Weekend in France: Saint Remy

Apologies for the extended delay in my posts, but as promised, my first post about my weekend in France is here!

It was a pretty short night before I left; there was still a lot of packing to do, so I did not manage getting to sleep until around midnight. Then, I had to get right back up around 4:00 AM in order to catch my 4:30AM taxi to get to my flight. By some weird luck, my good friend Nikol was also on my flight to Charles de Gaulle, so we would be splitting the cab ride over.

It was an incredibly bittersweet moment, watching the sun rise over the mountains of Málaga for the last time as we waited in line to board our plane. There was always the comfort of promising myself I’d be back – in the short itme that I had been there, Málaga had grown to be so much more than the city I studied abroad in. I feel like it has become my Spanish home city, and a piece of me will always be there to walk through the Plaza del Torros, along the port, and lay on the beach to be bothered by the pesky seagulls and pigeons.

Once we were on the plane, I immediately stuck my earbuds in and opened up my French instructional videos. I only had a couple of hours to memorize the basics of another language, so concentration was crucial! Unfortunately, less than 4 hours of sleep does a toll on you, so my eyelids were feeling a little heavy after just 20 minutes. Hey, I was going to have to navigate the 7th biggest airport in the world in just a couple of hours all by myself, (and keep in mind I had never navigated ANY airport 100% by myself before…) I needed some rest! I got in some important things… Bonjour, bonsoir, je ne sais pa, au revoir, oú est…, parlez-vous anglais? That would be all I’d need, right?

I woke up to a relatively smooth landing as far as planes go, but the tension was just about to begin. After a quick final good-bye to Nikol, (she had to get to a connecting flight in less than 30 minutes!)  I was on my own. With a deep breath, I tugged my suitcase along to the luggage section with so many questions in mind. I was meeting Shannon’s grandmother at Terminal 1, and I was in Terminal 2F. After a quick glance at the map, apparently I was at one complete end of the airport and Terminal 1 was literally on the other complete opposite end. Would I be allowed to take the CDGVAL train between terminals even if I had already gotten luggage and didn’t have another ticket? Would I have to go through security again? What if they didn’t let me through? What if my luggage was lost?! Feeling a little panicked, I reminded myself the biggest thing I’d learned so far on the trip: I needed to trust myself and quit second-guessing everything, because I was better at most things than I gave myself credit. Things will work themselves out, and all I needed to do was take my time and find someone who spoke English to ask.

After picking up my luggage, (it was one of the first ones on the belt, thank goodness!) I asked someone about the CDGVAL who reassured me that I could take the train to whatever terminal I pleased and each terminal had a section outside of security. The restaurant where I was meeting Shannon’s grandmother was in that section. Now, just to get there…

I looked around for signs pointing to the train. Yet, I didn’t see any in the luggage area – only a little exit sign. Stressing a bit and thinking I needed to go find someone again, I started to search but then thought again. I had plenty of time, maybe for once I should just trust my instincts. Following the little exit sign out a door and into a large corridor, I immediately saw a huge sign pointing down a long hallway that said ‘CDGVAL’ in bright lights. A huge smile on my face and a little bit of self esteem boosted, I dragged my luggage along the short journey to the train and crammed myself into a corner with the dozens of other passengers.

This was the easy part of navigating the airport – I’d just wait until we got to the end of the line, and I’d be there. It was about a 15 minute ride and I was there! With my boosted  confidence, it only took about a half hour to navigate the terminal to find where I needed to go – a little restaurant called the Hippopotamus. It was a strange set-up – there was an outter wall to several restaurants and the sign to the restaurant was hanging there, but you had to go down another corridor to actually get in. The restaurant was closed for another hour or so, so I settled in and began typing my blog. Shannon’s grandmother would be awhile, I imagined, since she still had to go through customs.

Yet, an hour later, it seems a little strange that she was taking so long. I was a little worried, but what else could I do but sit around and wait? I was where I was supposed to be, surely she’d eventually come. If not, Shannon’s dad would surely text me if something had happened. Right?

Another 30 minutes passed, and finally I saw a woman that looked like the picture Shannon’s dad had sent me. “Fran??” I cautiously asked, hoping I wasn’t talking to a random stranger. “Yes?” she responded, looking shocked at the stranger talking to her. “I’m so glad to see you!” I exclaimed, jumping up and shoving things back into my suitcase.

“Umm… who are you?” She asked, giving me a strange look. It dawned on me that I hadn’t even introduced myself. “I’m Makenna, Shannon’s friend! I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” After a brief conversation, we realized that she, too, had been waiting an hour and a half, and neither of us had had problems… she’d just been standing next to the other Hippopotamus sign outside of the restaurant! We must have just missed each other. After laughing off our situation, we struck out to find our way to the RER-B, the train that would take us to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. It was a little rocky getting there (and getting on board! The train was jam packed so full that I literally felt like a sardine and I was worried that the door would shut around my luggage bag), but once on board we road the train for about an hour and a half. I had some nice conversations with Shannon’s grandmother, and we were there before I knew it. Shannon’s aunt Katie picked us up, and I was settled in before I knew it. The ride through her little French town was quite adorable, though.

We had some news that Shannon would take awhile longer to come in than we had originally thought, and after sitting around a bit and an exquisite lunch made by Katie, she kindly asked if I would like to visit the gorgeous chateau that we had seen on the hillside on the way to their house. Naturally, my answer was a very enthusiastic yes! Finally, my chance to see a northern European castle! Fran and Katie’s husband, Jean, decided to stay behind and rest a bit while Katie would also show me around their little town.

