Buenas Ondas- Tarifa

This past weekend was definitely one for the books. Our final weekend in Spain...I can hardly think about it without tearing up. I have made the most amazing memories with the greatest people and I don't think any of us (except maybe Jonathan) are ready for it to come to an end.

Not only was it our last weekend with the program, but it was also our friend Paige's 21st birthday! 7 of us packed up our bags and hopped on a bus to Tarifa for the weekend. Tarifa is a cute little town in southern Spain with an extremely 'hippie' vibe- nice people, great environment, and all around good vibes as Haley would say.

The three hour bus ride wasn't so bad after making friends with the British guy sitting behind us. He was probably one of the most interesting people I've ever met and somehow we never got his name. He was born in London but currently lives in Manchester. Last year, he took four months to travel the United States. He began in California and "bummed a car off a mexican for 500 dollars." He then proceeded to drive that car from Cali, to Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and then up the east coast with a "chick" he had met at some point along the way. He also backpacked through Africa and this summer he was simply traveling with a group of his friends with virtually no final destination. SO cool.

Once we got into Tarifa, the view of the beach was insane. For as far as you could see, the ocean was covered with windsurfers. No exaggeration- they were EVERYWHERE. It was so beautiful. We hopped off at the next bus stop and headed to our hostel. I won't lie...I was a little nervous about what it would look like after our not-so-great experience with the hostel in London. We were pleasantly surprised though when the hostel, Pink House, was adorable. The girls working the front desk were all Italians working in Tarifa for the summer and they were so cute and helpful. The hostel had a beautiful terrazaa with a bar and bean bag chairs to lounge in and that's where we began our nights. It also had a wonderful view of the ocean and just behind that, Morocco.

While we were heading out of the hostel, we met a friendly girl from the United States named Kendall. Just like the guy we had met on the bus, she was also incredibly interesting and inspiring. She had just returned from a 4 month stay as a teacher in Morocco and was looking to begin the next chapter of her journey. She offered us some beautiful Moroccan rings, a book, a card with suggestions about Morocco, AND she gave Paige a pair of pants for her birthday. So basically- she's the nicest human ever. We all hope that our paths cross with Kendall's again some day!

The rest of the day we just wandered around and did a little bit of shopping. We got a bite to eat at a joint on the main strip and enjoyed the view for a while. After that, we headed to see the beach and stumbled upon a bar with live music so of course we had to stop there for a while as well. It was such a good time with great friends.

SATURDAY:

We got up at the crack of dawn to get ready and head to the marina to leave for AFRICA! I honestly still can't believe we were able to just hop on a ferry and 45 minutes later arrive in Morocco. Wow. There were several other Americans in our tour group, including one couple from Peachtree City whose son currently lives in Woodstock (my hometown)...small world. Once we arrived in Morocco, we took a bus tour of the city and eventually got to my favorite part- riding camels! After the camels, we drove into the heart of the city and had a typical Moroccan lunch at a local restaurant. The food was delicious! We were served soup, cous cous, veggies, and mint tea while a 4 man band played Moroccan music.

After lunch, we headed to the markets to get hassled into buying as many things as possible. I stood my ground better than I thought I would though! There was one piece of tapestry that I just couldn't get over. It was so beautiful and I knew it would not only be a great souvenir I would have for the rest of my life, but I also knew how great it would look on my wall next year. The first few vendors were trying to sell it to me for 120 euros, but every time I said no and walked away they chased me further down the street lowering the price more and more. I couldn't get them as low as I wanted though, so I kept declining. Finally, as we were heading back to our van to leave for the marina, one of the vendors finally gave up and gave it to me for 30...and when I say gave it to me I mean he threw it at my face. Regardless, I was one happy camper.

After the markets, we stopped by a local pharmacy to learn about their medicinal practices. I was shocked to realize that medicine isn't really something they use there. Everything they use it raw- herbs, spices, oils, etc. It was so interesting to learn about some of the things they believe to have healing powers there. For example, he told us that if we were to buy one thing in the entire pharmacy, he would recommend it to be Nigella Seeds. Apparently, they are used for just about anything- external pain, internal illnesses, and the list goes on. He also mentioned that it's what they us on patients with HIV/AIDS. He recommended that we look into it once we got home and that's something I intend on doing.

Interesting Fact: Our tour guide Ali told us that ALL education is free. Anyone can go to elementary, Midde School, High School, AND College for absolutely no cost at all. Blows my mind.

Once we got back to Tarifa, we headed back to the hostel to meet up with the other two and got ready for a fun night out on the town for Paige's birthday. We met several people from Sevilla and other people from different parts of Europe as well. I would say that Tarifa was touristy but there were little to no tourists from the United States. Almost everyone we met was either from Spain, England, or Switzerland. Paige had a blast celebrating and so did we!

