the last 2 weeks of the European adventure have offically started.

Don't blink...

Although our weekend started on Friday, we actually woke up fairly early and headed to UPV in order to meet with a teacher and get some questions answered regarding the final. Then, we spent most of the day writing a paper that is due on Friday. It was a fairly tedious and boring process, but it had to be done! We finally finished writing the paper around 6pm, and then we decided we should spontaneously book a trip to Seville, Spain, for the weekend! We found a bus online; it was leaving from Valencia at 10pm! We booked a hostel, grabbed our backpacks, ran back to the piso, made dinner, took showers, packed our bags, jumped on the metro, and headed towards the bus station.

When we first got to the bus station we tried to buy tickets from a machine, but it said that there was only one seat left -- uh-oh! We tried our luck at ordering tickets from the window, though, and we succeeded! There were 5 seats remaining, and we took two of them! The bus company even gave us free vouchers for snacks -- hooray! :) As we departed from Valencia, Emily and I reminisced about the semester... Being homeless to Estonia boy to sleeping on the airport floor to kissing the Blarney Stone to parasailing... EVERYTHING! It was so much fun to sit there and reflect on these amazing few months. Thinking about it all makes me a little sad to leave. I have had an awesome semester. I want to go home, but I don't want it to end, if that makes sense. For the first time, it finally hit me how very bittersweet it really will be when the time comes to leave. Spain has been my home these past few months. I absolutely love it. I'm not quite ready to give it up, but that's okay because I still have a couple of weeks.. :)

I spent the 11 hour bus ride attempting to sleep, thinking about EVERYTHING (Seriously. Everything. If you are reading this right now, you were probably thought about on Friday night from Valencia to Seville, especially if you were one of the friends that graduated -- congrats, guys! :)), and listening to my ipod. When we got off the bus in Seville around 8am, I was fairly tired, but we navigated our way through the city and towards our hostel. Pulling our suitcases down the street makes me not look forward to packing and pulling them through an airport at all, but that's another story! :) We knew we wouldn't be able to check-in to the hostel that early, but we wanted to drop our luggage off and change. Well, we were able to drop off our luggage, but there was no bathroom for us to change in! That meant that we had to spend the first half of Saturday looking and feeling gross. On the bright side, very few creepsters talked to us! The only downfall was that we were SO out of place. People in Spain usually dress up a bit more than Americans, but they were especially dressed up in Seville, and we have no idea why! We did see quite a few weddings, but besides that, I didn't see any other reason for the massive amounts of dresses, suits, and hats.. yes, hats! All the women were these very extravagant hats or hairpieces. They were really pretty and fun, but wow! You wouldn't see those in the U.S.! :)

We attempted to eat breakfast at McDonald's, but for some reason the Mickey D's didn't open until noon. SAD DAY! We settled on Spanish pastries, though, and I can't complain. :) We also attempted to find the tourist info center. Here's the one thing I HATE about Spain: they have signs advertising places, and so you follow the signs thinking you're going to the place, but then the signs just end, and you never find the place!! It's so annoying! Needless to say, we didn't find the tourist info center that was advertised by the signs, but we eventually found another one!

Spain, especially Seville, is well-known for ceramics, so we went in ceramic shop after ceramic shop. They had some really neat stuff, and all of it was hand-painted in Seville. At some shops you even got to watch the people paint it! Some if it was painted with extremely fine detail. It was very impressive.... and some of it was very pricey. :) We also managed to find Spanish Christmas ornaments, which is unusually hard to do. Okay, maybe they're not REALLY Christmas ornaments, but they have strings that make them appear to be.. kinda.. sorta.. They ARE Christmas ornaments, or at least that's what I made Emily keep telling me. :)

We finally returned to the hostel, cleaned up a bit (it's funny how you suddenly start getting attention from creepy old men again when you stop looking homeless), changed clothes, and headed to a place to buy flamenco tickets, as flamenco is something Seville is famous for. Unfortunately, we were told that the tickets were already sold out, but they invited us to put our names on a waiting list. We decided to try our luck, and we wrote down our names. Emily and I then separated from each other; she went back to the hostel, and I went to do some shopping. We decided to meet back at a well-known point in the middle of town. I got there first, and as I sat and waited, this strange man approached me and asked if he could take my picture (in perfect English, I may add). I awkwardly agreed, and he took it.. and then he took a picture of me on MY camera. It was so odd. I wonder where my picture is floating around now!