After a short drive, we had reached the top of the hill. As soon as we got to the edge of the outer castle walls, there was such a gorgeous view that I had to take a moment just to stare.

We then stepped over the small moat and over the bridge into the main chateau. I’ll give you a little photo tour of the chateau, and I’ll try to remember all of Katie’s fun facts about it.

Here you can see the bridge – I didn’t manage to get the moat into the picture. The large building to the right is called the “Dungeon,” but back in this chateau’s day it did not have the same context as today. Back then, a dungeon was where the Lord and the Lady stayed with the other important people.

A lot of the chateau was lost over the years due to people coming up from the village to steal stones to build their own houses. It had been abandoned for an excruciatingly long time.

This is the courtyard

The dungeon is to the left, and to the right is a half-gone guard’s tower.

View from the front wall

We went down into the museum in the cellars after that – here are some artifacts found in the chateau.

Katie remembered something else she forgot to tell me on the front wall, so we went back up after that to see one more time.

There is grating there now to protect tourists, but before the front walls had these giant holes on purpose. When invaders would come to attack, they utilized them to drop giant boulders or other items down from here and it would roll down the wall with such force that it would knock the attackers down and roll them down from the mountain the chateau was on.

You can see here how the walls were made curved at the bottom so that the stones could pick up speed as they rolled down to the attackers.

One of the archer’s holes in the walls. There was angles to the left and right of it so that they could get the right angle to shoot at attackers.

The well for the people and animals. It draws from the small river that goes through the village, very far below. It’s useful also because they have a water source in case they have to stay up in the castle for an extended period of time.

I love how you can see inside this guard tower to get an idea of where the floors were before!

This was the last remaining guard tower of the chateau that had not been taken down.

Next, Katie took me down for a tour of her adorable little town. I’ll give you another photo tour of that.

The chateau I toured is on the left here.

The little river running through their town that I mentioned. The building on the left is an old washing house.

The building on the right is the oldest home in their town.

This is a restaurant where a famous author once dined – but forgive me as I cannot remember which one.

One of the chapels in town.

The monks for the chapel used to live in this building, and this is their courtyard.

Another chateau that we visited! This one is quite a bit newer.

This chapel is older than America! It’s also where people would go to hide during attacks. They would go up to the top of the tower and archers would be up and down the tower steps at the slots.

We stopped at a bakery on the way back home for Katie to pick up some bread. This was so cool! So many different pastries.

Shannon made it in later that night and we had a fantastic dinner. We went to bed relatively early because of Shannon’s jet lag… and we had a bright day in Paris to look forward to tomorrow! 🙂

I know it took forever to get my first day of the weekend posted, but I promise Day 2 will happen soon. I’ll probably also do a conclusion post. I’ll update you all soon!

Dos besos,

Kenna

Los Dias Ultimas en Malaga – The Final Days in Malaga

After the late night with San Juan, it was mutually agreed that we all needed a nice, relaxing day off. Everyone had different ideas about this – some of us went to the beach, some of us slept until the afternoon, and Jordan and I? We decided to make it a cultural experience and visit the traditional Arabic baths.

We were a little wary about it, as some of our friends in Morocco had commented on how it hadn’t been overly relaxing but it had left them scrubbed so clean they felt like they squeaked. However, we went in with a positive attitude and excited to let the stress slip away, as finals week was turning out to be a bit more stressful than expected.

We were not let down. The ambiance even when you just went into the dressing room was fantastic – it was quiet except for the soft sound of water, and it was nice and warm inside. We changed into our swim suits and went into the hallway where the woman who worked there stood, and she took us into the main bath room. All along the hallways were little candles in the old Arabic style, with little waterways pouring in towards the pools. She explained to us that the two small pools on either side of the entrance were the cold pools, the large main pool in the center of the main room was the room temperature pool, and the pool off to the back down a hallway was the hot pool. Next to the hot pool was a steam room full of hot stones to lay on, and up the stairs was a tea room where we could sit and have as much hot tea as we liked. The massage room was also upstairs, and she would call the two of us in when it was our turns. Until then, there was a variety of aromas sat out for us to smell and decide which would be best for our massage oil.

And these are just from the dressing room! I left my phone in a locker so that I could relax, but this is a start to how it looked like.

Left on our own, Jordan and I immediately started by choosing our scents. There were many different ones, and although I did enjoy the lavender smell, I ended up choosing the golden amber. Then, we began our little journey from pool to pool, from hot stones to the tea room. It was one of the most relaxing things I’ve done in my life – the ambiance was set perfectly, and everything was pristine. I wish I had gone earlier in the month, as I would definitely come back a lot more frequently.

Unfortunately, our hour and a half was up much faster than we thought it would. It was a great experience and I’m so glad that I took the opportunity to do it.

Thursday was Ariana and I’s day set aside for shopping. Immediately after school and lunch, we set out on our long journey to the campus of Universidad de Malaga to get some goodies from the campus store. After that little adventure, we turned on back around and headed back to Calle Larios to find some souvenir shops to get things for our friends and family. I ended up crossing off another last minute bucket list item here – I bought a package of Malagan almonds! They were amazing, unlike an almonds I’ve had in America. Although they were a bit pricey, I snatched up a couple more bags to bring home to my family for them to try, as my family is one that loves almonds and other nuts.

