My very last trip of my year abroad came and went faster than expected. My best friend Sarah came to visit and our other friend Mindy, who studied the spring semester in Vienna, came for part of it as well. May 11 I went with my program to Cadiz, a sea side town in Spain, while Sarah and Mindy flew into Madrid. We took a bus from Granada to Cadiz and stopped at El Torcal for a short hike. The rocks at the Torcal are very interesting and I wish we were able to spend a little more time hiking and exploring, but a lot of the other people in my program didn’t want to hike at all so we only did a short hike. After the hike we continued on to Cadiz, not getting there until around 8:30-9pm. Since it was late I didn’t do anything that night; just ate a quick dinner and went to bed.
The next day we had a free breakfast at the hotel before everyone met in the lobby to go on a walking tour. My program organized the tour so it was free and the tour guide was very good. We took the bus from the hotel to the old part of the city and from there we walked around the city, the tour guide pointing out historical information as well as cultural tidbits, and she even sang a bit about Cadiz and Flamenco. It was a very creative and interesting tour and along the way we met other tour guides all dressed in costume and in character. They did the whole tour in Spanish which was nice and although I was able to understand everything a lot of the people in the group didn’t understand and just kept talking and not paying attention. We finished the tour at the Cathedral and separated from the tour guides to go to the Torre Tavira. Inside the tower is a Camera Obscura which lets you look at the city and surrounding area of the tower through a tube and mirror reflection thing. It was really cool and you could see everything in real time, people walking in the streets below, the ocean waves, everything. The tower also had a observation deck looking out over the city. It was a very good view of the city and the camera was really cool. After the tower we finished all the organized activities with the program and had free time. I went with two other year students, Haleigh and Kelly, to wander the city a bit. We got some teas at a cute library coffeeshop combination before finding a place for lunch. I got a sandwich but Kelly ordered some shrimp which came with full heads, antenna things and eyes, which creeps me out way to much to ever be able to eat like that. Next we wandered to the coast. I’m not sure why but Cadiz has these concrete cubes lining a part of the sea and the town. I guess they are a kind of wave protection but not really sure, however in one part of the cubes there are little homes created for cats. We watched the cats for a bit then walked back to the hotel. We changed into swim suits then went to lay on the beach right outside of the hotel. We hung out on the beach for a few hours but since I had quite a few assignments coming up I spent the rest of the evening working on homework before having another quick dinner and going to bed.
Sunday, the last day in Cadiz, I woke up, got some free breakfast at the hotel then walked into town to go shopping for some souvenirs and browse the market. I got a tea and tostada at a cafe in front of the Cathedral, then Haleigh texted and let me know she was on the beach by the hotel if I wanted to come so I headed back to the beach and hung out with her there for a bit. The bus was set to head back to Granada at 4pm so a few hours before I hung out in the hotel working on some homework. We headed back to Granada and got back around 8:30 so I had dinner and hung out, did some more homework and went to bed. Sarah and Mindy were set to bus into Granada at 6am the next day.
I woke up early enough to catch a taxi to the bus station at 6am. I met Sarah and Mindy as they got off the bus and we got a taxi back to my apartment. We spent a little while catching up and talking, but I had to leave for school at 8am so they hung out and took naps while I went to school. When I got off school at 2:30pm I went back to the apartment and we hung out until Nati brought us all lunch. We enjoyed the gnocchi and chicken lunch then went to see the city. We checked into our Airbnb in the center of town, right near the Cathedral. I showed them around Granada a bit, as we went to the Albaicin, saw the Mirador de San Nicolas, a few plazas and parks, went into some shops, checked out the Cathedral,then got some tapas at a few different places that were very delicious. After that they were still tired from traveling and I was tired from getting up so early so we went to bed at a fairly decent hour.
