Waka Waka- 'Cause this is Morocco, Africa!

This past weekend was my incredible trip to Morocco!  It was such an amazing experience that this blog won't even be able to cover it.  I was worried I wouldn't have the chance to go because of all of the protests going on in Africa, but they fortunately held off for us this weekend :)  Although the protests started up again as soon as we left.

Me and my fellow ASA UPO ladies signed up for this trip through We Love Spain, which is an organization in Seville that puts together fun trips at reasonable prices.  Everything was included in the price including 4 star hotels, entrances, tours (including tourguides and bodyguards!), 3 meals a day, transportation, and a camel ride!  I was very happy with how organized everything was.

We left friday morning around 9 and took a 2 hour busride to Gibraltar.  Gibraltar was beautiful!!  It is a British territory at the southern tip of Spain and you can see Africa from across the sea!  The views were absolutely breathtaking.  The water was so blue and it was the only thing in between us and Africa. 

We took a bus all the way up to the top of The Rock of Gibraltar.  Our bus driver was so fun (and a total pothead).  When we reached the top we went inside St. Michael's Cave where we checked out some stalagmites.  There was also a random seating area with an aisle and it was playing wedding music.  After the cave, it was time for the monkeys!!  There were tons of them and they weren't scared if you got too close.  In fact, some girls in our group got to have a monkey sit on their heads!  They were hogging the monkeys for most of the time though.

I hope that monkey sterilized its hand before touching my shoulder...

From Gibraltar we left to take a ferry over to Ceuta (a Spanish territory in Africa that shares a border with Morocco).  When we arrived in Ceuta, I couldn't believe I was actually in AFRICA!!!  We sang Shakira's "Waka Waka" the entire time haha.  We went to the most beautiful lookout point where we took a ton of pictures.

Then we drove to the Moroccan border!  We had to wait there for a while because a girl from our group was bitten by a monkey in Gibraltar so we were waiting for her to get back to the bus from the hospital.  When she got back, we finally entered Morocco!  Just driving through the streets already felt like it was a completely different world.  We arrived at our hotel and it was beautiful!  Brittany and I shared a very nice room, the only problem was that it majorly flooded when we showered.  The water would have reached our beds if we didn't stop it!  So everybody showered and then we had a delicious dinner in the hotel restaurant:  bread, a creamy pea soup, and chicken with vegetables.  Everyone went straight to bed afterwards because we were all exhausted.

The next day we had breakfast in our hotel (the Moroccans LOVE their breads!) then we took an incredibly scenic busride to Chefchaouen.  I can't even describe the landscape.  It was so mountainous and green.  Just gorgeous.  Chefchaouen was also gorgeous in itself.  Everything and anything was painted blue (which comes from it's former jewish population).  We had a cute little old tourguide who sounded like Yoda and wore an Aladdin hat.  Chefchauoen is known for its handmade woven blankets.  We went to a place that specializes in these blankets.  Most of them are a week's worth of work.  Each blanket also differs in the amount of silk that it contains.  The blankets were so beautiful, but also very expensive.  A guy was trying to sell me the one I wanted for 60 euros.  I ended up finding one very similar for 25 euros at a different place.

    

Everything was blue!

Us and our tourguide, Yoda

   Beautiful handmade blankets

Chefchaouen also had really good shopping!  In Morocco, you have to bargain with the salesmen.  They will give you a price and you say how much you think it's worth/willing to pay.  Then he ends up lowering the price and until you are both happy with the price- that's when you buy it.  Shopping was like a game!  I bought a LOT of stuff and got really good deals on all of it!  The blanket I bought, the guy originally was charging 40 euros for it but I brought it down to 25 (I would have made it lower, but I felt bad because he was really nice and my blanket is made with more silk than others).  But all of the shop owners were very friendly and spoke english perfectly!  Almost all of them spoke spanish as well.  I did not think that I would speak spanish when going to Morocco!  There were so many crafts, it was like a giant flea market.  On our way to the buses, I saw my face wash that I haven't been able to find in Spain- and there it was in a random store in Morocco!  So I stopped to buy it (it even has arabic written on it- so cool!), but the guy was sooo slow getting change for me that I got my friends in trouble because we were late for the bus :-/

So much jewelry!

