Luckily a nice lady let her use her phone and then.. we were reunited, tears included of course.
Since mom was tired from traveling for forever (you should ask her about her plane ride ;) we ate a couple of bocadillos (sandwiches) in the sunshine and just took in the view of Granada; then we went to our hostel called White Nest which was adorable! The decoration and design was cute and it was nice to get away from my room for a few days.. SPACE! yee
After we got situated we went up to San Nicolas which has an amazing view over looking the Alhambra to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous! Then we headed back to the center of the city so I could show my mom around a bit :)
Day 2
We got to spend another beautiful sunny day in Granada and we started out by going to out for churros con chocolate for breakfast! They got the stamp of approval of course..along with the EXTRA strong coffee Spain has to offer. haha
Mom enjoying her first churros!
We got some cute Spanish/European clothes.. even for Ross! Oh.. and shoes. =)
I also showed my mom my route to school, my volunteer sites, and the park I run in called Garcia Lorca and the Cathedral.
I love everything about this picture. hahaa
This is the street that my school is on. So I see this everryyy day.
Orange Trees! m mm good
"Beauty and the Beast" flower in Garcia Lorca
Ice cream in the park with momma :)
This is the hospital where I volunteer!
This store is full of clocks and such from Pinocchio.
The Cathedral.
Day 3
There is a huge festival in Sevilla, Spain that is a week long event called Las Ferias. Lucky for us we got to experience it first hand! ...except it rained. We started out the day by looking around the city. I got to show my mom some of the "hot spots" that I saw when we had our trip to Sevilla earlier this semester. Then we saw a big group of Flamenco dancers and followed them around for a bit... so fun! and met an older fella from Holland who was super nice and full of information. We spent the day walking around the Feria and taking in the cultural experiences of it all. I also noticed I must have a fetish with cute little Spanish kids.. because my camera was loaded with them after this day. haha
The crops.. aka olive trees are all over the land.
The inside of the Cathedral.. so neat!
Flamenco ladies!!
This HAS to be the Spanish version of the Red Hat Ladies..
All sorts of strange street entertainment in Sevilla
This is built every single year at a cost of about a half a mil OOf
They never repeat and make a new design every year.
Las Ferias!!
So many families hanging out together. This fair costs unbelievable amounts of money and most of the "tents" that they hang out in during the day are heritable so not many new families have a chance to join them. The rich of the rich have the tents. They also spend about 30 thousand dollars in this week long event providing food and drinks for their family and employees they invite. This is along with the monthly fee of the tent location. ayyyiiyii
Eating and hangin' out in the tents
Caught this moment at the perfect time :)
The horses were thiiiirstyy
The carnival side of the Feria.
This ride was so entertaining.. I'm pretty sure this ride along with may others would never fly in the US, not so safe that is for sure. woop
Merry Go Round --Spain version
Wine Stand
This is what most of the little boys were wearing for the fair. caaute!
awhh matching outfits!
I don't think he was very in to riding the mini-pony..
Shorts and socks.. :) ah! adorable.
The haunted house. Real live people used even.
The meat and fish in Spain are served with the head.. yes, I know. Weird for us.
But, for them it shows that the product is fresh.
To Lagos, Portugal we gooo!!
I loved it here so much that I wanted to go back, bad. and we got to!! The weather wasn't as great as the first time around.. but we still got some great beach time in! I mean.. what else would my mom and I rather be doing than soaking up the sun on beautiful beach together. annnnd she started the Hunger Games series! eek! Also.. NahNahBah (the burger place) was closed when we tried to go! waah :( BUT we found a great Mexican place to eat which was also really yummy! ..after being with me for just a few days mom already got the "food bug"which means.. all you think about, dream about even.. is food. YIKES. haha I miss American food, a lot.
Climbin' the cliffs! The view was sooo neat!
Sunset on the beach :)
Momma and me!
haha momma's photo shoot
BRRRrr.. that water was Freezing!
Welp, it was a bit harder coming down needless to say. ha
The view.. ahhh
Chillen' on the side of the cliffs!
Adios Lagos! I hope we meet again :)
Day 7BACK TO GRANADA!!
May 3rd is a special holiday in Spain called Dia de la Cruz (Day of the Cross) so there was a lot going on! First we went to the Alhambra. (*fun fact: it is the 2nd most viewed attraction in Europe behind the Eiffel Tower) and saw the sites there and then watched a Flamenco show.. kind of like what a dance recital would be like for us in the US. It was outside and was even being broadcast, so that was fun! Otherwise we spent the day soaking up the culture and the beautiful crosses displayed around the city and ate tapas and drank tinto de verano together.
Alhambra
Blue hair, whaat? hm.
