DAH! Lagos was the most incredible trip of the semester. Lagos was the second Portugese city I got a chance to visit (the first is Lisbon- check past blogs). The weekend of Lagos was actually my last weekend of the semester, so pretty much everyone in the group decided it would be the best way to spend our last time together, before we were all busy with packing and exams. We tried to find the ideal situation for all of us to be able to be together for the whole weekend, and somewhere where the rules weren’t too strict. We were definitely ready to relax and have a good time. So, after a quick look on Google, we found these awesome apartments right by the beach, which were also really cheap and could fit everyone, so we jumped on that immediately. We had everything there: 6 beds, kitchen, washing machine, two bathrooms, balcony, pool, and towels, in each of the two rooms. The best part was that it only ended up being something like 8 euros a night per person, which was way less than the hostels we were looking into.

Since Spain had a national holiday on that Thursday, the buses weren’t running. So instead, we took a bus on Wednesday afternoon, which turned out to be a great decision. Going into this trip though, most people didn’t have many expectations as far as sight-seeing goes. I mean, besides the point that used to be though of as the “end of the world”, there’s really not much to do in Lagos but sit on the beach, relax, and enjoy eachother’s company. The Portugese are very, very accomodating people, and the town was perfect, so everything went so smoothly. It was such a perfect transition between Spansh and American life. Lagos is definitely one of those places you go to and think… alright, let’s just drop out of every commitment we have and live here forever. Deal? I’m in.

It’s been a while. I know.

This is just one man’s opinion, but Barcelona is the coolest spot in Spain. I can honestly say I think the best of everything can be found in Spain (except Spanish, because they speak Castillian there). We started off the trip trying to relax a little bit. The group I went with was coming in two different shifts; Brandon, Carlos, Sammy, and I came early morning. So, to kill some time I decided it was time to go to the beach. So, while the happy couple took a stroll out to the fruit market (I’ll get to that later) Carlos and I headed out to Barceloneta. The weather was perfect, the timing was perfect, and it was just really nice to go to the beach. My university in America–UNC-Wilmington–is literally 5 minutes from the shores of the Atlantic, so the beach has definitely been a huge part of my life, and the main thing I have missed over the semester. Actually, this 3 month span has been the longest I have gone without a trip to the beach in the past 10 years…

So, after the beach we got ready and met up with the other half of our group: Jenni, Emily, and Carrie. We hit a lot of the tourist attractions around the main touristy road, Las Ramblas, since our hostels were pretty much right there, and we didn’t have much time to get around the city. Las Ramblas is a major tourist area in the city. It’s filled with some amazingly creative and detailed street performers, some with costumes over 10 feet tall. The street is also lined with souvenir shops, sandwich groceries, and non-natives. It’s impossible to make your way though Barcelona without hitting Las Ramblas, not that you’d want to anyways.

Right off of Ramblas is the Boqueria, a HUGE, outdoor fresh fruit market that has hundreds of stands, lined with the most vivacious fruit you’ll ever see. It’s really a lot to take in. The colors alone are beautiful, but the closer you get to the stands, the more you appreciate what each separate vendor has to offer. There is one specific fruit at a few of the stands, I think it is called the Dragon fruit, that is such a crazy shade of pink, that my camera literally could not register it. The photos actually came up blurry because the color couldn’t be identified. The best part of the market though, were the smoothies. Oh sweet Jebus. They were like 1 euro, so I woke up a few of the mornings and walked there to pound 4 or 5 smoothies in a 2 minutes span (AKA breakfast).

