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Hello!!
It has been a while since I posted on here, so I am sorry; however I have been very busy over the last ten days travelling up a storm!! I am safe and back in Granada now for a nice five week stretch until I leave my Granada home and head to my Irish home for a few weeks. Then FINALLY I will make my way home – to my REAL home!
I started Semana Santa on Friday by heading to Barcelona with 6 other friends from my program. We left Granada around 10 pm with heavy bags in hand and lots of excitement! We had a short and easy flight to Barcelona and found our way to the Centric Point Hostel. It was easy to find and located right in the center of town on a ritzy street with all the designer shops lining it up and down. We got settled into our hostel and went out for some food. Where did we go?? Where any normal American would – McDonalds! DUH!! Haha After a little snack, we met up with another friend from IES and his brother who is studying in Barcelona. He showed us around a little bit before we all decided it was time to pass out at about three am.
The hostel room was an eight bed dorm room and I never would have thought it was possible to fit that many bunk beds into one little room!! But they did, and that was our home for the next 4 days. The hostel served free breakfast till ten, so we got up at 950 and ran down for breakfast. As I was heading for the stairs I heard “JULIA MARSH” being screamed from down the hall. My friend who I worked with at Tully’s a few years back was staying in the same hostel as we were! She is studying abroad in Cadiz, in southern Spain and was in Barcelona for the week too! It was really good to see her and catch up! It made the world feel extremely small! After breakfast and getting ready we set out for our first day in Barcelona. My friend’s brother was our own tour guide for the day and he showed us all around!
We first went to the Sagrada Familia – the church designed by Gaudi. It has been under construction for more than 60 years, so there were tons of cranes and scaffolding around it, but it was still amazing!! As my mom said “it was like he was on LSD while designing it!” And its true, it was such strange architecture with tons of decoration that it didn’t seem like a sane person designed it! On the inside there were tons of huge pillars that were fashioned after trees. They were very abstract and painted shimmering gold at the top. The outside was more decorative than the inside, which seems to be the opposite of the norm. But then again, so was Gaudi. There were hundreds of human statues trees, scenes from the bible, animals of every sort and fruit and vegetables on every side of the church. It was spectacular.
After the Sagrada Familia, we took the metro to Park Guell – a park designed by Gaudi. It was like walking into Whoville or Willy Wonka land! Everything was curvy, disproportionate and colorful! We sat in the park and had a picnic lunch and then explored afterwards. There was a huge patio area looking over the city that was just beautiful! There was a bench lining the edge of the whole patio that was brightly decorated and was filled with people! From there, we took the metro to the beach and had a nice nap in the sun! It was a gorgeous beach; however the water was still pretty cold so we didn’t do any swimming!
We went out that night to a club on the beach where they had a saxophone player playing along to techno and hip hop music! It was the coolest thing I have seen in a club so far! He had green light beams coming off of his hands as he played too! The club was overly packed though and it was almost impossible to move around. Barcelona is HUGE in comparison to Granada. It was ridiculous how many people were in the streets, metro and everywhere in the city! Almost everyone spoke English, along with Spanish and Catalan. It made me very happy that I am studying in Granada. The people are much friendlier and you don’t have to question what language they will speak!
The next day we slept in and finally caught up on our sleep! We went to the Picasso museum, the cathedral, the history museum and walked along the famous walkway, Las Ramblas. They were all very interesting and fun to see but it was definitely a long day! We didn’t actually see the entire history museum; we accidentally entered in the exit and didn’t realize it for about an hour, when we were walking against the flow of traffic! Oops! It was a cool museum none the less!
The next day, Monday, we got up early (for us) and headed to the beach! We were all ready to take in some sun, but that didn’t really happen. It was pretty windy and we were all pretty cold, but we stuck it out and continued to spend the day in the sun listening to music and playing games. About every two minutes, someone would come up to you on the beach and offer you pepsi, cerveza, coca (cocaine) or whatever you could imagine. Ladies would come up to you and say “quieres masaje?” Masage – pronounced ma-saw-hey! It was very annoying after the 100th person. After that we went to the chocolate museum where the entrance ticket was a chocolate bar! They had the history of chocolate and how it came to Europe, and they had all sorts of things made from chocolate! We went out to the Hard Rock Café that night for some good old American food. It was delicious and quite filling!
