Spring Break Part 2- Spain

So after a few days in Morocco, three of us hopped on a plane to Madrid at 8am. We went straight to the bus station once we got there and purchased our tickets to Barcelona, checked our luggage and headed into town! We decided to spend a day in Madrid based on prices of flights and buses combined, but it ended up being one of my favorite cities. The city is gorgeous, very clean, has great public transportation, and there was so much to do. We ate lunch and then went to the royal palace. We did a guided tour, which was a great investment because there was so much history.

After the palace we saw a few different cathedrals and walked through some beautiful gardens. We walked around for a while and stumbled on an indoor market in the middle of a plaza that was filled with different stations with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, appetizers and drinks possible. The three of us hung out, ate tapas and drank sangria until it was time to catch our overnight bus.

That night we hopped on the overnight bus and headed to Barcelona. We got there at around 7am and found our hostel. It was kind of a rough day- I think the lack of sleep really started catching up with us. We had kind of a rough morning; all the sights we tried to see were closed and the hostel wouldn't let us check in. So after check in we took a nap and then went to get some paella and sangria on Las Ramblas. That night we went back early and went to sleep. When we woke up the next morning we immediately started sightseeing on a tour bus. We saw just about everything- from the Gothic area to the Segrada Familia to Park Guell to the beaches to the Egg building.

That night we met up with some friends from our program who were also in Barcelona to get more sangria (it's one of my new favorite drinks if you may not have guessed) and some Thai food, and then we went to some clubs. At around 2:30am, Amanda and I left the club and headed to the airport for a 5am flight to Rome. Hey, you can only do that kind of thing when you're young, right? I loved Spain but I was ready to see Italia!

Spring Break Part 1- Morocco

Good news- I survived two weeks of spring break! About a third of the two weeks was spent on trains, buses and planes but it was totally worth it. I can now say that I've seen the majority of the European Mediterranean area, with a little bit of Africa in the mix. We started our journey with about 10 of us on a plane to Milan. Some people immediately hopped on trains but 8 of us were stuck with a 24 hour layover and nowhere to stay. Because of some sort of design show, every hotel and hostel in the greater Milan area was either booked or overpriced. So instead of dropping $200 on a hotel for one night, we decided to sleep in the airport. We explored the city for a few hours, and then headed back to our homemade beds outside of the McDonalds in Terminal 1. The bed really wasn't that bad, but the building could have done with a little heat.

The next morning we hopped on a plane to Agadir! Customs was a little ridiculous when we arrived, but we finally got our bags and found the people picking us up from our hostel. The program that we were with is called SnoworSand and they organize student trips like ours, which was a surfing weekend in a small town called Taghazout. We went straight to our hostel- Riad Imourane Auberge. It's a really cute little hostel and very close to the beach. They served us a delicious dinner and then we headed to bed early. The next morning we ate breakfast and headed to the beach at 9am. The waves were perfect for beginners so after a short lesson we all headed out to try out surfing. Only a few of us actually made it up on the board that first day but we were all either bruised or sunburned by the end of the day. My previous training in Hawaii circa 2004 was no help whatsoever.  We did get a few surfing pictures though!

Around lunchtime we rode a camel down the beach, which was a pretty cool experience. Camels are deceptively tall and I was actually a little nervous being up so high. They are also very jerky and when it stood up and sat down we were launched forward and back.

That night we headed back to the hostel and hung out for a little but went to bed very early. There was quite the international crowd staying there while we were there so it was nice to chat with them for a little. They all spend weeks at a time surfing, and they told us that it generally takes about a week to really get the hang of it. The next morning we woke up and spent the morning surfing again. After, Maria, the leader of our trip, took us to the market. It was much less touristy than I expected, which is because Agadir isn't a huge tourist destination. After the market we headed to a Moroccan bath, which was similar to the Turkish bath that I went to in Istanbul. The Moroccan bath was much rougher and more intense than the Turkish bath and I definitely didn't enjoy it as much but it was part of the cultural experience.

The next day five of us took a bus to Marrakech, which is a much larger city than Agadir and more of a tourist spot. We arrived at our hostel, dropped our things off and started sightseeing. We started at Palais Bahia, which is a relatively modern Palace located in the center of Marrakech. We toured around for a little and then headed to the souks. It was much nicer than the souks in Agadir because we were in a more touristy area. We were actually shopping in the area that was bombed two weeks later by a suicide bomber. We were pretty lucky to have avoided that. We also walked around the square and checked out a mosque, and I even ran into a snake charmer!

The rest of the night in Marrakech was great, we had an authentic Moroccan dinner and then we turned in early. I really wish we could've stayed longer but we were off the next morning to Milan! I'll continue on in my next post, this one has gotten pretty long. Morocco was really one of the coolest places I've ever been and I'm so happy that I got the opportunity to go. I'm sorry this has taken me so long to post, I'll continue soon with the rest. I have a lot to update about!