Canary Islands

Finally! A nice relaxing break with some sun and some ocean. This is my kind of trip.

Us girls decided to take 5 days to go to the Canary Islands! It was so great. Not exactly as sunny as I was hoping, but we definitely got some sun and did a ton of exploring. Getting there was a little rough, and I'm still apologizing to my parents for freaking them out, but we made it!

I've decided that I'm just going to start walking everywhere because traveling is soooooo not worth it.

The plan was to take a bus from Granada to Madrid for our flight. The 1:30 am bus would get us there in plenty of time. Since we were leaving on a Monday we didn't buy a bus ticket ahead of time because who travels on a Monday when there's still class for the rest of the week? Apparently everyone.

We got to the bus station around 11:30pm all ready to buy our tickets and there's literally one seat left. Well unless we can all sit on each other's laps, we have a problem. We have 10 hours to get to Madrid. Ok, what are our options?? Fly from Granada, won't work. Train from Granada, won't work. Bus from Granada, obviously won't work.

We ended up taking a taxi to Malaga and then a train to Madrid. I am still in disbelief. To put it in perspective, we took a taxi from Albert Lea to Worthington, and then a train from Worthington to Omaha. Seriously? We can laugh about it now, but there were definitely tears shed Monday night.
I sent my dad this dramatic email and didn't explain what was going on... sorry dad. Love you!

We got to the Canary Islands and headed straight for the beach. It was just beautiful! This trip is easier described in pictures.

This was the beach right outside our hostel.

First day on the beach and I already had Kelsey buried in the sand as a mermaid. Dad and I got really good at this after all the summer trips to the beach, looks like it came in handy!

There was this pier and a bunch of rocks a little ways down from our hostel so we went exploring. During low tide I could walk out on the rocks and see all the creatures that got caught between the rocks. Pretty much just little fish and some crazy huge crabs.

We spent a day in Maspalomas where it's supposedly always sunny- and it was! It was a beautiful day soaking up the sun.

Us girls. Kelsey is in the middle and Deanna on the right. We live together and they are so great!

So at our hostel, we met a girl (the blond) from Australia, a boy from Tennessee studying in France, and a boy from Taiwan also studying in France. They came to the beach with us and we had a great time together!

So in Maspalomas there are also sand dunes. It's a drastic difference from beach to dunes right next to each other. We  got to explore all around the island on the dunes.

Had to. Sorry.

Successfully climbed over all the dunes and headed back to the beach!

There was this huge dune, so we each got a photo op on top of it. What a view!

There you have it. I don't think I've had a stress-free trip yet. I guess I'll keep trying until I get it right...

Weekend Getaway to Lagos, Portugal

Hola hola!

I went to Lagos, Portugal for the weekend. I have officially put my feet in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mediterranean Sea! It only took about 6 hours to drive there on a bus... which was kinda miserable with 100 kids but we made it! I pretty much slept the whole time anyway. It was beautiful. I wasn't sure what to expect from Portugal, but Lagos was great. It was almost a conflict of times- the buildings and streets were very old but the people and activities were definitely with the modern times.

So here's the map of Granada to Lagos.

We left Friday morning at 5AM and got home Sunday around 3AM.. it was one long weekend.

Of course the first thing we did was head to the beach which our hotel overlooked. I can't describe how beautiful it was here. The water was crystal clear, a little cold, but so nice. Especially since at home it's 48 degrees, whereas it's 88 here!

The view from our hotel.

After an afternoon on the beach we went for supper. We traveled with Discover Granada, which was probably one of the best decisions we've made so far... besides going to Portugal in the first place. They had dinner all lined up and ready for us. My group went to NahNahBa's Burger joint which brags that they have the 50 Best Burgers in the world. Now, I'm from the midwest where there is beef all over the place so I had years of experience to judge these "legendary" burgers.

They were SO GOOD. I'm not sure if it was because we were so hungry or if the burgers were actually that good, but whatever. We had two options: Tucan burger or a Veggie burger- easy choice (there were honestly 100 kids there so they had to limit us). The Tucan burger had everything plus pineapple- I might start adding pineapple to every burger from now on, it was that good.

Here's what happened:

This is the sign outside the restaurant.

1. Beginning of the meal. We are so excited!

2. It looks so good! Ready to dig in!

3. Not even halfway and I can no longer feel my legs.

4. Death. Yes, we did finish the entire thing! I wasn't kidding about not feeling my legs. I could barely feel my arms after all that. Needless to say, all 6 girls at my table each ate a whole burger- I have no idea how we did it.

After dinner we went to a discoteca (like a club). We had free entry and it was crazy. All 100 students came out and danced the night away. Remember, dinner was around 10:30ish and our night started at midnight.

Two of the guys in my study abroad group- they live down the street from me actually.

Saturday was spent at another beach about 30 minutes from our hotel. It was 6 hours on the beach and it was heaven! We walked down the coast, chased seagulls, took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and soaked up the sun. What more could we ask for?

