La Feria de Abril

I'm not sure when I first heard about feria, but I know that I have been anxiously awaiting it since the day we got to Spain. For those of you who don't know, feria is a week long event in Sevilla that begins two weeks after Semana Santa. Although I'd heard people tell me that it would be "the best week ever," I still had no idea what to expect going into the week. The kids I tutor at Claret had told me to expect dancing and drinking, but even they couldn't give me much more than "you're going to love it!"

Gabi and I with the pretty lanterns and cassetas

We decided not to travel anywhere during feria, although most of the people on our program did. Instead we braced ourselves for what was sure to be a crazy week. Now that I have experienced it first hand, I would say that feria is a mix of Prom/Frat Parties/Tailgating/New Year's Eve/Halloween/State Fair. Feria started at midnight this past Monday, and we were lucky enough to be invited over to Molly's home stay to wait for the lighting of the "alumbrado," which is a giant archway customized for each year's feria. Molly lives on the road where feria is located, and we were able to see the lighting from her balcony before her senora opened a bottle of champagne for us at midnight (this is where New Year's Eve comes in). After we drank the champagne, we headed past the alumbrado to where the cassetas are. Cassetas are private tents that people rent out for the week and invite their friends to. The exclusivity of the cassetas, which usually have a guard at the door, reminds me of frat parties. Other than that, they might as well be the original tail gates. The cassetas are filled with food and drink and consist of people hanging out or dancing flamenco. The streets that line the cassetas are packed with people just hanging out, and it reminded me a lot of Chapel Hill on game days (minus the flamenco dresses). The women all wear flamenco dresses, and the men all wear suits. This part is where prom comes in, but I'll throw Halloween in as well because the outfits could certainly pass as costumes in the United States. The flamenco dresses are very extravagant, and we have learned that they are a pretty big deal here. Our mom makes her own, but most women dish out hundreds of euro a year just for one dress which ends up going "out of style" by the next year.

Inside of a casseta

The first night at feria we ended up (somehow) getting into two different private cassetas, and it was a blast. We tried our best to learn the "sevillana," which is the typical Sevilla flamenco dance, but I don't think I ever really mastered it. After dancing with an older Spanish couple and trying the classic feria drink called rebujito (white wine mixed with sprite), we called it a night and headed home.

The next day we went to experience feria in the day light, and a huge group of us opted for a public casseta, since it would be much more difficult to sneak a posse of Americans into a private casseta. Some of our friends had borrowed flamenco dresses from their senoras, and it was really funny to see them all dressed up. We came back that night to experience the other side of feria, and I was amazed at how starkly different the two sides were. Once you pass the cassetas, you come to a massive plot of land that put me right back at home in the Dixie Classic Fair (this is where the State Fair part of the mix comes in). There were tons of fair rides and even fair food, and I was pleased to see that Spanish people love bumper cars as much as Americans do. Of course we decided we had to ride at least one ride to say that we had truly experienced all that feria had to offer.

Pink vs. purple...told you I was serious

The next day we had plans to go with Luis and a few of his friends to a basketball game. We had agreed weeks ago that we would go with him since he had extra tickets, but we were a little apprehensive when it actually came time to go. We love hanging out with Luis, and he has truly become our little brother, but a basketball game with four 13 year old boys just sounded less than desirable to me. It ended up being a lot of fun and Luis was a great host. He stuck up for our Spanish and made sure that there weren't too many awkward silences on the walk over there. Once there we experienced a real Spanish basketball game, which kind of reminded me of a kid's game at the Y. To see grown men running around in pink and purple (yes, I'm serious) jerseys was pretty comical, but they had nothing on the "cheerleaders." I don't know that it's even fair to call them cheerleaders, because they really didn't cheer for the team at all. They came out every once in a while to dance, but it was almost painful to watch. Even though both teams were pretty sloppy, the fans were absolutely wild and (once again) had coordinated songs that we weren't a part of. After the game Luis came and found us and we headed home. After two nights out we were ready for a more relaxed night, and Maggie and I stayed in and watched the Hunger Games, which I had been dying to see anyway.

Finally crossing it off our BUCKET list

The next night we braved feria yet again and met up with our friend Rachel and her intercambio, Miguel. Miguel and his friends introduced us to a billion Spanish people and we ended up staying out really late, which is indeed the Spanish way. We never ended up going into any cassetas, but it was still fun.

Last night was spent watching a new Disney channel movie with our kids (which I am ashamed to admit I actually liked) and then heading out. Maggie and I were supposed to meet up with a friend, but it never worked out and we ended up going to a place that we have always wanted to try. They offer a bucket of these tiny beers for 3 euro, and we had passed the place a million times and said "ohhh we need to try that!" every time. So finally we did, and crossed it off of our bucket list (pun intended).

Feria ends tomorrow night and I will be sad to see it go. Not only is a week off of school always welcomed in my world, but it was really great to experience something that is such a huge part of the Spanish culture. Feria really embodies all that Sevilla has to offer, and I love studying abroad in a place that is so rich in culture. I can't believe that May begins this week, and the people on the other UNC program in Sevilla are going home in only 10 days! It is such a weird feeling, but no time to dwell on that, because I am off to London on Thursday to find Prince Harry!

