Salamanca, Spain.

My very last weekend excursion I decided to keep it to one day, and found myself in college town Salamanca, famous for its university. Unfortunately for me and my friend Courtney, we came at a time when all the actual Spanish students were on summer vacation, so the city was full of old people and American students studying abroad. I'm pretty sure we heard (and spoke) more English than Spanish the whole day. We got lucky because one of Courtney's hometown friends happened to be in Salamanca for the summer, so we had someone pick us up from the bus station and show us around town.

Salamanca's Plaza Mayor - really similar to the one in Madrid

This is me, probably delirious after another crazy bus ride

Salamanca is pretty small so we were able to take a walking tour and see some of the important sites of Salamanca, the first of which is la Universidad de Salamanca. At one part of the university, there is a wall with intricate stonework, where a small tiny frog sits atop a skull. According to legend, students who were able to point out the small frog with no assistance would pass all of their courses. Too bad for me I needed a little help, so I guess I'm going to have to fend for myself in future classes!

La Universidad de Salamanca

Major props if you can find the frog here, but you probably have to zoom in and such

The second main attraction was the cathedral, which was divided into the "old cathedral" and "new cathedral." Funny thing was, both of them were constructed before the discovery of America, so go figure, haha.

One of the two cathedrals in Salamanca

Here you can see the new one and the old...just not sure which is which, sorry!

The rest of the day was spent lounging around in cafes and shopping. Haha the nice thing about Salamanca was that since it was so much smaller compared to Madrid, that they had all the same stores but with much fewer customers, so it wasn't shoulder-to-shoulder competition like it is in Madrid.

The last cafe we sat around in before taking off for Madrid otra vez

Embracing the academia in Salamanca

Granada y Sevilla, Spain.

I can't believe the countdown to going home has finally hit the single digits. People, I'm coming home next Saturday!

This past weekend marked the last weekend trip I took with some classmates, where we decided to bus out to the south of Spain in Granada and Sevilla. Ugh, so hot! The bus ride to Granada was 5 hours, and in that time I managed to sleep and watch National Treasure. Wow, I thought I didn't like Nicolas Cage the first time I watched it but then I saw it again in Spanish and now I really don't like him, haha!

Our hostel in Granada was conveniently situated next to La Alhambra, a famous Moorish palace that lost Muslim control when King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella took over the area. We went downtown the first night we got there to check out the famous tapas in Granada, but called it a night pretty quick since most of us were exhausted and had to get up early the next morning to make our reservations to enter La Alhambra.

Our hostel, Posada Doña Lupe

Calamari tapas in a weird Spaghetti-O's-esque sauce

La Alhambra was in no way, shape, or form like any other royal palace I've ever visited in Spain to date. Its Arabic influences distinctly set it apart from the European style of architecture that I've seen a lot in the past two months. Some of the palace was unfortunately under construction, but the rest of it made up for it. Around the palace were also some of the largest and most gorgeous gardens ever.

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but there's a lot of intricate detail in every nook and cranny of La Alhambra

One of several outdoor courtyards of the palace

An exterior view of just a small part of the palace

You can see just a little bit of construction going on in the center of the courtyard here

"In these rooms, Washington Irving wrote his stories about Alhambra in 1825"

The overlooking view from the palace

The afternoon heat got to us pretty bad, so that part of the day was pretty much a blur. It wasn't until later in the evening when we headed up to a viewpoint called San Nicolas that things started looking up. As the sun went down, we were able to see all of La Alhambra lit up, as well as the rest of the city. There was a lot more Moroccan influence there, with vendors selling Arabic food, henna tattoos, and a small mosque.

Um, 90+ degree weather will do this to you

La Alhambra as the sun was setting

The henna tattoo my friend got - just 5 euros!

We ended up bumming around Granada slowly for the rest of the night until 3am, when we had to catch an overnight bus to Sevilla. We arrived in the city around 6:30am (oh, it hurt SO bad having to get off that bus) and checked it out before the rest of the town woke up and opened. Once things started rolling, we visited the royal palace El Alcázar of Sevilla. The city has a river running through it, so we strolled by a couple of the bridges, finishing off our short visit to Sevilla with a trip to el Museo de Bellas Artes before hopping on a 6-hour bus ride back to Madrid.

