Italia!

So once again, failed at having a blog, but since I finally have some time I thought I would get to writing my posts about my Christmas break. To avoid having literally the longest post ever I will go country by country. So first up is Italy!

Almeria is one of the hardest cities to travel out of (unless you are going to Granada). So we had to leave the day before our flight to get to Madrid in time. We had a 7 hour train ride which got in at about 11pm. Being cheap people we went right to the airport to wait/try to sleep there while waiting for our 6:40am flight.

First view of Italy. The Alps, so beautiful!

We got into Bologna around 8:45 and made our way to our hotel. We were super surprised by the quality, we were expecting hostel quality but turns out it was a 3 star hotel for only 25 euros a night! (#winning) We spent the first day sleepily wandering around Bologna trying to figure out the layout and what things we wanted to check out on the rest of our trip.

Cappuccino, my favorite!

We went to the Piazza Maggiore which is in the center of town, there are a lot of government buildings a big church (called the thesaurus. Tired us thought it was really funny) and lots of little cafes and shops.

Statue in the entrance to the Piazza

Piazza Maggiore from the National Galleries 

Christmas tree! It was real, and smelled really good. :)

After that we found a building with really cool ceilings so we decided to check it out. Turns out it was the Universityof Bologna’s Museo di Palazzo Poggi. We wandered around and took a ton of pictures, the walls and the ceilings were all painted with dedications to certain people/groups.

We went in one room where we met a tour guide who explained (in Italian) that it was a old lecture hall for science classes, called the Anatomical Theater. The professor would be at the front of the room in the lecture part, the class would be all around like an audience. In the middle of the room was a marble table, there they would have the cadaver and do all the dissections. It was really interesting. All around the walls there was statues of Greek gods. All in all it was a really interesting place to wander into, I recommend it for anyone in Bologna.

In the courtyard of the museum

Anatomical Theater. The professor would sit under the arch, the white
table in the bottom corner is where they would do the dissections.

View of the Ceilings

View of the hallway in the museum

That night we went to a restaurant that I got out of my travel book (Europe on a Shoestring). It was called Mariposa Trattoria. The book said that it would be all homemade and decently priced. Shani got gnocchi in a tomato sauce and I got pumpkin tortellini in a sage and butter sauce. It was amazing. Like probably one of the top 5 restaurants I have been to. That dish and a ¼ liter of house red wine was only like 11 euros. Insanity! We wanted to go back there but they were closed on Christmas. :( So anyone going to Bologna you have to go there!

Pumpkin tortellini. YUM!

The next day (Christmas Eve) we went to the Modern Art Museum or MAMBo. It was modern art. That's about all I can say. Haha. Some of it was good, some of it made no sense. But while we were waiting for the museum to open we tried to get a picture in front of a sign for the museum. Turns out the building we were standing next to was the Gay and Lesbian Cultural Center, the guy who took our picture gave us a thumbs up. Hilarious.

Shani and me outside the museum/gay and lesbian cultural center. :p

After the museum we wandered back to the center of the city to go up the tower to get a view of the city. Despite knowing exactly where the tower was we could not find the way in, after circling the building a few times we final saw this opening about as wide as 1 person, with no sign.

The tower at night

Shani in the entrance

It cost 3 euros to go up and was definitely worth it, the tower was built between 1109-1119. I was pretty convinced it was the original stairs we were walking on, they were made out of wood, super slippery and had indentations from all the feet walking on it. The last set leading out onto the landing was so steep, and not even wide enough to walk down going straight, you had to put your feet sideways. Terrifying. But the view was amazing!

Scary

scary

Pretty view!

Towers in Italy

That night we went to another restaurant recommended by my book, this one was in an old wine cellar and was decorated with old barrels. The atmosphere was nice until some guy got up and decided to have his own karaoke session. It was pretty shitty and kind of a buzz kill. But the food was really good! We got the special which was risotto finished table side in a wheel of Parmesan and served with a balsamic reduction. Way good. Also when we were walking home we realized it had snowed! It's a Christmas miracle! (our saying for everything awesome that happened). Not a lot of snow, but more than we will ever dream of getting in Almeria.

Our waiter making the risotto

yay snow!