On Tuesday we went to the Gaudi museum which was once again, very different. It was inside an old apartment building that was designed by him. It displayed all of his work around Barcelona explaining how he built everything. On the top of the building are statues that are very peculiar looking. George Lucas is said to have modeled the helmets in Star Wars after these statues. We then did some souvenir shopping and headed back to our hostel to gather our things and head to the hostel. This was the only day we had rain, but it was pouring buckets! I was soaked to the core. We left for the airport and were on our way to Greece!!!!
We arrived in Athens at three in the morning (our flight was delayed) after a very rocky flight. We left Barcelona in a horrible rain storm and had horrendous turbulence for about half the flight to Athens. After arriving safely, we took a cab to Loutraki, a little Greek town about an hour west of Athens. Camille’s mom works with a lady who is from Greece (Loutraki) and offered us her apartment for our stay. Some fun facts about Loutraki – it is where water is bottled for Greece. When we were in Athens, I bought a bottle of water and the label said LOUTRAKI. It was pretty cool to have seen the town where it came from! Hehe We were probably the only tourists in this town and when we went to lay on the beach the next day (Wednesday) we were looked at like we were crazy!! Nonetheless, we laid on the beach on Wednesday and sunbathed to our hearts content. It was so hot out that I decided to go for a swim, despite the water being very cold! We made dinner that night in the apartment and it was delicious! We had pasta, salad and garlic bread! This trip gave us quite a fill on American style foods and made us feel a little bit a home in far away lands.
On Thursday we opted for more sunbathing. After breakfast (every morning we bought a greek loaf of bread, like sweet bread, and it was delicious) we headed right out our door and were at the beach 30 seconds later. The apartment was very close to the beach and the promenade along the shore. The water was crystal clear and was a spectacular sight. We were on a pebble beach, so it was a bit sore to lie on for hours, but we managed all right. In the afternoon, we strolled through the town and did some souvenir shopping! We stumbled upon a pastry shop and decided to go in and just look at some Greek deserts. Then the fates took over and enticed us to try the baklava. From that moment on we were all obsessed. We visited that pastry shop every day we were in Loutraki.
That night, after having some Greek coffee next to the ocean, we went out to dinner near our house. The Greek salads were delicious!! The is a huge slab of feta cheese on top of the salad that is seasoned with oregano and covered in olive oil. I have realized I LOVE feta cheese, however I think by the end of the trip I was a little burnt out. I might have been a little too enthusiastic about it at the beginning… After stuffing ourselves, we went home full and happy ready to pass out. There were only four places for people to sleep in proper beds, so we utilized the “couch” as a bed for the fifth person. That was fun. Haha
That night my friend started to have a sore throat and then her cheek started to swell up. One side of her face had swollen considerably and it was very hard for her to chew anything. We thought she might just have had a small infection in her jaw/glands but another girl in IES had the same thing and it went away after a few days and some antibiotics. So we got here some antibiotics but didn’t see any results after a few days. We called the guys who we went to Barcelona with (who went to Greece with us too, but went to an island with different IES kids) and they told us that our friend in the other group had the same thing on her face, only on both sides!! When we saw her in the airport on Saturday, her face was huge, swollen on both sides and she looked like she had a terrible allergic reaction. When we got back to Granada the next day, they went to the doctors office and found out they have the MUMPS!!!
So, now everyone at IES is on mump control, finding out when they were vaccinated and talking to the director here about how we are feeling! Camille and I don’t think we have it, since we both have been vaccinated but we spent a lot of time in close contact with our friend when she was probably most contagious so we are washing our hands like crazy and eating plenty of oranges (hope that helps ;)). The girls have been ‘quarantined’ to their houses and can’t come to school for the next week and a half! Hopefully it doesn’t spread to anyone else and ruin the last few weeks of our time here!
