Weekend trip

So, like I said, we went to Sevilla (Seville) and Cordoba this weekend. They are both cities located in Andalucia or Southern Spain. It was actually one of the most fun trips I have taken! Kate's family was wonderful, and we really had  a good time!

The beginning of the trip was like a movie. I jumped on the train as it was pulling out of the station. When I said last minute trip, I meant it. After that, it was pretty much smooth sailing. I love traveling with adults because we stay in real hotels instead of hostels and we get to do a little more eating. :0)

We started off in Sevilla, sister city to Kansas City, Missouri, which influenced the style of the Plaza. Sevilla is known as the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of Spain. In Sevilla, we saw the Cathedral de Sevilla, which was very impressive. It is the third largest in Europe and unbelievably gorgeous! Sevilla is also known for the Alcazar which faces the cathedral. My favorite part of the day was the gardens outside the Alcazar. The Moorish influence was raeally neat to see in that part of town. 

No one can go to Sevilla and not see a Flamenco show, so we did that. Flamenco, a typical, Spanish dance was supposedly invented in Sevilla, is very popular all over Spain. It was by far the best Flamenco I have seen though. 

Despues de Flameco, we were walking back to our hotel when we stumbled across a band playing some Spanish music. We stopped to listen, and all of a sudden one of the boys asked me to dance. So, I danced with him in the middle of the square. It was actually pretty fun, and Kate's aunt got some good pictures. Kate and I hung out with them after their "concert." It is always fun to get a taste of the city with locals.

After Sevilla, we headed to Cordoba. The city is moderately-sized, but very charming. Everything in Spain is just really laid back, it is going to be hard to readjust to the fast paced, American way. Anyway, while we were in Cordoba, we saw the Mezquita (Mosque), which dates back to the 14th century. The inside was elaborately decorated with red and white stripes. All in all, it was a very pretty site.

Other than that, we spent a lot of time checking out gardens and little museums here and there. We saw a lot of little concerts, ate some good food, and did a little window shopping. I am just so glad that I went on the trip - it was a lot of fun!

Only 10 days left in Spain! I am going to be spending as much time as I can enjoying the city and beach before we have to leave.

I will post pictures as soon as I get them from Kate's aunt. Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Love,

Katie

Sevilla, Cordoba

Hello from Valencia!

I only have a few minutes, but I made a very last minute trip to Sevilla and Cordoba, Espana with my friend, her mom, and  her aunt. It was so much and I am so glad I went! I will write a long post and upload pictures tomorrow. 

I am off to a last dinner for one of my classes. It really is going to be harder to leave than I thought. They might have to drag me out of here. :o)

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Love,

Katie

Malta, Malta, Malta

Hola a todos!

Not much to say about Malta. We stayed at St. Julian's, which is very close to Valleta, the capital city. We spent a half a day in Valleta and it was really pretty. The food was the least expensive that we have encountered in Europe. Needless to say we ate some good meals! 

Overall, it was a fun, girls trip and very relaxing! We stayed in a hostel that was 40 euro per night (10 euro each), and let's just say we got our money's worth. :o) There was not many things to do, cultural wise in Malta. They just got their independence about 40 years ago from Great Britain. They are currently trying to establish themselves as their own country.

Also, the beaches in Malta are made out of rocks, so that made it a little more difficult to lay out, but we made due. Malta also has good night life, so that was fun! We needed a little R&R vacation, and Malta was perfect for that. 

I am just staying busy working on final projects for my classes. Wednesday, my friend, Sabrina, and I are making a typical American dinner for our Spanish friends. I am looking forward to cooking because I haven't been able to cook this whole semester.

After this, I will post a few pictures of Malta on Snapfish. Hope you all had a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon!

Te quiero,

Katie

Portugal

We are back in Valencia after a wonderful weekend in Portugal. Haley and I traveled with her parents to Porto, Portugal. Mrs. Hunsaker has a friend in Porto, and we stayed with him and his family. He was nice enough to pick us up from the airport and then took us straight to the Duoro River. Along the river there are many cellars as Porto is the birthplace of Port wine. I'm sure you know what Port wine is, but it was all new to me. So let the history lesson begin. Port wine came about when Portugal was trading with Great Britain. Portugal offered wine in exchange for English textiles. However, by the time the wine reached G.B., it was spoiled. The English refused the trade, but Portugal asked for one more chance. The next time they arrived in Great Britain, they were prepared. They had poured Brandy into the wine to keep in good condition. The British loved it, and Port wine was born.  Nowadays, it is made by pouring Brandy into the wine halfway through the fermentation process. 

Anyway, we visited one of these cellars. It was very cool to see the barrels and the manners in which they upkeep everything. After the tour we got to taste the three different types of Port wine - white, ruby, and tawny.  Tawny, the deep red wine, was my favorite wine. 

