels, crawled/ran/walked/sunk-into-the-sand up a huge sand dune, slid back down the down, rode camels to a village, played with the African children, relaxed around our tents, listened to some African drumming while dancing with African children, got henna tattoos, listened to an African band that played at dinner and danced a little afterwards until 12 AM – April 7^th – my birthday!

:::The first thing I saw when I woke up - other than the roof of my tent:::

:::Photo shoot in the desert:::

:::Absolutely stunning - it's hard to describe with pictures and words:::

:::The beautiful sunrise continues:::

:::The sun:::

:::Drawing in the sand:::

:::Riding on the camels:::

:::Letting the camels take a break:::

:::The huge sand dune that we climbed - doesn't look that big in the picture but it was HUGE:::

:::Moroccan child:::

:::Henna tattoos:::

:::African band:::

On my birthday... Woke up the next morning early to go sit in the sand… it was a little cloudy, so I couldn’t see the sunrise as well, but it was still beautiful. Then we had to travel back to Erfoud by 4x4, then to Meknes by bus. When we got to Meknes we went to the Medina to go shopping there. The next thing that happened was really funny because Meknes is not a very touristy city, but as I was walking into a little store in the Medina, I saw someone with a jacket on that said Paducah, heard the southern accent, and found out there was a group of 4 or 5 people there from Paducah and the surrounding area – one of which was the father of someone who used to go to my church, but when you are from Mayfield/Paducah/Murray you can usually always find a common friend!

:::My 21st birthday:::

:::Vanessa, Hannah, Michelle and I:::

We traveled back to Sevilla where we encountered huge parades since the biggest festival for Semana Santa is in Sevilla, but we were so tired that we went to sleep. The next day we watched parades for most of the day and night and early morning because it is the biggest festival day in Sevilla. The next morning I met Jami and Kelly from my school at home, and two of their friends from Valencia, and for that day and the next we explored Sevilla – went in the beautiful and huge Cathedral, watched Parades, went into the Alcazar – a big palace with huge gardens, Torre del oro, and the local bull-fighting plaza.

:::Los nazerenos - the guys with the tall white hats:::

:::Sevilla Catedral:::

:::Jami and me in front of the big fountain in Sevilla:::

:::Friends from home - Jami & Kelly:::

:::Gardens in the Alcazar:::

:::Torre del Oro:::

:::Plaza de Toros:::

Yesterday I flew back into Barcelona. BiBi is not here… and it was weird being away from home on Easter. I am used to being with all of my family in Mayfield or Lexington… but I guess being away just makes me appreciate everything at home even more! I hope that everyone had a very blessed Easter!

¡Hasta Luego!

Before Spring Break...

My family got to have the wonderful Cuban food experience…. And this is just an advertisement for all Cuban food places… if you ever get the chance to eat it…. You should… you will want to move to Cuba…

CJ accomplished his goal of the trip and tried Sangria in our favorite little tavern - La Oveja Negra - right off of Las Ramblas…

Montserrat – Vanessa, CJ & I hiked for 4 hours up a BEAUTIFUL mountain … Mom came too, but the fear of heights kept her near the monastery where she got to here the choir and take a little break instead of wearing herself out like we did…

When we got back from Montserrat, the Magic Fountain at Montjuic was going so we watched that for a little while before going to sleep and waking up early to go to the airport…

I discovered that I have not had an allergy to the cats, but instead BiBi’s house has been infested with chinches de la cama…aka Bed Bugs… Yuck!! that have been biting me… so they were in my room before I got here and I had no idea and the doctor didn’t recognize the signs… so since then I have moved rooms.. obtained a super cool (haha) Cow duvet cover… had fun moving the mattress (while wearing BiBi's aprons and plastic gloves) through the little apartment to throw it away… and been grossed out by the thought of the bugs…and my old room has been repainted (don’t know why, but BiBi thought this would help!) but at least they are gone now…

We went to the Broadway show La Bella y La Bestia  - Beauty in the Beast in Spanish- which was so cool and such a great experience to have while in Spain….