Christmas Day! Not a super exciting day. We decided our present to ourselves would be to pay the 7 euros for the hotel breakfast, it was good. And lots of packaged food somehow made it into our pockets and back to our room for lunch. ;) Nothing was really open that day (surprise, surprise) but we went on a nice walk to check out a big wall that we had walked past every day, turns out behind that is a really awesome park.

The wall.

The park

When we were done wandering around for a few hours and taking pictures we went back to the hotel to eat lunch and warm up for a bit. We were surprised to find a box on each of our pillows. Our hotel had given us a Christmas present!

Our Christmas present from the hotel!

After taking over one of the computers in the lobby to talk to the fam I went on a walk to see if any restaurants were open. So many people were out walking around! It was really interesting to see. I went back to the Piazza Maggiore because I figured something would be open there . In the middle of the square there was a band of people playing Native American music. What country are we in?? It was kind of crazy. After that I went back to get Shani and we headed out to dinner at this other trattoria down the street from the Mariposa. I had mushroom risotto and we splurged and got dessert which was kind of a tiramisu apple thing, it was good. There was a really funny English couple in the restaurant too who seemed like they had been going there every day for every meal during their vacation, they kept talking to the owners like they were old friends, even though there was a massive language barrier.

Bologna is a small city, so after our few days there we felt like we had pretty much seen everything there is to see. Luckily for us, its super close to Venice and Florence. Venice was cheapest so we decided to make a day trip out of it. Shani had been to Venice before but it was my first time, so I was annoying her taking pictures of everything. It is so mystical there. I kept comparing it to a ride at Disney Land because the water is a really weird fake-looking greenish color, and you ride around on a boat. It was really cool seeing the buildings that are built in the water with all the algae on the doors. It was really pretty. Our first stop was Piazza San Marco. We got really lucky the day we went because there was basically no tourists there at all. We went into the Basilica and only had to wait about 3 minutes to get it. I would have loved to take pictures but it wasn't allowed inside. The whole ceiling was done in gold, it was beautiful. And the floor had a bunch of different patterns.

Ceiling in the entry way to the Basilica

Floor in the entry way, the floor in the whole building looked
like this, it was beautiful.

We did some window shopping after that and found some crazy stuff made of Murano glass.

Glass balloons, 500 euros each

Glass paint, paint brushes, umbrellas, hats...basically
anything you want in glass they had it

por ejemplo.....glass alligator. :p

I bought a set of necklace/earrings for all the ladies that drive me home from work and some glass cherries and a glass candy for my mom. We basically spent the whole day wandering around, not going in to much. I made us stop at the Vivaldi Museum though because he is my favorite composer. It was pretty interesting, there were a ton of old instruments and a little demonstration on how violins are made.

We messed up the trains going back to Bologna and got on one that was going to Rome, while it did stop in Bologna, it was like an all first class train so we had to pay the difference in the ticket price which was 25 euros. So that was a huge buzz kill. The next morning we headed back to the airport to go to Belgium!

Here are some bonus photos: =)

St. Mark's Square

Had to throw in a Gondola picture!

View of the Gran Canale from the Academia Bridge

One of the walls in the museum in Bologna

looking down from the tower

Piazza Maggiore at night

Market

MOROCCO!!

Long awaited Morocco post! (apologies for how long it is. :p)

I decided to make my life easier I would go through a tour group for this trip. Some of the other auxiliares went to Lagos, Portugal with a group called DiscoverSevilla and absolutely loved it, so when they announced a trip to Morocco I signed up right away. It was an all inclusive 5 day excursion for only 399 Euros! Awesome deal! The only extra expenses were for shopping (which I did my fair share of) and drinks. Since the group is based out of Sevilla I had to take the train there from Almeria, which means I had to miss school. I decided to take the early train to have some free time in Sevilla, I left Almeria at 9am and got to Sevilla at 4:30, but since Sevilla is literally the most confusing city and even though the hostel I was staying at is a straight shot from the train station I still got lost. Haha. But when I finally got settled I had just enough time to go to the Plaza de España, one of the most beautiful sights in Sevilla, and something my parents and I didn't get to see when they were here. After that I headed back to the hostel to meet up with some other auxiliares staying at the same hostel who were also going on the trip. We had a really good final Spanish meal before venturing into the world of Moroccan food.

