Things i've missed that excited to get back to

Even though I've loved spain and embraced the differences as best  as I could, there are many things that I miss about home and am happy to be returning to

• Ice
• Free water at restaurants
• Peanut butter
• Bagels
• Long showers
• Gyms and fitness classes
• Driving 
• Refrigerated milk and dairy products
• Cafes (like starbucks) and libraries that are open late to study!
• Stores that are open on sunday (what I consider to be a big shopping day!)
• Eating lunch and dinner at a normal time rather than at 3:30 and 9:30pm
• pandora.com music
• american/english tv shows
• country music
• toilets with seats
• toilet paper in public bathrooms
• soap in public bathrooms
• good customer service in stores and restaurants
• a full breakfast (here they just eat a slice of toast and have tea or coffee)
• cereal
• USD (not a pleasant surprise when I forget to convert the euro to dollars.)
• normal business hours

Las Alpujarras

This hiking trip was included in our program fees so it was an easy decision to go! Las alpujarras are made up of multiple small towns on the south end of the sierra nevada moutain range, with hiking trails connecting them. (pampaneira, bubion, capileira, y capilerilla) We hiked for two full days and stayed in the town of pampaneira over night.

The first day was absolutely perfect. It was 70 degrees and sunny. We hiked for a couple of hours and then stopped for a picnic. It was a really pretty hike with wild flowers and small rivers everywhere!

At the end of the night we all had dinner together in town. A lot of people got rabbit but I got steak since it was free! The interesting thing about the rabbit is that it wasn't just the legs it was the entire rabbit. teeth, brains, stomach all included.

The second day was much different than the first! It was very cloudy and rained off an on the whole day. It was fun because we literally hiked over the tip of  a mountain to get to the other side rather than going around the side.
Instead of having a picnic we had to eat our lunches in the ONE gym of the town. We even left a little early because the rain became too much of a problem. 

Y.O.L.O (you only LAGOS once)

Before leaving for Portugal, I realized I didn't know really ANYTHING about the country besides that its official language is portuguese and that drugs are decriminalized. So I decided to look into that a little more and after talking with a friend, I came acorss this Time article "Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?" It's from a few years ago but I thought it had some surprising information...
 http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

Lagos was one of the most FUN weekends I've had. It was like a mini spring break at PCB. About 50 people from my school all registered to go on the same trip through a company called Discover Excursions. It was great because they organized everything! It was really convenient to have a bus pick us up from Granada and bring us to Lagos (after picking up people in Sevilla). We left really early friday morning and we were there until sunday afternoon. We go there around 2pm and we checked into Aqua Luz hotel! It was a 4 star hotel which was a MAJOR upgrade from the non-so-classy hostels I've been staying in on vacations. Our room, which was apartment style, had a balcony that overlooked the pools and sundeck.

hotel

flowers outside of my room

hanging out pool-side

View from my room at night

When we were on the bus to Lagos we were able to sign up for a sangria sailboat cruise on the souther Portuguese coast. The cruise included unlimited sangria and a Grotto tour (of the rock/cave formations). We went in groups of 10 on a smaller boat to go in and out of the caves.

Hanging out on the boat

The sailboat 

Ready to go into the coastal caves

it's an elephant!

Inside the cave

After the sailboat cruise I went back to the hotel and we made a big pasta dinner in our room with some of the other girls on the trip!  It was delicious! That night there was a kick-off party at one of the bars in town called Grand Cafe.

The guy in the back, Manu, was one of our guides

After breakfast at the hotel in the morning they arranged the buses to take us to one of the best beaches in Lagos. But first we went to Ponta de Pedade to check out the cliffs. (the ones we took the boat through the day before) After an hour pit-stop there we continued on to Meia Praia for a day at the beach!

Ponte de Pedade caves

Stairs down the cliff

JEN!

Everyone At Meia Praia

A view down the beach

After a long day at the beach we had a couple hours to cool off and clean up in the hotel before going to Cabo Sao Vicente to watch the sunset. Cabo Sao Vicente is also known as  'the end of the world'. Before Columbus discovered America they thought that this skyline was the end of the world. It is the most south west part of contiguous Europe. It was really windy and the cliffs were similar to those of the cliffs of moher in Ireland. 

driving to the cape!

as you can see with my lovely hair style, it was SUPER windy

our group sitting on the edge of the cliff

the 'end of the world'

sun starting to set

After the sunset we decided to stay in for dinner once again and cook forourselves. It was so much fun to be in an apartment setting where we could all eat drink and be merry INSIDE! in spain, were always out when were together. (It isn't as common to have guests in spain, plus our apartments are really OURS) and it was nice to just get our comfortable sweatpants on after dinner, drink some wine, and talk the night away!