Next, we went to the city of Tetuan for lunch.  We ate in this very nice restaurant where we had a band playing Moroccan music while we ate.  We started with bread and a huge plate of fresh vegetables.  Then we had some meat kabobs.  There was also a belly dancer that performed.  There was a woman there giving hennas for 3 euros so I got one on my leg but it wasn't with the best ink so it came out very light :(

After lunch, we took a tour of the city.  This city is where Morocco's royal palace is.  We hardly saw any women in Morocco.  Almost only men were out on the streets (and there were a LOT of men).  Women don't go anywhere unless they are accompanied by a man and most of them just stay inside their homes.  And then here we come, a group of about 60 people, 55 of which are girls, barging through the streets.  Not only that, but we were definitely exposing more skin than they're used to and we were obviously not Muslim, so it's not wonder we got a million stares everywhere we went!  It felt like we were in a parade walking through the streets because the moroccan men would just be on the side...staring.  While in Tetuan, we went to a pharmacy where we met a spice doctor!  It was cool, he had herbs and medicines for everything including weight loss, cholesterol, and herpes hahaha.  At the end, he let us buy what we wanted that he showed to us and it was basically like an auction (no one bought the herpes remedy...that I know of).  Afterwards, we had some free time to shop around.

That night we got to our 2nd hotel where we were welcomed by free cups of the delicious tea that was served to us all around Morocco.  We had an hour to shower and get ready for our dinner and show :)  We entered through an area that had men on horses- one looked like Aladdin!  Then we sat in a bleacher-type seating area and watched the men on horses come running through and shot off guns- so startling!  Then we went inside tents where we would eat and watch several different performances.  There was a band, a magician, a belly dancer, a man who balanced a tray of candles, and 2 little kids who were crazy acrobats!  While we watched this, we ate our massive amounts of bread, soup, couscous with vegetables, and a dish that had a bunch of mini meatballs and eggs.

  

These kids were insane!  And looked about 9 years old.

 

That night there was a private club party for our group in a club nextdoor to the hotel but I didn't go because I was sick.  But it's not like staying in helped because I didn't go to sleep til late anyways.  When Brittany came back she found a huge bug in her bed!!  So I tried to squash it but it was way too fast.  We were sooo freaked out.  Luckily our room came with 3 beds so she slept in the other one, but it was still freaky knowing it was there!

The next day we woke up, had breakfast, and took the bus to Tangier where we had a gorgeous view of the sea.

Then it was time to ride a camel!!!  Let me just say, getting on those things is NOT easy!  I felt like I was going to fall off, but once it stood up I was fine.  It was a very short ride, but very fun!  And then men who guided the camels were fun too.  They kept shouting "OH MY GOD!" and "ABI-BI!"  I felt like an Arabian princess :)

Once we were done with our camels, we headed off to the cave of hercules.  It was believed that Hercules once slept there.  It is also said that an opening from the cave out onto the sea is the outline of Africa.  What do you think?

Sadly, that concluded our trip to Morocco.  We boarded the buses to go back to Ceuta where we would take the ferry back to Europe.  So long Africa :(  We then had a 2 and 1/2 hour bus ride back to Sevilla.  Overall, Morocco was just incredible.  It was such an amazing experience and one that I will most certainly never forget.



Sleepless in Granada

This weekend was our last group trip with ASA and it was an overnight trip to Granada.  But first, I have to start with the night before.  So we had to be at the train station on Friday at 6:30 am which meant the cab that Lindsey, Megan, Brittany, and I were sharing was leaving from Lindsey's house at 6am.  Brittany had the idea of going out thursday night and just going to the train station straight from the club.  I thought she was crazy because I needed to actually sleep that night.  Little did I know, I would actually do it.  We had the intention of going out to do some karaoke, but apparently the place we had in mind doesn't exist.  So instead, we hungout at calle betis for some drinks and then some dancing after.  Before I knew it, 5:15am rolled around, and Tatiana and I were the only 2 still out from our group.  The club was still packed, so it was easy to think it was a bit earlier than 5!  So we walked home and I got back with 15 minutes to pack.  Brittany was like "where have you been?! We have to catch our taxi in 15 minutes!" haha woops.  So I shoved everything I needed into my backpack and headed on our way.

