It's the little things in life

I need to stop trying to run with my camera. Whenever I take my camera, I end up just taking pictures. But, today, I went on a run and went a different way. I stumbled upon some really cool art, and great shots of the architecture. Sevilla is so beautiful, some people say this is the only time they will see Spain- this is not the only time I see Spain. I will be back to visit Sevilla- "no me ha dejado." These are a few of the restaurants that line the river too- with lawn chairs for people to tan while they enjoy a beverage.

I also never realized how pretty the gardens in the back of our apartment are. I walked to the pool every day through them and didn't really think twice about it. They are so peaceful during siesta, but on the weekends bustling with parties and during the summer filled with people spending time at the bar.

I leave for Rome in 10 hours, and have to catch the bus to the airport at 4:30 am. However, there won't be much sleeping while we are there! We really don't have a plan, which may come and bite us in the butt, but I just want to enjoy Rome, eat the food, drink the wine, and watch the culture.

Merida, Caceres, y Trujillo (Spanish cities)

This weekend, our whole program took a trip to these three historic cities. It was also daylight savings time, which didn't occur to me that it wasn't an international day. So, for the next 2 weeks I am only 5 hrs ahead of Michigan and 6 ahead of Chicago. That was great though because it was a weekend when I needed an extra hour of sleep! We went to three cities in the province of Extremadura.

Merida- founded in 25 BC

Our first stop was Merida, and it was an ancient Roman city, and it was so cool to walk around the ruins. We went to the ampitheater  and then the teatro theater. One was for the gladiator fights and the other was for art and music. The architecture was awesome and the columns were huge. After that we went to the National Museum of Roman art and looked at all the originals (apparently, a lot here were replicas- unfortunately). It was cool though to see the mosaics and the money they used and everything. The detail they were able to portray in their art is so amazing since it was all by hand. This is also a sculpture of the king, which was known for his part in his hair. It was his trademark- kind of like Justin Bieber and his hair.

Caceres- founded in 25 BC

In this city, we went to the hotel and had a bit of free time before our walking tour of the Medieval town. Barcelona was playing Madrid (Barca 2-1) and we tried to watch some of the game (which was really hard because apparently it's not on a main channel, which is weird because it is literally the best futbol in the world). This game has 10 times the viewers as the Superbowl, according to one site. Anyway, we went to the town center and ran into a religious parade! It was celebrating with 5 Virgins and they were on these elaborate stages and had pall-bearers (some as many as 20) and each Virgin was holding candles. We couldn't do our walking tour because the streets were very narrow and the parade took up the whole street, not to mention, there were a ton of people there watching.

It was interesting to learn that during the Middle Ages, the nobles were fighting, so the King cut their towers as punishment. He cut down the towers so they could not exceed a certain height as punishment for the nobles behavior. All the towers in the town but one were cut down, and apparently that is because this family was very wealthy and pretty much funded the town's economy. Money talks- even then.

Trujillo

This is where Francisno Pizarro is from! We got to tour his house, which was cool, and the town square was really pretty.

My favorite part was the view from the castle though. Built in the 1100's, this castle sits on top of the hill and you can see the mote and the walls that ran through the city. It was so green, I felt like I was in Ireland! It is amazing to me how vastly different the climates are just within the country of Spain. The castle was cool though, walking up on top was my favorite. There is only one entrance for defense reasons, but to me, it just seemed like an inconvenience to have to find the stairwell and wait for everyone to go down it.

We then went to a restaurant and everyone else had fried ham. I got a trout. A whole trout- face, tail, and all. That was interesting.

Now, it's off to Rome in 2 days. Then I'll be around for a while after such a crazy month of traveling and get to really enjoy Sevilla. Also, if you have any free time- I would love to get some mail! You know how to get a hold of me for my address.