Trip to Morocco

¡Feliz navidad!
It's Christmas Eve and I'm here in Málaga with Mom, Dad, Christopher and Olivia, it's been great having them come visit, we've had great weather and have spent the first few days walking around so I can show them my favorite parts of the city, (as they recover from jetlag!) I wanted to write a blog post talking about my trip to Morocco, now that I have some free time after the semester ended, and show you some pictures from one of the most incredible trips of my life!

Our journey started early, as we met at 4:30 am to drive to a place where we could cross by ferry to Ceuta, a protectorate of Spain located in Morocco. Once we arrived in Morocco, it was off on our tour bus to Casablanca, where we spent our first night. Along the way we made stops at some notable landmarks, and stopped for a couscous lunch (the first of many couscous feasts of the trip).

The next day we headed off to Marrakech, where we spent a few nights. The city was unbelievable, totally overwhelming/beautiful/scary/amazing at the same time. While in Marrakech, we stopped at a series of mosques and palaces, and also went several times to the famous Sook, an enormous market selling everything you could possibly imagine, along with snake charmers, monkeys, and henna artists. In Morocco, everything you buy is through bartering, which was quite a challenge to get used to. You even have to bargain for a bottle of water! But it was an amazing experience to see the market, one afternoon we had tea up on the roof of a restaurant to watch the sun set, and as it was setting, the call for prayer rang out from the surrounding mosques, which was really amazing to see and hear. 

The Sook at sunset

Gardens outside a mosque

Our next stop was in a city near where we would embark on camels the next morning, and our hotel was wild. We ate a late lunch outside watching the sun set, and then spent the night drumming, singing and dancing with a group of performers from the hotel. 

Next stop: Sahara desert. We arrived at the desert so excited for our camel ride and the night in the desert, and it was an absolutely unbelievable experience. 

Once we arrived, some of us decided to hike up a dune to watch the sunset, which was much harder than expected, since every step you just sink into the deep sand, but once we got to the top and watched the sun go down, it made everything so worth it.

The view of our camp from the top of the dune 

Climbing down the dune

That night we ate dinner, drummed and danced around a campfire, and then went out stargazing late that night. The stars were absolutely indescribable, I've never seen any night sky like that before. Our Berber guides led us out, then told us traditional Berber stories while we watched shooting stars, before we returned back to camp and spent the night in our tents. 

On our way back to Spain we made several other stops along the way, where we saw more mosques, palaces, and historical sites. On the ferry back to Málaga we were all amazed at the week we had just spent in Morocco, it's still hard to believe how much we saw and how lucky we were to have the experience that we did. It was an unbelievable experience, and I'm so grateful for those who helped me make this trip a reality! 

Un besito,

Sarah

A Spanish Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving day, I missed not being home! But I did get to have two very unique Thanksgivings, so for that I'm very thankful. My first was with all the kids in my program and our director, who hosted us at her beautiful apartment right on the beach. She and her husband made all traditional Thanksgiving food, and our professors, TAs, and friends were all invited. The food was amazing, but it was very surreal to be eating Thanksgiving dinner outside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We followed our meal with a big game of American football on the beach--pretty incredible!

View from our director's balcony

Part of the crew with our director, Elise

My next big feast was scheduled for Sunday, when my host mom's family was planning on coming over for lunch. A former Dickinson student who used to live with my host mom, and who now lives and works in Málaga, came over on Saturday and we spent the day cooking MORE Thanksgiving food. Then on Sunday María Carmen's family came over, and we shared our American food with them. 

Spanish family

Un abrazo, 

Sarah

Weekend in Paris

¡Saludos!
This post will be dedicated to the amazing weekend I spent in Paris 2 weeks ago. Before I came to Spain, I hadn't thought much about other European travel, I mostly wanted to explore within Spain, but when the opportunity (cheap tickets) arose to go to Paris for a weekend, I couldn't miss out! My friends Alysia, Jessica and I took a train from Málaga to Madrid on Thursday night, and rather than pay for a hostel in Madrid, ended up sleeping in the Madrid airport before our flight to Paris early the next morning. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much, but when we arrived in Paris at 8 am the next morning, I was so excited I didn't feel tired at all. That first day we trekked all over the city, we probably walked about 15 km, and probably saw most of the most famous landmarks. We also went to the incredible Musee d'Orsay, famous for its impressionist artists, like Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Manet and Monet. Here are some of the sights from our first day walking around:

Arc de Triomphe 

Seine River

The next day we got up early to go to the Louvre, since we wanted to beat the rush. We actually ended up getting in free to all the museums we went to since we are university students in the European Union, which was great. The Louvre was just as incredible as everyone says, it's so big it would be impossible to see everything unless you stayed for weeks. 