Also, while I was waiting, this religious processional near La Catedral de Sevilla started up. There was a band, and there was a small parade. There were also these people carrying an almost alter of sorts, but you could only see their feet waddling underneath it. There were candles on it and a statue of the Virgin Mary. I have NO idea what it was all about or why it was going on, but watching the little feet shuffle underneath was kind of funny. If anyone cares to explain, I'd love to hear what was happening. Maybe that's why everyone was so dressed up? :)

I eventually met up with Emily, and we headed back to the flamenco place. Somehow we got really lucky; our names were called! The flamenco venue was tiny, which is what we were told it would be like. We were on the back row, and that was only 3 rows back! The lady was really fun to watch, and I wondered how she managed to not trip over her pretty dress, but the guy was the REAL impressive one! Wow.. so much energy and emotion! He was also pretty fun to look at even when he wasn't dancing. ;) I think I want to be a flamenco dancer for Halloween. Now I just need some dancing skills (although there is NO hope for that! :)) and an attractive male (sans mullet, please) to accompany me, and I'll be set! :)

As we walked back to the hostel that night, we passed La Catedral de Sevilla again, and the tower, which is named Giralda, was all lit up. It was beaaaautiful, just like the rest of Seville! Here's a fun fact about Seville: its "sister city" is Kansas City, MO! Apparently there is a replica of Giralda in Kansas City, so I'm now determined to find it and see it and compare! So.. yeah... there's a connection between Spain and Kansas City. Go, Royals! (Please note and remember that I just mentioned the Royals in my blog, Dad, the next time I ask you for something... ;))

Although we slept in an 8-bed all female dorm that night, I didn't wake up ONCE as all of the roommates entered and left throughout the night. I was sooo incredibly tired after that horrible bus ride! Needless to say, it was nice to sleep in an actual bed! When we woke up the next morning, the hostel provided us with free breakfast, although there was another strange man there and we were confused as to whether he was REALLLLLY weird or REALLLLLLLY drunk! I'm probably going to go with the latter... :)

The first thing we did on Sunday morning was go to the bus station in order to secure our tickets back to Valencia. We weren't going to change there only being one seat left! :) We got them without a problem, and then we hopped on a bus to "Plaza de Espana". However, when we exited the bus, we got sidetracked! We stumbled across a "mercado medieval", which translates into "medieval market". It was just out in the middle of some park, and there were tons of booths set up selling "medieval merchandise", hosting "medieval games", and serving "medieval food". Some people were in costumes, and others weren't, but there were lots of animals, too! It was so fun to browse through the booths and see all the stuff! It was a lot like a Renaissance Fair, which is kinda funny when you think about it. :) So, yeah, the "mercado medieval" was not in the itinerary for the day, but it ended up being a lot of fun!

We eventually ventured away from Seville's Renaissance Fair and wandered across the street to "la Plaza de Espana".















As you can see, we took lots of fun little pictures and just walked around. :) My favorite part was the giant fountain in the middle because, unlike at Missouri State, you are allowed to get in it and splash around! Spain is full of gorgeous fountains; I wish the United States had them! The walls of the plaza are also lined with little tiled alcoves that represent all of the different processes (in alphabetical order! Woohoo.) of Spain. Unfortunately, Valencia's was under construction, and there was only a painted wall showing what it SHOULD look like. It seems that everything in Europe is under construction -- boo!


