Long Time no Blog!

I apologize for all of those waiting eagerly for an update from me, sorry I haven't posted anything since my last trip! I've been doing my classes, flamenco culture, latin american culture, Islamic culture and my speaking/writing class, hanging out and relaxing in Granada to save up for more trips. Last weekend we checked out the Moorish neighborhood, the albycin, which had an amazing view of the Alhambra and city of Granada. It was a beautiful sunny day, didn't even need my sweater I brought.

I just got back today from Seville, Spain, which was a great trip. We left Friday on a bus that took 3 hours to arrive at a beautiful hostel with private bathrooms! It was very exciting. Then we went to visit the Alcazar (free for students!), which apparently was the place a lot of documents were signed and created about the New World, and housed paintings of Christopher Columbus and his ships and stuff like that. Then we wandered a few hours along the river, headed back to bed and got up Saturday to visit the Cathedral. We got sandwiches and chips/pop to eat outside the cathedral, then got in for only 2 euro! Student discounts are amazing. The cathedral is the 3rd largest in Europe, and the largest gothic cathedral ever. It was very beautiful, had the largest altar ever with 44 depictions of the life of Jesus, the tomb of Christopher Columbus, and a piece of the "original cross", along with a crown with 11,000 precious stones and the largest pearl in existence. Then we shopped and walked some more before having dinner - paella with lots of fish like clams, mussels, oysters and shrimp with their heads on. Then we went to a flamenco show which was amazing. It was set in an old Jewish house converted to a small intimate stage with two rows of chairs and a backdrop of vines that reached the 2nd floor ceiling to the floor. The dancers moved so fast it blurred, their feet reminded me of famous tap dancers in movies I've watched with my mom, except faster and with more serious expressions. I wish I could have done a video but they were very strict and only allowed photos the last 5 minutes, no video at all. It was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

Sunday we had a late start, wandered again and got more sandwiches before heading to the river to eat and relax. In fact, we relaxed so much we fell asleep, me on my side, and woke up an hour later with a small burning feeling on my face which later darkened into a ONE SIDED SUNBURN. You all know my mother and how she is about sunblock application, but I don't think I will ever learn. I now am sporting a sunburn on 3/4ths of my face, quite severe in certain spots. I also have a sunburn on my left arm that traces around my watch. Only I would be so affected by an afternoon in the sun.

Tomorrow is a holiday - I do love the Spanish and their national holidays. No school, so I shall be finishing a book I borrowed from a friend in the program, called The Time Traveler's Wife, I saw the movie before I left for spain but the book is very good, as books are usually better than movies. I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all and hope you will youtube a flamenco dance to see what I was talking about, but imagine it by candlelight and live. This weekend I'll be going to Morocco - finally going to the top of Africa - my 3rd continent! I'll be sure to take lots of picture and wear lots of sunblock. I wonder if riding a camel will be like horseback riding? I'll let you know! Love Nikki

The end of a great trip!

Well I am safely back in Granada, curled up in bed with a full belly of senoras food. The trip was amazing, Thursday we went to the coliseum and roman forum and palatine hill, learned about the foundation of rome and the she-wolf that suckled the twins Remus and Romulus, sons of Mars, God of war and the virgin daughter of another ruler. Then we headed over to dinner at our favorite pizza place and refleja-ed for a few hours before going to see Trevi Fountain at night, which was huge and beautiful. Then we got Gelato at a nice family run place that we ended up visiting a few more times. I loved their dark chocolate and lemon flavors although I also tried chocolate chip, mint, vanilla and orange chocolate. Then we found our way back to the hostel, although Rome is very difficult to master in terms of directions, and also very hilly.

Friday we got up to go to Vatican city, saw St. Peter's Basilica first which was huge and FREE might I add, full of embellished ceilings and statues. Then we walked around the huge wall surrounding the vatican museums and got in to see some very old tapestries and paintings before finally seeing the Sistine Chapel, painted ceiling by Michael Angelo which was amazing. No pictures or video allowed, although I may have snuck a short clip in there. Afterwards we had lunch which ended up being well below par, but was made better when we walked back to Trevi fountain to have gelato again. It took almost an hour to walk from the hostel to Vatican city, so most of our day was spent walking and viewing things we didn't really know the names of.