In front of the alumbrado

Daytime feria!

Traditional flamenco dresses

Traditional men's wear

Even the horses dress up!

Our family (minus Luis)

This is what REALLY happens when we're home

Being taught how to dance the Sevillana by a Spaniard

Too Much Murphy for One Town to Handle

As promised, I'm finally updating on last week when I had a very special visitor in Sevilla. After lugging our three giant suitcases through the Madrid metro to the train station and then all the way to our hotel in Sevilla, we finally settled down and unpacked a little bit before taking the city by storm. I was determined to show my Mom everything Spain has to offer in 6 short days, so I may have been a bit overzealous about making her jump up and start seeing things the second we had finished unpacking.

Our first afternoon we walked around the center of town and I showed my Mom the cathedral before we stopped to get a drink. After being absolutely robbed and spending 13 euro on two beers (that's what you get when you're two American girls at a bar I guess), we went to explore the river. We just walked up and down the river a bit, which is one of my favorite parts of town, before deciding that it was time for dinner. Unfortunately, my Mom wasn't quite on Spain time yet, and she was ready for dinner at about 7. We headed over to one of my favorite restaurants, called Tabernas Coloniales, and sat down to order before being told that dinner didn't even start going until 8. Just happy to sit down, we decided to wait it out and have some wine until 8 o'clock rolled around. It was definitely worth the wait. We ordered several tapas and shared them for dinner, and I insisted that my Mom try the bread with goat cheese and honey tapa that we tried in Granada for the first time. I also made her try salmorejo and croquetas, which are both typical Spanish food; and chicken with almond sauce on it. We left very full and very happy, and called it an early night since she was still tired from flying in.

Ronda

The next day we woke up early to head to Ronda, which is the city on the cliffs that I visited for the first time a few months ago. After seeing my pictures, my Mom decided that she definitely wanted to see Ronda while she was here, and I was more than happy to go again as her tour guide. We took the same hike that Maggie and I had taken, which leads down to the bottom of the cliff and gives a great view of the city. After hiking for a while, we ate lunch at a great little restaurant which was actually situated right on the cliff so we had a perfect view of the giant bridge. The weather was great and it was really nice to see Ronda from her perspective. She got to try tortilla de patata, which is one of my favorite Spanish foods, and after lunch we walked around the streets of Ronda going in random shops and (of course) finding ice cream. We headed back to the bus station after a full day, ready to head home, only to find that the bus driver wouldn't let us on the bus. He said something about us having to get our ticket "validated" (although no one else in line had to) and we frantically ran to the ticket office where a man stamped our tickets and told us to run. We made it back just as the driver was shutting the luggage doors, and thankfully he let us on. After finally getting home we were starved, and since it was normal Spanish dinner time, we had our pick of restaurants. I don't eat out in Sevilla much, because our family makes all of our meals for us, so we had a hard time picking restaurants. We finally settled on one that I had walked by a million times before, and ordered fish plates. My Mom was a little surprised to see that my fish were still looking at me when they arrived, but luckily hers had been beheaded before they got to her.

Ronda

The next day I had to leave for a few hours to take an exam, but afterwards Maggie and I met up with my Mom for lunch. Since it was Wednesday, we headed to one of our favorite spots called Cien Montaditos, where everything is a euro on Wednesdays. Cien Montaditos is known for having little sandwiches, but we all opted to try the salads instead, and got some olives on the side just to be a little more Spanish. The best part of the euro deal are the huge jars of beer you can get for a euro, so of course those were an integral part of our meal as well. After Cien Montaditos we headed across the street to a place called Lizarran where you pick tiny little tapas on toothpicks out of a glass case and then pay at the end based on how many toothpicks you have. It's a really fun place because they have all kinds of different things to try, but they're little so you can have a lot of different ones before you get full. Since we'd already eaten a little bit, we each got a dessert tapa and a beer, and hung out for a little bit before walking through the centro and going into a few shops. Maggie went back home after lunch, and my Mom and I went to tour the castle, which is called Reales Alcazares. I hadn't been back since we first toured it with our program in January, and it was definitely much prettier in the spring time. The flowers were all in bloom, and the peacocks were roaming around the castle grounds. The castle is huge, and since it was built by Arabs, it has an Arabic design which includes several different buildings connected by patios as opposed to the normal Cinderella-esque castle we normally think of. Unfortunately, I didn't really remember too much from our January tour, so I probably wasn't the best tour guide, but it was still pretty to look at. In order to prepare for the very Spanish night we had ahead of us, we took some time at the cafe to hang out and rest before heading off again. Our next stop was a bull fight, which we decided was a must do if you are in Spain. The bull fights had just started up the week before my Mom came, and I'd say we picked a great one to go to. I didn't know too much about bull fights before I went, and I was really surprised at how it all worked.