The next real touristy thing we did was to check out all of the Gaudi work. Embarrassing as it is, I really had no idea who Gaudi was before this trip. Luckily, Emily had taken a class where she learned all about him, so she filled me in on what we were about to get into. For those of you that don’t know, Gaudi is this genius architect, that designed buildings in such a way that they are actually pieces of art. Essentially, this guy found a way to make designs that you would only see in a cartoon or Disney movie into real-life, tangible architecture. The buildings usually have a theme, but my favorite was the Dragon. There are a lot of pictures of it in the albums, so you can check those out there. The buildings all seemed very curvy, flowy, smooth. I think the perfect word to describe them is “fluid”. Anyways, besides the buildings, you can hang out at Gaudi Park. The park is essentially the culmination of Gaudi’s work and is right there, free for the public. We had a little problem getting there, as we stood at the bottom of this massive hill looking for the right way to go. We stood on this bridge for about 15 minutes before we finally set out up the mountain, ready to check out this park the tourism books have been raving about. After about an hour, uphill, in the heat, we decided to ask for directions. Everyone was pretty miserable, and we were all confident we should have already been there. So, we asked. Where was it? 20 feet away from the bridge we started at. Up the escalators somebody had suggested checking out before the trek commenced. Eh, accidents happen. In a nutshell, Gaudi’s works are all colorful, interesting, and inviting. Smooth, light, and bright. Adjective-enticing, photo-oppotunistic, and cool.

The last part of Barcelona, was actually the highlight for me: The Joan Miro Museum. The museum was absolutely incredible. It may be because I have a personal baise, seeing as I have studied him before, and read a lot of research about his past, but I was definitely way more into this museum than any other museum I have been to during this semester, or my life for that matter. I even thought it was way more interesting than the Prado in Madrid. Being the rebel I am, I snagged a few pictures inside the museum, so you can check those out (I didn’t use flash though; respect, people!) There are a bunch of pictures from the outside though. That was another one of the reasons I loved the museum so much. Upstairs, there is an exit, where you can see some of Miro’s works, and check out a view from the top of the city that is pretty hard to beat.

The trip went smoothly. There are a ton of cheap places to eat if you just look in the right places. Barcelona: cool. I could do a semester there for sure. Yup. For sure.

These last few weeks have been jam packed with stuff to do, so I literally have not had any free time at all. I have been trying to get these two papers done(one is officially done, one hasn’t been started) before my last trip, but it has been really hard. I have been trying to soak up all of my last days to the fullest, so I have been making the rounds on all of my favorite places in Sevilla. Reales Alcazar is my favorite place, really cool place to just sit and hang out, so I have gone a few times in the past couple weeks. I also had to rea a book in Spanish and stuff, so it’s been really busy. But anyways… on to Cordoba.

The last trip ISA had planned for us before the end of the program (May 10) was to Cordoba. Every pamphlet or picture you’ll ever see of Cordoba is the exact same… the read and white arches inside the church. Type Cordoba into google and click images, let me know what comes up. But, in all actuality that church was really cool. There’s nto really too much to say about it honestly, and that was really the only thing we did in Cordoba. We had a couple hours of free time, but it was raining, so it was kind of hard to enjoy the walk. The only other part of Cordoba I really noticed was the amount of beggars. I was probably approached by 20 different women (literally) all asking for money in all different languages. Usually in Sevilla the people that ask for money are playing an instrument, but the women in Cordoba had a different strategy: their babies. They will shove their babies right in yuor face, and you can agree it’s a cute kid, but come on. She has a baby too. And her. AND HER!

Now that Feria has come to an end, I feel like I can give an appropriate description of all the events. Seeing as how most of the tents are rented out privately, the best bet for the study-abroaders is to either mooch off of a new Spanish friend, or hope that your host-family has a tent. Although, throughout the week I spent most of my time just walking around, checking out the stuff I had seen when I looked it up online. Everyday until about 8pm, there are horses and carriages that completely line the streets. There are easily hundreds of horses, all dressed up in traditional horse garb (I guess) and are paraded through the streets of the fairgrounds. I hate horses, so I wasn’t really into the deal. When a friend and I were walking through the streets, a couple of horses bumped into each other. They started jumping around and screaming and I bolted. The last thing I want is to get kicked by a horse when I’m drunk. Overall though, the horses were really well behaved, considering how many of them there were. I was impressed.

Another cool part about Feria is the entrance. They build this giant entrance every year, and on Monday night (or Tuesday morning if you want to get technical) at midnight, they turn on all the lights that adorn it. It was pouring buckets the night of the lighting ceremony, but you could tel by the crowd of people it was probably the most significant night for the locals. It seemed to me like that was the main attraction for them, since they see the new one every year, and it is mostly the Sevillians that take part in the ceremony, since most of the out-of-towners didn’t come in until the weekend.

