Last weekend I went to Ronda for a day trip with a group of girls from my orientation group. It was such a great day! We left in the morning by bus and passed through some snowy hills on the way there. So weird to see snow-covered palm trees and cacti!
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| (The window is tinted blue) |
When we arrived it was raining, but after a quick coffee break in a cafe, it stopped and we were left with thick thick fog. It completely filled the valley when we reached the viewpoint, but within 15 minutes it began to clear.
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| Here is the valley with the fog just clearing. |
As the fog burned off, the beauty of the landscape was revealed.
We hiked down to get a better view of the New Bridge and took a million photos. Rick Steves was our savior that day, with his map and suggestions.
We had lunch at a cute little tapas place. I was held over pretty well from my bocadillo de tortilla de patatas so I just ordered two little tapas. I got flamenquin, which is typical of Cordoba and was AMAZING. I also got fried anchovies. they were so good with the little salad and vinegar. At the end of the day we stopped in a bakery and Taylor and I shared two little desserts: an apple and custard thing, and a chocolate and rum? thing. They were both delicious. The chocolate thing had a mysterious yellow fruit on top that looked like a tomato but the minute it touched your tongue it was an attack of tangy lemon taste. Very interesting.
We wandered over to the other side of town to see the city wall, the Arab baths, and the Old Bridge.
On Sunday, the same group of us went with CIEE to hike in la sierra de Aracena. We took a bus out to a small town and hiked through farm lands and woods. There were lots of big black pigs (think jamon iberico), horses, goats with bells around their necks, sheep, very friendly donkeys, and olive trees. The guides told us that in that area there are lots of foreigners and Spanish who moved out in pursuit of a different way of life. The man said "It's more difficult, but we also get all this," gesturing at the natural beauty around us.
Early in the week I met with two different intercambios (language exchange partners) and it felt good to practice my Spanish. Vivek and Javi are very nice and interesting people :)
This week I had two different activities with my interest group. On Monday, we went to a tucked away workshop where Sevillanos go to practice flamenco. We got to learn more about it and get an authentic look into the art! The guitar player (tocaor), singer (cantaor), and dancer (bailaora) gave us demonstrations, and then we practiced some clapping (palmas) and a couple dance movements. It was really fun and I really enjoy flamenco music and dance.
On Friday we went to el teatro de la maestranza (theater in Seville) and saw the Seville Symphony perform. It was beautiful and really made me miss playing the flute.
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