Last Spanish dish for a week. :)

Plaza de España

The actual Moroccan part of the trip started crazy early (3am) Saturday morning. Since so many of us were in the 10 bed hostel room (with 1 bathroom) we had to wake up super early so we could meet the bus at 4:30am. By the time we got all the luggage and everyone situated in the bus we left Sevilla at 5am for our 2 and a half hour drive to Tarifa. Once we got there we got our passports stamped and got on the ferry to go through the Straight of Gibraltar. The ferry advertises that it is only 35 minutes, but it took a very shakey/not even a little bit fun hour to get there. Needless to say, everyone felt A LOT better when we were back on land in Tangiers. Getting off the boat was funny because I am pretty sure everyone said at least once: “Guys! We're in Africa!” After that we got our passports stamped again and headed for the banks outside to convert money which took FOREVER.

We finally left the port and headed for Rabat after everyone was finished, we ate lunch at this nice restaurant by the beach. The staff prepared a traditional meal that is usually only served at special occasions, it was a philo dough wrapped pie thing with chicken inside, which smelled like funnel cake. I had what turned out to be my staple dish of the trip, cous cous and vegetables. 

After lunch we headed into Rabat to go to the Hassan Mosque, which is two mosques, one old and one new combined into one. The old one, consisting of the columns, the tower and the wall is from the 12^th century and the new one called the Mausoleum of Mohammed V is more modern. The old one was intentionally left incomplete after the Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour died in 1199. There are speakers in the old tower that call everyone to prayer in the Mausoleum, so both parts are connected making it one Mosque.

View of the tower of the old mosque.

Columns from the old mosque, and the new mosque.

Our next stop in Rabat was the Kasbah of the Udayas. Named for the tribe that settled in Rabat in the 12^th century the Kasbah was a fortress used to protect themselves against other tribes. It was destroyed once by a tribe called the Almohads, who started rebuilding it in 1150AD adding a palace and a mosque. The project was abandoned with the death of Yacoub al-Mansour. The fortress was left unused until the 17^th century when thousands of exiled Arabs (from Spain) returned to Morocco and moved into the Kasbah. They wanted it to be like the living arrangements they had in Spain so it has very similar architecture/colors to Andalucia (hence the white and blue walls).

Inside the Kasbah

After we were done touring around Rabat we drove to Fez where we stayed for the night. We were all really REALLY glad to not be on the bus, it was definitely a long day. The next day was another really long driving day as we headed towards the Sahara desert. It was an absolutely beautiful drive. None of us knew that Morocco had such different landscapes, we went through places that looked like Ireland, places that looked like Kansas, places that looked like the Northeastern US, places that looked like the Rocky Mountains, and of course, the desert.

Outside the University

Our surprise from the guides was a stop to feed the apes.

  

We stopped at the Xaluca hotel which is this really awesome 5 star hotel in the middle of the desert. We were greeted with music, dancing and a traditional tea ceremony.

We didn't have that much time though, because we all had to put on as much clothes as possible for our night in the desert. So, once everyone was settled we put our main bags into a van so they could go to the hotel that we would spend the next day at, and we loaded up our over night bags into Land Rovers. The ride in the Land Rovers was so much fun, we started off on the road but then turned off to go the much more fun way (off roading) through the rocky desert. It was about 45 minutes in total (and in the dark) to where we met our camels to take us through the sandy desert to our “oasis.” This camel ride was only about 20 minutes so it wasn't too bad, it was scary going in the dark though, and my camel, which I named Eugene, decided that he liked to go down the dunes sideways which always made me feel like I was going to fall off.

