Adam Gilbertson Study Abroad: Traveling to the South of Spain. This is what Spain is!

Less than one month away and I will be home. This year has flown by and I am having a blast here.

Last weekend I went on a trip to the South of Spain with 3 other Americans. I haven´t ever traveled with these people before but it was a great time and I got to know them all a lot better. I went with Tina Post from Golden Valley, Andrew from Virginia, and Hannah from Illinois. We were a perfect group of four and all got along really well.

We didn´t have class on Thursday so I left on Wednesday in the afternoon on my usual 5 hour bus to Madrid. In Madrid I met the others and we ate at Friday´s. It was so good to get some greasy American food. We then had to catch a bus to Sevilla at 11 pm. There was a problem though. I forgot my print out ticket and we didn´t print one out. All of my friends had tickets but I only had my passport. I somehow was able to explain to the bus driver that I didnt have my ticket and that I paid. It was pretty nerve racking but I got on the bus without having anything to prove I had a ticket. The bus ride was over 6 hours thru thru the night and we got to Sevilla at 5 am. We sat in some sketchy coffee shop for a while and played guess who while waiting to check into our hostel. It was labor day that Thursday so it was hard to find a hostel. We settled in and hit the town for a long day.

We visited the biggest cathedral in the world (by volume) and went to the usual sights in the city. Sevilla is really hot. It was mid 80´s the entire weekend. The town is so packed and messy it is so cool. The cool part of Pamplona is the old town, and all of Sevilla is like that. There are tons of tiny streets and it is impossible to use the map.

We got some ice cream and just toured for the day. That night we were pretty tired so we went out for dinner and walked around this old palace before hitting the hay.

The next day we slept in because we didn´t get much sleep in the nasty bus. We went to see the old city walls and to some plazas. Each city has different sights but they all are pretty similar. We bought some Flamenco tickets for that evening and toured for the rest of the day. I had to wear sunscreen the whole time because the sun was beating on us.

We went to the Flamenco show, which is a dance and singing show which is typical of this region of Spain. The woman was crazy and I thought they were going to fall at one point. It was cool to see this dance and after we went out. We didn´t go out too late but the town was pretty hopping. While walking around we found a street named after susan and it was so random because we had read about this street earlier. THis street has some old tale of how susan ratted out on her boyfriend about the Muslims or something and she was killed. She asked to have her head be placed on her door to remind people not to commit treason. It was a weird story and even weirder that we found this street.

The next day we took a bus to Malaga which is on the Med and it was a dirty beach town and we jsut slept and sat on the beach all day. Antonio banderas is from this city but we didn´t find much charm in the tourist town. We were tired from getting up so early and some lady was yelling at us at the bus station so we were just beat. They are a fun group though and for some reason we played this game called spin the compliment. It was pretty hilarious. We played the game through out the weekend. We caught a night bus to Granada and got there around midnight.

Granda is located in the mountains and it is amazing. It was the last hold out region of Spain for the Moors in the year 700 something so there is a massive muslim palace located on the mountain above the city. WE got to stay for free because Tina´s dad gets free hotels in europe. We all had to share a bed and layed head and toe. It was so funny. I loved traveling with them.

The next day we walked around Granada and were haggled by some old woman who used to be a Flamenco dancer. She had some weird flyers of her dancing as a young girl and now. It was so weird and we couldnt handle her when she spoke Spanish. She yelled "para comer" to us in a weird old woman voice, it may haunt me for years to come. We walked around that day thru the market and then toured the old Muslim palace. The guide books say you havent lived until you have seen this place so we made some good jokes about it the whole time.

After touring the palace we walked around some more and took pictures of a man powered carosel and a Winnie the Pooh character smoking infront of children. It was pretty funny. We took a taxi to the station later and got a ride back to Madrid. WE arrived at 2 am and I had to sleep in the bus station on my towel until 6 am when I got a ride home. It was a weird feeling but I guess sleeping on the floor is a humbling experience. I got home around 11 am on Monday and died in my bed all day.

Tina is from Concordia and I learned she knows Shane Hudak who is my cousin. They both work at Best Buy so it just proved how small this world is. This group was way different than who I usually travel with because they don´t really go out. It was so much fun and I hope to hang out with them a few more times before I leave. I still have my family here though and we aren´t allowed to talk about when we leave.

Last night we all walked around for a while and it is going to be weird leaving Pamplona. Everything is just coming together and I get a weird feeling thinking about not living here. I keep seeing my old roomate Alberto which is even weirder. I think my Spanish has improved a bunch but it can still get better. No big plans for this week, I want to go camping on the mountain here but my friends say we should sleep in the park. We will see what happens.

The map of my journey