After some ironic conversation with some guys from England, we headed to the former Stock Exchange building. It was filled with Arabian influence, despite the fact that the Queen that supervised its building was Catholic. We took a guided tour with a Spanish, so our tour was in Spanish and English, which was good. I never seem to realize how much Spanish I know until I find myself in situations like those. 

When our tour was finished, we went back to Alex's (the family friend) house. The family was very nice. They welcomed us into their home, let Haley and I sleep in the master bedroom, and fed us like there was no tomorrow. And it is always nice to spend time with locals.   They went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and told us that we now have a home in Portugal. Que simpaticos son. 

On to Saturday! We took a train from Porto to a small town where the family's daughter goes to college. It was funny because the landscape and the trees reminded me of Manhattan a little bit. On the campus, we toured an old library, the Academic Prison, the site of all major ceremonies, and the courtyard. We took some tours and learned a lot of interesting facts about the school. 

On a more interesting note, we had goat for lunch! I didn't care for it, and yes, I gave it a good try. After that, we jumped back on the train and headed for their apartment. Alex was so funny, he told us we needed an "American night" in Portugal, so he ordered Pizza Hut. He made a spread of pizza, cookies, and beer. We ate ourselves to death and watched MTV. However, the best part of the "American party" was that we got to hear all of Alex's travel stories. This semester has definitely given me the want to travel more, so it was interesting to hear about all the places he had been.

Overall, Portugal was a good time; I liked it a lot! We had some friends that went to Porto, too, and they didn't care for it. So I think it really helped us to have a local tour guide. 

Other than that, everything is going well. Classes are still interesting. We are learning about WWII from Spain's perspective in my Culture and Civ class, Don Quijote in my literature class, and writing papers in la clase de gramatica. So, classes are good!

Weather is getting warmer and warmer. All I can say is that I'm not sad that I missed out on winter in Kansas. Snow in April? No thank you. It is so hard to believe that we only have less than a month left. I don't think I am ready to leave yet, but excited to go to Germany!  Okay, everyone have a great rest of the week! 

So I guess a congratulations is in order to all you Jayhawk fans ... congrats! An overtime win is always impressive. Just enjoy it while you can because K-State will be back next year! :o)

Megan McCaffrey is 15!

Hola a todos!

On Friday, our group took a bus to tour the nearby town of Cuenca. It is a smaller city and has a typical Mediterranean feel. While we were there we visited the Enchanted Forest, the hanging houses, and the city area. The Enchanted Forest was filled with rocks that were formed by the Med Sea into interesting shapes. There were ones that were shaped like a man´s face, an elephant, a seal, and so on. All I am going to say is I think the person who figured this out had a little too much time on their hands for recreational activities. The hanging houses were really neat, too. They are houses that literally hang off the cliff. Our tour guide said that it would cost you a pretty penny to live there, but you could not pay me enough to live in one of them. In fact, there are only a few left because the other ones were not well-preserved and fell into the cliffs. Overall, I liked Cuenca; it was a very charming town. Sorry I don´t have any pictures, but I will try and steal some from a friend and post them soon.

There was a wine festival in town this weekend, so we went to that on Saturday. You paid 10 euro and you got to try 5 different types of wine and 5 different types of food. They were all delicious and it was fun to taste wine and food from all over Spain. It was held in the Rio area where there are a bunch of gardens so it was a perfect location.

Sunday was the reason I came to Valencia - gorgeous weather and a good beach! My friends and I spent all day enjoying the sun at the beach. We just took some food, Sangria, a soccer ball, and had a good time. It was really nice to spend a relaxing weekend in Valencia for the most part.

However, there is more traveling to come. My roommates parents arrive today and Haley and I are going with them to Portugal from Friday to Sunday. Rumor has it that Portugese is very easy to understand if you speak Spanish, so we´ll see. We will have local tour guidse because we are staying with friends of theirs. I think it is going to be a good trip - I feel like Portugal is something I need to take advantage of since it is so close!

Okay, hope you all had a good weekend!
Hasta luego!

Dolce vita en Italia

Get ready, this is going to be a long post. I tried to cut out some of the boring stuff, and I'm just going to write it city by city. 

First up, PISA!

We arrived in Pisa and found our way to our hostel. It was not exactly nice, more like something out of a horror movie, but we made it out alive. We were only in Pisa for an afternoon, which was perfect. Just enough time to see the Leaning Tower and grab some lunch. Then we were off to Rome.

Rome

We took a 4 hour train ride from Pisa to Rome. It wasn't bad because we traveled along the coast, and it was gorgeous. 

I got my first plate of pasta in Italy; it was amazing! I always thought pasta was pasta, but I was mistaken. 