Eugene and me. :)

  

Dinner by candlelight

I put oasis in quotations because it was not really what people would think of as an oasis. It was a bunch of tents in a circle with a bathroom tent (not even going to go into how gross that was) about 20 yards away. When we first got there we picked out a tent and then headed to the middle of the circle to hang out while the rest of the group rode their camels in. Once everyone was there we at dinner in the big tent by candlelight. It was a tight squeeze getting everyone in, but it was fun. After dinner we went outside again and sat around the bonfire and watched our Berber hosts play music and dance. Some people stayed up late and some (like me and one of my friends) went to bed early so we could get up to see the sunrise. It was a REALLY cold night. Like a lot colder than we all thought it would be. I was wearing a cami, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 fleece jackets, a hoodie, a beanie, gloves, scarf, yoga pants, jeans and 3 pairs of socks, sleeping under 2 pretty heavy blankets and I was still shivering most of the night. And if you know me, you know that I love the cold, so just imagine what it was like for the non-Coloradans. :p

Colleen modeling our tent

One of the guides said he would wake everyone up in time for the sunrise, but no one heard him, so luckily I heard some people talking outside and decided to see what time it was. It was 6:05 and the sun was supposed to rise at 6:40 so my friend /tentmate Colleen got up and headed for a dune outside of camp. The others in the group who woke up for the sunrise attempted to go up the big dune behind the camp, but we headed out front to a smaller one and still got an incredible view. It was totally a Lion King sunrise. Haha. We got some amazing pictures while listening to the camels making some crazy noises.

After the sunrise we headed back to camp to drink some tea and get ready to leave. Once everyone was back from the big dune we got back on the camels for our 2 hour (really painful) ride to another really nice desert hotel where we spent the day relaxing. I spent a good chunk of time napping in the sun by the pool. :) After lunch most of us went on a walk with the guides to a desert town. We walked through the gardens and were able to see how they are watered. It was really interesting.

Sahara Desert farming

Water channels, which are blocked off with sand until they need them

  

When we got back we watched the sunset on the dunes and watched some kids do flips off the dunes. After that we headed back in the Land Rovers to the Xaluca hotel where we were greeted with people playing instruments on the roof! We settled in to our awesome rooms and had some free time to explore the hotel before our buffet dinner. My roommates and I were excited to have a nice warm bed to sleep in so we went to bed pretty early.

The next day we said good bye to the desert and made the long journey back to Fez. It was essentially a repeat the day going to the desert, but with different movies in the bus. :p Since it was our last actual night in Morocco there was a party in the hotel bar, we were told that there would be a belly dancer, but most of us gave up and went to bed before she arrived. My roommate, Kirstie, and I decided that watching BBC news and talking about the toilet situation in India was more fun than the party. :p

The next morning we left early to head to the Medina in Fez. The Medina is a UNESCO world heritage site and is just overwhelmingly awesome. It was founded in the 9^th century, it has the worlds oldest university, mosques, palaces, residences and lots of other things. It is all surrounded by a wall and once you get inside it really feels like a different world. The streets are really small and everyone is dressed a lot more conservatively than on the outside. There are a ton of stores where you can buy literally everything you would ever need/want. We started by going through and looking at what there was. We stopped in front of an orange vendor where our tour guide explained how trusting everyone is in the Medina. For example, if you needed some eggs or something but didn't have the money right away to pay for it, the vendor would give you what you needed knowing that you would pay when you could, but if you never ended up paying, everyone in the Medina would know and never sell to you.

We had to share the really narrow roads with donkeys, pushcarts, horses and other things.

We stopped by a public bakery and saw them making bread. We walked past so many fabric stores that I really wanted to stop in, but we were pressed for time.  

Inside the public bakery

The first place we stopped in was the leather tannery. Before we went up to the top floor to see look at everything the store owner gave us some mint to smell because leather tanning smells really bad. It's a really interesting process though, everything is all natural. The hides start in a bath of ammonia, made from pigeon poop, where they stay for over a month to make them really soft. After that they are moved into the colored baths where they stay for 2 weeks. The colors are all made from plants, green from mint, purple from lavender.... After the store owner finished explaining the process we got to shop around. I bought a pink camel leather shoulder bag for 700 Dirham (about 63 euros). After I paid for that the owner took me downstairs to look at jackets. I ended up getting a really nice brown (camel leather) one for 2000 Dirham. Crazy awesome deal I think because its all hand made. As I was walking upstairs I realized that I left my credit card in the bus. I apologized to the owner and said that I couldn't get it. I expected him to just put the jacket away but he said “oh its ok, just take it. I will come to the bus with the credit card machine.” I was blown away. Even though our guide said that they are really trusting, I had no idea that they would trust some random foreigner with a 2000 dirham jacket. Really cool.