Straight from the club at 5 am...

...to the train station at 6 am.

We got to the train station with another half hour to spare!  So we parked it on some benches.  On the train, I don't think I've ever seen our group so quiet!  We were all passeddd outtt.  I was very uncomfortable the ride so I didn't really sleep. When we got to Granada, we had a wonderful 45 minute walk to the hotel (it wasn't actually wonderful).  We got there and found out our rooms weren't ready for another couple of hours.  Really ASA, you're going to do this to me when I'm working off of zero sleep?  First, a 6am train ride, then a 45 minute walk to the hotel, then our rooms aren't going to be ready when we get there so I can't crash.  Why couldn't we have just taken a later train then?  Ugh.  So we grabbed some breakfast/lunch at a cafe and chilled until our rooms were ready.  I took a delightful and much needed 2 hour siesta and a nice hot shower once we got to our rooms because we had free time for 4 hours :)  I look forward to these trips just for the hot showers! haha. 

First picture of all the UPO kids together!  We just happened to all be sitting on the couch at the same time.

We all met down in the lobby around 5 and Brittany brought me back the most amazinggggg sandwich!!  The food in Granada was very moroccan-like and very different from the rest of spanish food.  This sandwich was a kebob with chicken, sauce, tomato, and lettuce.  Basically heaven inside some bread.  Then it was time for our tour of the city with our tourguide Ignacio.  He was cool, but talked about things for a bit too long and lost all of our attention.  But he took us around and showed us all the hotspots like where to get tapas.  I love Granada's tapa tradition- order a drink and you get a free tapa!  We also hiked a mountain to find the most beautiful view of the Alhambra.  I was sad that we were there on a cloudy day, otherwise we would have been able to see the sunset behind it that I heard so much about :(

View of the Alhambra.

After the tour, a bunch of us grabbed some drinks and free tapas at an outdoor restaurant. After that, we hopped over to this awesome moroccan place where we got more food and some hookah.  I loved loved loved the atmosphere.  I felt like I was suddenly in Aladdin.  Then we all went back to our rooms and got ready for our night out in the caves! Literally, a lot of Granada's best bars/clubs are inside caves in the mountains.  The club was very fun.  It was empty when we first got there but quickly became more and more packed.  Some of us ended up staying out a littleee too late.  We were going to leave earlier but Cassie forgot her jacket and when we went back in to get it, they kept playing songs from Grease as well as other good songs so we just couldn't leave! lol.  We grabbed a cab back to the hotel where we continued to stay up playing never have I ever until reallyy late (well actually early).  We had to be down in the lobby at 9am.  Cassie, Drew, and I ended up passing out for an hour and were woken up being told that we had to be down in the lobby in 15 minutes!  So I ran back to my room, packed up all my stuff.  Yes, ASA also didn't book us for a 2nd night which meant we had to store our stuff all day in the hotel even though we wouldn't be getting back to Sevilla until midnight!  We were literally homeless for the day.  All we all wanted to do was sleep but there was nowhere to crash!

Partying in the caves!

From the hotel, we walked over to the Alhambra and had our 3 hour tour.  Like Toledo, I felt bad because I couldn't really enjoy a lot of it because I was so tired from the night before.  But it was still really pretty and so big!  The tour took forever.  And my camera mysteriously broke halfway through.  I was sooo upset (and still am).  So I was worried about that for the rest of the tour as well.  After the Alhambra, we basically had free time for the rest of the day.  This is when we became homeless.  Some kids in the group went back to the hotel and just crashed on the couches.  A group of us went to lunch and then found a cool moroccan-like tea room where we sat on some pillows and hungout for a long time.  I laid down and laid there for a whileee.  I heard the whole place starting to get more and more crowded so they must have been really curious as to why I was lying in our area sleeping.  It was an awesome and relaxing atmosphere!  But all I really wanted was a comfy bed to just fall into.

