The final cities

I´ve fallen behind on my updates...this will be long, so I might break it up and finish tomorrow... luckily there´s an internet place right down the street from me. Oh and I gave my parents my memory card with all the pictures when they left so unfortunately I can´t put any more pictures up. But ask and maybe they can send you some.

After Seville we drove a rental car to Tarifa - a beach city from where we´d visit Gibraltar and Tangiers Morocco. On the way we stopped at a hillside town called Los Arcos. It wasn´t amazing- lots of places were closed and it was kind of boring. Tarifa reminded me of Laguna Beach, but not fancy and filled with Spanish speakers on vacation. It was a funky town but we didn´t see much of it since we mostly made day trips elsewhere. We drove to Gibraltar, which is a peninsula off of Spain and is British. It was interesting hearing both English and Spanish accents. We had English food for lunch, looked in shops, and later took an airtram ride to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, basically a really high mountain. At the top there were tons of monkeys hanging out! It was really bizarre and funny. We also saw some caves with stalactites and stalagmites. We ended up hiking down the huge rock - there were paved streets to walk on but it took forever - and we were exhausted, plus some things we wanted to see were closed. The rest of the day was a disaster - everyone was cranky, we got into Tarifa late, and there was absolutely no place to park. Aside from the English lunch and the monkeys, Gibraltar was just ok.

The day after Gibraltar we took a 30 minute ferry boat to Tangiers, Morocco. What an experience that was. I was nervous at first, being in a place so foreign. I have a greater appreciation for the people I know who are studying abroad in developing countries - I wasn´t exactly in my comfort zone and even just one day was a little difficult. We had a tour guide with us which was definitely helpful. He reminded me a little of my high school principal - slick, distracted, and phony - but he was smart and knew his way around. I guess he was a nice guy. He had to leave a little early because he said he had an appointment and his replacement was really great. He went on and on telling us about Islam and the culture and other general stuff. In Morocco, Tangiers in the 5th largest city. Islam is the most practiced religion, 2nd is Judaism, and 3rd is Christianity. It was interesting learning a bit about the religion and culture there - for example in the markets it´s less common to see pork because, like Jews, Muslims don´t eat it (but man, in Spain it´s everywhere!). Muslims pray 5 times a day...our 2nd guide was funny, he said that it´s good because it gives less time for people to be bad, ie when would you have time to get drunk? Overall religion in Morocco is really important. We saw some interesting places there. We drove by the King´s residence, saw where the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas meet, and some of us got to ride camels. We visited the market place - it was crowded and lots of people were trying to sell things to our tour group. One guy followed my dad forever until my mom bought the bracelets he was forcing on us. People there will not take no for an answer. My mom was really into all of it though, like bargaining. Ugh one time we were in a shop with her and while she was looking at something another worker tried to sell my dad a wallet, me a purse, and my brother a hookah pipe! Lunch was really tasty, although the place was awfully touristy - the only people eating there were tour groups. I had a great lamb dish with couscous, and for dessert there were little cookies and really sweet mint tea. Probably one of the coolest places we went to was this pharmacy/spice shop recommended by our 2nd guide. The guy there showed us all these spices/oils/medicines for cooking and illnesses that were inexpensive, so we bought some. It was really neat...I´ve got this oil that you rub in your nose to help when you´re nauseous or seasick etc. I still can´t believe how crazy and new that whole experience in Morocco was, whew.

Next we drove to Granada. I wasn´t expecting much from Granada but I ended up liking it a lot. First of all, when you order drinks in a restaurant you automatically get a free tapas dish, or appetizer! The hotel receptionist was really great - he recommended good restaurants and was very friendly. Granada has a lot of Arab influence -there were Middle Eastern restaurants, tea shops, hookah lounges, etc. It was a funky, hippie-ish place and it made me miss Pitzer. We were there for 2 nights. The Alhambra, which some say is the biggest attraction in Spain, is a humongous Moorish palace and gardens site that we visited. We saw the Mezquita and Alcazar in Córdoba and Sevilla, but the Alhambra was larger and had more to see. The architecture and gardens were spectacular! We also saw where King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella and their children are buried in a nearby chapel. But Granada was a quick stop, mainly to see the Alhambra.

We then finally we flew to Barcelona. It was the hugest, most crowded city of all. It was also the most touristy - we saw the most Americans there by far. It reminded me of New York and was a ton of fun. They speak Catalan there, which I think is a lot like French and I didn´t like it much, but people get by ok using Spanish too so it was ok. There was so much to do and see and eat! We were there for 3 nights altogether but I wish we were there for a week. The second day was all about Gaudi architecture and chocolate. We visited a place called Park Güell, which was originally planned to be a housing complex site designed by Gaudi but failed. There was some really amazing architecture there. I think seeing Gaudi´s work was the best part of Barcelona. We also toured around and looked atother buildings that he designed. One, called La Pedrera, was an apartment complex that was really interesting. All the rooms in each apartment got natural sunlight and all the doorways were intricately carved. On the roof there were statues and columns and things that looked like melting ice cream cones! The place was big and curvy - easy to get lost in, in fact we were separated from my mom for a long time in there. Overall Gaudi´s work is like fantasyland/Tim Burton/Dr. Seuss - lots of melting things, asymmetry, and nature inspired designs.
We also went to a chocolate museum where there were displays of chocolate models and descriptions about the origin and history of chocolate. The visit wouldn´t have been complete without samples and gift buying. We all felt a little sick that night. So we had a Gaudi/chocolate day, and after that we had a Dali day (while in other cities we learned about religious history, in Barcelona it was all about art). We took a long train ride to a city called Figueres, where we visited the Salvador Dali museum. There was some very bizarre artwork there - one of them was a painting of the backside of a woman, but from far away it looked like Abraham Lincoln. Very twisted. He also did some sculptures and jewelry. Everything was really impressive. On our last day in Barcelona we enjoyed sweets, and of course visited the old Jewish quarter. Even though I said Barcelona was our art extravaganza, no visit would be complete without seeing an old synagogue or two. This one in Barcelona was really small and secluded, and had a collection of objects from around Europe.

So all in all the ratings are (1 best, 9 worst)...
1 Toledo
2 Sevilla
3 Barcelona
4 Granada
5 Madrid
6 Gibraltar/Morocco
7 Lisbon
8 Tarifa
9 Córdoba

Each place was so distinct, I liked them all for different reasons. Toledo was quaint but also full of character and charm, and had so much history. And Sevilla was really cultured and sophisticated. Barcelona was full of character but in a completely different sense than Toledo because it was so crowded and busy. And as far as the worst ones - Tarifa had no sights and we were really only there as a stepping stone to Gibraltar and Morocco (which I liked about the same). Córdoba was just...plain. We didn´t meet extraordinary people, and I didn´t get an overwhelming sense of charm. Maybe because we were only there for one night, but nevertheless is wasn´t fun compared to the other places. Tomorrow I will update about Leon and my host family. So far things are going well :)