We got up really early the next day to catch a bus to the beach. I didn’t have school so we packed the day full of things to do. We bussed to Almunecar about an hour away from Granada. Once we got there we found a cafe near the beach to get breakfast. I got a waffle with chocolate sauce and it was delicious. Then we spent some time relaxing on the beach and taking pictures. Mindy is a little obsessed with taking pictures and took way more than I ever would have. She insisted on retaking pictures until she got the perfect one, but some of them did turn out and I’m glad we got them. We stayed at the beach until about 1pm then bussed back to Granada, got lunch, changed and showered then walked up to the Alhambra. My third visit to the Alhambra and it was still amazing and beautiful. It’s an incredible castle with beautiful gardens. We spent a pretty long time there but once we started to get hungry again we headed back down to the city center, grabbed some dinner and got ready to go out for the night. Mindy wanted to go out clubbing so we went to a couple bars and Chupiteria where you can get over a hundred types of shots for a euro each. After Chupiteria we planned on going to a club near the Airbnb but it ended up being closed which was very odd but everyone was tired so we went back to the Airbnb, hung out talking more until we ultimately fell asleep.
Instead of going to school on Wednesday we slept in a bit, checked out of the Airbnb and dropped everyone’s bags off at my apartment, then got breakfast at Flamboyant, a cafe near my apartment that sells the best pastries and desserts and as it turns out breakfast and juices. I got Nutella crepes that were amazing and a fruit juice that was to die for. After breakfast we went back to my place so I could pack for the rest of the week, everybody showered then we took the bus to the bus station where we took another bus to Sevilla. The bus ride to Sevilla was about 3 hours and we spent that trying to nap or in my case do some homework as finals were coming up. When we got to Sevilla we took a cab to the Airbnb. We relaxed at the Airbnb for a while and looked through the recommendations our Airbnb host had left, picking one of the dinner places she had recommended. It was said to have the best Paella in Sevilla and it was pretty central so we decided to try that out. I had been to Sevilla twice before so I showed them some of the main attractions. We walked past the Torre de Oro, the Real Alcazar and the Cathedral before getting to the restaurant. We ordered one Paella dish to share since it was a very expensive place but the Paella was amazing and very worth it. After dinner we headed back to the Airbnb and relaxed for a bit before going to bed.
The next day we slept in a little bit, got a nice simple breakfast at a recommended place next door then walked to the Parque de Maria Luisa where we explored the park for a while checking out flowers and fountains then walked over to the Plaza de Espana. The Plaza de Espana is one of my favorite places in Spain. I think its really pretty and I love all the tiles showing each of the main Spanish cities surrounding the plaza and the river with row boats are cute and I just love it all. We spent a while hanging out in the plaza and taking pictures before heading to a tapas place just outside the park where we got fried calamaris and potatoes, both delicious, then walked into the center of the city. We shopped around a bit, Sarah and Mindy got some gifts and souvenirs, we got some gelato and then walked back to the Airbnb. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store and picked up food for a picnic. We got cheese, meats, crackers, a loaf of bread, some grapes, tomatoes and a bottle of wine. Before actually having our picnic we went back to the Airbnb, relaxed a bit, I did some homework while Sarah and Mindy did their makeup (for the pictures I guess). We left for our picnic a bit before sunset. We went to a park near where we were staying and there were so many adorable dogs running around and playing it was amazing. We forgot a wine opener so it was a bit of a struggle to get the bottle open but a combination of stabbing the cork with a knife and hitting the bottle against a tree ended up ultimately being successful. We didn’t do much after the picnic just went back to the Airbnb, hung out and waited until it was time for Mindy to get a taxi to the bus station. She had a bus to Madrid from Sevilla at 1am so she could catch her plane back to the US. We said goodbye to Mindy and after almost immediately fell asleep.