The matador with the bull

DISCLAIMER: This may get graphic. We settled into our seats at the bull fight, and had no idea what we were about to see in the next two hours. A little background: each fight consists of 3 matadors, and 6 bulls. Each matador has 2 fights, and all 6 bulls are killed throughout the 2 hour period that you are there. We had learned in my culture class that bull fights are an art form in Spain, and that they are not considered a sport. Nevertheless, it felt like a sports arena once people started cheering for the matadors. I think my Mom and I may have been the only people in the bull ring cheering for the bulls, but I just wanted one of them to be spared (which can be done if the crowd thinks the bull really deserves it.) First things first, the bull is let out into the arena and runs around very proudly before encountering a few of the matadors "helpers." They basically serve to make the bull dizzy and run him around a bit, and then after a few minutes they each take a turn spearing him in the back. After the helpers, two blindfolded horses come out and are used to wear the bull out as well. Although he's already covered in blood by this point, the bull is still full of strength, and tries multiple times to lift the horse off the ground. It amazed me how strong these bulls were, because at one point he had the horse (with the man riding the horse) completely on his back and in the air, all the while being stabbed by the man on the horse. The horses wear a protective coat, but I still felt really bad for them because they were blindfolded and had no idea what was attacking them. After the horses leave the arena, the matador finally comes out to fight the bull. We were surprised that the matadors were so feminine seeming, because I had always picture them being very masculine. It almost looked like the matador was doing ballet movements when he got the bull to charge at him. He let the bull charge several times before finally trading in his small sword for a real one, and stabbing the bull. It takes a while for the bull to die, and the three helpers come out again to run the bull around and make him dizzy so he will fall more quickly. Once he finally falls, one of the helpers stabs him several times to ensure that he is dead before the horses come and drag him away. The sand of the area is swept and then in comes the next bull...5 more times.

The first bull was the hardest for me to watch, but you kind of become desensitized to the whole thing after a few bulls. I was happy to learn that the bulls who are raised to fight are treated like kings for the first 4-6 years of their lives before they are put into the ring. It was still hard to watch, because I love animals, but I am definitely glad that we went. Two of the matadors earned a very special honor, because when they went in for the kill, they pierced the bull right through the heart and/or aorta, and the bull died almost instantly. If this happens, the matador is presented with one of the ears of the bull he just killed as a sort of trophy. The matadors were so proud that they received an ear, and the crowd went absolutely nuts for them. It was cool to get to witness this part of a bull fight, because apparently it doesn't happen all too often.

Flamenco show

After the bull fight, we didn't have much time for dinner before we were heading to a flamenco show, so we stopped by the ever trustworthy McDonald's for a quick taste of home. Maggie met us at La Carboneria, which we had been to a few times before, and my Mom got to experience a flamenco show. We ended up getting front row seats, which meant we were almost touching the woman as she danced, and it was cool to watch. After what had been a very long (and very Spanish filled) day, we headed home.

The next day, and our last day in Sevilla, we headed to tour the cathedral and climb the bell tower, which my Mom was really excited for. I am always awestruck by the cathedral, even after being here for so long, and it was nice to see an outside perspective. My mom loved the cathedral and all of the different areas inside. We went to climb up the ramps to the top of the bell tower, and were sad to find that it was really really crowded. We finally made it to the top surrounded by a field trip of what felt like millions of teenagers. The view definitely made it worth it, and I was glad that my Mom was able to witness it in person, since I truly don't think that pictures can do it justice. We stopped by a store near the cathedral to buy olive oil, which was on the top of my Mom's bucket list since she got here. The olive oil here is really great, and there isn't anything comparable in the US. After picking out a few bottles of olive oil, we went to lunch at a nearby place and I (once again) forced my Mom to try some of my favorite Spanish foods: paella and huevos rotos. Both were delicious, and I think that she may have found a few recipes while she was here that she can make back home. We decided to adapt to our Spanish lifestyle and take a much needed siesta before finishing up the sites that I wanted her to see, which included the Plaza de Espana and Maria Luisa Park. I think she loved both of these places as much as I do, and I was really happy to show off my city for her. It was nice to be showing a parent a city for once, since usually it is the other way around. I think that my Mom loved Sevilla just as much as I do, because it offers a little bit of everything; from water to green to old cobblestone roads. We ended up the day by going to dinner at my host family's house, and my Mom finally got to meet the family that I've been living with for the past 4 months. As I had promised her earlier, Carmen did indeed show my Mom her bare butt. Other than that, the kids were on their best behavior, and my Mom even got to meet one of the family friends who is always hanging around. Pilar had made us a huge spread of different types of food, and we sat around the table and ate family style while my Mom got to know the family. After we had eaten, I explained to my Mom that Pilar had made herself and the kids new flamenco dresses for Feria that started the next week. This led to a runway show where the girls modeled their dresses for us. Maria and her Dad even broke into some impromptu flamenco dancing, and we got to see what the "sevillana" dance looks like. We finally had to call it a night since we were heading to Madrid really early the next day, and we headed back to the hotel one last time.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed back to Madrid. After lugging one of the suitcases to Pilar's the night before to switch out my summer and winter clothes, the wheel had broken and we were stuck with a giant suitcase that was nearly impossible to roll. We braved the metro anyway, and did a mixture of dragging and pushing the suitcase through until we got to our hotel. Luckily we were greeted by doormen who swiftly took the bag to our room where we could forget about it for a few days. Our hotel was much nicer than the one in Sevilla, but we were surprised to find an apparatus that resembled a vacuum cleaner attached to the bathroom wall. We later found out that this was a hairdryer, although I think it may have literally been the original model for a hair dryer. We headed out to explore Madrid, and ended up heading straight to eat. We found a nice little tapas place, and my Mom got to try yet another Spanish food called patatas bravas (basically potatoes with a type of hot sauce on them). By this point, I think I had literally made her try every type of Spanish food in existence. After shopping for a little while on Madrid's version of 5th Avenue, we headed back and took a siesta. When we woke up, we headed over to the Prado Museum, which is free from 6-8 PM, and toured it with my friend Kasey who is studying in Madrid. The Prado Museum was more fun than I expected, and it was interesting to see paintings in person that I have learned about in Spanish classes all of my life. We went to dinner with Kasey and caught up with her a bit before heading back to our hotel.

