I have to admit that during the days leading up to this Rotary trip I did not have a lot of “ganas” to go. First, because It meant a week of speaking English (something that frightened me). Second, I would be missing the Carneval celebrations in my town, with my friends. So on Wednesday, March 2, I boarded a early morning train to
Madrid to meet with a bunch of exchange students for what I believed would be a boring 10 days/
Let me begin by saying, in typical Cristina Judith Bricoli fashion, I boarded the train having no idea what I was supposed to do once I got off in the big, capital city of Madrid. This resulted in a 6 am (United States time) call to my mother asking her to hack into my email and find out for me. I arrived safely...and an hour late and was reunited with all the Americans, Canadians, the two Germans, and the one Tawaineise, who I had not seen since September (plus two new Australians). I think I might actually one of only two or three of us here who hadn’t seen another exchange studen
t since the orientation weekend in September. After chilling in the Estacion de Autobus for a little, we got on our bus to embark on our viaje (trip).
The first day was spent on a bus going to Granada which we got to in time for dinner and spent the night. The second day we were in Granada we saw the Alhambra. This same day we stopped in Cordova where we saw a breathtakingly beautiful Mosque. We ended the day in Sevilla.
Sevilla (or Seville for you Americans). We spent two days in this Southern city. I can honestly say that the second day there was more than likely the best day of my life. We began the morning with a short tour, where we saw all the important and historical aspects of the town. They let us have lunch and the rest of the day as free time. First me and some other girls stopped at Starbucks (yes we are lame, we’re aware). Then we went out for lunch at a place called “Baths of Arabia” which ended up being an Italian restaurant. I had gnocchi, which I’ve missed like crazy since being here in Spain. After, even though we were all stuffed, we split this chocolaty dessert. Next came the touristy shopping,
where I had to resist from buying everything “Flamenco” I saw.
We than split up the group and Paige, Marissa, Maddie, and I decided to go for a horse and buggy ride. This consisted of me prostituting my way into getting the creepy Gitano to give us a discounted ride. It started with me saying I’d give his horse a sugar cube, and ended in him inviting me to sit in the front of the carriage where he groped my leg and invited me come back for a private ride the next day. I told him I couldn’t cause Paige(mi rubia) was my lesbian lover...but than later changed the story to my possessive boyfriend wouldn’t let me leave the hotel alone. Well either way we got the discount and no one was raped. Plus my friends found it hilarious.
Of course then we had to see the beautiful cathedral, and finally in the gift-shop there I bought the cross that I’ve been looking for forever. We continued to wonder around the wonderful city of Sevilla. W
e even tried on Flamenco dresses in El Corte Ingles. Later that night we got to go out and have fun at the fiestas.
Saturday we stopped at Huelva Coast on our way to Portufal and saw something that I honestly remember nothing about. Portugal however I remember. It’s fantastic and hard not to love. We spent the first night right by the ocean in a beautiful hotel (with a disco tecca inside...perfecto). Even better though was Lisboa (Lisbon). The Capital of Portugal. Some people here in Spain don’t understand why I loved it so much, since it’s not a particularly special town. But it was on the water, easy to get around, the food was a lot better than Spain, the people were nice and a lot spoke English.
We were in Lisboa longer than any of the other cities and made ourselves at home at the hotel. My roomies and I made friends with the hotel staff (like we did in pretty much all the hotels). We were in Lisboa for the Carneval celebrations and were lucky to be able to salir por la fiesta (aka go disco teccaing...aka clubbing). Don’t worry family and Rotary, I promise we did a lot of cultural things to...like go to the hard rock cafe(hahah).
Really though, we did do cultural things. Besides doing a tour around Lisboa we went to visit some pueblos near by. I loved Cascais, which was your typical little fishing village, with the best ice cream place I’ve ever been to (even better than in Italy).
Sadly, we had to leave Portugal (which I’m still convinced is not part of Europe). The last two days of our trip were spent in Caceres and Salamanca. Two towns I’d already seen. Caceres (where my host mom’s from and where we spent Christmas) we only stopped in to sleep, and for some reason, even though it’s a beautiful town, I can’t seem to fall in love with it.
On the contrary, I was glad our last night was spent in Salamanca. I have very fond memories of that town( was there in December for New Year’s Eve of the university students, which is different than real NYE). It’s such an amazing town filled with culture and so much ambiente(is that a Spanish or English word?). We went sight-seeing, ate churros, and had a wonderful fiesta.
....And then we woke up and it was all over and we had to go back to real life. I won’t go into the story of how Friday I missed my train home and got stuck in Madrid and had to stay in a friends house and buy overpriced Mexican Food and buy a whole new train ticket, and now I’m a broke exchange student.
Anyway....to sum it all up. I experienced the best 10 days of my life. And made so many good friends and so many memories that will last forever. Making friends with random Spanish and Portuguese (and Swiss jejej) people along the way. Speaking Spanish with a Portuguese accent or Adulusian accent...or of course Italian accent, playing the lighter game, and so many other things that no one besides the toher exchange students would understand. I miss everybody so frigen much, but like Dr. Sues says. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. So I’m going to try to do that.
posdata: My mother comes in 30 days!!! WADUPPP! Also, I think the next blog post might be a video blog so look forward to that loyal, dedicated followers.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
besos
