Vacation in Spain!

My journey to SPAIN!

We had a 12-day vacation from school (Happy All Saints Day, everybody) Oct 22-Nov 2, so I decided to hop on a 9-hr night bus from Toulon (next to my town) to Barcelona, where I hopped on a 1 1/2 hr plane to Malaga (in Southern Spain), then grabbed a bus up to CABRA! (Where Stephanie, bff) is teaching English!

Here we are! In Cabra (which, btw, means "goat" in Spanish, heh heh)

The land of olive trees! It even smells like (poopy) olives after it rains.

 

Olives. Blehck. 

This is one of Stephanie's schools! I went to work with her on one of the days and met her students & teachers.

We did a pumpkin carving demonstration in one of the classes! The students at the jr. high loved our pumpkin-carving, cupcake-eating, candy-giving Halloween party!

Stephanie was in charge of explaining. I was in charge of wielding the knife. Good thing I have lots of pumpkin carving experience.

This is a CHIRIMOYA. It is a fruit with big, black seeds that are fun to spit out. You eat it like a kiwi with a spoon. It has the consistency of a pear. But it tastes like blue cotton candy (I decided)!

We took a day trip to CORDOBA! This is us outside the Mezquita.

This is the inside of the Mezquita in Cordoba. The architecture is amazing. It was built as a Mosque, but then the Catholics took it over and changed it into a Cathedral.

 We spent the rainy afternoon in Cordoba enjoying tea and solving the world's problems in a Moroccan tea cafe. 

Then we went on a trip to GRANADA! (which means pomegranate in Spanish)

Stephanie got us some roasted chestnuts on the street and I tried them for the first time! Kind of nutty, burnt, starchy almost potato-like goodness. This is one after the brown skin was peeled off. A little burnt yellow brain to eat.

Here we are! In Granada near our hostel.

We went on a crazy fun bike tour of the city! We covered so much ground and saw all the highlights! (Would've been impossible on foot!)

We stopped to see a bit of the Alhambra on the bike tour.

Our electric bikes (amazing) helped us climb the cobblestone streets up to the Flamenco caves, where they do Flamenco dance performances.

Cruising back downhill on the bikes at a zillion miles an hour. Made my tricep muscles jiggle around.

SUSHI lunch!! We found sushi...in Europe!!! hooorah! And it was soooooo delicious!

Mmm salmon rolls with avocado and cucumber. 

I luv sushi.

Then, after sushi, we took a bus to MALAGA.

 Dairylicious.

Stayed a night in Malaga, then caught a bus to the airport (enjoyed a soy chai from Starbucks - yessss!) then flew to Barcelona. 

Had 9 hours to kill in Barcelona before my night bus back to Toulon. Free sangria?! Yes please :) I made friends with some Australians and read my book before the long bus ride back home.