Inside the Alhambra

View of Granada from the Alhambra.

Afterwards, we had another hour or so to kill so we walked around the market area, bought some souveniers, and bought one last yummy kebob for the train ride home!  We then did our 45 minute walk back to the train station and took our 3 hour trainride back to Sevilla.  We got back home at 12:30 this morning and I have been sleeping alllll day!  (except for when the family in the apartment next to us decided to have a party and started singing all the songs that they play in the clubs here haha I was ready to start singing/dancing along with them!).  But overall, Granada was such a beautiful city!  It was the last Muslim territory in Spain before the Christians took over, and you can definitely see they kept the Arab-vibe of their city.  It was different from any other part of Spain that I've been too and that definitely makes it a unique place.  The food was amazing!  I wish we had more time to spend there.  But after seeing Granada, I'm definitely ready for my trip to Morocco :)

Now enjoy some pictures that pretty much describe my weekend (let's see if you notice the common factor):


On the train to Granada.

Me, Cassie, and Drew passed out after our night in the caves.

Lindsey and I sleeping in the Moroccan restaurant because we were homeless.


Still trying to sleep in the tea room.


Well...it looks like I got sleep on this trip...but these pictures lie.



 

Cádiz Carnaval=Halloween on Crack

Last weekend was definitely a wild one.  Saturday night was the Carnaval in Cádiz which meant every Spaniard and their mother dressed up in a costume, bought a lot of alcohol, and headed for the streets of Cádiz to celebrate before lent begins.  It was like halloween in March!  This carnival is said to be the 3rd largest in the world (just behind Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad), so you know it was crazy.  I found a dress on the sale rack in H&M that looked sort of flapper-ish so i bought tons of accessories in a chino store, had my friend Cassie do my hair and makeup, and bam! I had a costume.

Me and my fellow flapper, Catherine :)

Almost every American student in Sevilla signed up to go with an organization called Discover Sevilla, which provided transportation there and back.  It was an hour and a half bus ride which became a bit torturous because we all REALLY had to pee (Spain for some reason decides to not put bathrooms on their buses).  We arrived in Cádiz and everyone immediately flocked in all directions trying to find the closest bathroom.  My group of friends and I saw no bathroom in sight because the area they dropped us off at only had food stands around.  So instead, we ran around trying to find a private street that we could use.  However, there were cops blocking off every side street!  We asked a cop where we could find a bathroom and he so vaguely told us "over there."  Thanks for the help, man.  So we took his advice and headed "over there" where we went in a restaurant only to find that the bathroom was out of order.  Then we found a Burger King where I'm pretty sure half the people that were at carnaval were waiting in line to use the bathrooms.  I would haved pissed myself before I even made it through a quarter of the line.  We started to panic because I know I was at that rare point where you just can't hold it anymore.  And we couldn't even run to find somewhere to pee, because it hurt too much!  Thankfully, we finally found a small street that didn't have a cop guarding it.  It seemed like the rest of the carnaval population also decided to make this street their personal toilet as well because there were people all down it just letting their pee flow.  The street literally looked like Cádiz was just hit with a giant rainstorm.  But really, it was piss.  So us girls formed a wall and my friends were kind enough to let me be the first to go.  Let me just say, that was one of the greatest pisses of my life.

 This bus ride felt like forever!

We apparently had time to stop for a picture on our way to pee.

And here is piss street.  "That's not rain!"

So, once we finally relieved ourselves, it was time to join the party!  It was basically a giant botellon- everyone gathered in the streets, drinking, conversing with different people, and having a good time.  We met a bunch of cool people.  We mostly stuck with this group of hippies.  Going out is truly the best way to practice your spanish.  Get a little alcohol in you and suddenly you're fluent! (ok maybe not fluent, but it does become much more easier to speak).  So we got a lot of practice in with everyone we met.  These people asked if I was from England and I said I was from America and they errupted and were like "America?!? OBAMA!!!!!" They were apparently huge Obama fans.  In fact, 2 of their friends were dressed as Obama and Obama's security guard.

Obama!

Our hippie friends.