Hangin' out at the Alhambra!
Not sure what this statue is all about, but there were lots of people there sketching it.
hike-hike-hike
Enjoying Granada :)
Flamenco style Moped!!
...only in Spain. haha
City Center in Granada for the Flamenco show!
yepp. made the news.
Ahh so cute!
The Flamenco dancing was so powerful, we definitely enjoyed ourselves :)
There are many crosses displayed around town. All of the crosses are made with flowers.
After our not so wonderful stay in a hostal the previous night.. again, ask mom for details about that awful place boooo, I took mom to MY house!
She got to see where I live and meet my host parents and their son's wife Sara which was a blast! and great practice for my translating skills :) Maria made us lunch which was a type of ham ball soaked in a dressing and with baked veggies, potatoes cooked with hot peppers and olive oil,and of course bread. It was a fun experience for all of us because mom got to "step in to my shoes" for a bit and eat like we do here in Spain every day. They even broke out the wine for us! Speciaaaal :)
My host parents! Maria and Paco :)
Day 8
My friend Brielle, my mom, and I all headed to Nerja for a day adventure on Friday. I would have to say it makes a good run at my favorite city in all of Spain. Granada is still winning.. I may be a bit biased, but none the less they are both great. The city was all white, clean, and had really neat plants.. like something you would see in a Dr. Seuss book! haha We had great luck and our hostel was literally right next to the bus station so we didn't have to lug around our god forsaken luggage around too far.. too many heavy suitcases blaah. Our hostel was nice and had a great view!! Topped the last hostel we stayed at in Granada by a miiiiile.
Helloooo Nerja!
Am I right, Dr. Seuss??
Beautiful flowers :)
The city!
Me and Brielle :)
The PAELLA!
This. Was. Unreal.
Really... the cave was a cavern. It has to be one of the greatest wonders of the world and was discovered actually pretty recently by a bunch of teenagers who stumbled upon it when they were looking for bats. It was sooo spacious and tall and just huge. My pictures can't begin to do it justice but I think it is probly one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed in my life.
This is what was above the cave. so strange.
For the night, we headed to the city center and ate, took pictures, saw a crazy cat man.... and enjoyed ourselves. Great day in Nerja!
Just wait..
What a beautiful beach.
Another Dr. Seuss tree.
hahahaa YES.
Okay.. this man puts the "cat lady" to shame.
Day 9
In the morning we headed out to Malaga since mom was flying out of there in the bright and EARLY am on the 6th of May. We trucked our heavy heavy luggage to our hostel... wait, Brielle's hostel (confusion with booking for 1 not 3 woop... one of my only flaws with all this planning I must admit, I am proud!) and left that stuff there, pheew. THEN drum roll pleeeeeease... we went to this outdoor shopping center via train to see the Hunger Games, IN ENGLISH!! It just came out in Spain a week ago and well obviously they are all in Spanish but Malaga has a few movies in their original language with Spanish subtitles.. so we saw it! and wow, it was just great! BUT I am so happy I read the books before because there is just so much detail not mentioned. anyway, it was great! Then we shopped around anddd... headed to the airport :( :(
Day 10...kind of.
Mom and I sat in the airport for a real long time.. which was nice actually. I wasn't even mad about it. We got to chat and play cards and hang out just the two of us before she had to fly back home :( We even had some entertainment at about 2am.. two reeeeeally drunk people from England were sitting near us at Starbucks and we learned that he had "fallen asleep" and missed his flight back to England and apparently his friend had thrown up on her flight and got kicked off. Precious. So they were hanging out bothering people with their drunk smelly selves all night.. and when mom was checking her bags we saw them again rolling around on the airport floor making out. Jeeesh. So anyway, at about 4:30am mom checked in. I gave her the BIGGEST hug in the world and cried my eyes out. haha
...turns out there were some major storms in Chicago when mom was FINALLY about to land after pshh, I dunno 15 hours or so of traveling.. and was diverted to Indiana after her 9 hour plane ride from Madrid..and then luckily caught a plane to Des Moines at 10 something or other while waiting 3 hours for the plane to take off.. so finally Ross picked her up in the airport at a little after 1am when she was sposed to get in at 6:30pm. What a longggg travel time. OOFTA. So minus this, and a couple other flaws our trip together was a total success.
We had an absolutely wonderful time together in Spain and well... for the first time, I am ready to come home. I have NINE days left in Spain. I cannot believe it, where did the time go?! I have jam packed all of those days with really fun things with my friends here who I am going to miss soooo much since they live in other states like Michigan and Texas boo. So, I will be enjoying every last second of my experience here!
I wouldn't change it for the world.
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