Looking up through the famous Louvre pyramid

My favorite part of the Louvre-a room of Ruben's paintings

When getting ready to leave the Louvre, I ran into my friend Marissa from Dickinson, who is studying abroad in England and happened to be in Paris at the same time! We made plans to meet up that night at the Eiffel Tower, and ended up having a wine, cheese and baguette picnic that night next to the Tower all lit up-so French.

The next day was unfortunately our last, so before we headed back to the airport we stopped at the big landmarks we hadn't gotten a chance to see yet. 

Sacre Coeur

Notre Dame

Sainte Chapelle (My favorite place-a massive church with original 12th century stained glass)

And of course, I have to show some pictures of the food we had, Parisian food was absolutely delicious!

Creme Brulee

Escargot-they're actually delicious!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures, hasta luego!

Sarah

¡El Escorial, Segovia, Toledo y Madrid!

Hola!
These past few weeks have been really busy, full of projects, exams, and travel (the fun part!) Right now I'm actually getting ready to head to Paris for the weekend, but I first wanted to write a blog update about the amazing time we had last weekend. We left early Thursday morning for Madrid, and spent the weekend exploring the city, and taking daily excursions to nearby cities. The first day we went to El Escorial, which is the site of a huge monestary, where the Spanish kings used to live. Here's a picture:

The first day was rainy and cold, which made our next stop, Valle de los Caídos, especially impressive. Valle de los Caídos was built under the command of the Spanish dictador Franco, so that he and his followers would have a place to be buried, and it was built right in the side of a mountain. Pictures don't capture how incredible/eerie this site is, but it was pretty amazing to see.

The next day ended up being beautiful, so it was perfect timing for a day trip to Toledo, which turned out to be my favorite place in Spain so far. This medieval city was absolutely incredible, here's a view of the city from up on a mountain:

In addition to these day trips, we also had the chance to explore around Madrid, which is a really amazing city. Definitely different than Málaga, but it was a great city, and I had a lot of fun.

A famous bar where Ernest Hemingway used to go when he visited Madrid

Our last stop before heading back to Málaga was Segovia, which is renowned for its Roman aqueducts, cathedral, and medieval castle where the Catholic kings used to rule.

View of Segovia from the top of the castle 

This was a long blog with lots of photos, but I hope you enjoyed seeing them all! I'll have another post when I get back from Paris this weekend!

Besos,
Sarah

Córdoba

Hola a todos!
This week I have pictures to show from Córdoba, where we went last Saturday. We left Málaga at 8 am and took a bus first to the ruins of an ancient city Medina Azahara, which was where the Caliph, the leader of the Muslin nation, ruled during medieval times. Here are a few pictures of Medina Azahara:

After that, we got back on our bus and went to Córdoba, which is a city famous for its Mezquita, or mosque. The architecture was beautiful and it was amazing to be in a city with such incredible history. Our tour guide, Manolo, joked about how U.S. history is nothing compared to the history of Spain.

The famous Mezquita arches

Manolo, our wise guide

After seeing the incredible sights, we went out for traditional Córdoba food, including gazpacho, Iberian ham, tortilla española, and much more! 

Overall it was an amazing trip, I feel very lucky that I get to see all these places!

Traveling around Spain

I've been lucky enough to be able to go a series of day trips in these first two weeks to some amazing places in Spain, so I though I would put up some photos of these beautiful places for you all to see.

Our group had heard that there are incredible beaches in Nerja, a town about an hour away from the city of Málaga, and when we decided to go, we were amazed by what we saw. The water was crystal clear and bright blue, and you could swim along the coast in and out of a series of caves.

The next trip I took with a couple of friends who were willing to wake up and get to a 7 am bus, and we went to visit the small town of Frigiliana, famous for its all-white buildings. 

And then on Saturday, we all went on the first planned group excursion with our program director to the city of Ronda. Ronda is of Roman origins, dating back to the 5th century AD, and is an absolutely incredible place to see. 

Ronda is also home of the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain, the "Plaza de toros de Ronda."

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures! 

Hasta luego,

Sarah