SUNDAY

Our last day in Tarifa, we slept in and then headed to the beach. It was a perfect day for la playa because it wasn't too windy or hot. We spent some of the day there and the rest of the day shopping before we had to head back to the bus station at 5.

I'm sad it's over but I'm also so glad to have met all the people we did along the way. They inspired all of us and I know for me personally, talking to them made me want to drop everything and travel the world! I know there is still so much to see- but I'm confident that someday I'll have the opportunity. I just really love people. 

Buenas Ondas,

Alex

Vamos a la Playa

So much has happened within the last couple of weeks, I don't even know where to begin! For your sake, after that last blog I posted, I'll stick to the most important and interesting things...

Last weekend we took a trip to Cadiz, Spain- a relatively small city in southern Spain. We left Sevilla at 9 am Saturday and got to Cadiz just a couple of hours later. We had tour guides that showed us around the city briefly and took us to the most delicious outdoor market where I had THE freshest sushi on the planet. After our tours, the only things on ours minds was finally getting to the beach. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. The waves on the other hand- not so much. We stayed on the beach until it was time to get ready for dinner with the UGA en Cadiz group. The dinner was interesting to say the least and I had my first encounter with sardine spine...oops

That night, a group of my friends went out and made a pact to stay up all night in order to watch the sunrise. It was definitely one of the greatest memories I've made so far!

Staying up for 24 hours straight makes people a little crazy...

We spent Sunday laying on the beach catching some rays (maybe too many rays) and headed back to Sevilla at 8 pm. Cadiz was absolutely amazing in every way, but I will have to admit I'm a little biased while writing this because this past weekend we went to Lagos, Portugal and oh.my.gosh....no words for how breathtaking that place was. The people were the nicest I've met so far, the food was delicious, the view was to die for....I think it's safe to say I will definitely be going back to Lagos one day.

We left Sevilla on Friday and took a couple of stops along the way. We first stopped an hour outside of Sevilla to visit a medieval cathedral- the oldest we've seen thus far. We then stopped 30 mins outside of Lagos at Cabo de San Vincente- the most southwestern point of continental Europe that Cristopher Columbus originally thought was the point where the world ended. How cool is that? It was definitely the most beautiful thing we had seen, and a little scary too!

Pictures just don't do it justice

When we arrived in Lagos, we checked into our hotel and headed to the pool to hangout until dinner. We had dinner at a quaint little restaurant near the harbor where, yet again, I ate sardines. At least this time I knew to take the spine out first..

We went out to a bar that night called Three Monkeys and had an absolute blast. I was surprised to see that mostly everyone there spoke English and not Portuguese, but regardless it was a fun night.

Saturday we laid at the pool until we had lunch on the beach at a delicious restaurant that gave us salad FOR ONCE. We all joke about healthy food here because we rarely get salad or any vegetables so when we do...it's truly a blessing. After lunch, everyone bummed it on the beach until we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night ahead.

We had previously met a couple of girls that were studying in Sevilla from Georgia Southern and they recommended that we go to a burger joint in Portugal called Nah Nah Bah. We decided to take their advice and I must say it was the greatest decision we've ever made. I mean, who doesn't love burgers the size of your head?! See for yourself- 

After dinner, we went out again to Three Monkeys and afterwards to a club called Inside Out which was super fun. We meet a group from Texas that happened to also be studying abroad in Sevilla, small world! A few of my friends and I decided to stay up all night...as if we didn't learn our lesson in Cadiz. The next morning we went out on a party boat and kayaked the Atlantic Ocean, played on a water trampoline, and enjoyed our last few hours in Lagos together. It was a wonderful day

I adore these people and all the experiences we get to share. #BLESSED

-Alex

Lost in Londres

WARNING: this blog is incredibly long. Proceed with caution.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to one of the most magical places in the world-London. Of course that's my own personal opinion but I truly have never been to a more enchanting city (this may or may not be because of the many Harry Potter references I was able to make along the way). It was definitely an unforgettable trip and although I wouldn't change a thing, we had some unfortunate experiences along the way. Now, while reading this blog I hope each and every one of you can learn from our mistakes and/or laugh at us for being so terrible at directions, keeping time, stranger danger signals, etc.

DAY ONE:
We flew out of the Sevilla airport Friday afternoon without any problems, although flying RyanAir was hands down one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. If you've never flown RyanAir, just know for future reference that:
1. Always check in online or they will try and charge you 50 euros
2. Always print your boarding pass beforehand or they will charge you even more
3. Make sure your carry on bag fits the dimensions or they will charge you 50 euros yet again.
4. Do not expect to board the plane from the ramp at your gate. You must walk outside on the tarmac and board the plane from the ground.
5. You will pay for anything and everything you want while on the flight. No free water, no free peanuts, no free napkins. EVERYTHING will cost you a pretty penny.