One last time on Calle Larios

Plaza de la Consituticion; it’s the plaza at the end of Calle Larios

After walking up and down Calle Larios one last time, we visited Plaza de la Merced to visit the quirky little olive oil shop we had discovered recently, fitting another bucket list item – find an unusual, unique shop! This place was devoted entirely to olive oil made in Spain – while there was just plain olive oil products, there was olive oil lotion, olive oil body wash, olive oil to-go packets, and olive oil soap – and that was just what I glanced at! Here, I got some olive oil for my family and for Shannon’s family, because you can’t leave Spain without a little Malagan olive oil.

It was finally time for us to come home for dinner, and so we enjoyed our nice walk home for the last time. I took a few more photos than usual, just so I could show you all how gorgeous any walk to my home was – I’m going to miss it, for sure.

This is a park/walkway on the street from Calle Larios to our main section of town

The fresh fish section of a market near our house

Yes, I’ll even miss you, weird colored block thing that’s near our house!

A group of kids play soccer every afternoon a building away here

That night, our host mom taught us how to cook tortillas. It was such a fun experience! We (Ariana, Alicia, Blanca, Pablo, and I) all hung out in the kitchen and listened to music while we pulled together our gigantic tortilla, while at the same time Ariana and I made an apple pie for them to try. I’ve got several pictures from that night! As you would expect, I was not the best helper in the kitchen – I did try awful hard with the potato slicer, but after all my struggle I did not get a lot done. In the end, our senora ended up giving me some money and just told me to go to the market and get some tinto verano, if that tells you anything about my cooking abilities! Haha

One down, one to go!

Then, it was our last day. This was the absolute worst – I did manage to snap a picture of our school, but after that I went straight home to make a beach visit. I wouldn’t be leaving Malaga without one more evening spent laying out!

 

The last night we went to the top of the AC hotel to see what was supposedly the best night view of Malaga there was. We were not disappointed. The view was gorgeous.

Unfortunately, I was unable to be out too late that night as my flight to France left at 6:50 AM and my taxi arrived at 4:30AM. So, I headed back to our house and said goodnight and goodbye to our host family one last time. It was so sad saying goodbye to them – without my family, I would never have had such a great experience or learned as much as I did.

 

Nikol and I waiting on our flight

Last ham-flavored chips 😦 😦

Last Malagan sunset 😦

Then, I was off on my flight to France!

Nos Vemos,

Kenna

*PS – I promise I’ll probably only have one or two more blog posts. I’ll try to condense it down into one for my weekend in France, but no promises as it was pretty amazing!

El Noche de San Juan, Cena Final con ISA, y Todos De los Aventuras Entre – The Night of San Juan, Farewell Dinner with ISA, and All the Adventures in Between

Hay muchas cosas pequeñas que hice en mi final semana en España. Así, tendré más o menos dos o tres historias sobre la. Ahora, te dirré sobre lunes y martes, cuando los eventos más grandes son el Noche de San Juan y la Cena Final con ISA.

There are many small things that I did during my final week in Spain. Therefore, I will make roughly 2 blog posts about my week and split it in half, because I will still have to tell you about this weekend in France!

Lunes estaba un día de descanso porque el viaje a Granada nos hizo muy cansadas. Así, pasábamos mucho tiempo en la playa, jaja. Pero, en que noche, ISA tuvo un cena final para los estudiantes en una restaurante muy sofisticada se llama ´La Posada.´ Tuvimos una cena más grande que todos de mis cenas, y tuvimos todos de las comidas típicamente de España.

Monday was a day of rest and studying because the journey to and from Granada had us very exhausted. So, we passed a lot of time on the beach that day, haha. However, that night ISA hosted a Farewell Dinner for the students in a sophisticated restaurant called ´La Posada.´This was the biggest dinner I´d had of all my Spanish dinners, and we had all of the typical foods of Spain.

A tortilla

Gazpacho

Croquetas

Siguiente, fui con algunas amigas a la terraza a cerca de la Alcazaba para tapas. El visto fue increíble.

Next, I went with friends to a rooftop terrace close to the Alcazaba for tapas. The view was incredible.

Después de Lunes, todos de Martes estaba un día de preparación para el Noche de San Juan. Este noche empiece con un grande concierto gratis, fuegos en las playas, fuegos, y cerriendo a la mar. Tengo un pequeño amonte de fotas, así este es que tengo.

Basically, everyone goes to this concert and goes to bonfires until midnight. They believe (or so my professor told me) when you put all your bad feelings into a piece of paper and burn it, then jump over the fire 3 times, that you will not have troubles with it again. Also, if you run into the sea at midnight, you´ll get good luck for the next year. Lastly, they have fireworks to shoot off after it´s all over.

I got the Paris safely and I´m now with Shannon and her family in St. Remy! This little village is so picturesque and beautiful that I could almost stay here and enjoy instead of go back to Paris. There are dozens of chateaus, or French castles, within a 30 minute radius of their house. Shannon´s familiy is absolutely great – they´re very friendly and kind people, which I definitely appreciate today. On a side note, I´m proud to say I navigated myself from one end of the massive Charles de Gaulle airport to the other with little to no problems! I´m getting better at this directions thing!

Nos vemos,

Kenna

Photo Blog – La Alhambra, Palacio de Reyes – Palace of Kings

Hola! Today’s blog will be a photo blog, as I have a large amount of photos and I want to keep the amount of words and photos balanced. I’ll give a brief story or fact underneath there if there is one, but otherwise, enjoy my photos of La Alhambra!

This is the palace of the Catholic kings and queens. It’s much more modern and flashy on the outside than the palace of the moorish kings and queens, and so it displays the differences in the religions quite well.

