Field Trip! Ronda and Sevilla

Palabra del día: Vista
Translation: View
Example: Hay vistas fantasticas en todas partes de Granada.
Translation: There are beautiful views all over Granada.

Comida del día: Bocadillo
This is a sandwich made with a baguette.  On our field trip, Sole packed me a picnic lunch with a tomato and cheese bocadillo.  Last night, I discovered a vegetarian tapas restaurant where I had a bocadillo filled with eggs, brie, tomato spread and peppers.  Yum!  However, since this is Spain, a typical bocadillo is filled with ham and cheese or some other variety of meats.

Foto del día:

Beautiful view in Ronda.  I just put 119 photos on facebook, so definitely check those out if you want to see more!

This weekend, IES organized a two day field trip for us to Ronda and Sevilla, two cities a bit west of Granada.  Ronda is absolutely gorgeous and the vistas were some of the best I've ever seen.  We stayed there for one afternoon to go on a short hike, tour some ancient Arab baths, and have a picnic. 

Then we continued with a very hilly and hot bus ride to Sevilla.  Once there, I opted to do a bike ride around the city, which was a great choice because it was a change from all of the walking I've been doing, and provided a breeze as a relief of the 100 degree weather.  Sevilla is a very biker friendly city, although unsurprisingly the bike paths weren't quite wide enough for our group of 24 people.  We biked along the river to Plaza de España, which was a beautiful mansion with a fountain and paintings of every region of Spain.  That night we went to a flamenco show at Casa de la Memoría, which specializes in flamenco in its most traditional form.  The concert venue was small so IES got a private show.  There was a guitarist, two singers, and two dancers.  I had no idea that it was possible for someone to move their feet that fast!  The guitar playing was virtuosic, the singing was loud and sad, almost like wailing at times, and the dancing was overly dramatic in a very entertaining way. I'm hoping to go to more flamenco concerts in Granada, and when classes start tomorrow I will start learning the dance form myself!

The next day in Sevilla, we toured a palace and garden, both of which were constructed to resemble a maze or a labrynth, which our group leader explained represented the winding path to God.  There was a maze made of bushes in the garden that we all got lost in and struggled to get out of.  Then we went to the biggest cathedral in Sevilla, which was one giant open room and a stark contrast to the smaller rooms in the palace.  We climbed up the 34 ramps (ramps instead of stairs because people used to ride horses up them!) and saw some beautiful views of Sevilla.

It was a short trip, but I'm glad to be back in Granada, and I'm still convinced that this is the most beautiful city in the world.