The girls looking spectacular :)

Overall, it was a very fun night, that unfortunately ended too soon :(.  Discover Sevilla said the buses would be departing at 2:45am so that we would get out before the trouble starts.  Which I think they should have pushed it a bit later because that's the time the party starts in spain!  Anyways, we ended up waiting for buses for another good hour and half (that's time we could have been enjoying more of the carnaval).  It was so ridiculous.  And it was seriously like Titanic (no joke).  Picture the scene where tons and tons people are fighting for their lives, pushing and shoving and screaming, trying to get on a life boat but the life boat only takes so many people so once that one departs, the crowd swarms to go find a new one.  That is how it was.  It was insanity!  The first few buses weren't even leaving with their full capacity!  Remember this?: "These life boats were tested with the weight of 70 men!  And I just saw a life boat leave with 12..12!"  Yup, what was a bus that could hold 60 people doing leaving with only half that number?!  I was waiting for someone to call out "I need women and children only, please!"  But we finally got on a bus, enjoyed our sandwiches that they gave to us, and got back to Sevilla safe and sound a couple of hours later.

The mob waiting for the buses.

Cuando en Roma...

Last weekend was my trip to Rome!  Due to an Andalucian holiday, we had off thursday, friday (as usual) and monday.  So what do you do on a 5-day weekend?  Travel of course!  My roommate Brittany, and our 2 friends Catherine and Lindsey and I decided to go to Rome :)

We got to the Seville airport early that thursday morning and it was time for our first ryanair experience.  They cause so much freaking stress!  They have a very strict carry-on bag restriction, and my little suitcase just barely made the cut.  I was still stressed because a woman was coming around with a box that she would put on top of everyone's bags to see if it met the restrictions.  Ridiculous, right?  And if it's too big, they charge you 35 euros!  Somehow I was able to get right by them without checking me.

So after a 3 hour very shaky flight (did I mention ryanair pilots also suck?), we arrived in Rome!  It was soo cold and windy!  We went straight to our hotel and we were greeted by the awesome manager.  He was so helpful!  This was the first time any of us have travelled/organized a trip all on our own so we of course had tons of questions for him.  He handed us our set of 3 keys (this place was really locked down!  Which made us feel very safe).  So we went up to the 5th floor where our room was and it was beautiful!  There was one double bed that Lindsey and Catherine shared and 2 single beds that Brittany and I had.  The bathroom was cute and very clean and we had a balcony terrace!  We were in love.  And very impressed!  Because it was such a nice hotel for such a cheap price!  It was even cheaper than some hostels we were looking at!  So if anyone is going to Rome, I highly recommend staying at the Euro Quiris Hotel.

Our wonderful hotel room :)

We were very hungry so we checked out the restaurant across the street called Andrea's.  Here, we were served by Andrea himself!  He was a cute Italian man that didn't speak English.  Catherine ended up ordering for us which she didn't mean to do but suddenly he took the menus out of our hands and decided what he was going to serve us!  Let me just say:  I know it's common sense that the food in Italy is amazing, but this food was INCREDIBLE!  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  He kept bringing out dish after dish for our appetizer.  First was the bread with a very spicy dipping sauce.  Then the wine.  Then the thinly sliced ham on top of fresh mozzerella (definitely my favorite!)  He also brought out a plate of 2 different types of pizza, a vegetable plate, and pepperoni/sausage things.  And when I didn't think my stomach could expand anymore, out came more bread and the main dish!  It was a fettucini with a creamy/cheesy sauce and bacon bits.  Absolutely delicious.  And Andrea was so friendly, we just couldn't say no to all the food he wanted to give us!  His wife also worked there and he had an adorable little granddaughter running around.  It was a true Italian family establishment and such a nice welcome into this lovely country!

Our delicious dinner!

That night we walked around apparently the bad part of town (it seemed like Rome’s china town).  Then we went back to the hotel with the intention of taking an hour nap.  We fell asleep at 7:30 pm and ended up waking up at 10 am the next day!!  We slept for freaking 14 hours.  I was soo tired the next day because I overslept.