On Friday, we got up early, hit the beach for a few hours, cleaned up the apartment and headed into Athens for our last two days. Of course, we stopped at the pastry shop one last time to get a baklava for the road before catching the bus into Athens. We arrived around four pm and took the metro to our hostel right in the center of the Plaka. Plaka is a little square filled with restaurants, shops, touristy places right beneath the acropolis. It is a very lively place to be and our hostel was right in the center of it. We toured Plaka and the temple of Zeus on Friday night and had a wonderful dinner near our hostel. We had Greek salad, fried cheese, grape leaves and gyros. Everything was so fresh and delicious and colorful!! As I write this, I am starting to realize how much eating we did on this trip!! Haha After dinner and a few new Greek words, we went out to a bar in Plaka. We thought we would be cultural and try out the “traditional drink from Crete.” Well, that was a bad idea. As you can see from my photos, it was horrible!! I think my face explains it all. It tasted like rubbing alcohol – actually it might have tasted worse. They mix some sort of Greek alcohol with water and that was what we drank. So that was that, we were done being cultural in the drinks department.
On Saturday, we woke up and headed for the Acropolis! It was only about a five minute walk from our hostel however the lines to get in were horrendous!! Actually, it wasn’t really a line, more like a crowd and whoever could push their way hardest could enter! So we pushed and pushed and finally got in (for free because we are EU students!). However, the crowds didn’t stop there. I felt like cattle being herded up to the Parthenon. It started to rain a little bit but didn’t last long, thank goodness! The Parthenon was amazing! Everything was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking! We also saw Ancient Agora which might have been my favorite.
There were men selling postcards all throughout the Acropolis and my friend stopped to buy one. Right as she was about to give him her money, the police came up to him, took the postcards and placed him on the bench and handcuffed him! He politely said to my friend “sorry, we are closed for now.” It was soooo strange and funny, and as we scurried off, we realized she still had her postcard (stolen from the man who probably stole them in the first place!) We all got a good laugh out of it anyhow.
We went for lunch after we finished touring and I had a delicious spinach pie and yes, another Greek salad (now you can see how I got sick of it by the end!) We continued touring after lunch, going back to the temple of Zeus and then heading to the first Olympic stadium! It was beautiful! I couldn’t believe it was made in 300 A.D.; it looked almost new; however the stands were made completely of white marble and I doubt that the new stadium would be constructed of marble.
When we were headed back to Plaka from the stadium, we encountered a dog with a shaved and cut leg. It was limping around and barking at everything. We didn’t think much of it until it started following us very closely. As we waited at the cross walk, it started jumping into on coming traffic, barking like crazy and almost killed it self! I don’t know if dogs have nine lives like cats do, but this dog just about used all of his lives! He continued to follow us for about 40 minutes, crossing the street with us, stopping as we stopped, and barking at everyone around us. We were all very scared of the dog and were trying to escape it by crossing the street, standing on the median, splitting up into a smaller group to out smart it, but he never left!! He would go with one group across the street, and then come back to the other group if they started to wander off!! It was the strangest thing I have ever witnessed!! After lots of panic attacks and laughing attacks, the dog finally decided it was bored with us and left. Fast forward 20 minutes as we are getting back to our hostel and what stops us in our tracks? The dog was sitting in the middle of the street right by our hostel!! We couldn’t believe it! We immediately turned around and ran away from it!!