The inside of the Catholic palace

You can see a bit of the first part of the moorish palace on the right beyond the hedges

The military quarter

The whole view of the moorish palace. They believed that you should not flash your wealth on the outside – that the best of you should be on the inside. Therefore, the outside of their homes were simple and not quite as lavish, while the inside was luxurious and ornate.

The entryway of the moorish palace

On into the main part of the palace

A close-up of some of the ornate carvings

The moors included pools in a lot of their palaces and buildings because it was a symbol to them. All of the world will crumble to dust around you with time – the people, the palace, everything. Yet, the water will forever remain to reflect everything around it. It’s the one part of their lives that they believe will last forever.

This is me, in case you can’t tell!

This was one of the biggest things I’d studied in my classes so I was so excited to see it!

This was made to look like a cave, similar to a scene in the Koran I believe?

The dad sign was for a part of a father’s day present – don’t mind that, haha.

We got to touch the water in the basins!

This is where we started in the palace gardens, or the generalife

Family picture!

There was a bride getting photos taken here! I’d love to have my wedding in Granada, I was so envious.

And we finished off our day in the marketplace, shopping around!

I’ll probably have a post tomorrow with an all-compassing post about what all has happened this week – I may have to separate it into two, though, because San Juan was pretty darn cool and I’ve done a lot! I’ll be up at 4:30AM for my 6:50AM flight to Paris, so I’ll have plenty of time to write a post at the airport.

On a side note, I finished my finals today! So thrilled to finally not have anything to stress about, I’m pretty sure I passed with flying colors! I could not be more sad about this being my last Spanish class ever, and I really don’t want to leave Spain. But I tell myself that I’ll be back some day, and that certainly helps!   🙂

Nos vemos,

Makenna Graham

Granada, Un Centro de Historia y Cultura en España – A Center of History and Culture in Spain

In all my Spanish classes, I have learned about Granada and all of the history that is encompassed within the city. So, when I went to the city this weekend, I cannot begin to explain how excited I was to finally see all that I had learned about in the past.

En todos de mis clases de Español, he aprendido sobre Granada y todo de la historia que está en la ciudad. Así, cuando fui a la ciudad este fin de semana, no es posible explicar como estaba emocionada.

When we arrived to the city, we immediately started with our typical city tour. First, we visited the Plaza De Bib-rambla, the old historical center of the city. Here, where they had some markets, they would chop off the hands and other body parts of thieves to display their strict rules on robbery.

Next, we visited the Capilla Real, the cathedral where the first Catholic kings and queens are buried. This was so cool!  Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed within, so I did not manage to get any pictures of the beautiful tomb built for Queen Isabella. One of the most fasicanting details that I saw was how her head was pressed into the pillow much more deeply than the other kings and queens around her – our guide informed us that this was made so to represent how intelligent she was, making her head heavier than the rest.

Don´t tell anyone, but when I went down below the tombs, I managed to get a picture of their actual coffins without getting caught! This was so bizarre because I had expected ornate coffins to match the gorgeous tombs, yet only simple stone coffins lay there, holding the bodies of the great first Catholic kings and queens of Spain.

The middle right coffin is for Isabella, and the middle left is for her husband.

We then took a little walk over to the marketplace where many vendors sold a wide variety of goods, from jewelry to tapestries to lamps. Here, I completed another bucket list item – I successfully bargained in Spanish with one of the vendors! I can´t say what I bargained for as it is a gift for my mom and I want it to be a surprise, but I will say I´m happy with the price I haggled to!

Afterwards, we visited a place that used to be the cultural center for the poor of Granada. Homes used to be on the upper floors of what is now a local theatre, while in the center children would play and in the afternoons, there would be theatrical shows.

The entrance

Next, we ventured off to a viewpoint of La Alhambra called “Mirador de San Nicolas.” I would’ve taken significantly more pictures here if it wasn’t such an exhausting trip in 85* heat, but here’s what I managed because this view was phenomenal:

You can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance if you click on this picture to get the full effect!

Because I was too exhausted from the climb to get here to really pose hahaha

Then, we headed back to our hotel to have a siesta and lunch, which I took full advantage of for several hours!

On our way back to our hotel, we spotted this memorial that commemorates the moment when Christopher Columbus asked Queen Isabella to travel to the New World.

After my little siesta, I took a little venture outside around 7:00 PM to grab a snack before we had our afternoon “Surprise!!” as was placed on our travel itenerary. To Ariana and I’s surprise, we found a parade traversing the streets with a religious object carried by children, quite similar to the huge versions used in Malaga. Apparently we left the hotel at just the right time to happen upon it!

As a less important side note, I was entertained by how “throw-back” the 7-Up cans here look. The design is much different and older-appearing than in the US!

As we returned to the hotel for our “surprise” meeting at 8:30, we were simply told to follow one of our ISA directors because we would be walking quite a distance to the surprise. We were quite curious at this point, although it was pretty walk to go along.

The Granada government building we walked by.

One of the many churches hosting weddings that day

A stream along the road

Just your average donkey tied along the road in a busy city

La Alhambra at sunset

Finally, after that long trek we determined that we were in the “Albayzin” part of the city, and as we stopped at one location we realized… our surprise was a flamenco show!! We had all been determined to see one and we had heard the ones in Granada were best, but we didn’t think we’d have the time to go to a show. As we sidled into the restaurant/flamenco place, we realized that the building was built into a cave. It was a neat location its own, and as we settled into our seats in front of the stage, we waited with great anticipation for the show to begin.