So what was first on our site-seeing itinerary for Rome you ask?  Why, the Colosseum! When you walk out of the metro, BAM the colosseum is right there!  Quote of the day:  “Dude.  We’re in the Colo-freakin-sseum!”  We were immediately approached by a guy who convinced us to sign up with his tour group.  For 20 euros, we were able to skip the 45 min wait to get in, paid for our 12 euro entrance fee, got a tour, and got a tour of the roman forum as well!  I thought it was a pretty sweet deal.  Afterwards, we walked around and found a Michael Jackson impersonator!  Then we ate at a restaurant that sucked.  Our food was served on paper plates and my ravioli was not filling or even that amazing.  We probably should’ve read the sign that it was a “cafeteria/snack bar” and it was written in English!  Total tourist trap.

Inside the Colosseum!

The Roman Forum

Later that night, we decided we were still hungry.  So we went back to our first restaurant across the street for a late night meal.  Right when we walked in we were immediately welcomed and remembered!  We sat down at the same table as before and we started off with some wine and bread again.  This time we got to order for ourselves =)  but silly us for thinking the main course was all we would be getting!  We were in Italy, where they lovee to feed us.  And of course we knew we’d be paying for everything Andrea brought out, but we just could not say no to his smiling face!  So he brought out pizza yet again.  Then our main dishes:  I got the classic spaghetti! Sooooo good.  I can’t express how good this food was.  For dessert, he gave us all tira misu! Yum yum yum.  And then…his creepy friends showed up.  Well, actually only one was creepy.  The first one, in his 40s, was very nice.  But he opened up a pretty heavy topic out of nowhere:  his wife died a few months before out of the blue.  One minute she just hit the floor and was dead.  It was so sad!  Then another guy showed up (the creepy one).  His name was David, balding, and in his 40s, and was verrry creepily hitting on Catherine the whole time.  I was oblivious to most of this until the end (probably because Andrea kept bringing out wine after wine for us girls.  3 bottles!).  In the other room there were drunken Australians singing “that’s amore.”  But they left earlier than us.  Actually we were there until 2:30am and we knew it was time to bolt the second David’s creepiness got out of hand.

Me and Brittany with Andrea haha

The next day we started off with the Spanish Steps where we ate some gelato and enjoyed the beautiful day.  While we were there, we felt ourselves slowly getting surrounded by European boys.  One by one they came flocking to our area.  The walls started closing in and suddenly one was almost brushing shoulders with me!  We were like seriously, out of all the steps on this thing, you choose the ones near us?!  If we didn’t leave when we did, I guarantee that they would have made a complete circle around us haha.

Lovin' me some gelato!

Enjoying life on the Spanish steps.

Us surrounded by our circle of Italian men

Next stop on the list: the Trevi Fountain!  It was beautifullll definitely one of my favorite spots in Rome.  It was very crowded, but we managed to find an area that we could take all of our pictures.  Afterwards, we travelled around stopping at Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Campo di Fiore, and crossed the Tiber River into the Trastavere area to find a place to have dinner.  We came across a nice and reasonably priced place.  I had a nasty salad (remind me not to order a salad at a restaurant until I’m back in the states.  I always forget they don’t use dressing.  My senora makes yummy salad.  I’ll just stick to hers).  But my lasagna was delicious!  After dinner, we got lost for a pretty long time.  But Lindsey, Brittany, and I were so enthralled in our conversation about 90s music and Disney movies, that we didn’t even notice we were in a sketchy part of town until way later!  But we made it back to the hotel eventually, no worries.

Making a wish! ;)

That night Lindsey, Catherine, and I did a pub crawl with a group that this guy at the Spanish steps told us about.  We met outside the Colosseum and talked to these 2 australian guys (one was super annoying and would not shut up.  The other one was cool) and their Italian friend whose name was FABRIZIO!!!  (titanic anyone?!)  I can’t believe I met an Italian guy named Fabrizio.  My life is complete.  We went to 2 clubs, and our immediate thoughts were that Spanish nightlife is so much better.  Which is completely true, nothing compares.  But it was cool to see how the romans party!  And let me tell you, people aren’t kidding when they say Italian men are the worst of them all!  They are seriously vultures!  There was not a moment when we weren’t completely surrounded by guys trying to dance with you and grab you.  It was a bit much.