Saturday we checked out of our hostel at 1030am and with all the free crissonts we could fit in Claire's bag, walked to the Spanish steps and along a few streets to a plaza where a supposed carnival was going to take place. Apparently this did not occur until much later as we arrived at set up time and had to make our way back to the train station. We stopped at tourist shops and an internet cafe before arriving at the bus stop to the airport. Our fourth flight that night was fine to Madrid, but I couldn't sleep. I assumed we would be camping out at gate D62 or whatever again, but it turns out that was only a special treat we got last week and we had to sit in chairs in the cafeteria for four hours until Ryanair opened up and would give us our stamps. Then we got to the gate, waited another hour and a half before our hour long flight to Granada. We got our trusty taxi driver to take us home and then we crawled into bed around 8am, only awaking for la comida at 230pm. All in all it was a great trip, we saw some amazing stuff and learned a lot about traveling and what you can really get by doing, like not showering for 5 days or planning your water intake around times when you would be near a bathroom that wasn't in a disgusting hostel. We got to embrace the cold weather outside of Chicago and feel the burn of pure exhaustion, but we also got to savor 5 euro pizza and 330ml cokes before a stop at a gelato place. I only wish I could share the experience with my friends and family in real time!

Paris and Rome

Hello everyone, sorry I havent gotten back to write sooner, but here is an update. First and foremost, we took a flight Saturday from Granada to Madrid, sat in the airport for 7 hours and ended up missing our connecting flight to Paris because we are stupid and didnt know you had to get a stamp on your ticket, although they did not tell us we would have to exit the airport and reenter until it was too late. So we ended up booking a new flight and sleeping at gate D59 in the Madrid airport. Unbelievable.
Sunday was the plane, bus for an hour, check in to the scary hostel with no towels which resulted in no showers for any of us and a frightening bathroom Kathleen refused to use. At least there were no visible bugs, although Kathleen says scabies wouldnt show up for weeks...Then we went to the Louvre which was amazing like I remember, and walked to the Eiffel tower at night when it was lit up alongside the Seine river. It was very cold, but at least no rain at that point. We went up to the top and took in the view, it was fun when the whole tower sparkeled on the hour for a few minutes. We took the metro again, which has been a highly successful means of transportation, and stopped at a restraunt for dinner. I had chicken kabob and baked potatoe with a cream inside that was delicious. We sat there for a while, and went to the hostel at around 1130 to find we had a roommate who was already asleep. We tried to be quiet but its very hard to do when you are washing your hair in the in-room sink because you have no towels and are using wipes to clean your body. She did not like us and the next night we had a new roommate, woops. Monday we went to Notre Dame and climbed to the top which almost killed me and Kathleen with our asthma. We went to the arc de triomphe afterwards and the champs-elyssees. Afterwards we decided we should get some pictures of the eiffel tower in the daylight, so we walked there again. We ended up going to mcdonalds that night since we didnt want to spend too much more money, and sat there for maybe two hours laughing and talking about our adventures in the airport and the scary hostel. We tried to burn as much time as we could there because really, who wants to be in the hostel more than you have to. Like I said, we had a new roommate who was much nicer, from Brasil and didnt speak hardly 5 words of english and no spanish as they speak portugese there. We got a much longer night of sleep which was nice. Tuesday we went to Versaille, it was cold and a little rainy but not too bad. After we viewed the inside, we went to the gardens but at that point it was so cold the rain was like little shards of ice and we couldnt take it. We decided to walk to a small shop for baguettes, a soda and a piece of a tarte because it was the best deal, maybe around 6 euro. Unfortunately it was so small there was no seating, so we took our meal to the train and ate on board. I was concerned we were headed the wrong way but we ended up ok. The lunch was delicious, although we were a bit tired afterwards. I dragged the girls to Monmartre even though they were tired and probably sick of hearing me tell them our next plans, but they really liked it when we got there. We walked up to Sacre Coure and passed a million tourist shops which was perfect since we hadnt bought anything yet and it was our last night. Afterwards we walked down to the moulin rouge to take a picture outside, which happens to be much smaller than you think it will be. The entire street of moulin rouge was sex toy and dvd stores, it was hilarious. We decided to go in one and giggle like 12 year olds. Turns out the upstairs was actually a movie theatre, which just made the whole experience that much more disturbing. Finally, when real customers came inside and we realized they werent tourists snooping around a sex shop we got scared and ran out like idiots, laughing. At the end