Cathedral in Toledo

The next morning we woke up and took a day trip to Toledo, which is about a 30 minute train ride from Madrid. The train ride was infinitely nicer with no luggage, and the train station in Toledo was really beautiful. We had read to skip the touristy buses outside of the train station and instead just head uphill until you find the city. Whoever gave us this advice wasn't kidding about the uphill part, and after what felt like climbing Everest, we finally made it to the top where the city is. We made the cathedral our first stop, and were soon accosted by a man who insisted that we just had to go visit the artisan workshop beneath a local convent. Figuring it might be cool, we set out to find this convent and went inside where we got to watch local artisans making a classic Toledo craft, which consists of plating gold in designs onto different jewelry or other objects. It was pretty cool to watch, but our hunger got the best of us and we headed back to the cathedral area where we grabbed some coffee and tortilla de patata. After eating, we walked around in search for the El Greco Museum, and found our way to the Jewish Quarters of Toledo. The city itself was very beautiful, and we stumbled into a pottery gallery where we were sent downstairs into a labyrinth of pottery. Apparently there is an entire part of Toledo that is located underground, and this is where the people used to live. It was really cool to experience the underground section, and we got a really pretty ceramic pitcher with oranges on it in honor of Sevilla. On our attempt to find the El Greco Museum, we stumbled into a church where mass was going on, and decided it would be less rude to join than to open the door again. So we joined mass, and my Mom got to experience first hand what I experienced on Easter Sunday at the cathedral. Mass in Spain is identical to mass in the US, except for it is obviously in Spanish. It was an interesting experience, and we were definitely happy to have accidentally stumbled into it. We (finally) found the Greco Museum and got to go in while it was free. The museum was modeled after the home of the artist, and it was one of the cooler museums I've been in. After the museum we went to a nearby restaurant and got the "Menu del dia," which ended up being a ton of food. With full stomachs and tired from a jam packed week of sight seeing, we kept up our Spanish tradition of siesta-ing, and found a giant park bench long enough for both of us to spread out. Needless to say, I feel asleep pretty quickly lying in the sun, and my Mom woke me up telling me it was time we head back to catch our train.

We had another bit of trouble going home from this day trip (similar to Ronda a few days before) and had to argue our way out of accidentally buying the wrong type of ticket. Luckily it worked, and we headed back to Madrid.

Inside the pottery store 

Reales Alcazares

Matador

 The next day ended up being a little less tranquil than my Mom had hoped, because the alarm she had set to give her plenty of time to get ready for the airport never went off. We ended up waking up 15 minutes before we had decided we needed to leave, and it put things into a bit of a hurry. Luckily we had packed up our bags the night before, and we were able to navigate the metro quickly and make it to the airport on time. After walking through what was, I'm pretty sure, the ENTIRE Madrid airport, we finally got to her check in desk and got rid of the awful bags. Now super sweaty and tired, we headed to security where we had to say our goodbyes. I jumped on the metro and headed back to the train station, and on the way I met a couple from Texas who had just arrived in Madrid to meet up with their daughter who is also studying abroad in Sevilla...small world. I made it to my train with plenty of time, and had a great nap on the way home. I arrived back to sunny Sevilla and headed to the river to meet up with some friends. Luckily I had this day to relax, because Feria started the next day...and boy would I need my rest.

Birthdays and Soccer Games

Maria and her cake

I have been a very busy girl since my last blog post! I spent the week following our big Semana Santa trip getting ready to head to Madrid to pick up my Mom and to celebrate one of my best friend's birthdays. The whole week was full of birthdays, and I ended up celebrating two in Sevilla before I even got to Madrid! On Wednesday we celebrated our little sister, Maria's birthday. Since Maria has always been our favorite sibling (I think we're allowed to say that) we were super excited for her birthday.

Since we've already given the kids so many Skittles, we decided to go in another route for Maria's present. She is a lot like I was as a little girl, and loves to do crafts and make things. We found a jewelry making kit after searching through the 7 floor Corte Ingles, and decided it was definitely something she would like. As soon as Maria got home from school Maggie and I welcomed her with singing and hugs, and we settled in to eat her favorite (and mine) lunch meal of lentils. After lunch she insisted that we cut the cake, and we sang to her while she blew out her candles. We dug into the cake that Pilar had made, which was cookies stacked in layers with dulce de leche and cream in between each layer. Yum!

Maria and her birthday present

After dinner that night we gave Maria her present, which she said was her favorite that she received. Of course she was probably just telling us that, but I'll take what I can get. Like we found with Luis' birthday, it doesn't seem like birthdays are as big of a deal here. Maria seems to be much more excited for her first communion, which is coming up in a little over a month. Maggie and I made sure to make a big deal out of her birthday, because it never hurts to give the middle child a little extra attention where you can.