The next day was Easter, so we went to mass at a church near our hostel. It was completely in Latin and Reid wasn't there to help me, so it was difficult to understand.  Obviously, everything was closed so we went to see the outside sights like the Trevi fountain, the Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the Spanish Steps. 

I was really impressed with the Trevi fountain - it was really pretty and detailed. Legend has it, if you throw a coin into the fountain, you ensure your return to Rome. I should not have thrown a coin in because Rome was not very nice to me. First of all, my debit card got eaten by an ATM machine. Then, someone stole my camera! I always thought if someone was pick-pocketed it was because they weren't being careful, but I was mistaken there too. My camera was stolen while I was sleeping! Someone rummaged through my purse to take it. So even worse than the camera being stolen, is the feeling of being violated. So needless to say, I wasn't having my best days in Rome. 

But life goes on, so we went to see the Colosseum, the Roman ruins, and the Pantheon. We planned ahead and made reservations to the Colosseum, which let us skip the long line. I liked it better from the oustide, but it was very interesting to see the inside and how it was all layed out.  Unfortunately, the Pantheon was closed because of the holiday, but we got to see a through a small crack in the door. It was impressive from what I could see. 

The food was delicious, the sights were amazing, but I was ready to leave Rome.

Vatican State

As probably all of you know, to get from Rome to Vatican state requires no traveling, but it is still recognized as its own state. This was my favorite part of this leg of the trip. Once again, we got reservations for the Vatican and got to skip the 4 hour long line. One reason I think I liked this the most is because we had a tour guide that explained every detail to us. I loved knowing what I was looking at and hearing the history behind it. In the Vatican Museum, we saw the ancient ruins, the tapestry rooms, the map rooms, and the courtyard. The statues were incredible, but they did not come anywhere close to the Sistine Chapel. The entire chapel was filled with art, from wall to wall. I also did not know that Michelangelo was creating up until his death. He was such an amazing artist. We also got to see a little bit of St. Peter's Basillica and St. Peter's Square. It was interesting to see the place set up for Easter mass, too. 

After that, we went to Castel Sant'Angelo to check out the arial views. It was an amazing view and cool to see Vatican State from another vantage point. Next, we hopped on another train to...

Florence!

This was my favorite city that we visited. We started out by going to the Ufizzi Gallery, which we learned is the most visited fine art gallery in the world.  The gallery houses "the Birth of Venus" by Botticelli. After the Ufizzi, we went to the Accademia, which houses "David" by Michelangelo. This statue blew my mind; the details were incredible. You could see every vein in his hands, and even the back of his knees were detailed. It is hard to imagine using that much detail on such a large scale. 

We were a little tired of museums after that, so we took a break and headed to the Ponte Vecce, the famous bridge in Florence. This city was so walkable - it was great. Anyway, we had some more amazing food near the Ponte Vecce and called it a night.

The next day, we visited the Duomo and the Baptistry. The outside decoration of the Duomo and the Baptistry was unreal, especially the gold doors of the Baptistry.  I didn't not want to leave Florence, but Haley forced me to get on the train. :o)

Venice

I loved Venice as well. We took a water taxi from the train station to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel because there were not any open hostels, but it was nice to have our own room and bathroom for a couple of nights. Plus, our hotel was right on the canal, so we had amazing views. It was located near St. Mark's Square as well. We ate out one night in Venice, but it is so expensive, it just wasn't worth it. So, we grocery-stored it and had a nice little meal.  

The next day, we went to St. Mark's Basillica. It was gorgeous inside. In fact, every dome told a different story. One was Noah's Arc, another Jesus' family tree (literally), and so on. Outside of St. Mark's, we ran into 3 other girls in our program, so we all decided to go on a gondola ride. We went by Lovers Bridge, Marco Polo's house, Woody Allen's apartment, and Casanova's old house. On top of all of that, the gondola driver proposed to me under Lover's Bridge.  Don't worry Grandma, you'll love him, he said he was a nobleman and he lives in a castle. The wedding is going to be in June, you are all invited. 

Almost done, hang in there!

Milan

We did not have very much time in Milan either, but we did get to see the Last Supper. It was incredible to see close up. It is one of those things that you always see pictures of, but it was nice to see in person.  In general, Milan is a much bigger city than I expected. We also visited the Duomo, but by that time we were churched-out. It is the 4th largest cathedral in Europe and I think we stayed in there for about 5 minutes. :o) After that, we did some window shopping in the fashion capital of Italy, and made our way back to our hostel. Our flight back was painless and it is good to be home!

Italy was one of the best trips of my life. From this blog, it sounds like I went to church camp for 10 days, but it was such a good experience. We experienced a whole other place, culture, people, language, food, everything. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.

Now, back to reality, which includes class and responsibility. :o) Hope you all had a wonderful week!

and let the countdown begin, 3 more days until Meg turns 15!!!!