Last weekend our program traveled to Sevilla, Spain which is the 4th largest city in Spain. It’s located in Andalucia, which is the southern province of Spain. Andalucia, in my opinion, is the stereotype that people give Spain. Beaches, warm weather, nice people, white houses, flamenco dancing, etc. I found all these to be true….except for the warm weather. The whole time we were there it was about 40 degrees or less—for those of you still in Minnesota, no I haven’t forgotten about what the weather is like, but when you walk outside for hours at a time and go “inside” to buildings that don’t have doors, it gets a little chilly :)
The trip was fun. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I had hoped because the city just didn’t seem too exciting. Someone told me it’s much more enjoyable in the summer just due to the atmosphere, but there didn’t seem to be much to do. One of the highlights for me was the flamenco show. Without going into detail, Flamenco is a very popular style of Spanish song/dance. There are many different types but it typically is VERY emotional. The show was in a small courtyard of a hotel, with about 50 spectators. I was absolutely amazed by the show. The amount of emotion expressed by the faces and movements of the singer and dancer cannot be described by words. We couldn’t take pictures or videos but I’m almost glad we couldn’t because there is no picture or video that could come close to describing what we saw.
One of the other things I enjoyed was seeing the Plaza de Toros, which is the oldest bull fighting plaza in Spain. It had a museum that showed the history of bull fighting. The topic of bull fighting in Spain is extremely controversial, and I really enjoyed learning about the history of it.
On Sunday morning, my friend Britni and I went on a walking/picture-taking adventure throughout Sevilla. It felt like we were walking through a ghost town as we saw very few people, and those who we did see were walking to church. It was such a peaceful and relaxing walk, and a good time to reflect on our trip so far. We stopped by a few churches that were hidden in the non-touristy part of the city, and also got to witness a group of people preparing for the Semana Santa processions. Sevilla is known to be one of the best places to spend Semana Santa.
The last week I spent catching up on some things. It turns out, as I expected, that once you being traveling every weekend, all the free time that I have during the week is needed to catch up. I didn’t think I would get to the point of needing a list of “things to do” while I was in Spain. Luckily , I have all of today to catch up on things like my blog, research for future trips, schoolwork, reading, etc.
Yesterday I took a trip with my friend Christine to Burgos, Spain. Burgos is about the size of Salamanca and is located north of Madrid. It is actually the location of the NDSU study abroad program and also home to one of the most well-known Roman Cathedrals in Spain. With the train schedules, it turned out to be a 22 hour trip, of which about 30 minutes I spent sleeping on the train. I thought it would be a good idea to test my limits a little bit on lack of sleep during trips, and also get a chance to take the train. Despite being a long, cold day, the trip was very enjoyable. I always love getting to know people on a personal basis, and I’ve learned that there’s no better way to do that than to travel with them.
Christine and I visited a castle located in a wooded area (even with snow!--reminded me so much of Minnesota) on the outskirts of town, the most beautiful cathedral that I've seen thus far, an art museum with the absolute worst modern art I’ve ever seen, some tapas bars and cafes, and also got the chance to go to a flamenco show. Burgos is a very beautiful city, similar to Salamanca, but after visiting I feel like I made the right choice by studying in Salamanca.
Next weekend we’re heading to Rome for 3 days on our international excursion for our program…I guess you could say I’m excited.
I feel like my vocabulary and descriptive writing beings to falter the longer my blog post is…so I’ll stop there. I hope you enjoy some of the pics I’ve put up. If you have any questions, I’ve started to put descriptions on the pictures on my flickr site. Until next time!
Nico
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