The next day we celebrated another birthday, but this time it was for a friend on our program named Ryan. We all went out to lunch at this great place in Sevilla called Taberna Coloniales that has the best tapas for super cheap. It is kind of tucked away down some cobblestone alleyways, but it is such a great find. Maggie and I got our favorite tapa of bread with goat cheese and honey, and then we tried chicken in almond sauce which was also delicious. The best part of the meal came at the end when we had to pay the waitress almost entirely in coins. Some things never change I suppose.

At the stadium!

That night Maggie and I took advantage of one of our last opportunities to see a Sevilla soccer game. We had been trying to go to one all season, but it never seemed to work out! I am so glad we finally made it to one, because it was so much fun. I borrowed one of Luis' Sevilla soccer scarves and we headed out to the stadium. If I haven't already mentioned it, Spanish people care A LOT about soccer. I think they care about soccer more than Americans care about anything. The lower section of the crowd was singing coordinated songs and doing coordinated dances the entire time. Even from the nose bleeds we felt like part of a music video. It amazed me how the entire stadium knew every single song and when to sing it. I have always loved watching sports in America, but I think American fans have a lot of room to grow if they want to compete with Spanish fans. Of course Maggie and I attempted to join in on the songs, but by the time we had almost learned the refrain of one song, they were on to the next one. Sevilla ended up winning 3-0, which of course led the crowd to go even MORE wild.

View of the field

The next morning I woke up and took my first ride on the AVE to Madrid. The AVE are hi-speed trains that travel through Spain, and they are really nice. I have decided that trains are my new favorite method of travelling. I was too excited to sleep on the AVE, so I settled in to watch the movie, which unfortunately was something called Dolphin Tale. At first I figured it was going to at least put me to sleep, but I surprisingly almost enjoyed it.

Abby and Kasey, two of my friends from home, met me at the train station and we headed back to Kasey's apartment so I could drop my things off. We spent the rest of the day eating lunch and hanging out together and catching up. It felt great to see them, and this was the first year that I've been able to see Abby on her birthday since high school, because she goes to college in Texas. The rest of my weekend in Madrid was spent exploring all that the city had to offer, and Kasey and I ended the weekend making homemade guacamole and quesadillas, since we are both seriously missing Mexican food.

Maggie and I at the game

On Monday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and met Abby at the metro to go pick up my Mom from the airport. Thankfully Abby was sweet enough to wake up at the crack of dawn for me, because I'm not sure I was awake enough to navigate the metro alone. We picked up my Mom at her gate, and headed straight back to the metro to ride to the train station. After dragging three bags all the way to the train station (which is a 45 minute trip that includes switching metro trains twice), we finally arrived. We ate lunch until Abby had to leave for class, and then we found our train and settled in on the ride to Sevilla.

The rest of the week with my Mom was incredible, but it will have to wait for the next post. So for now, I leave you with a cliffhanger.

Globetrotting: Ireland, Amsterdam, and Germany

Last week was "Semana Santa" in Sevilla, which literally translates to Holy Week. While most of the Christian world focuses on Easter Sunday, Sevilla focuses on the week leading up to Easter. It is a huge deal here, and therefore no one has school. We knew this from the get go, and started planning a trip really early on in the semester. The week took four of us to Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany. Prepare yourselves for another long post. This one will probably take the gold, but there are just too many stories and pictures to share! 

I'll start out by saying that it is almost eerie how well this trip worked out...especially with so many opportunities for disaster. Luck was certainly on our side, and it ended up being an unforgettable week. 

We started our week off in Dublin, Ireland; which is somewhere I've always personally wanted to visit. I was ready for some rolling green hills and Irish pubs...and most of all: to hear English everywhere I went! We hopped off the plane and right onto a double decker bus, which was enough to get my excitement level really high. We found our hostel pretty easily, and were greeted by the cutest accents I've ever heard. Our impersonations of them on the plane really didn't even come close to doing them justice. Irish accents are by far my favorite accents in the world as of now. 

Our first stop was the grocery store, as we had decided it would be fun (and cheap) to cook our own food at the hostel as opposed to going out to eat for every meal. This turned out to save us so much money, but it also ended up being really fun. We spent so much time at foreign grocery stores just looking around and picking out what our dinners would be, and I'm pretty sure the food we cooked was better than anything we would have bought (to be modest).

Our first Irish beer: Smithwick's

All of the touristy things were closed by the time we settled in for dinner, so we took our time and our resident chef, Rachel, took over in the kitchen. After we deemed it appropriate going out time (which is much earlier in Ireland than Spain), we headed out to the famous Temple Bar, which is an area of bars in Dublin. On the way, we spotted a bar really close to our hostel that had cheap pints of beer and we headed in to check it out. We ended up being the only people in the bar, and ordered our first Irish beer: Smithwick's. The bartender quickly became our new friend, and we were sad to part ways when we kept on towards Temple Bar. We tried a few different bars before ending up in the actual Temple Bar, which turned out to be a struggle. Although the drinking age in Ireland is 18, the actual Temple Bar has an age limit of 21. The first door man denied us, but luckily his friend around back decided we looked 21. The inside of the bar was PACKED and there was live music and tons of people dancing. It was a really cool bar, but we didn't stay long because we could barely move. We ended up walking around Dublin for awhile before heading back to the hostel.