We walked to Alcázar (pictured above!) after we finished with picture taking. Alcázar is a royal palace dating back to the 14th century that is located right in the heart of Seville. It's the oldest royal residence in Europe that is still in use; the king and queen of Spain still stay here when they visit Seville! Alcázar is also the place where Ferdinand and Isabella greeted Columbus when he returned from discovering America. I was struck with awe over that fact; I was walking in the same halls and gardens that Columbus walked thousands of years earlier! Isn't that crazy?! It's way cooler to think that I stood where Columbus stood than to think I stood where Hitler stood. Anyway, if you are ever in Seville, Alcázar is definitely worth visiting! It's especially nice if you're a student; you get in free and get to escape the 7 euro fee! :)

Our connection with Columbus didn't stop at Alcázar. Our next stop was back to la Catedral de Sevilla. To give you an idea of the enormity of this cathedral, I will mention that it is the largest Gothic building in the entire world, and it's apparently the largest Roman Catholic church (St. Peter's in the Vatican isn't considered a cathedral, I guess) in the world. Needless to say, it was massive! Now, what does this cathedral have to do with Columbus?? It is here that he is supposedly buried (there's some debate about this because apparently he was buried in one place and then moved and moved again.. Whatever. He's totally in Seville!). The picture of the right is of his tomb, which is located off to the right in the cathedral. The inside of the cathedral is fairly dark, although it's decorated beautifully and elaborately, but when you walk out of the side door of the cathedral, you emerge into a garden full of bright, cheerful orange trees (gotta love Spanish oranges!!). Unfortunately, there were no oranges on them during our visit, but we still got to experience the obvious contract of the interior and exterior!

We also took the opportunity to climb to the top of Giralda. It was first constructed in the 12th century, but they've added some stuff, like bells since then. Here's the funny thing about the tower: there are no stairs! Instead, it's steep winding ramp after steep winding ramp! It seemed like the ramps were endless, but we finally made it to the top, and it provided a very nice view of the city and the cathedral below us!


We ended our day by walking to the Guadalquivir River, where the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold) is located! In present day, it just appears to be a normal tower, but back in the 13th century when it was created, it was covered with actual gold tiles! Of course, someone has taken them since then, but the history behind it is still neat. While at the river, we heard something that is uncommon in Spain -- English! And it was American English! We ended up meeting 3 other college-aged girls from Texas (Go, Cowboys! That's another point for me, Dad. :)). It was nice to talk to other Americans. They are just starting out their experience in Spain; how exciting for them!

I was a little sad to leave Seville, and I know Emily was too. It was probably one of my favorite places to visit. It was a perfect mixture of relaxation and interesting stuff, and to add to it, it was absolutely gorgeous. If you come to Spain, go there! :) Our bus ride back to Valencia was pretty uneventful. I didn't sleep much at all, and we had to switch buses at 6:30am. It wasn't the most fun 12 hours of my life, but we ended up making it back to Valencia one hour before schedule, so I can't complain too much! I did end up taking a nap that evening, but that was after going to the post office and being completely unproductive. :)

Today is Wednesday, which means I have exactly two weeks left of Spain. Where have the past four months gone?? They have flown by so quickly! To be completely honest, I am starting to get a little sad. Don't take that to mean that I am not completely ready to see my family and friends, drive my car, talk on my cell phone, eat normal food, read books in English, and hang out with non-creepy boys. No, I am COMPLETELY ready for that! I'm just not quite ready to leave, if that makes any sense at all (and I am aware that it sounds completely contradicting!). This semester has been pretty fabulous, though. God has blessed me with so many incredible opportunities and allowed me to see so many places while creating soooo many funny, happy, fantastic memories. Seriously, it's not every day you can just jump on a place every few weekends and visit an entirely new and exciting COUNTRY! Anyway.. so, yeah.. I'm starting to get a little sad about leaving. It's really bittersweet, but I'm not going to get all sappy about that right now. That will most definitely come later, and you will read all about it, but for now I'm going to concentrate on upcoming events that MUST be taken care of!

Tonight I have to finish a paper so I can turn it in tomorrow so I can head back to Italy this weekend. This is the last big trip for Emily and I, and we are going to have a blast spending our four day weekend jumping from Rome to Venice to Milan! :) What's even better is that today Billy informed us that he's going to Rome this weekend to visit his brother, and we booked the same flight without even knowing it! It'll be fun to fly with B-dawg, and his brother is going to pick us up from the airport and drive us to the hostel so we don't have to pay for a cab -- sweet! :) Here's to my last "big" trip in Europe, for now! I'll talk to you all soon, and I'll see you in a few weeks, and I honestly can't wait! Much love. BE blessed! :)
...life goes faster than you think.