The following day Sarah and I slept in a bit and then planned on going to the top of the Setas, a weird shaped structure that some say resemble mushrooms, giving it its name Setas, Spanish for mushrooms. The structure has a really good lookout of the city and I’ve been up it twice before, with a fee of only 3 euros, you get a free drink and postcard and a look at the view. Unfortunately it was raining when we got up and it was a bit of a walk to get there so we decided not to go but to eat a breakfast of left over picnic bits and just relax. We eventually went to a cafe across the street for hot chocolates/coffees, packed up everything, checked out of the Airbnb and went to an Italian restaurant near by. We ate slowly and wasted time before getting a taxi to the bus station where we took a bus to Faro, Portugal. In Faro we had to pick up our rental car and it proved to be a bit more confusing and challenging than we had originally expected. We followed signs to car rental but the rental company we chose ended up not being there so we walked back and had to find a weird little shack in the parking lot where you get a shuttle to the rental place. At the rental place they hardly asked any questions, never mentioned us being underage, just briefly glanced at my license and passport, not taking a copy or anything and handed us the keys. It was odd, but easy and we didn’t have any real troubles so it was ok, the car was a small four door Opel and an automatic thankfully, but the weirdest thing about the car was that when you parked the gear didn’t shift into park. It wasn’t an option, you just pulled the parking brake and turned off the car, which is not something I was used to but we made it work. Once on the road we drove to Portimao where we had rented another Airbnb. It was about an hour drive and it was really pretty. Sarah kept rolling down the window to try and get pictures but nothing really ended up turning out. It took us a few circles around the block to find the place but once we did it was very nice and pretty well located. We unpacked a bit and walked along the water, got a pizza for dinner, then went to bed as we planned to get up early the next day.
Alarms blared at the awful hour of 8 am and we dragged ourselves out of bed for some left over pizza and then into the car for a drive and beach day. Our first stop was Sagres Fortress. We didn’t pay to go inside just admired the cliffs and the outside. Then we headed a little ways farther to the “End of the World” at Cape Saint Vicente, where the cliffs around were all amazing and beautiful, the lighthouse was at the very end of the Cape where little stall markets lined the road near by, all clearly aimed at tourists. We hung out there for a while, taking pictures and eating ice cream until we decided to drive back towards Lagos. We stopped at a few shops on the way, browsing and checking out whatever we saw, ultimately making it to a beach in Lagos. We hung out, sunbathed and played in the waves for a few hours. We grabbed lunch at a snack shack on the beach; nothing fancy just simple sandwiches. After the beach we drove back to the Airbnb, showered, changed and headed back out to a nice place in Lagos for dinner. Sarah reserved a table at a place with a ocean view and was overlooking a beach which was amazing. We got there a bit earlier than our reservation so we could see the beach and take some pictures. The goal was to see sunset at dinner but the sun set on the opposite side of where we saw the ocean so that didn’t quite go as planned, but it was incredible none the less. I got a salmon pasta and Sarah got chicken risotto. We didn’t do anything really after dinner, justdrove back to Portimao, hung out and headed to bed.
Final day in Portugal and with Sarah was not very fun or exciting as it was mostly just travel. We drove the car back to the rental place early in the morning, stopping to fill up for gas on the way spending an outrageous $60 for a half a tank! We dropped off the car no problem and shuttled back to the airport where we had to catch a bus to Sevilla. The bus was really stressful and hard to find and I was really worried for a bit that we would miss it but we found it just in time and made it to Sevilla. In Sevilla we had a few hours before our next bus to Granada, but not quite enough time to really do anything so we went to the Cafeteria in the bus station for some lunch. I worked on my homework and studying since finals were the next day. We got our bus to Granada and made it back to my apartment around 8pm. Nati made us Spanish Tortillas for dinner with chicken nuggets and pineapple. Sarah had a bus to Madrid at 2am from the Granada bus station so we stayed up watching movies on Netflix until I called her a taxi to the bus station. I said goodbye and stayed up until I was sure she got on the bus to Madrid but went to bed right after she messaged.
The following week I had finals and presentations almost everyday and spent my free time exploring Granada for the last time. I went on a hike above the Alhambra, wandered the olive groves, a few gardens and went to the beach for the last time. I, of course, managed to burn the back of both of my legs, the only time I got sunburned while in Europe. On Saturday morning, May 26th, I flew back to America. I flew from Granada to Madrid, the first flight had a bit of a delay and I was a little worried, but I managed to make my flight from Madrid to Charlotte and then Charlotte to Denver. I am glad to be back home, but also missing bits of my Spanish life. I can’t wait to be able to go back to Europe and continue my adventures.
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