We landed at the Stansted airport in London around 7 pm and hopped on a train to get to our hostel (which felt eerily like I was on my way to Hogwarts). From there, we had to take two more trains, 'the tube', in order to get to Kilburn station. Of course, it wasn't as easy as we expected so we ended up spending 45 minutes wandering aimlessly around the Liverpool train station in search of direction. Along the way, we met several kind people from the area who were able to help us and also were able to tell us that Kilburn, where our hostel was located, was a quite "interesting" aka terrible area to be. Welcome to London!

Rachel, Jonathan, Methridge, Kelly, Shannon, and I all aboard the Hogwarts express

Once we finally made it to Kilburn around 9 pm, we immediately understood what the locals meant when they said the area was "interesting". Our first impression was a road sign to our left labeled "Shoot Up Hill".....lovely. We got to our hostel and it wasn't too bad from the outside. We were checking in late so nobody in charge was there to greet us or check us in, but our lovely roommates were all in attendance. Staying in an 8 person coed room was probably not the best decision for my first hostel experience, but it was an experience to say the least. One roommate that I think is an important part of this story is a 45 year old Finnish man- for protection of privacy we will call him JoanJoan. We'll come back to his part in our visit soon enough.

After dropping off our luggage, we went in search of something to eat. Luckily, we stumbled across a pizzeria that just happened to be absolutely delicious...and also enough to feed approximately 10-15 people. After dinner, we set off to find wifi so that we could contact our parents and let them know we made it. We stumbled upon a cute little pub on the corner and decided to give it a try. We're lucky that we did because not only did they have free wifi, but we also met a couple of British musicians who let us know a little bit about London and what we should do while we were there. Great guys.

DAY TWO:
We woke up bright and early in order to buy outlet converters and towels. The outlet converters weren't hard to find at all. The towels on the other hand.....apparently Kilburn doesn't have any sort of supermarket. After walking 3 miles down the street, we finally came upon a TK Maxx. YES... TK Maxx not TJ Maxx- big difference. We found towels for 2 pounds that we were so excited about and couldn't believe how great of a bargain it was.....until we got home and realized they weren't towels, they were shower mats. Of course, we didn't realize this until we were soaking wet out of the shower and wondering why the 'towel' wasn't absorbing the water. FAIL.

Now, we're back on Joan Joan, the Finnish man. He struck up conversation with us while we were getting ready telling us he had been at the hostel for two weeks and just got a job. He then said, and I quote, "I wish I didn't have to work tonight so that I could hang out with you girls". At this point, we felt a little creeped out but we tried to keep a positive attitude toward the situation. Strangely enough, an hour later when we were leaving to explore the city, Joan Joan just happened to be leaving and heading toward the city as well. Once we realized that he was ACTUALLY trying to hangout with us all day until he went to work at 7:30, we "had a friend who wanted to get lunch" and "had to go". Poor Joan Joan.

We had previously bought tickets for Madam Tussaud's wax museum and the London Eye, so we were heading toward that area for the day. We headed toward the Kilburn train station right next to our house to find out that it was actually closed for the day....just our luck. So instead, we asked a nice group of guys what bus we should take to get to where we were going and they very confidently told us bus number 16. We rode the bus for about 30 minutes just to find out eventually that bus 16 was actually not the correct bus we needed at all...FAIL number 2.

Once we FINALLY made it to that area, we stopped in for some lunch at a local pub that happened to have Burger combos that included your burger, fries, onion rings, and a pint of beer for 6 pounds. Not too shabby. Madam Tussaud's museum was amazing and well worth the money and time we spent trying to get there. Everything was so realistic and interactive. I won't go into details but just know that my friends forced me to go through the haunted section of the museum and I almost cried like a little baby. Never again. Here are some of my personal favorite photos from the museum:

 Casual selfie with Nicole Kidman

Kelly, Meredith and I lounging with Mr. Clooney

Leo and I flirting

After the museum, we headed to the London eye which was absolutely beautiful. While we waited for our turn, we visited Big Ben, the Parliament building, Westminster Abbey, and of course, Buckingham Palace. I could write a novel about each of these individually, but for your sake I'll just sum it up into one word: incredible. Everything about London was breathtaking. The views, the people, the atmosphere. It was the most wonderful experience. We went back to the eye around 7 and rode to the very top where we had a great view of the city from above. This was definitely one of my favorite things we did. 

 London Eye

 Buckingham Palace

   Big Ben

After this, we headed to the Picadilly Circus/SoHo area to grab dinner and check out the nightlife. Dinner was great although I am embarrassed to say I never tried the fish, chips, and mushy peas cuisine while I was there. My dad is gonna be real disappointed in me for that one...(hey dad). After dinner we stopped at a couple of pubs and talked with the locals but we just weren't feeling up to trying out the nightclub scene so instead, we gravitated toward the FOUR STORY M&M WORLD. Now if that isn't a dream come true, I don't know what is. 