I’ve got a great many photos from the performance, which was probably one of the neatest things that I’ve ever watched. Unfortunately, videos were not allowed – only photos. Therefore, I can only describe to you how rapidly they could move their feet and clatter their heels on the floor, how gracefully they could twirl their dresses and move their arms, and how the rhythm of the music sang by the live singer and played by a guitarist while they clapped along was beyond words.

I narrowed it down to just a few pictures, so I’ll let you slide through them at your leisure.

This was our first group of dancers that performed

This lady was hands-down my favorite dancer, in case you couldn’t tell

After this guy completed his dance, all of the lady dancers shouted out to the audience in Spanish that he was single! Haha

We had an intermission halfway through the show around the one hour point, then another group of dancers and performers came on stage.

The show lasted about 2 hours in total, then we started on our long walk back home… where we ran into that parade again! It was now around 11 PM, so those children had been walking around the city with that massive religious object for about 4 hours! I guess you could say their parades are a lot longer than ours.

After that, we settled in for the night and prepared ourselves for a long 4 hours in La Alhambra the next day.

I’ve got over a hundred photos of La Alhambra for you, so I may just work on narrowing those down to a reasonable amount and do a post that is 80% photos/20% actual stories tomorrow for my day 2 in Granada. Until then, tonight I’ve still got a lot of homework to do and I also have a farewell dinner to attend with ISA. We were told to “Dress to impress!!”, so we’ll have to see what that’s for!    🙂

On a side note, I noticed today that I have 7 days left until my flight home and I’ll be leaving for Paris this Saturday. I can’t believe my month in Spain is almost over, but mark my words – I’ll be taking advantage of every last second that I can!

Tomorrow is San Juan, a huge national holiday where all the people of the coastal cities go to the beach for fiestas and concerts all day long. At night, they all build bonfires on the beach and throw in notes with pieces of the past and bad memories they want to move on from, setting them on fire and letting them burn. Sometimes, they’ll also jump over the bonfires – not sure if I’m athletically inclined enough for that one! Then, at midnight, they all run into the ocean to renew themselves from the past and continue on forward. I’ll hopefully have pictures from that and a blog post after my last about Granada, but we’ll see as we’ve been repeatedly warned to be careful about bringing valuables as it’s also a night that sees a lot of thieves.

Nos vemos,

Kenna

Marbella – La Ciudad de Flores … The City of Flowers

I’ve been on many a great field trip, but the one I took with my International Marketing class yesterday was hands down the best one I have ever had.

He tomado muchos viajos buenos, pero uno que tomé con mi clase de International Marketing ayer estaban el mejor viajo que he viajado.

Since this field trip was for my class in English and I have a lot to say and not a lot of time, (this is my last weekend here and I have two papers to type, both at least 8 pages each, plus two final exams next week) I’ll only be typing this post in English. (Sorry if anyone in my Spanish classes are disappointed in me – hopefully Dr. Calvin and Dr. D’amico won’t be reading! 😦 )

To start off, we visited the Mahou-San Miguel Beer Factory in Malaga and got to see how the beer is made and marketed internationally. It was an incredible experience – we saw everything from beer cans, beer bottles, beer liters, and beer kegs being mass produced. I would never have guessed that the process was so complicated. We first went through the part of the factory where the beer is placed in the containers – we were unfortunately unable to take photos, but I did get a few in before and after!

“Welcome to where your beer is born!”

Next, we went to the distillery. It was interesting because the aroma all around the distillery was similar to that of baking bread, so we were all hungry by the time we finished seeing how the beer itself was created.

After looking through a little museum showcasing all the different old bottles and containers. Our guide explained to us that they developed their “San Miguel 0,0% Alcohol” to meet the demand for beer without alcohol in Spain and muslim countries. In the past, many companies could market alcohol as “Sin Alcohol,” but according to Spanish law they could call their beer that if they had 1% of alcohol or less. Therefore, San Miguel decided to stop deceiving the public and create a product to truly stand out among the others.

After that, we were off to Marbella for a day full of fun, tours, and flowers! There’s so many pictures here that instead of writing a lot, I will post the pictures and have the explanations below as necessary. Unless otherwise specified, the pictures are of the Old Quarter in the old part of Marbella.

Fountain in the Plaza of the Old Quarter

This was on the boardwalk!

Fountain of the Virgen of Rocio

In this picture you can see one of the many little chapels that dot the streets of the old city. Anyone can visit them to pray, but our professor informed us that there are holidays where people get together a parade of sorts and travel to all of them to pray.

Iglesia Mayor de la Encarnacion

This building includes the remnants of an old Catholic hospital/monastery. Nuns are buried within the building, because it was considered holy ground. Fun fact: in the past, if you were not Catholic and you died in Marbella (Or other parts of Spain), you could not be buried in the holy ground of the cemeteries. Therefore, they would just lay your body out by the sea and let the water take you away. (!!!)

Murallas del Castillo – the old city walls.

It seemed like there was a whole forest growing on this building!

Here’s another chapel in the little blue box!

Nikol and I enjoying the flowers!

Here we started walking down what my professor called “My favorite street in my city!”

Roomie pic with Ariana!

Daniel doesn’t do pictures xD

One of the last older houses by the beach in Marbella

And that was Marbella! Absolutely gorgeous, although I am sad that I didn’t get to see the port famous for its fabulous ships and shows of wealth from the richest people around the world. I just got back from a weekend in Granada, and let me tell you – you’re in a for a doozy of a post there! For now, I’ve got to attend to my class work… you know, the whole reason why I’m here. Haha!