That night we had our last dinner in Greece and headed to the airport for our 2 am flight. We got there at about 11:30 pm only to find out our flight was delayed till 4:45 am! At this point, we had met up with another group of IES kids who were also in Greece, so we had a group of about ten of us! We made it to our gate and tried to get some sleep in before our flight. Little did we know, this was the start of our 24 hour journey home!! After arriving late into Barcelona, half my group missed their connecting flight and had to fight to get the airline company to get them on another flight free of charge, since it was their fault they missed the flight. After two hours of talking with managers and supervisors, they were all placed on the 8 pm flight to Granada. Let me remind you…its 6:45 am. So, we made ourselves a nice little bed under the stairs in the airport and got some shut eye. We used our beach towels as floor mats and our jackets as blankets. I felt like the guy from the movie the terminal, living in the airport. Seeing as we couldn’t check our bags till 6 pm (two hours before the flight) and we were sleep deprived, we didn’t feel like venturing into Barcelona for the day. We spent it reading, sleeping, eating and laughing at ourselves! Despite the sadness of being in an airport all day on Easter, it was fun to have a great group of people to laugh about it with!
We got into Granada at 9:20 pm, earlier than scheduled because we made a fast landing due to an emergency on the plane! I was sleeping with my music in when I woke up to the lights coming on in the plane and everyone rushing to my area of the plane. An older man had fainted right by our chairs in the aisle and was on the floor for about 20 minutes. All the flight attendants were surrounding him and everyone was turned to look. They told the pilot and we started descending immediately. As we landed an ambulance was waiting there to take him to the hospital. Right before landing, he got up into a chair and seemed to be doing alright.
Por fin (FINALLY!) we arrived home safe and exhausted. As we walked home from the bus stop, there were a few last processions going on. During holy week, in southern Spain there are tons of celebrations with hundreds of candles, people dressed in all white outfits with pointy masks/hats (they look like KKK members) and big floats wonderfully decorated in gold and white, lined with lit candles. There was a band playing music as the procession moved and it was very cool to see! Camille and I weaved our way through the procession (the wrong way!) with our luggage to get home, stopping for a few photos along the way.
We were welcomed by Loli like always with a big besos (kisses) and a huge hug! It was very comforting to come back to a place that actually feels like home! We snuggled right into bed and got up early the next day to get back to school and a normal schedule!
Here are a few other random notes from the trip and since being back in Granada. School is getting busy. I have lots of papers creeping up that I need to get started on! Loli celebrated Semana Santa here in Granada with Lucia. She had lots of cakes and chocolate leftovers waiting for us when we got back! Funny side note – they served, and ate, the cake at breakfast and lunch, but not at dinner!!) Everyone else traveled for the week too. Juan (youngest) went to Barcelona to visit a friend, Jarra (third oldest) moved to Mallorca to work in a hotel for the next six months, Ana (second oldest) went to the Netherlands and Maria (the oldest) went to Japan with her husband. It must have been a quite week for Loli with the house empty.
Last night, Camille and I were having dinner with Loli and Juan when Loli was telling us about her day. She was talking about how close Lucia has gotten to her and how she fears when the time comes for her to leave, Lucia will have a difficult time. She then told us that they have found a family for her and will start the process next week of getting her adapted to the new family. Next week she will meet the parents, start to take Lucia out with them for the afternoon so she can get to know them and then after a month or two Lucia will leave to go live with them. It was so hard to hear her talk about Lucia leaving because after seeing how Loli treats her just like her own daughter, it is heartbreaking to think of Lucia not having “oli” (as Lucia says) in her life anymore.
As you probably all know I am a sobbing mess when it comes to sad things (and intense Oprah shows) and I started to tear up while talking about it with Loli. She comforted me and explained to me how she could stand doing this time after time. She said that the reason she takes these kids into her home and raises them like her own children is not for her. She takes these children into her home because she knows that it will give them the best start at a new life as possible. When they leave to a new family, despite the physical pain it causes her to have to give them up, she said the hurting is lessened knowing that they will have the chance to grow up with a proper mom and dad, grandparents and a stable environment. As sad as I will be when we have to say goodbye to Lucia or when I will have to think of Loli without her, I am so happy that Lucia has found a great home. Talking about this with Loli has only showed me more of how wonderful, selfless and giving of a person she is.
Now that I am almost in tears once again thinking of Lucia having to leave, its time for me to get back to my homework and catch up on sleep! Congrats and thanks for reading this far. I am sorry if I bored everyone to death!! Hope everyone is doing well!!
Oxox
Julia
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