Panorama of only one small wall of M&Ms. Multiply this by 4 floors...

DAY 3:

Today, London Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was on the agenda. We hopped on the train to the London Bridge station, making sure to grab a Dunkin Donuts donut on the way. **Try not to laugh at the next part of this story** We spent a couple of hours sitting near the river, admiring London Bridge, taking pictures of it and in front of it and really just enjoying ourselves. UNTIL, of course, we realized that it was not even London Bridge we had been admiring....it was the Tower Bridge. London Bridge was, in fact, the smaller, uglier bridge to our left. Embarrassing...

 ^^^London Bridge

^^^Tower Bridge

After that embarrassing moment, we met a guy named James from the U.S. who was traveling around Europe with a couple of friends for the summer. He spent some of the day with us sightseeing and showing us around the city a little bit more. We went to the cutest market across the river and also checked out the Meantime Brewery around the corner. Both were great places. After that, we split up and Kelly, Meredith, and I spent the rest of the day listening to street performers and eating great food. What a life. 

That evening, we headed to Camdentown to check out the nightlife there after several locals had recommended it to us. On the way, we of course had to stop at King's Cross Station to visit platform 9 3/4. BEST DAY EVER. 

 Headed to Hogwarts

Camdentown was a strange yet busy area swarming with university students. We stopped into the first place we passed and ended up staying there the entire night. We met a group of guys from northern England that were celebrating their friend's birthday and they were a fun group to talk to. One of my favorite quotes of the night was "you don't seem like americans. You haven't offended me yet and none of you are morbidly obese." They also showed us their best impersonation of an American and like everyone else we had met, it was simply "OH MY GAWD" said in the worst possible valley girl accent. I think we might be misunderstood abroad...haha

Kelly and Meredith were having a great time but, for once in my entire life, I was in mom mode and was concerned about how we were going to get home later because the trains stopped running around midnight. We decided to go ahead and leave around 11:45 and not run the chance of trying to find a night bus home, which we thought was a knowledgable idea. BUT we happened to get on the wrong train going in the wrong direction and by the time we realized it and got off that train...the stations were closing. We spent the next 2 hours asking for directions back to Kilburn which NOBODY knew how to help us. We finally met Phil (great fella) who got us on the correct bus going in the correct direction and FINALLY we made it home safe and sound. Joan Joan was waiting up for us of course to make sure we were safe. Thoughtful but still creepy...

If you need to take a break, get some water, go to the bathroom, make some popcorn....I understand. I'm almost done!!!

DAY 4:

Today we had our last few hours in the wonderful city of London. We packed our bags and headed out for the day, interested in seeing Trafalgar Square and the Natural History museum. The night before, we discussed our plan for the day and reminded each other that our flight was at 9:30 so we needed to be on our way from Liverpool Station (45 minutes from the airport) by 7:00. We went to the museum, walked around the square, and decided to stop and relax at the Sherlock Holmes pub. We had soooo much time on our hands so we thought 'why not?'

Around 5:15 we headed to the bus stop to catch a bus from Trafalgar to Liverpool Station. We arrive at Liverpool around 6:00 and notice that the giant clock at the station has the time displayed as **18:00**. This seems strange to us because we remember that our flight is at 19:30, which all along we thought meant 9:30. but ALAS we were wrong yet again and come to the horrific realization that our flight begins boarding in one hour and we are still 45 minutes away...

We immediately all go into panic mode of course and go sprinting through the station to find our train. Luckily, one had just arrived. Unluckily, once we boarded it still waited at the station for 10 minutes before we left. At this point....it's 6:15. Doors close for boarding at 7:15. We all dealt with this situation differently. I sat alone and stared out the window on the verge of a panic attack. Kelly sat silently in her seat and cried. And Meredith....well, Meredith slept. 

We pulled up to Stansted Airport at 7:00. SHOWTIME. The three of us are sprinting through the airport asking RyanAir staff members if they can call and hold the flight or help us in any way. The answer was no. We eventually get to security and the line is way too long. We were so desperate we ran to the front of the line and asked if we could cut in and by some miracle of God, they said yes. At this point we have 5 minutes to get to our gate. Once we finally got through security, there was a glimmer of hope. We sprinted from gate 1 to 45 without hyperventilating and made it just in time to board the plane. 

***BE SURE TO LEARN MILITARY TIME BEFORE TRAVELING IN EUROPE. YOU WON'T REGRET IT***

And that was our weekend in London. The most amazing, stressful, fun, scary, insane journey I have ever taken. If you read this all the way through, bless you.

-Alex