Nos vemos,

Kenna

Relajando en Nerja – Relaxing in Nerja

He viajado a muchos lugares, pero este domingo, mi viaje a Nerja estaba solo para el divirtido y relajar. Para algunos, parecen raro que necesito tiempo para relajar. Pero, aunque estoy estudiando al extranjero y visitando muchos lugares, tengo que actualmente estudiar, jaja. Tambien, el preparación para todos de los viajes es muy estresante. Así, mis amigos y yo necesitamos a relajar.

I have travelled to many places, but this Sunday, my trip to Nerja was only for fun and relaxation. For some, it would seem weird to need time for relaxation. However, even though I am studying abroad and visiting many places, I have to actually study too – haha. Also, the preparation for all of the trips is quite stressful. Therefore, my friends and I needed to relax.

Fui a Nerja con mis amigos Jordan y Adam en 8:00 AM así que llegamos temprano en la mañana, pero los otros – Ariana, Daniel, Nikol, y Colleen – llegamos a Nerja a cerca de 11:00 AM. Deciría que llegando temprano estaban totalmente lo mérito, porque no hay nada touristos que temprano en la mañana, y tuvimos tiempo explorar y decidir que quisemos hacer.

I went to Nerja with my friends Jordan and Adam at 8:00 AM so that we would arrive early in the morning. The others – Ariana, Daniel, Nikol, and Colleen – arrived closer to 11:00AM. I would say that arriving early was totally worth it, because there were no tourists around that early in the morning and we had time to explore and decide what exactly we wanted to do.

Primero, veíamos el Balcón de Europa, un lugar famoso y visitando mucho de otros europeos. Jordan y yo tomamos fotos con el estatua de un rey de España.

First, we saw the Balcony of Europe, a famous place visited often by other Europpeans. Jordan and I took photos with the statue of a king of Spain.

Looking down on the cliffs from the Balcony of Europe

Looking over at the other parts of the city from the Balcony of Europe

Siguiente, exploramos la ciudad mientras esparamos para la oficina de tourismo estar abierto.

Next, we explored the city while we waited for the office of tourism to be open.

Looking over Burriana Beach. There´s about 7 different beaches to visit in Nerja!

Después de la mujer nos dijo que no era posible ir y kayak porque de las olas grandes este día, decidimos ir y ver para tiendas de buceo superficial.

After the woman told us that it wasn´t possible to go and kayak because of the large waves they had that day, we decided to go and look for snorkelling shops.

Along the Burriana Beach boardwalk

Finalmente, descubrimos una compañía que nos gustan. Tomamos un viaje en 1:00 PM, así hasta que tiempo nos sentamos en la playa y tomamos tapas.

Finally, we discovered a company that we liked. We booked the trip going out at 1:00 PM, so until that time we sat on the beach and ate some tapas.

Cuando el tiempo llegó, fuimos a la compañía, elegimos nuestras bañadores para buceos, y la compañía nos pone en una furgoneta a su barco.

When the time came, we went to the company, selected our snorkelling suits, and the company packed us in a minivan going to their boat.

Cuando llegamos y nos vestimos, reímos porque pensamos que parecemos como heróes superes o ninjas, o extraño en general.

When we arrived and got dressed, we laughed at ourselves because we thought we looked like some kind of super heros or ninjas, or really just quite strange in general.

El compañía nos tomó en un barco rapído a una cala pequeño, y saltamos de el barco en la agua. Estaba muy frío, pero la bella de la mar hizo que no veíamos.

The company took us out on a fast boat to a little cove, and we jumped off of the boated into the water. It was so cold, but the beauty of the cove distracted us… for the most part.

I´m the awkward one in a black mask and blue flippers. I had to get child size everything because the normal adult things didn´t fit me, hahaha. Everyone else wore yellow flippers and yellow masks or white masks.

Jordan y yo cumplimos un otro parte de mi liste de bucket. Hablamos mucho en español con nuestro maestro de buceo, y tenemos su numero. Así, tenemos un amigo de España y hablabamos solo en español – dos otros cosas completado!

Jordan and I completed another part of my bucket list. We talked a lot in Spanish with our diving instructor and ended up getting his number, and he told us we all needed to come back some time and hang out. So, we have a spanish friend and we had a full conversation in Spanish – 2 other items completed!

Nuestro amigo, Sammy. Él es de Honduras y está estudiando para su maestro en negocios en la universidad. Él quiere a hacer una empresa de maestro de buceo con tiempo.

Our friend, Sammy. He is from Honduras and is studying for his master´s in business in the university. He wants to start his own divng business with time.

Después de nuestro viaje, estamos cansados y tenemos hambres. Así, fuimos a una restaurante y tenemos almuerzo-cena. Las personas del empresa buceo nos dicen sobre lo, así el camarero nos dio muchas cosas gratises como tapas y chupitos sin alcohol.

After our trip, we were tired and quite hungry. So, we went to a restaurant and had dinner-lunch. The diving company´s workers recommended the company, so our waiter gave us a bunch of free tapas. Everyone else split a giant dish of paella, but I wasn´t that hungry so I only got a tapa of a giant prawn.

Los otros salieron después de cena, y Jordan, Adam, y yo fuimos a la playa tomar fotos y visitamos el bar de Hemingway comer tapas donde Ernest Hemingway bebío en el pasado.