The cathedral in Sevilla

The royal palace, El Alcázar de Sevilla

Cannot believe I was even functioning at this hour of the day to take a photo that early in the morning

The fire department in Sevilla

At the time, it just seemed like this is what you were supposed to do in front of ancient castles - pose like a moron

One of the two larger bridges crossing the river

Going back to Madrid was bittersweet this time around, knowing that this was the last long weekend trip I would take in Spain. At the same time, it's such a relief knowing that this was also the last time I'd be living out of my backpack 2-3 days at a time - dirty, tired, and exhausted ALL THE TIME.

Getting ready to finish one more week of classes and then it's back to the US of A. See you all next Saturday!

Valencia, Spain.

This weekend I found myself traipsing across to the eastern coast of Spain again, but this time to Valencia, home to the famous orange of the same name. We had a little trouble getting to our hostel, but before we knew it, we found ourselves on a local city bus headed toward the beach. Before making it out to the sand and surf, we made a pit stop at a restaurant, where I had the best paella in Spain so far. Which only sounds fair, considering Valencia is the birthplace of paella, a saffron-infused rice dish with meats and vegetables. The six of us all got an order of it, and it came out combined together in a huge dish.

Not sure if you can tell by the lemons and the Sprite, but that's a frickin' huge plate of paella

The aftermath

Valencia was probably the most California-like beach I've visited here in Spain

The bull ring next to the bus stop to catch the bus to the beach

The beach was not too remarkable - probably because we were all worn out from our bus ride from Madrid - but it was nice to just relax without an agenda. It wasn't long before we were bussing back to our hostel. After camping out in the dorms for a while (it takes a long time to wait for six girls to all shower), we tried to check out the nightlife, but it was SO DEAD, considering Valencia is the 3rd largest city in Spain! Our thinking was that most Valencians were on summer vacation and had fled the miserable humidity for other Spanish cities.

Contrary to popular belief, we did not select our hostel on the basis that the logo is a chinky-eyed Eskimo to remind us that we were all Asians; it was actually one of hostelworld.com's top 10 hostels in 2005

Even for the 3rd biggest city, Valencia was pretty full of crazy ballers - it was BMW-abound like it was nobody's business

The next morning, we woke up to check out of the hostel and then go visit the aquarium, which we heard was the largest in Europe. When we got there, our jaws just dropped. Even if we didn't go in, the complex where the aquarium was situated in, the City of Arts & Sciences, was worth just going to look at. It was just a modern piece of contemporary craziness. I'm pretty sure pictures cannot even begin to do it any justice.

The City of Arts & Sciences

Stopping for a photo opp while making my way towards the aquarium

This is just so different from the old school cathedrals I've been seeing throughout Spain
A Disney World-esque structure inside the aquarium

Can't believe it was one of these things that killed that Australian nature guy...

In case you couldn't tell, this is Jaws
Can somebody please adopt a beluga whale for me?

The countdown to the flight home is definitely getting shorter and much faster! As of today, I have 16 days left before I touch down on American soil again. Looking forward to being home! Hope everyone had a good 4th of July =)

Marrakech, Morocco.

I finished finals for my first session of class last Friday and had a long break until the second one started [today] so I decided to leave Spain for once and headed to Marrakech, Morocco for the long weekend. This was the The Trip That Almost Wasn't - while my friend and I were booking our flights, we ran into a little fiasco that had us ending up with two, one-way tickets from Morocco to Madrid. After a slew of phone calls and emails, we managed to book tickets to actually get ourselves there, though!

The flight to Morocco was relatively uneventful - kinda like flying from John Wayne to San Jose, really. It wasn't until we landed that I was definitely like, "Wow. This is something different." The Marrakech-Menara airport is so tiny that there are only nine gates at the airport, and no walkways from the plane to the gate. They set up two sets of steps by the front and back of the airplane, so you walk straight into the glorious, hot Moroccan sunshine. I guess that's how President Obama feels everytime he comes off the plane.