Trinity College

The next morning we headed out to tour all that Dublin had to offer, equipped with our PB&J sandwiches (peanut butter was the find of the day in the Dublin grocery store). First we headed to Trinity College, which was absolutely beautiful. It almost rivals Chapel Hill, but not quite. The grass in Ireland truly is greener, and the whole campus is covered in grass and trees and flowers. We walked around for a little bit and then headed over to Dublin Castle, which was a disappointment. When I hear castle, I'm automatically thinking Cinderella and giant palaces. The Dublin Castle was more of a large building with a big patio outside. Needless to say, we didn't spend too much time there. 

My favorite part of the day came next when we took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. I had heard that this was a must do in Dublin, and I can now attest that it absolutely is. The whole beer making process was laid out for us in a self-guided tour through this seven floor storehouse. I learned more about making beer than I probably ever needed to know, but it was really interesting. Other floors included old advertisements from Guinness, and even a floor where you could test your "Beer IQ." We learned that the Guinness Book of World Records is the same "Guinness" as the beer, which was news to me. Fun fact: apparently the book was started to solve arguments that arose in bars. The best part of the tour came on the seventh floor, when you ended up in the "gallery room" that overlooks all of Dublin. This is the room where we got our free pint. I surprisingly enjoyed Guinness, and I stole my pint glass as a little reminder of Dublin. A little criminal activity never hurt anyone. 

Pouring my beer and the inside of one of the Guinness Factory floors

The four of us at Kilmainham Goal

After the Storehouse we headed to the last big tourist site in Dublin, which is called Kilmainham Gaol. This site is a former prison, but is now a museum. We got a tad (very) lost trying to find the jail, but it was definitely worth it. When we arrived, we were told that all of the tours were full and we couldn't come in. We were heartbroken, because we wouldn't have been able to come back the next day. Luckily Irish people have big hearts, and the tour guide snuck us in after seeing the hurt looks on our faces. The jail was really interesting, and reminded me a lot of Shawshank Redemption. Our tour guide was full of information and we learned a lot of tidbits about Ireland's history. After the jail we headed back to the grocery store and made another family dinner together. We called it an early night after all of the walking we had done.

The next morning we woke up and headed to a town called Howth. I had known that I wanted to take a day trip outside of Dublin to see rural Ireland, and when we were researching places before going, we came across this little town. Howth is a tiny fishing village located right on the water, and it was only about a 30 minute train ride from the heart of Dublin. Howth was just what the doctor had ordered: a small town full of green grass, sail boats, water, and nice people. The fishermen looked like they came straight off of a Gorton's ad (reference point) and the boats and restaurants made me feel like I was at the Outer Banks. There was even a tiny lighthouse! I have always been a sucker for water and nature, and Howth brought all of the green I imagined Ireland to have. We had heard that when you arrive in Howth you should climb to the "summit" and that the view is amazing. So we trekked off up a giant (and I mean GIANT) hill until we finally reached the top, which was basically a cliff. The city looked like a tiny toy town from below, and the view was spectacular. To one side all you can see is ocean, and to the other all you can see are rolling hills. Before we even began our hike, we were joined by a dog who was identical to the one who played Todo in the Wizard of Oz. He was a very friendly dog, but I assumed that he would ditch us once the incline started. Boy was I wrong. Todo sprinted up that thing like it was no problem. Being our tour guide, he got a tad annoyed that we were holding him up, but he would patiently wait up ahead until we caught up to him. After sitting up on the cliff for a little bit, Todo showed us our way back down as it began to rain. We went to seek shelter in a coffee shop, and Todo disappeared from us. For dinner we decided we would eat out, since where better to get fresh seafood than the coast of Ireland, right? We took a woman's suggestion and went to a great little restaurant that had a seafood platter. It was delicious, particularly since we'd all been craving fish. We left Howth and took the train back to our Dublin hostel before calling it an early night so that we could be well rested to catch our flight to Amsterdam. Before we went to bed, we had the good luck of finding a full box of pizza sitting on top of the trash (not touching it, I promise). The only thing better than pizza is free pizza. 

Sailboats in Howth

On Tuesday morning we hopped on a plane to Amsterdam. Even though we were flying an Irish airline instead of the infamous RyanAir, we still didn't get a free diet coke. Add that to the list of America's perks. When we arrived in the Amsterdam airport we had to take a train into Amsterdam Central Station. The first night we were split up into two hostels, because one of them filled up as we tried to book it originally. We went to our hostels and dropped our bags (in a broom closet) before heading off to explore. The first thing on our list was to see the Anne Frank house, which I was personally pretty excited about. I remembered loving the Holocaust Museum in DC when I went, and I figured it would be pretty similar. It was almost chilling being inside of the same room that she hid out in for all of those years, and the self guided tour did a great job of giving us details that I had never known before about her situation. After leaving Anne Frank we decided to just walk through the city. I was surprised at how beautiful it was. I really loved how the city was built on canals so there was water every few streets, and all of the buildings looked like doll houses. We found our way over to the Red Light District, because we were all intrigued, and soon came to learn that the street is very different in the day time and the night time. The street in general may as well have been in another world. The women in the window's during the day time were not very attractive at all, and many of them were way older than I expected. After going back at night and seeing much prettier and younger women, we figured that the prettier girls get the better time slots to rent out their spaces. It was obviously odd to me to see prostitutes in a window...but even more odd that some of them were just reading a book casually, or even just sitting there texting.

