Spain Recap- started in Spain, finished in France

CORRECTIONS TO THE LAST HURRIED BLOG

Montjuic is the name of the hill overlooking the city that we climbed up in Barcelona to get to the fortress type thing. Poble Espanyol is the name of the Spanish village that we skipped. Also, funny story about climbing the hill- we discovered that the behavior of construction workers is universal. There is a lot of construction going on around the fortress and as the three of us climbed the hill, all work stopped and we got many "hola senioritas" as we walked. It was hilarious. Our personal favorite was this man in a mini bulldozer. He smiled and waved at us, honked his horn twice, swiveled his machine left and right and then raised the claw to make it wave at us. He then honked this other horn that no joke sounded like the cat calling whistle you make- roo roo- type. I guess we could have taken offense, but was rather endearing. We joked that the Spaniards took flirting to new levels by having it built into their machinary. We laughed because ALL of the workers had something to say to the three girls walking up the very tall hill.

Seville activities: we paddle boated on the river, saw a bull ring called La Maestranza and learned about bull fighters (bullfighting season doesn't happen until april, so we couldn't see a show even if we wanted to- and after learning about it, we didnt want to), saw the third largest cathedral in the world called Cathedral de Sevilla and the belltower attatched called La Giralda (btw it was the largest Gothic cathedral- the actual motivation for the architects, i kid you not, was "let's build a cathedral so big that the rest of the world thinks we're crazy," the tour told us so), saw a beautiful palace called Reales Alcazares that had some awesome gardens and walked around Seville and ate gilatos. It was nice. At first I was a little hard on Seville because it was under construction a lot and it was similar to Aix, except Aix is more quaint and adorable. But Seville with its sunshine eventually won me over. I loved the bull right. Ashley and I went right when the sun was starting to set and took the last tour of the day. The guide was awesome and Ashley and I asked her so many of our bullfighting questions that it was almost like a one-on- one tour. Very cool. Paddle boating was funny too. Ashley let me steer for a moment and we started heading towards the side of the river where there were a ton of people laying out. A group of Italian (? maybe Spanish) boys started yelling at us and pointing to the other side of the river. Seeing as how a large group of foreign guys were yelling at me in a language I didn't know, I freaked and Ashley laughed- she turned the boat more towards the center and we kept going. There was also a moment when Ashley and I decided to get to the other side of the river as a large tour boat was coming forward. I got nervous and thought that we couldn't get out of the way fast enough. Again, Ashley laughed and we safely made it to the other side. It was a funny moment though- paddle boats don't move very fast, no matter how hard you peddle so here we are peddeling furiously (in the path of a giant tour boat) trying to quickly move to the other side.

Other Seville moments: we met up with Mike and Inyego (don't know how to spell his name... Mike, the Brit explained the pronounciation as "Something you say to your mates when you want to go in the pub... in ye go" haha which cracked us up cause we would never say that). It was so much fun hanging out with them. The guys were sweet and we were sad to part with them. Mike cracked me up with all of his British phrases, On the phone with me he told me to "drop a bell" when we were ready later that night. Drop a bell?? It means give someone a call. He also kept saying he had to buy something for his mum. He had many memorable phrases, but I'm forgetting them now.

We endured an 11- yes 11- hour bus ride back to Aix. We were all testy and irratable and badly in need of showers and fresh clothes. Living out of a backpack (sidenote to Aunt Char and the girls who went to FLA with me as well as those who saw how much I packed for that week- I USED ONLY MY TINY BACKPACK FOR THIS TRIP! ONE WEEK WITH ONLY A BACKPACK) is extremely difficult. I feel that I have challenged myself to new levels after accomplishing one week with such a limited wardrobe. We all missed France on the trip- our host families and French food. Not to mention not living out of a backpack which means fresh towels and clothes. Oh yes, France is great. And it truly feels like home. Not to say that I don't have my moments where I long for the blessed US of A. But relatively speaking, France is my home. It's rough speaking French again. It's funny how much you can forget in a week. I'll get it back though.

Alright, this is the end of my notes on the Spain trip- next vacation: Italy.

Thats all for now