Salimos para Málaga a cerca de 8:30 y llegamos en nuestras casas para escuela en la mañana. ¡Estaba un buen viajo!

We left for Malaga close to 8:30 and arrived at our houses safe and sound. It was a great trip, overall!

I’ve taken Monday and likely today, too, to work on my final papers for my marketing class and spanish culture class. They’re supposed to be long – about 10 pages each – so I’ll be having relatively boring days. However, Wednesday I’ll be taking a boat tour and Thursday I’ll be going to the San Miguel beer factory and the nearby city Marbella with my marketing class, so I’ll have plenty to post about then!

Nos vemos,

Kenna

Ronda: La Ciudad en Los Peñascos – The City on the Cliffs

He conocido porque de las fotos en el Internet que Ronda está bella, pero hasta veía la ciudad, no entendí. La ciudad hizo en un punto en el cima de peñascos, así los vistos están como no otro.

I had known from the photos on the Internet that Ronda was dazzling, but until I saw the city, I did not understand. The city was made on the top of cliffs, so the views are like no other.

Aun en el viaje por autobús, hay muchos vistos preciosos. Hay montañas enormes, y  valles profundos. Pero, cuando llegamos, todos que veíamos estaban casas blancas y casas blancas.

Even on the bus ride, there were many stunning views. There were enormous mountains and deep valleys. But when we first arrived, all that we saw were white houses and more white houses.

Rápidamente, nuestra guía nos tomó a nuestro visto primero… el Puente Nuevo. Para la gente de Ronda, el puente es nuevo – pero, a mí, es muy antiguo. El puente hizo más que 200 años antes. Pero, hay dos otros puentes hizo antes del nacimiento de Christo, así la gente piensa que el puente nuevo es muy joven en comparación. Los puentes están entre Ronda Antigua y Ronda Nuevo, porque hay dos partes de la ciudad.

Quickly, our guide took us to our first view… the New Bridge, or el Puente Nuevo. For the people of Ronda, the bridge is new – but, to me, it´s very old. The bridge was made more than 200 years ago. However, there are 2 other bridges in Ronda that were built before the birth of Christ, so the people think that the new bridge is very young in comparison. The bridges are between Old Ronda and New Ronda, because they are the two parts of the city.

Caminaban sobre los puentes y a los baños arábicos antiguos siguiente. Los baños estaban muy guay e interesante.

We walked over the bridges and to the ancient arabic baths next. The baths were very cool and interesting to learn about.

The Roman bridge is the bridge shown here. It’s the second oldest bridge.

The gorge under the Roman bridge

Closer to the Roman Bridge

And this is the oldest bridge of the city, the old Arabic bridge.

Después de este, tomábamos el viaje típico alrededor de la ciudad. Tengo muchos fotos, así los pondré  debajo de este con explanaciones de que los están.

After this, we took the typical tour around the city. I have many pictures, so I will put them below with explanations of what they are.

The oldest tower in Ronda

On the balcony of this old cathedral, (Also built before the birth of Christ!) the king of Spain would watch the bull fights in the streets before there were bull fighting rings.

This is the old city center – here, they used to have the bull fights before there were stadiums for them.

A painting of the city

Inside the oldest bull fighting ring of Spain

Nikol, me, and Jordan

They kept the horses here because they sometimes do shows with them

My little hot chocolate “Suiza” that I had for lunch. It was freezing in Ronda!

Pues, conozco que este artículo está muy grande, y tengo mucho decir sobre Nerja también. Así, para hoy, este es mi solo artículo. Mañana, escribirá un artículo nuevo y hablar sobre Nerja. Ahora, iría a compras con mis amigos para algunos zapatos – es muy importante, jaja.

Well, I know that this was a big post, and I have much to say about Nerja as well. So, for today, this is my only post. Tomorrow I will write about Nerja. For now, I will be going shopping with my friends for some shoes – it´s very important, haha.

Nos vemos,

Kenna

Solo Aventuras y La Alcazaba – Solo Adventures and the Alcazaba

Lo siento para la falta de escribiendo en los pasados días, pero no hay mucho que ocurrió – excepto tuve mi primera quemadura, jaja. Tuvo un metido semestre presentación y examen esta semana, así necesité tiempo a estudiar.

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past days, but not much has happened – except I had my first sun burn, haha. I had my mid term presentation and a mid term exam this week, so I needed time to study.

Esta semana tuve algunas solas aventuras, porque hubiera sentido más seguro y hubiera aprendido las calles mejores. En Martez, fui a la playa con Ariana, y mientras ella tomaba el sol, anduve por la playa y descubrí una isla pequeña. Ha sido muy tranquila, y me gusta el lugar. Naturalmente, tomé fotos, jaja.

This week I had a few solo adventures, because I had felt safer and I had learned the better roads. On Tuesday, I went to the beach with Ariana, and while she sun tanned, I walked to the beach and discovered a little island thing. It was very calm and quiet, and I liked the place. Naturally, I took some photos, haha.

Little salt crystals growing on top of the rocks

En miércoles, decidí ir y buscar para algunas Geocachés a cerca de mi escuela. Desafortunado, hay solo dos cachés a cerca de la escuela, pero los están más o menos una milla separada, así andaba mucho este día. Pero, ambos cachés fueron a lo largo de la playa, así el camino fue precioso. Aquí, pude mi bicho viajo en uno de estés cachés.

