Jerez and Carnaval!

After our long trip to Italia, it was great getting back home to see Mama Rosa and Sevilla! I’ve been exploring different parts of the city a good bit lately, and pretty much every single day I’ve been finding something new that makes me fall even more in love with this amazing city.

Since we didn’t have class on Monday, we dealed with our one day of class that week and then the craziness that is weekends in Seville began all over again on Wednesday night haha. A couple of our friends from Maryland who are studying in Barcelona, (Brittany and Nonny) had come to Seville for the night to visit for the night so we went out with them that evening. We headed over to a club called Banadlai because we knew the promoter so he got us in for free, and it was Hip-Hop night so can’t miss that haha.

The next day, woke up extremely excited because my homegurl Naomi was going to be in town for the day. Her, Nonny and Brittany were planning on traveling all around southern spain, so her flight came into Sevilla so we got to spend the day with them! I met up with Naomi on Asuncion by the metro station and we set off to begin exploring more of the city. We met up with Nonny, Brittany, and Elise clowning around on the playground right by our house and figured out our plans for the day. Naomi and I grabbed a bite at Cien Montaditos, and then headed off to check out Alcazar with Gabe and the girls.

It was my first time to the Alcazar, and it was absolutely amazing. It used to be a muslim palace, and it was incredible as it had beautiful gardens filled with fantastic architecture and orange trees all over. I can’t wait to go back, and if you ever come to Seville ( which you should ) I would highly recommend checking it out. Gabe and I managed to convince the girls to stay the night in Sevilla so we all went out to a discoteca called Abril and had a great time.

The next day, we all did the unexpected and actually took it easy on a Friday night for probably the first and last time in Europe as we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday morning.

Jerez

Saturday morning we were all going to Jerez to a winery for some wine tasting with API, and then we were heading to Cadiz for a day trip to the beach. We all woke up real early, met up at the bus stop and took off for Jerez!

We reached the winery around 10am, and all had a great time there. We all ended up pounding all sorts of funky little glasses of strong wine, including one that was made with raisins, and we were all feeling really good as we left the winery. After spending some time exploring the city on a guided tour (I hate guided tours, which is ironic since i’m a tourguide) we got back on the bus and took off for Cadiz.

Winery

Gold Wine?

Wine Tasting

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Jerez

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Cadiz Carnaval!

We were all real excited to get to Cadiz, because that night was Carnaval! Carnaval is a giant festival, which can best be described as mardi gras meets Halloween; as it is a giant party throughout the streets of Cadiz, you drink heavily, and everyone is wearing absolutely ridiculous costumes. I happened to be a flamboyant Salsa Dancer. All the guys in my residencia decided to buy me the most ridiculous, colorful, and possibly homosexual thing that they could find for me when they went to the costume store and I loved it haha.

The other guys in the residencia all decided to be chino men, and bought chopsticks and were throwing rice all night at people. Pictures can do a much better job explainig the night than i can so i’ll let them do the talking, enjoy!

On the way to Cadiz

As we got there, we all decided to head over to the beach and hang out which was so much fun, and I can’t wait to do it again when the weather gets a little warmer so we can actually go in the water. Everyone in our program, well actually everyoine in the city for that matter had hilarious costumes on.

Some chickens just hanging out