Leather tannery

After that we headed to the spice store which was really fun! They explained some typical Moroccan spices and teas, let us smell all of them and then we bought some. I got lemon cumin, Moroccan curry, spicy pepper stuff, tea and saffron. Everything but the saffron was 20 dirhams, and the saffron was 5 grams for 100 dirhams AKA 10 euros!!! So cheap!!

We went to the scarf store next and got to see the men working the looms. Big tapestries/bed covers/table cloths take 4 days to make. I really wanted one but was running low on cash at this point so I bought a purple and silver silk scarf.

We had our last real meal in Morocco after that (more cous cous for me) and then a bit of free time. Some people got henna, some people went jewelry shopping. I use the rest of my 47 dirham to buy a present for my secret santa at school. After that we headed back to the bus for our drive to Tangers and our (thankfully) very calm ferry ride. We got back to Sevilla at about 3:15 am and all checked in to the hostel by about 3:45. I stupidly bought a train ticket for the wrong day so I had to leave at 11am to get that situation figured out, but I ended up sitting with a young girl and her father on the train so she learned how to say all the colors of her crayons in English. :p I got back to Almeria at 5:30 and relaxed after such a crazy whirlwind week. :p 

Halloween and Spainksgiving!

I have epically failed at doing a blog. :p I had a post half written about Halloween that I never finished. And considering its almost a month past that holiday I think its about time I finished it.

Everyone on the patio at my school for the costume contest.

Halloween in theory is not as big of a holiday here as it is in the US. I think its growing though because people seemed to be pretty into it. My school had a Halloween party for the kids which was a lot of fun. There was a costume contest for all the levels and lots of candy and castañas asadas (roasted chestnuts). All the kids and the teachers dressed up. 

Hard to see, but that's Antonio in the back.

Antonio was a zombie and he actually made a few kids cry because he looked so scary. From a theatrical makeup standpoint he did an amazing job making his scars. Haha (sorry, nerd moment). 

One thing I find interesting about Halloween in Spain is that everyone dresses as something scary. There were no princesses, Hannah Montanas, Justin Beibers and all that other stuff. I was one of the judges for the costume contest so I of course had to take a lot of pictures. :)

One of the teachers who was saying "scary things"
before the costume contest started. He doesn't
speak much English, so he was just saying
the names of Metallica songs.

Amaro (legit one of the cutest kids ever) was one of the winners. 

After the costume contest was over it turned into an impromptu dance party.
(Conga line of course.) :p

Decorations in the hallway. I helped color them. haha

On the non school related side I went out to Cuatro Calles with some of my friends in an attempt to go bar hopping, but as per usual in Cuatro Calles it kind of sucked. Especially on Halloween because everyone and their mother was out, so it was like trying to party in a NYC subway. :/

Now for Spanish Thanksgiving! Or Spainksgiving as I have decided to call it. :p

Lots of food!

Just some of the chefs,
we were secretly on a mission to
see how many people we could fit in the kitchen.

 Supplies are definitely limited here. So, we made do with what we could find. If you want a turkey you have to request is way in advance, so we didn't have one. Lauren and I decided that we were going to organize everything and have the dinner in our apartment.

We ended up with all of our roommates (even the unofficial boyfriends who live here....another story....) my friend from Germany, Dörte (also an auxiliar) and her friend from France, Maxime (an Erasmus student).

Everyone made something and we ended up with a very eclectic but delicious meal consisting of tortilla española (from Mamen's boyfriend and Lauren's boyfriend), Spanish Chorizo (from Mamen), mashed potatoes (from me, minus the secret ingredient which I guess doesn't exist in Spain), broccoli casserole (from Lauren), chicken in tomato sauce (from Saher), and a baked pasta dish (from Dörte), and alcohol of course courtesy of Maxime. And what Thanksgiving meal would be complete without pumpkin (or in this case, butternut squash) pie (made by Lauren). An adventure in and of itself.

 

The delicious pie, which our oven decided
needed to be burned a bit.

Spanish family around the table. :)

We ended the night by playing a few drinking games which somehow ended up turning into north versus south. Over all I think it was a great night! Even though it was not 100% traditional for our non-American friends.

PS: Get excited for my next post!!!! It will be about my Moroccan adventure.
PPS: sorry for the weird formatting, I gave up trying to fix it.