On Wednesday, I decided to go and look for some Geocaches close to my school. Unfortunately, there were only two caches close to the school, but they were about a mile apart and so I walked a lot that day. However, both caches were along the beach, and so it was a gorgeous walk. It was here in one of the caches that I put the travel bug that I´ve had with me from a cache in Indiana.

En la tarde de miércoles, fui con ISA a la Alcazaba – como el Castillo de Gibralforo, excepto es el palacio del montaña. Como todos de los moros ruines, hay muchas detallas y vistos bonitos.

In the afternoon on Wednesday, I went with ISA to la Alcazaba – like the Castillo de Gibralforo, except it´s the palace part of the mountain. Like all of the old moor ruins, there were many details and great views.

View of the Old City from Alcazaba

Cassie and I enjoying the Alcazaba 😉

One of the windows in the Alcazaba. In the carved tiles that are shaped like rectangles, there are itty bitty carvings in Arabic which say “Allah”. So ornate!

The stone floors were made this way to “massage” their feet – the way the stones were placed would make it more comfortable to walk on. So neat!

Water flows through old Arab palaces because in the desert, water is a very pleasing noise. Therefore, the rich would pay for the sound of water to go all through their palace as a way to “relax”.

Finalmente, este jueves fui y veía todas de las tiendas a cerca de mi escuela. Hay muchas tiendas a cerca de mi escuela, descubrí – ¡aún un grande mercado con muchas tiendas pequeñas! Fue muy guay. Pero, en la tarde, solo fui a la playa con Jordan y estudiamos para nuestro examen en la mañana. Después de este viajo, tuve mi primera quemadura.

Finally, this Thursday I went and saw all of the stores close to my school. There were many stores close by, I discovered – even a huge market with all these little shops! It was quite cool. Although, in the afternoon, I only went to the beach with Jordan and we studied for our exam in the morning. After this little trip, I had my first sun burn.

En la mañana, ¡iré con ISA a Ronda! Estoy muy emocionado – he querido ir a Ronda por un largo tiempo. También, en domingo, iré con algunos amigos a Nerja – una ciudad no más que 45 minutos desde Málaga. Ambas ciudades están muy bonita, así tomaré muchas fotos bonitas y los pondré en el blog domingo o lunes.

In the morning, I will go with ISA to Ronda! I´m very excited – I have wanted to go to Ronda for a long time. Also, on Sunday, I will go with some friends to Nerja – a city no more than 45 minutes from Malaga. Both cities are stunning, so I will take many pictures and put them on the blog either Sunday or Monday.

Hasta luego,

Kenna

El Castillo de Gibralforo

I’m not ashamed to say that after all our time in Switzerland and travelling back to Malaga, all that I wanted to do on Sunday was sleep. But with such a large bucket list to work on, a day of sleeping is a day wasted – especially when so much money was spent to get me here in this beautiful city. Therefore, after a quick siesta and lunch, I ventured over to the beach with Jordan and Daniel to sunbathe (or “tomar el sol”) for a bit before we decided to head on over to visit the Castillo de Gibralforo.

Después de nuestra tiempo en Suiza y viajando a Málaga, todos que quise hacer en Domingo estaba dormir. Pero con un grande listo hacer con, un día lleno de durmiendo es un día despilfarrado – especialmente cuando muchos dineros gastán para mí ir a Málaga. Por eso, después de una siesta y almuerzo corto, fui a la playa con Jordan y Daniel a tomar el sol, y decidimos ir a el Castillo de Gibralforo.

It didn’t really seem like that big of a hike. From a glance, it just looked like a couple of weaving stairways and we’d be up there. Well, we quickly found that to be false – after trudging up the steep stairways and hiking paths, we found it took more than a half hour just to get to the top of the small mountain or large hill that Castillo de Gibralforo sits on. However, it was completely worth it.

No parece como un grande caminado. Parece como dos o tres escalaras. Pues, descubrimos rapidamente que es falso – después fuimos las escaleras pinas, lo tomó más que un mitad hora ir a la Castillo de Gibralforo. Aunque, es completamente mérito lo.

Everything that I have read and heard is true – there is no view of Malaga like from atop el Castillo de Gibralforo. I had always known Malaga was a large city, but until I saw it from that view, I really had no idea how far the city actually extended. There were old buildings, white houses, ports, and beaches as far as the eye could see – little white specks dotted the mountains that surround Malaga like the sides of a bowl. Then, we pressed onward into the castle from the outer walls and found a whole new experience. The design of the castle is amazing, sparing no lack of detail as the moors do. A lot had vanished with time, but the stonework of the castle remained.

Todos que he leído y oído es verdad – no hay un visto de Málaga como del Castillo de Gibralforo. He conocido que Málaga es una ciudad muy grande, pero cuando he visto la ciudad desde el Castillo de Gibralforo, entiendo en realidad como grande la ciudad es. Hay edificios antiguos, casas blancas, puertos,  y playas a lejos – pequeños blancos están en las montañas que rodea Málaga, como los paredes de un cuenco. Después, fuimos a dentro de la casa desde las murallas y descubrimos otra lugar. Los diseños del castillo me encanta, con no falta de detallas. Muchas de las cosas no están en el castillo ahora, pero el castillo queda.

View from a little window in a tower

Naturally, there were many pictures to be taken of us in different parts of the castle – even after Daniel’s many complaints, haha.

Naturalmente, hay muchos fotos – aunque con Daniel´s muchos quejos, jaja.

That was the extent of our Sunday! Not very interesting beyond el Castillo de Gibralforo, but that’s another thing checked off the bucket list!

Nos vemos,

Kenna