With a few of the girls

In the morning we went to the west coast of Portugal to the beach called Praia Do Amado (loved ones beach). Because it was on the west coast it was a bit more windy than the one we visited the previous day. It was definitely a surfers beach. We had the option to go surfing for 35 euros but the water was freezing and I just felt like relaxing. 

Amy sitting on the sand dunes

surfers from our group

took a little excursion to a hidden rock beach 

Half way through the day we hiked up to the small beach-side restaurant. I got a hot dog for the first time in months and it was delicious! We sat outside and had a great view of the beach. It was a true paradise! 

ROMA!

Rome was by far the most touristy city I've been too. I loved it, but it was just packed with souvenir stands, overpriced entrances and english speaking tour guides constantly offering us their 'best deal'. I didn't have a ton of time in Rome we we fit a TON of sight seeing into a couple short days.

First we went to the pantheon and saw the tombs of quite a few people. After we made a stop at Romes biggest gelato place called Gioletti. It was crazy inside. You went to a separate counter just to make your decision about cup or cone and how many scoops, then you got a ticket and were sent to the actual gelato counter where there was no line, just mass chaos to push your way through. The towers of cones was stacked so high I couldn't believe it. At the same time we were there, there was an american celebrity in the back of the kitchen, so there were security guards all around and people waiting to take a picture of whoever it was... Anyway, the gelato was delicious - one of the best I've had!

Outside of the Patheon

Inside of the Patheon

In Front of a tomb

Gelato!

So many cones

Packed full

We took it to-go and continued walking around the city! We walked passed the ruins and the capital building then made our way to the Colosseum. (We waited to go in until the next day) Afterwards we went to the trevi fountain to make our wishes! tossing the coin over our right shoulders is supposed to guarantee that we return to rome someday :)

Colosseum

Capitol

Roman Forum (Ruins) 

More of the ancient ruins

In Front of the Roman Forum

In Front of the Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Colossuem

For the sunset we sat on the spanish steps and had some coffee to-go. There were some guys next to us that were playing the guitar and singing while the sun was setting. It was such a relaxing break after running around all day!

Spanish Steps

That night we got pizza (surprise, surprise). Afterwards we went to Scholars Irish Pub for karaoke night. I've learned that its not smart to go to and english oriented place during spring break. IT WAS PACKED. I literally could not move when i got within 20 feet of the karaoke area. After getting shoved around for a couples hours by mostly Americans, we decided it was time to leave! But, just as we were leaving we met these really nice guys from Sweden. So we stayed to chat for another 30  minutes then called it a night.

The next morning we got up early to go into the Colosseum. We took our time reading the signs and walking throughout the entire inside. Very cool to see all the history! (I took a pic of some of the history info in case anyone is interested) 

We then went to grab a quick breakfast at a cafe right outside of the Vatican City. Another lesson I learned is not to eat near the tourist attractions. It was 9 euros for a small coffee and a croissant (should be no more than 4 or 5 in most of Europe). As soon as we walked into the Vatican we saw there were seats all lined up and we realized that the POPE was right in front of us giving a speech. :) We sat down and listened to the remaining portion (unfortunately he didn't speak in English at all, but it was still so cool to see).
We went into the St. Peter's Basilica which was absolutely beautiful and I bought a rosary at the gift shop! Then we saw the Michelangelo painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (The iconic image of the hand of God giving life to Adam.)

St. Peter's Basilica

The Pope

People sitting in st peter's square listening to the Pope

Inside the basilica

List of all the Popes

Me and Marlee split off from the group afterwards to go in to the Jewish ghetto (neighborhood). We went to a kosher restaurant and yet again, I got pesto pasta! There were signs everywhere with Hebrew writings and also an ancient temple.

ruins of the temple

Hebrew

not sure what this is... but it was sitting outside of a restaurant

The friend I was staying with lives in the same apartment complex and many other students from the University of Illinois. There were also a few other groups visiting from other abroad programs. So.... there ended up being like 30 people from U of I in this one small apartment before we went out to the bar. It was so fun. For about an hour I forgot that I was even in Italy. The next day we went to a cafe, bought some souvenirs and packed up for our luxurious flight home on ryan air :)