The weather was perfect and the beach was beautiful.

Saturday night we went to "The End of the World". It's in Sagres and it's the Westernmost point in Europe. We watched the sunset and it was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen. I am just in awe of this creation. I wonder what God was thinking when he made sunsets. It's just perfect, simple, overwhelming beauty. You know it's a good moment when a picture can't do it justice.

Wow. This is my best attempt to capture the moment.

We ended Sunday, once again, on the beach. Which, I forgot to mention, also happens to be a nude beach. Very nude beach. I was a little uncomfortable at times but hey- if you can't beat 'em, join 'em right?! KIDDING.

We headed home exhausted, but happy.

With our tour guides. This weekend was so fun with them!

First week- Success!

Well it’s been officially a little over a week. I survived navigating, classes, and adjusting to being in Spain! I have made some friends (amazingly enough- I know) and life is good!

Anna and I live on Camino de Ronda which is on the southern side of the city. It’s a solid 25-30 minute walk to where classes are which is really hard for me as I have class at 8:30 in the morning... I have never had a class before 9:00. This morning was especially tough to wake up as we had a crazy busy weekend.

Here’s the weekend’s activities:

Friday- We went to this thing called Botellon which literally translates to “big bottle” in Spanish. It's an empty parking lot with thousands of young adults (18-24 years old) that come out for the night.

These are all the kids out for the night. You can't get more Spanish than a Botellon.

The girls are ready!

Everyone brings a bottle of something to drink and heads out to hang with friends. It’s totally legal outdoor public drinking. I was a little scared of the idea because I know it would be messy if this happened in the states but it was so relaxed! Here’s the difference- in the states there would be girls puking, guys fighting, and everyone drinking way too much; here, the atmosphere was totally under control. It was just a social thing- no fighting, no puking, no crazies. I had tons of kids come up to me wanting to practice their english and let me practice spanish with them. (That is called an “intercambio”.) It was so cool! The only problem was that we didn’t get home until 5 am which normally wouldn’t be a problem, but that leads me to Saturday..

Saturday- We went to Salobreña for a day at the beach. (See feature photo at the top of the page) I have officially put my feet in the Mediterranean Sea!! The weather was absolutely perfect. I was in the sun for 6 hours and I loved every minute! The hardest (yet rewarding) part of the day was just getting to the beach. Here’s the deal- we had to take a bus from our street to the bus station and then to Salobreña. So everyone met Anna and I a couple blocks from our apartment to take bus 10 to the station. It was chilly that morning and all of us had sweatshirts on over our suits and were loaded with bags, towels, and stuff for the beach. Add to that the fact that all of us had gone to Botellon the night before and had gotten all of 3 hours of sleep.. well it was a brutal combination. Roughly a dozen kids arrive bright and early and are all ready for our excursion to the beach. The bus comes.. and.. DOESN’T STOP. Seriously, we’re sitting at the bus stop and the driver points up ahead to where his real stop is. Apparently we had the wrong bus stop! So all 12 of us literally CHASE the bus down the street. Thank goodness for the red lights along the way because we had a ways to go. 3 blocks later we got to the next bus stop.. which is still not the one for our bus. We ran another 3 blocks and then tried to act natural as we trooped onto the bus full of morning commuters. Every single person on that bus had watched a dozen American kids chasing this bus and laughing while doing it. I honestly don’t know how we made it, I was laughing so hard at watching everyone I almost just opted to wait for the next one.

The Mediterranean Sea- what a view.

We made it and it was a perfect day. I forgot sunscreen (sorry mom) and fried. Ok, actually after I realized how burned I was I borrowed some sunscreen from a girl in our group so I salvaged a little of my second layer of skin. Anna came home a slight shade of lobster- good thing Aloe is a universal necessity.

Sunday- We slept in (thank goodness) and had a Flamenco show that night. I was expecting a show- like a stage and lights and stuff. It was a cave. Well, ok it was an actual building but it looked like an igloo from the outside. There was a restaurant on one side and then there was this like tube thing that led to the other. We headed for the tube thing and sat on the chairs all along the side of it. It was probably 8 feet wide by 40 feet long and 7 feet high. I’m not exaggerating. In the middle was this wooden board built into the floor with a dome ceiling which was maybe a foot higher than the rest of the ceiling. I was sitting right in front of the board floor. As you can see, I was so front row I couldn’t even fit all of the dancers in my photos. Let’s put it this way- I was so front row that I got sweat flung on me from the male Flamenco dancer.

This is the only picture that turned out- I was too close for photos!

Flamenco is like tap dancing with some interp thrown in. It really wasn’t a rehearsed “show”, it was like a family who comes out to play music and dance and clap and sing with it. They just looked like they were having fun, but there was an intensity that I can’t describe.

After the Flamenco show getting tapas. At least we got some color from the beach!

Afterwards, we got tapas and headed to bed. Busy weekend, but so fun!