As soon as I saw the Arabic, I knew I was in big trouble

Getting off the plane like the president is overrated - it's frickin' HOT

Our first day was pretty laidback just because we were so exhausted from traveling. We were jipped by the taxi driver who charged us more than twice of what we should've paid, but we were too tired to haggle for the price, which is the general way of doing business in Morocco. Finding the hostel was a little trickier because the main languages of the country are Arabic and French, which, clearly, I speak neither. Luckily, my friend spoke extremely broken French, which was more than enough to get us by. Throughout the rest of the weekend, I pretty much clung to her, and if not, I was definitely looking like an idiot with the most ridiculous hand signals.

In front of our hostel's HQ - we actually stayed at a smaller building a little further away

This is the main square of the medina quarter (old city) of Marrakech, called Djemaa el Fna

Yes, there were camels, but they're just a tourist attraction and I did not partake in it because we heard that your heinie starts to hurt after 15 minutes or so

Two girls in our hostel had been in Morocco for two weeks prior, so they gave us the lowdown on "How to Do Marrakech in 2.5 Days." We grabbed dinner at some food stalls that get set up in the main plaza around sunset, where we were aggressively approached by the vendors all fighting tooth and nail for our business. Some common Moroccan dishes include skewered kabobs, couscous, and tangine - a curry-like stew. Afterwards, we headed to the souks, the small shops that line up for what feels like miles.

The view from our table, after we decided to eat at the stall of whichever vendor harassed us the least
Moroccans eat this huge, round loaf of bread at pretty much every single meal

Tangine!
A peek at the souks from behind an archway while sitting on the bus
A vendor selling every kind of nut you could possibly imagine - we bought an entire kilo of caramelized peanuts for 35 dirhams - that's 2.2 pounds of peanuts for a little over $4, people

Morocco is still a developing country and therefore has a very machiste attitude towards women, meaning it was more than OK for guys to call out at us. It was weird because in Central America, I got used to hearing, "China!" but in Morocco, it was, "Japon! Konichiwa! Japon, Japon!" Ughhh. It was annoying at first, but slowly, you realize that you just have to tune it out.

Souks on another side of the old city

Yep, they still drive these around, but like the camels, they're more geared towards tourists

We opted to take a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus tour of Marrakech that allowed us to see all the major sights. You pay 130 dirhams (13 euros, more or less) for a ticket valid 24 hours, and you can get off on any stop and sightsee for as long as you'd like. Once you've felt you've seen it all, you just get back on the next bus, and proceed with the rest of the stops. The part of the city we stayed in was the older, more historic part of Marrakech. It's probably what most people of think of when they hear, "Morocco," or "Africa." Although there is a newer part of the city that is a little more modernized with recognizable retail such as Zara and Miss Sixty.

The Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, which is across from Djemaa el Fna

By the walls of the mosque
Behind the mass of palm trees is the Royal Theatre
This is us in front of the fountains in the shopping center of Ville Nouvelle, the new part of town

Golden Arches: the tell-tale sign that you are going global

Marrakech is trying to modernize itself, and one of the first steps it took was to host an international film festival several weeks ago. Although it is working hard to globalize itself and establish the city as a major tourist destination, it still has a long way to go. The country's misogynistic mindset is very evident walking up and down the streets, where it is common to see women begging for money, oftentimes using their children to play the "cute" card, a result of a lack of formal education. Even in the airport, there was a rule stating that children with Moroccan fathers must have permission to leave the country - regardless of the the child's citizenship.

In Marrakech, everything and anything cultural is turned into a tourist attraction - I had to PAY to take this photo of a dancing, cross-dressing Moroccan

The last day we treated ourselves to a session at the hammam, which is basically a spa. It starts with a turn in the sauna, followed by a tough scrub to remove dead skin, and finally a 30 minute massage. After a weekend of sun and sweat, it was nice to be pampered a little!

Our final day pretty much consisted of just going to the airport to catch our flight, nothing too spectacular. Although Morocco was a real adventure and definitely a place totally different from other countries I've visited, it was nice to be back in "civilization."