I didn’t really know what to expect going in, but it was half tents, and the other half was just like an American fair. They had two huge ferris wheels, other rides, stuff like that. Lot of food–I probably spent 20 euros on chocolate waffles. Drinks, which were plentiful to say the least, and little scraps of food, which were more to soak up some of the alcohol rather than fill the stomach.

Camera’s dead. Pictures next time.

I would like to extend the happiest of birthdays to my dear friend, and fellow blog-reader, Sarah Coleman. She is turning 21 on this magical day, and has been counting it down for the past 6 months. So, happy birthday Sarah! Enjoy your very first sip of alcohol. Let me know what it’s like, I know it’s been a long 21 years for you. Also, consider this your birthday present. Sucker.

Also, if any other readers would like to give her a call, her phone number is 919-211-9870.

The Feria De Sevilla is one of the most important weeks in Andalucia. The story behind it, as I read in one of the airplane magazines on my way back from Greece, is that two guys decided they wanted to celebrate their city. That was around 1850. Every year, the party was held around the same time, and over the course of almost 200 years it has become one of the biggest parties in Spain.

Feria is cool, because like with Semana Santa, we got another complete week off from school. Around this time I am kind of feeling like I haven’t really been going to school at all as it is, so to say that I needed this week off would just be greedy. Since so many people had been telling me how fun Feria was, how it was one of the best weeks of their lives, highlight of their semester… yada, yada… I decided not to plan any trips anywhere. Unfortunately, most of the other people in the group DID plan trips, so there aren’t many people left around town–ISA-wise. But, a few of my friends are still hanging around for most of the week, and a lot of the others are coming back soon, so they can catch a glimpse of what Feria has to offer.

So, as it was explained to me by other teenagers, Feria is where everyone gathers around in this specific fairgrounds, where the drinks are constantly flowing, and everyone is dancing Flamenco. That pretty much sums it up. It has actually been raining A LOT the past few days, so I haven’t really gotten the full effect of Feria, but I kind of got the jist (sp?) of it last night. It was pouring rain–easily the most rain I’ve seen since I got here–and there were still thousands of people out. The women were all completely decked out in their Flamenco dresses, huge colorful earrings, and suited-up men by their sides.

The fairgrounds are lined with striped tents, which are mostly rented out privately to businesses or families around the city. But, there are also a lot of public tents, where they sell food and drinks, and have a stage set-up for anyone interested. From there, the night doesn’t really stop. Essentially, Feria is an all-day, all-night party that lasts a week. From what Marta has told me, from Friday to Sunday, the amount of people just sky-rockets. The grounds are huge, and there are a ton of different streets to walk through, but apparently over the weekend it gets so packed you can’t even move. There are also rides, which are extremely sketchy, especially in the rain, so I haven’t tried my luck there yet. The chocolate waffles have been pretty delicious as well. Everyone from all over Spain comes by and checks out the festivities. I will add more pictures when I sum up Feria in the next blog. The camera really hasn’t come out too much, considering I have been walking through torrential downpour the past few nights.

I have gotten a lot of calls today. My sister and her best friend started to cry. My mom whipped out the party planning book from under the bed. Then started to cry. My friends called me an idiot. I’m only 20 years-old. Almost 21. So, maybe I lied a little bit. Get over it, suckers! Happy April Fool’s day. It’s always good to the last drop.

Madre, padre: gimme a call

Chios is probably my favorite place on the planet. I’ve been heading there since I was 4 years-old, so most of my summer memories are set on the small Greek island. My grandma (yia-yia as we call her), grandpa (papou), and every other uncle, aunt, and cousin from my mom’s side of the family were always there to welcome us when we came around. They all even lived within a mile of each other so to say they are a close family is an extreme understatement. They are all pretty crazy though, I can see why my mom ran to America. But, things have changed a lot in the past 5 years. Every year, I come back to less and less familiar faces, as everyone gets a job, goes to college, moves away, dies (sorry for the downer). So, when I headed back to Chios for the last leg of Semana Santa, I came to find 2 uncles, an aunt, yia-yia, and once cousin were the only people still hanging around. But, it wasn’t all bad. Even though 90% of my family members weren’t hanging around anymore, I have some really good friends that I have known since before I can remember, so that’s pretty much how I spent most of my time.

