Ronda y Cadiz

Thursday night Ashley, Lanae, Allyson, and I went out for tapas and went to a flamenco show. Ash and I had to go to another one for class. It was really good and we got to see a male and a female Flamenco dancer at this show, which was neat. Afterward we decided to go get gofres. That's what they call waffles, but they are a little denser and sweeter.

patatas bravas

fried camembert cheese with raspberry sauce 

avocado stuffed with seafood

Gofre 

On Friday I went to Ronda, a nearby city, with my program. Hemingway said it was the most romantic city in Spain. Unfortunately it rained all day Friday, and so it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. It's a small city only 30 thousand or so and in in the hills. We visited the bull ring there, which is the second oldest. Then we saw the tajo, which is a huge gorge. There's a bridge over it, which contains a room that used to be a prison. Those are really the two main sites in Ronda, and once we were done we found a cute cafe and settled in for the remaining two hours. I had the best hot chocolate, it was light and frothy but still really chocolately. Then Lanae, Allyson, and I shared carrot cinnamon cake, apple crumble, and a walnut brownie. All of them were delicious. Also check out my crazy leggings! They're really popular here.

bullring

bullring

el tajo gorge

the bridge

bridge, the window is the prison

the view over the gorge

desserts

best hot chocolate

Friday night Lanae and I decided to go to Cadiz the next day. It's a city right on the atlantic coast, and is famous for their beaches. It is also where they wrote the constitution of 1812. I didn't know much about the city, but Lanae looked up a few things. They made it really easy for tourists though. They have four different walking tours through the city, which you can go on by just following the colored line through the city. We followed the one through the city, and saw the cathedral, arches, and got a good feel of Cadiz.

Flamenco hands

cathedral

plaza de la constitution

Then we followed the route along the ocean. We saw the plaza de España (not as cool as the one in Sevilla), a beautiful park, and lots of the ocean. The last things on this route were two castles. The first one, castillo de santa catalina, was star shaped, and had some really nice views. Right next to it were all these small, brightly colored, wooden boats. They were so pretty to look at. I decided I wanted the one that had a bright blue inside, and Lanae could have the sinking one :). Then we walked along the beach to get to the second castle, castillo de san sebastián. We were looking at shells as we walked, when this guy came up to us. He spoke to us in spanish and the gist of it was that the round squishy balls around us were jellyfish, and that was why the red flag was up. If we touched them, they could sting us and we might die. It was a little scary because we had both wondered what they were before, and probably would have touched one if he hadn't told us first. To get to the second castle we had to walk out a ways into the ocean. From there we had a nice view of Cadiz, but not much else was there.

the gardens had dinosaurs

plaza de España

Castillo de Santa Catalina 

boats

my boat

boats

castillo de san sebastián

jellyfish 

It was lunch time, so we wandered back towards the center and found a place with tables right in the sun. I got the menu del día with gazpacho, a variety of fried fish, bread, wine, and dessert for 10 euros. It was good and it was so nice to sit and rest for awhile. After lunch we took another walking route and hit some other parts of the city. My favorite part here was the Torre Tavira. It didn't look very high from the outside, but from the top we could see everything. They also had a camera obscura. We went into this dark room with a big white circle canvas. From 2 lenses and a mirror, the images from the top of the tower were projected onto the canvas. When the guide moved the canvas up and down, different parts would come into focus. It was so cool because it seemed like it should be a video, but it was real. During the presentation the guide used a blank index card and was able to "pick up" people off the street and then put them back down again. Then we needed something sweet, so we got shakes. I got an apple pie ice cream one. Then it was time to head back home.

gazpacho

fish

teddy on the clothesline 

view from the torre tavira- cathedral

view from the torre tavira 

view from the torre tavira

view from the torre tavira