Getting attacked by the vultures!

After only a short few hours of sleep, we woke up on our last day in Rome =(  We went to Vatican City!  So the last Sunday every month, it’s free entrance, so we knew it would be crowded.  But we never imagined it would be as crowded as it actually was!  The line was wrapped allllll around the walls.  We never would have got in if we waited in that line.  So we were approached by a girl who sold us on a tour of everything as well as being able to skip that huge line all for 20 euros!  She told us that “Italians love their free stuff” so apparently every time the Vatican is free, 90 percent of that line are Italians!  We still had to wait quite a bit to get in.  But once we were in, we got a tour of the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, and we went inside St. Peter’s.  I would love to go back when it’s NOT a free Sunday so that mobs of people aren’t pushing me.  So word of advice:  do NOT go to the Vatican on a free Sunday (or any Sunday for that matter probably) because you will end up having to pay anyways just to skip the huge ass line!

Only part of the line to get in.

Looking rather tired in the Vatican Museum.

Vatican City

Then we found a restaurant to eat at where we had an awesome waiter named Carlos who loved us because we spoke Spanish.  He was from Columbia.  I had one last yummy plate of real Italian spaghetti and then he brought us some free tira misu and limoncello shots =)  Then we got our last Italian gelato and ate it by the Trevi Fountain- sooo pretty at night!  Anddd then it started to POUR.  And I realized I left my umbrella at the restaurant!  So we went back and there was a group of workers from the restaurant standing out front smoking.  I was looking down but then realized a guy was right in front of me so I looked up, and he was using my umbrella!  So I stopped and said, “oh.  That’s my umbrella!!”  He was a man probably in his 30s, smoking, and holding a rainbow polka-dotted umbrella! Haha.

So it was miserable getting back to the hotel in the pouring rain.  My suede boots are not cut out for that kind of weather!  But we made it back and realized we didn’t have a way to get to the airport (our flight was at 6am so we wanted to get there at 3:30).  A cab would have cost 70 euros!  So we were like uhh lets find a different way.  So the 4 of us literally ran all over the train station trying to find a way to the airport.  Catherine and I went on a hunt for the bus that was supposedly really cheap and takes your right to the airport.  After running allll over we finally found it! however, we met these really nice English people and they told us they were about to get on the last bus (at 9:30!) and they said the next bus would leave at 4:30am so we took the risk and did that. 

We napped for a few hours and then went to the bus station at 4:15 only to find out that the 4:30 bus was sold out!  But the next one was leaving at 4:50.  We started to freak out because it was cutting it reallyyyyy close to when our plane would leave!  But there was nothing else we could do.  The bus came and only took 25 min to get to the airport.   We ran into the airport because we only had an hour!  And low and behold: a hugeeee line for security.  I seriously thought I was going to have a panic attack.  We split up into 2s so that 2 of us would wait in line for security while the other 2 went to go get our passports checked.  This definitely saved time, but the clock kept ticking and we were nowhere near getting our bags checked.  We asked what happens if we miss our flight (because right then, it was looking like that was going to happen), and the rude ryanair guy said our ticket would get tossed out and we would have to buy a new one.  He didn’t know when the next flight to spain was and he said it would be 100 euros to replace.  Hell no!  so I was getting even more stressed.  But then angels must have appeared or something because while we were waiting for security, Lindsey heard a security guard shout something about the flight to Madrid!  It turned out he was letting everyone on our flight to the front of security because we were about to miss our flight!  HALLELUJAH!!!!!  So we went through security and we made it onto our flight to madrid!  From Madrid, we found out the next bus to Seville wouldn’t leave for another 4 hours.  So we chilled in a café and then boarded our bus at 2.  There was a homeless guy on there who REIKED!!!  I thought I was going to throw up and I would have if I had to sit next to him.  Thank god I didn’t!  but the bus took about 7 hours and then we were home sweet home in sevilla =)

6 a.m.:  boarding our plane home.  THANK GOD.

That was definitely a trip to remember!  Italy was incredible and I would love to go back!  But maybe when it’s a bit warmer.