Madrid

The weekend of April 29th to May 1st was another CASB weekend excursion... this time to Madrid!  This excursion wasn't originally in the books, but one of the kids on my program realized we all wanted to go so he asked the program coordinators if we could go as a group.  Our program coordinators are awesome, so of course they said yes!  Originally their plan was to go to Palamos and La Costa Brava for the weekend, but they switched it up with Madrid.  I thought that the Palamos/Costa Brava weekend trip would be cancelled, but no! they've just rescheduled it for the 20-22nd of May.  Whee!

On Friday I woke up at 6:15am in order to get myself to the train station at 7:45am.  Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:30am and arrive in Madrid at 11:13am.  Yes, that's right!  It only takes 2 3/4 hours to get from Barcelona to Madrid!  We traveled by high speed train-- so much fun!  Although I probably wouldn't have noticed it was a high speed train if someone didn't tell me beforehand because it's not like we were going so fast as to break the sound barrier.  The highest speed I observed (they had a indication of our speed right next to the time in every cabin) was 300 kph, which is about 186 mph.  And they also showed a movie... Toy Story 3!  In Spanish! Both dubbed and subtitles-- although sometimes the dubbing and subtitles were different... apparently dubbing and subtitles are done by different companies?  I was also interested to see how they would handle Buzz's "Spanish Mode" because they were all speaking in Spanish.  I thought they handled it very well because they gave him a very thick Spanish accent with a lisp and Jessie called it Buzz's "Romantic Mode".

Torremolinos and Granada

Day 8: Fes/Málaga/Torremolinos, April 20th
We woke up at 6am in Fes, caught a quick breakfast at the hotel, and jumped in the car with the same driver from the Marrakech-Fes trip to catch an early flight to Casablanca (where we would then transfer to a flight to Málaga).  We made it safely to the airport (not too much lane passing this time-- the road really wasn't too crowded at 7am... although we did see plenty of sheep, goats, and their herders on the side of the road).  And guess who we saw at the airport!  My friend and her family!  So this was the second time we ran into them!  Although this would be the last time because they were headed to Marrakech and we were headed to southern Spain.  The flight was super quick to Casablanca.  But our flight to Málaga was delayed about 4 hours.  So we passed the time in a hotel internet cafe, the only restaurant we could find for lunch, and all the touristy gift shops.  
Finally we got to the Málaga airport.  We looked around for our hotel transport to the Bed and Breakfast, but we didn't see them and had trouble attempting to use a pay phone, so we took an expensive taxi ride to the bed and breakfast.  The B&B was located outside of the city, up in the hills.  They told us that they owned a restaurant in the city and they go back and forth between the B&B and the city several times a day.  We arrived at the B&B and buzzed the outside gate to let us in.  Finally a frazzled maid came down from the house (which was the B&B) to get us.  She said that she was the only one there at the moment and couldn't find the owner so we should wait until someone got home.  She showed us up to our room and left us, saying that we could take a shower and get comfortable.  Okay, so if you haven't noticed a lot of things that are off about this place so far, you're not reading very well.  We were the ONLY ONES there!  When my mom booked the place, she thought that maybe the 10 rooms they had would be full and bustling with people because of the busy weekend.  Apparently there aren't 10 rooms, but only one room-- the one we were going to stay in.  There was no reception, or anything else you expect a standard hotel/B&B to have.

Fes

This is the second of three posts on my Spring break!


Day 5: On the Road/Fes, April 17th
In the morning in Marrakech we were picked up in the morning outside of our hotel by a driver from the tour company.We bought some almond cookies (which weren't that good) and stolen dried fruit from the breakfast buffet to help us get through the long ride to Fes, which lasted about 7 hours or so.  Even though the ride was advertised to be about 5 hours, it wasn't.  I was surprised because the crazy driver we had (who made mom very nervous) would use every opportunity he could to pass cars in front of us.  I've never been in a car that has made so much use of the passing lane before and been so close to directly facing oncoming cars!  Luckily, we made it to Fes in one piece although we did see a bad car/bicycle accident on the side of the road.  About his 'magnificent' driving, the driver said, "Driving safe is like art.  You know?  Like painting?"  Also, he said that his daughter, who is still a kid, will become a doctor, study in Paris, and then return to Morocco.  And his son, who is only 5, will join the military because it provides great benefits.  Here are some photos of a lookout point we stopped at and a rest stop along the way:

Marrakech

Spring break!  And right before all my friends back in the states are in their last week of classes and heading into finals week.  My mom came to visit me for the week and a half I had off (hi mom!) and we had quite the adventure traveling from Barcelona to Morocco (Marrakech and Fes) and southern Spain (Torremolinos and Malaga).  From those weeks of traveling, I took more than 900 photos.  So I'll post a few of them on the blog, but to see everything, ask to see my external hard drive when I'm back in the states!  To warn the few people who are reading this blog, it's a long one!  And there are still even more spring break posts to come!

Day 1: Marrakech April 13th
Arrival in the Marrakech airport!

El Alcalde de Zalamea in Castelldefels

Last Sunday evening I went to see a play in Castelldefels with my Teatro Español en el Siglo de Oro class.   It's El Alcalde de Zalamea by Calderón de la Barca.  It's his second most famous play behind La Vida es Sueño (which we will be reading in the month of May).  We met outside one of the main train stations in the center of the city and had to buy Zone 2 train tickets.  (My Zone 1 T-Jove wouldn't cut it).  Castelldefels is a town outside of Barcelona, but technically still inside Barcelona.  I believe it's close to the airport.  The town reminded me of a city suburb, with typical European thin streets.  After the 30 minute train ride, we arrived in the town with about 45 minutes to spare until showtime.  The theater was right outside the train station, so it really would be very difficult to get lost.  Here's my train ticket with a blurry group of students from my class (and the other section of the class) behind.  The building they're standing in front of is the train station.

La Sagrada Família

Or, what you'll receive on a postcard if anyone ever sends you one from Barcelona.  Or, Barcelona's most emblematic architectural icon.  Or, the most visited tourist site in all of Spain.  Or, Antonio Gaudí's most ostentatious work.

The Temple Expiatori (Expiatory Church) was started in 1882 and was finished in... wait... nope, it's still not finished.  If you ever do receive a postcard of La Sagrada Família, the photo on the front is a lie.  It is not the picturesque version with lovely clean, blue skies you'll see.  But instead there are huge construction cranes sticking out of the top.  In fact, most of Barcelona is littered with cranes.  It's the city that's always changing, perhaps.  Or in the case of La Sagrada Familia, it's the church that's never finished.  They say it will be completed in the next 10 to 20 years, but you never know...

Jardins del Laberint D'Horta

The Labyrinth Park!  I've wanted to go here ever since I knew that this park exists in the outskirts of Barcelona. I mean, who can resist getting lost in a hedge-maze (even if there are a bunch of screaming schoolchildren occasionally getting in your way)?  This park is so carefully manicured and cared for that it cost 2,17 euro to get in!  I arrived a little after 11 in the morning and wandered around waiting for my friend to join me (she lost her phone and I was waiting for her at the wrong spot-- long story short).  So here are plenty of pictures of the park!