Sevilla

So I have definitely forgotten to write in the blog for a while, which means I need to write a little about Sevilla. Sevilla was a really cool city. It was certainly bigger than Granada. However, it had a lot more parks and green space, and a really big river running through it. Whoever planned Granada seemed to think that parks were not a priority, so all the open space in Sevilla was a nice change. Grass has also yet to make a meaningful appearance in Granada. We visited the Sevilla Cathedral while there, which was very beautiful, and huge! Its actually the 3rd biggest cathedral in the world, behind the Vatican and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which Lyndsey and I will be visiting soon! There are lots of other features that make this Cathedral really cool. They are one of I believe five places claiming to have all of part of Christopher Columbus' remains. It seemed to me that they had a legitimate claim to the title. But, the Dominican Republic must have a decent claim also, as I do remember seeing a huge monument to Columbus in the Dominican Republic on my senior missions trip there. They also had a massive organ, a jewel room with some pretty amazing stuff, and my favoirte part, a huge carving of different Bible scenes telling the story of the life of Jesus. I thought it was really neat, so I have a picture (off of Google, my penalty for not having a camera) We also visited a Palace in Sevilla, which was very impressive. My favorite part was the gardens: they had different sections of the garden which represented different influences, for example one part was Muslim-influenced. It was also my favorite part because I was able to understand the majority of what the tour guide told us. This was probably my first all-Spanish tour which I really understood a lot of. Perhaps my favorite/perhaps most dangerous Sevilla activity was our bike ride through the city. I'm not exactly a master on a bicycle (I can ride them, to clarify), so it was interesting riding through lots of people, and busy traffic circles, and other hazards. I fell once. Only once was a feat and a miracle. But, the ride made me want to use a bike again, which hadn't happened in about 6 years before the Sevilla trip I believe. We also visited a pretty cool rocky place...it looked kind of like tons of huge stacks of pancakes, if you picture the pancakes as gray rocks. I will put a picture on here of me and some others there. The some others are my roommate, another friend from the program, and our two guides. I also have a picture of the palace to put up here. Incidentally, these are the only two pictures taken of me during the Sevilla trip...apparently minus Lyndsey I don't make it into too many pictures.

Besides the Sevilla trip I haven't really been up to much. Lyndsey and I took advantage of good weather last week to explore some shops. Last week, I had popcorn for the first time in Spain, which I kind of think tasted like the best popcorn I've ever had. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess. I'm still enjoying Granada, though I'm also looking forward to seeing other places. Rome with our program, and then London during our spring break, really stick out. However, there are lots of smaller cities I would enjoy visiting near here, plus Barcelona if I get the chance. I've heard that Barcelona is a very cool city to see, so perhaps that will happen. I think this is a good place to end, thanks for reading!