Dans L'Ombre De La Tour Eiffel: SPRING BREAK

Prepare for yet another massive post, as I spent the last week travelling through Spain and Morocco with 9 other students from my program for our Spring Break. So Friday morning I left Paris and headed out to Sevilla. By the time we landed, found our hostel and settled in, I was ready for dinner. Now, I had heard many rumours about "siestas" and did not take them anywhere seriously enough. Now, let me just say that seistas are the bomb. I don't understand why everyone doesnt take a nap in the middle of the day. seriously. However, when you are starving and have been travelling all day and nowhere is open they are not so much the bomb. Luckily, we found a buffet that was open and I am still totally unsure of everything I ate there. All that was left to do on Friday night, though, was enjoy some authentic sangria before heading out on a pub crawl organized by the hostel we were staying at.

The view from our hostel window, I imagine it will be beautiful when the construction is over!

Sangria

My travel buddies and I on the pub crawl

Saturday is def much more worth writing about! In the morning, my group went on a walking tour organized by our hostel. Which was awesome because we got to hear a lot of history and stories about different places that I'm pretty sure otherwise we would never have known. Later in the day we visited the Alcazar which is the royal palace in Sevilla. Alcazar may have been my favourite place of the entire trip, there were so many hidden gardens and rooms, I'm pretty sure we didn't even see half of them. Afterwards, I had my first churros con chocolat (churros with hot chocolate) which were quite a surprise. Nothing at all like the churros I have had on vacations before, there was no sugar on the churros, just fried dough for dipping in hot chocolate. It was pretty yummy, but I will admit a bit much for me. That night, I enjoyed my first tapas in Sevilla and then saw a flamenco dancing show which was also really fun.

The Cathedral

Ruins being excavated in Sevilla

I can't remember the name of this window, but no one is sure how it was built because of the way the bars are!

Pont de Triana

Bullfighting Museum (didn't actually go in)

Alcazar

Alcazar Palace

Alcazar

Churros Con Chocolat

Tapas

Flamenco

Sunday was our last day in Sevilla so we decided to explore the Plaza de Espana (Star Wars Episode II was filmed here!). It was so beautiful (as was the weather!). Afterwards, I enjoyed some more tapas and paella with my friends before heading over to Giralda (the belltower) and the cathedral. The Cathedral houses Christopher Columbus's grave which was really cool to see. My favourite part definitely was going to the top of the belltower, though. It was such a beautiful sunny day; it was absolutely perfect. We spotted some roof top restaurants and bars from the belltower, which we decided should be our next stop before dinner, and from there we got an equally beautiful view of the belltower as the sun was setting.

Our Whole Group in Sevilla

Plaza de Espana

Maria Luisa Park

Yummy Sangria

Paella!

Christopher Columbus's Grave

View from the Belltower

Monday morning we ventured to my third continent: Africa! Our initial impression of Marrakech was quite an interesting one. Our directions to our hotel told us to go down the alleyway next to Cafe Glacier, however, they did not mention there are two Cafe Glaciers, and we ventured down the alleyway next to the wrong one. So, while wandering down random alleyways and being stared at as obvious tourists, a local began leading us to our hotel, once we arrived there we saw that besides a sign that says Hotel Cecil, it looked basically like an abondoned building. There was a cloth hanging over the door way, and the "front desk" was an empty desk, literally just a phone on it, in a room with bare walls. So after taking one step in and seeing all of this, I turned right around, and stood outside awkwardly with most of the group basically pooping our pants. Eventually, the owner coaxed us in and it turned out the front area was under construction, and the rest of the hotel was lovely. Extremely embarrassing, but hey, at least I was careful! We spent the rest of the day nomming on delish Moroccan food and exploring the markets. My favourite part of the markets was probably haggling with the vendors. I bought an awesome "handmade" (not sure if i really believe it) moroccan vest shirt thing, that I of course proceeded to wear the next day in the hopes of fitting in. Least favourite part of the markets, would probably be sticking out like a sore thumb. Many Moroccans knew very few english phrases or phrases that were not applicable. There were a couple favourite Moraccan catch phrases to yell at us: "Fish & Chips" (still does not make sense) was by far the most common. Why men riding by on motorcycles were yelling this at us is beyond me. Moroccans also loved to relate us to American celebrities, I got called Shakira many times and interestingly enough I was also called Queen Elizabeth.. Not really sure what to make of that one.

Our Hotel

Our First Look @ our Hotel EEEEK

The Reason Why I Ran Away Upon First Viewing

Thaaat's More Like It: The Middle of Our Hotel

On Our Hotel's Rooftop Terrace

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Couscous!

Marrakech

Koutoubia Mosque

The next day we enjoyed a beautiful roof top breakfast at our hotel, complete with fresh orange juice (I don't know if i can ever go back to tropicana after visiting morocco), mint tea, hot chocolate, and bread and pastries. Of course afterwards, we wanted to hit up the markets again. Which was more of the same haggling, hearing "fish & chips" a million times, watching millions of stray calico cats roam the streets,gagging at animal heads hanging in storefronts, touching chameleons (as the vendor told us: he changes colors like Micheal Jackson!"), and all around adventures. When we had enough of the markets, we ventured over to the Saadain Tombs, which were very different than what I expected. There were no name markings on any of the graves, but they were all tiled and decorated very ornately nonetheless. Afterwards, we went o the Bahia Palace which was also beautiful (although Alcazar set my Palace standards a little to high, I think). Later that day, we finally filled our number one goal for Morocco: riding camels! Now, unfortunately we weren't in the desert, but I can say that I rode a camel in Africa, which is good enough for me. That night we decided to eat a late dinner in the middle of the square where there about a million tents set up selling Moroccan street food. What we did not account for, was literally being grabbed and pulled into the different tents. After about one minute of this, we decided to just sit down at the nearest tent because it simply was not worth it to walk through the area anymore. Regardless though, the street food was delish, and although a little scary I'm glad we did it to get the full Moroccan experience!

Saadain Tombs

Bahia Palace

Tagine!

Camel Rides!

Kittens Everywhere

Street Food!

Wednesday we headed back to Spain to see Barcelona for a couple of days. Upon our arrival, we immiedatly needed to get our tapas and sangria fix (two days without them was just too much). We arrived kind of late and were all pretty tired so Wednsday was basically spent eating and resting in Barcalona (or Barcy as we so dubbed her).

Spanish Countrysiiiiide

Yayy Back to Spanish Food!

Thursday, though, we again took advantage of staying in a hostel and went on another free walking tour. The theme of the tour was Gaudi, and I am so glad we chose that tour. I had never seen buildings like that before. We saw Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, and the Sagrada Familia. All of which were amazing. After the tour ended at the Sagrada Familia our group decided to go in and see the church, and also go to the top of the towers for an amazing view of Barcelona. Later in the day, we decided to visit Park Guell (a park designed by guess who? GAUDI) and well we got very lost, but once we found the park it was all worth it because like Gaudi's buildings it was like nothing you have ever seen in real life before, almost Disneyworld -esque. We spent that night at clubs on the beach, which was as amazing as it sounds, if only it was warmer out! I imagine its an amazing place to be in the summer.

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

Sagrada Familia

Barcelona

Barcelona from the top of the Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

Friday was my last day in Barcelona, and since we had an afternoon flight, we decided to pack in as much as we could the next morning. We saw another cathedral, Market Santa Caterina, Palau de Le Musica Catalana, and finally hit up La Rambla for our last tapas lunch!