Dutch shoe!

We stopped by a cute bar on the way back to the hostel to try our first Amsterdam beer. We grabbed an Amstel and chatted with the bartender a bit before heading back to get ready for dinner. One of the girls travelling with us, Rachel, had planned for us to meet up with two German boys who had participated in an exchange program at her high school. They decided to come to Amsterdam at the same time as us, and we met up with them for dinner. They were really nice, and as usual in Europe, their English was great. Germany seems to have a great education system, and it was interesting to talk to someone our own age from a country I knew virtually nothing about; especially when they had been to the United States (Greensboro to be exact). We hung out for awhile after dinner and then headed back to the hostel. Maggie and I stayed at one hostel, while Rachel and Gabi were in the other. I should have known that an interesting night was to come when we had to put our things in a broom closet...but I could not have foreseen what our night would end up like. When we first go to the room things were normal. Maggie was on a top bunk of one set of bunk beds, and I was on the bottom bunk of the set next to her. Our beds were maybe a foot apart, but I didn't have anyone above me. After a few hours, my top bunk mate finally arrived. The first shocking thing about him was his age. The man had to be over 40 years old, and was alone. He seemed nice enough, and awkwardly used the one foot of crawl space to get onto his bed. After about ten minutes of silence, he started doing this awful hacking cough that must have kept the entire city awake. He finally fell asleep, and I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn't have to hear that cough anymore when it began...the most animalistic snore I have ever heard. The one perk of bunk beds became evident when I saw his comforter hanging down where I could reach it. Periodically throughout the night I would give his comforter a big tug so that he would wake up and quit snoring for at least a minute. Every time I did this he let out this guttural animal noise that seriously resembled an elephant being taken down with a spear. The next morning, after I thought the horrors were over, I rolled over and opened my eyes to find him dressed only in boxer briefs...and standing right in front of my face. 

On top of the I Amsterdam sign!

Maggie and I high tailed it out of that hostel as fast as we possibly could. Luckily we had already booked the next night at Rachel and Gabi's hostel, which ended up at least being void of 40 year old men (although we did have a rat or two coexisting with us). We headed off to meet up with the German boys again before they had to leave, and then we ate lunch before exploring the city a little bit more. There aren't a ton of touristy sites in Amsterdam, but we took a free ferry ride that we thought would be really exciting. It ended up just being a free commuter ferry that literally traveled half a mile to the other side of a channel. It was pretty cold at this point, but we were determined to get to the one touristy site that we all wanted pictures at: the I amsterdam sign. The sign isn't all that famous or well known, but it is just a big cut out of the letters spelling "I amsterdam" and you can crawl all over the letters and take pictures on them. We finally found it and took pictures in the rain before meeting up with some girls from our program in Sevilla who also happened to be in Amsterdam. We got falafel at a great place that our program director suggested and all hung out before heading back to sleep. Luckily the rats proved to be much quieter than my past bunk mate, and the beds were super comfortable.

33 cent beer, in case you didn't believe me

We woke up bright and early to go brave the freezing cold Amsterdam morning and get to the train station for the last leg of our week long journey. We boarded our train and realized that we were all in separate carriages, but I ended up talking to some nice German folks who gave me suggestions for what to do in Heidelberg. We had decided to visit Heidelberg after one of Maggie's friends suggested it, and told us that it was a college town. We weren't really all that familiar with Germany anyway, so it didn't matter too much to me where we went. It ended up being so much better than I could have expected. As soon as we got to our hostel, we were in love. I have never even heard of such a nice hostel. The beds were comfortable, the showers were huge and hot, and the place was spotless. There was a full kitchen with clean and nice cookware, and there was even a little family room that we could eat dinner in. We felt at home right away and headed to the grocery store to figure out our dinner plans. To get to the grocery store we had to walk down the main road, which I learned from a German man on the train is the longest continuous pedestrian road in Europe. The road was full of people and shops and we finally found the grocery store, and fell in love all over again. Not only was everything cheap, but everything was RIDICULOUSLY cheap. A bottle of beer was only 33 cents, and the four of us bought food for two dinners and two lunches and only spent 7 euros each; including beer and wine. I think that I could live in Germany for awhile. 

We decided to try our hand at German cooking and made schnitzel from scratch. After asking everyone in the grocery store how it was made, we learned its actually quite a bit like frying chicken. You just use a special "schnitzel" breading in a frying pan, and voila! It was pretty good, and our hostel lady even told us that it looked like real schnitzel, so we were pretty proud. After dinner we headed out to the "Franklin Street" of Heidelberg, which was also suggested to me by my German friend on the train. He told me that all of the college students go there and that it is just a street filled with bars. The street was a lot of fun, and we ended up in a bar that was supposedly known for its "hard rock music." I don't know about everyone else, but I don't really consider "Hit the Road, Jack" to be hard rock...