The only major disappointment of the whole trip was that it rained EVERYDAY. My cousin told me that it hadn’t rained in a month before I got there, but of course the days that I am there it rains, preventing me from ever getting to the beach (which was my primary objective). But, that just gave me more time to dig through the fridges in all the house’s, and stuff my face while I still could. I don’t know if I’ve made it clear yet, but I’m definitely not the biggest fan of Spain’s cuisine. That might be understatement. I would go as far as to say that if I see another chickpea for the rest of my life I will beat the person who showed it to me. That might be a little much, but I feel very passionate about that. Plus, I’ve lost around 10 pounds since I got to Spain, but I definitely recovered some of the damage during those ten days.

I took a lot of pictures, which you can see at the bottom of the page, and in the previous blog. Most of the are pictures from around the neighborhood, or of the family dog, so unless you’ve been to Chios, they probably won’t be to exciting. But, for anyone who’s never been there, it will give you a little taste of where I’ve essentially spent half of my life. What I’m trying to say is… if you’ve never been there, there’s nothing for you here. Turn around. We don’t need your kind.

Check out these photos, as well as these.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier entries, Semana Santa came rolling around this past week, meaning I had 10 day with no classes or  obligations (not that there’s been many at all anyway). Therefore, I decided to spend the longest break of the semester in Greece to relax, see family, go to the beach, just essentially bum around for a while. I started looking up flights, trying to find the cheapest tickets, but direct flights were really expensive. I think the cheapest flight was more than 2000 dollars, and that’s not counting the trip to Madrid or to the smaller island I was planning on visiting. So, I did what anyone would do: asked my mom for help. Actually, I have been pretty good about finding tickets on my own, but she knows the little Greek airlines really well, and I finally ended up with all my tickets costing about 500 dollars. Momondo.com is probably the best website you can find for tickets, so I’ve been taking full advantage of that. The problem with the cheap tickets though, was that I had to make a few stops on the way. So from 8am-9pm I was sitting in a bus/airport/plane trying to stay awake/aware/alive (which is more than I can say for my Ipod, which died right at the beginning of my first 3 hour layover).

After about 12 hours of pensive wall-staring, I was finally in Thessaloniki, a city on Greece’s mainland where one of my cousins is in med school. It was good to see the old boy again, because all of the cousins in our family really enjoy each other, but we barely ever get to see each other because we live on opposite sides of the world. My cousin, Lefteris, didn’t have too much planned. I’ve been there so many times, it’s easy just to slip into the old routine: wake up late, eat, drink, eat, sleeping. Which is exactly wha I needed, since I really don’t get much sleep in Sevilla. Nor do I eat too much. Plus, there are NO water fountains in Spain/Europe, which has been one of the hardest adjustments. By “drinking” though, I am referring to Greece’s official pastime: sitting in a cafe with a few friends for hours, while slowly sipping out of a 3-Euro, iced coffee. From the first few times I was in Europe, sitting in the cafes was what really painted a mental line that separated America from Greece for me. It’s easy to spot the Americans; we usually drink the coffee really fast, get fidgety, talk compulsively. The Greeks can (and do) literally sit there for hours, have one drink last them the entire time, and sit in silence and not think anything of it. It’s a really nice change of pace, but it’s not for everyone.

Since this was my 7th or 8th trip to Greece, I really just came to relax. I didn’t hit any real tourist spots, because I’ve seen all that stuff more than a few times. While Lefteris was at a clinic for school, I did spend an afternoon strolling the city, taking pictures. You can check those out here

If you ask any true Greek citizen what the most incredible place in the country to live would be, 9 out of 10 times they will say Thessaloniki. The other one just hasn’t ever been there. It has a little something for everyone; plenty of clubs/bars, and tons of sights to see as well. On a scale of 1-10, in relation to how well it ends itself to students studying abroad, I would definitely give it a ten. If it weren’t for the fact that one of my majors is Spanish (so I needed the credits) I would have studied in Greece for sure. The food’s perfect, the people are awesome, I speak the language, I can get around. But, I’ll save that for another semester.