of the street we found a place to have dinner which had a nice ambiance. I got pasta bologna which just means there is meat in it, and we sat there for over 2 hours before ordering dessert. I got a chocolate cake, two girls got homemade terimasou, claire got a nutella crepe, and megan got the best in my opinion, a chocolate mousse that was to die for. We spent almost 4 hours total in the restraunt and they were so laid back they didnt even bring us the check, we had to ask them for it in the end! We got back to the hostel very late, considering we had to get up early, and saw our new roommate downstairs with friends drinking. We thought nothing of it and went upstairs to get ready for bed. About 10 minutes after we laid down, it was past 1am at this point, our roommate walked in, very drunk, and sat on her suitcases to take off her boots. She crawled clumsily into the top bunk over Claire, and laid there for maybe another 10 minutes before turning her head to vomit. The five of us couldnt have had more startled reactions, we turned on the light and gave her some of our sacred wipies, her vomit in a pile by her head. She said she was fine in broken english and laid back down. We looked at eachother astounded that she would actually be spending the night next to the vomit and tried to get her to lay on her side, but she turned right over when we did that. We turned the lights out and maybe 3 minutes passed before I heard burping and she threw up yet again. Claire decided this would be a good time to move into bed with Liz in case the vomit trailed down the wall near her or her belongings. We tried to convice this girl to get new sheets but she wasnt having it and just passed out in a huge pile of her own vomit. We decided to open both windows even though it was freezing outside, Kathleen said, and I quote, are we about to spend the night in here? I just laughed and got in bed, unsure what our options were. We fell asleep and woke up a few hours later freezing our asses off, it had to be under 30 degrees outside. We left her in bed when we left at 530, hopefully she is still alive but I guess we will never know.We took the plane to Rome, it was much easier this time. We got up at 5am, took the metro to the bus stop, bought our tickets to the airport, fell asleep on the bus for like 10 minutes, and then checked in and waited a bit to board the plane. Not too terribly long. Then I passed out on the plane and probably got an hour and a half of sleep. We saw some amazing white peaked mountains but I have no idea what country we were passing through. Then we bought shuttle bus tickets to the train station for 4 euros there and 4 euros for our return ride. I dont really feel like I am in Rome yet because the weather has been bad and we havent seen anything really yet. Our hostel is beautiful, especially in comparison to the last one! Its a pink room with three beds and a winding staircase to a loft with two other beds. The ceiling is so short upstairs you cant stand fully, the room looks like a dollhouse. But the bathroom, oh the bathroom is so wonderful. I cant even explain. It is clean and nice and the shower was wonderful. I felt like a new person afterwards. Then we wandered out to try and find food and the trevi fountain which is famous, and the supposed best gelato in Italy. Unfortunately it was cold and raining and we walked for a long time trying to find an ATM before we could actually eat, but I have to say I think it was worth it. We ended up going into a pizzeria place that had a sign outside for pizza and a soda for 5 euro, which is really good, and it ended up being handmade delicious pizza. We each bought our own pizza, it was huge. It was not the dominoes personal pizza let me tell you. When we were so full we could barely keep our eyes open, we decided we would do the fountain tomorrow and gelato when it wasnt raining and freezing. Instead we decided to walk to this internet cafe and touch base, then maybe grab a dessert item and hit bed early tonight. We are really exhausted, Im even having a hard time typing right now. I will never take senoras meals and bed and bathroom for granted again. I have spent an obscene amount of money, I swear most of it is food, other than the hostel and airplanes. I cant spend a dime back in Granada, I have to save up what Ive got left and divide it into weekend trips or I wont make it to May haha. Tomorrow we want to do the ruins, including the colesium, roman forum and palatine hill, maybe the fountain and gelato. Friday will be vatican city, including the sistine chapel, st. peters square and basilica and maybe the vatican museums. The gardens were on the original list as well but it is 30 euro for that so we will be looking at trees for free along the way. Saturday is up in the air still, I read February is a carnival month and apparently it starts this Saturday, so we may go to check that out. I guess a lot of sales go on around this time here like in Granada, so we will probably do our shopping then. I bought a tshirt and scarf in Paris, and Id like to find some leather gloves here since Melissa (my roommate from home) got some when she was here and they were beautiful. Ill probably be going to Venice in February for the carnival also, Liz said they do the cool masks there you can buy and Claire said she has seen the venician glass there which I think would be a neat purchase as well. We shall see.