View of the castle from the Philosopher's Way

The next morning we woke up and went to explore the castle. After climbing up (yet another) very steep hill, we finally got to the top. The castle was partially destroyed by the French (another tidbit from my German train friend) and was left in shambles almost. It was really pretty and looked very medieval. I was happy to see a real Cinderella looking castle after Dublin failed me. We walked around for awhile before heading back down the hill and going to take the "Philosopher's Way." This is a path leading up to another mountain and it is lined with trees and flowers. Apparently a long time ago, professors from the University would take this trail with one another and discuss philosophical things, and thus it came to be known as the Philosopher's Way. The top of the trail gave a great view of the entire city and of the castle. We headed home and cooked dinner before packing our things up for a veryyyy early morning. 

The next morning, despite our best efforts to wake up, get ready, make a bagged lunch, and eat breakfast all in time to catch our bus to the train station...we still missed it by one minute. Fortunately in these situations I usually have an eerie sense of calm, because it always seems to work itself out. This time was no different, it just involved a little bit of criminal activity along the way. We caught the next bus to the train station and tried to figure out how we could alter our itinerary and still get to the airport in time to catch our flight. We had bought a ticket online called a "Happy Weekend" ticket that allows up to 5 people to take regional trains all day Saturday for 40 euros total. This means we each only paid 10 euros each, which was a steal...but the catch was the regional trains part. With these little chuggers, it was going to take us 7 hours to get to the airport in Dusseldorf. After missing our first bus, there was no way to take only regional trains and get there in time. So...we did what any reasonable person would be forced to do...we train hopped. 

We found a route that would take all regional trains with the exception of two, which were hi-speed trains. These trains weren't covered in our ticket, but we devised a plan of how best to hop on them without being caught. Luckily we knew the German train system after taking it from Amsterdam. Unluckily, the German train system is much stricter than Italy. On the way from Amsterdam they checked our ticket at least twice, and we knew we would have to be sneaky if we were going to avoid being discovered. 

The first train ride was only 30 minutes long, and we were pretty confident that we could evade the workers for that long. We all boarded the train at the last call, and spent our sweet time walking from the front car to the very last one before splitting up. We each sat separately and tried to look nonchalant. When he came around looking for tickets Maggie and I slipped off to separate bathrooms. Rachel pretended to be asleep and he left her alone, and Gabi told him that her friend had her ticket and he left her alone as well. Right after he came around the train stopped and we got off. 

We had about 20 minutes before our next train, but this one was an hour long. Although it had been pretty easy to go 30 minutes, we knew that this train would have more stops and therefore more times when they would try to check our tickets. Nervous and feeling a little like James Bond, we boarded the train and did just as before. The first 40 minutes went by without a single sign of a ticket checker, and we were starting to feel confident when we heard him coming our way. While I was pretending to be asleep, I felt a little tap on my shoulder and heard Rachel's voice through my earphones. She came back and warned me that he had woken her up to ask for her ticket, and that he was a no nonsense kind of guy. She had said that her friend had her ticket, and she was coming to find us. I immediately got up and went to the bathroom and told Gabi to use the same story about her friend having her ticket. I hid out in the bathroom for as long as I possibly could, and went back to see that the man had left. Gabi explained to me that he had gone on to the next car but was coming back to find our "friend" who had our tickets. We decided at this point that we would show him the ticket we actually did buy and just play dumb; but in order to do that, we had to find Maggie who had the ticket. I saw him coming and ran off in the other direction, thinking I would just hide in a bathroom again and wait out the 15 minutes we had left. I ended up in the cafe, and found Maggie drinking a coffee. We decided we'd wait out there until the train stopped, and that way he would just never find Gabi and Rachel's "friend" with the tickets. Before we knew it Gabi was in front of us looking frantic. She said that when the man came back he got really angry and told them to find us. He went around every bathroom door banging on it and saying "Maggie? Colleen? Come out!" She said that he even made people come out of the bathroom. Luckily, he found us looking very inconspicuous in the cafe, and we walked back to our seats so Maggie could give him our ticket. After looking at it for what felt like forever, he kind of turned his head and looked at it quizzically. You could tell that he had never seen a ticket like this before, and after scanning it to make sure it was real, he handed it back to us. I guess he didn't read the fine print about no hi-speed trains, because all he said was "next time, make sure to leave your friends their tickets." 

We got off the train as fast as we could and settled in to a regional train, happy to be able to enjoy the ride in peace. We finally made it to Dusseldorf and to our airport, where we boarded the plane back home. Arriving in Sevilla was so strange after not seeing the sun for a week. We knew we were going to the land of no sunshine when we picked the countries we did, but it was like a little ray of heaven was just shining on sunny Sevilla when we landed. 

I can't believe this trip is already over, or that we only have 2 months left in our semester. This weekend I'm heading to Madrid to celebrate one of my best friend from home's 21st birthday and then to meet up with my Mom who flies into Madrid on Monday! The weekend adventures never end. 

Our free pint!

Howth

Howth

Family picture in Howth

In front of the canals

The pretty flowers on the bike stand

Excited for schnitzel

The Heidelberg castle by night