The Rock of Gibraltar

We left Seville in the afternoon and drove a couple of hours to see this huge rock.  It's one of Pillars of the old world. From our parking spot the rock looks amazing. As you can see it was a beautiful clear day and that made me happy because it turned out to be the LONGEST day. I'm so happy that we kept things happy and positive because all of us almost lost it today. We parked the car in Spain and walked into Britain. As went through customs the first time and got to the bus area and realized that we already had tickets but we had to talk to our travel agency and guess what.... they were in Spain, so we walked our cute butts back over there. We found the booth fairly quickly and it was closed... So we walked through customs a second time. We spoke with nice people along the way and they were very helpful with directions.

We took a one-way ride up to the top because we planned on walking down (you will learn later that this was a bad idea) As we exited our gondola there were signs everywhere warning about monkeys. These monkeys did not care how close you got to them, but you didn't want to be close... I promise. We watched as baby strollers were attacked, back packs were attacked, people who were holding things in their hands.... you guessed it... were attacked. These monkeys were crazy.

well except for this tiny baby, he was cute.

We stayed at the top for a long time because as we stood there we watched clouds form around us. For me this was the highlight of the whole day, and we saw Africa! Below you can see Africa in the distance. SOOOO cool!!

I was hoping that the monkey would fall off but he didn't :/

Here are two great pictures where you can see a cloud forming. We took a lot of videos because it was really neat. 

Because we had been eating and driving a lot we decided that we needed to walk down the rock. We met some kind people halfway down who told us about this picturesque suspension bridge but they didn't know how to get there. Well, we found it and had some fun breaking the rules. Rule #1 don't rock the bride... oops We made it out alive!

As we neared halfway we had a decision to make... left or right. We chose to go right which led us to this. 

and then to a beautiful, tall, gate with a sign that said DO NOT ENTER FALLING ROCKS.
We all started thinking, "How are we going to jump this fence!" We started talking strategies on what we were going to do and as we got closer to get a good look, Nick found a narrow path down the steep rock. We didn't hesitate and we were down and back to the streets of the little town in no time.  Well, really, the whole walk took us like 2 hours.  A lot longer than we had originally anticipated. Now the questions were, where can we find a bus, and where is food? Food was the higher priority so that happened first. We shared a $20 pizza at a restaurant with the worst service we have ever had. The bus wasn't so easy we had to walk a mile or so to find it and then when we got on we only rode it for about 5 minutes before our stop :/ We crossed back over to Spain and headed to our car and, finally, we were Granada bound.

Seville, Spain

Two Americans and an Australian went on a road trip........ sounds like great beginning to a hilarious joke. Well it was, as all three of us and our luggage had to fit into this tiny car, at least it was a convertible.

I skipped our last class on Friday to run and grab the car because the rental car shop closes for 3 hours so they can take a siesta (gotta love Spain). I was running late so I literally ran there because it was 30 minutes away on foot. I made it just in time to see a beautiful sign "be back in 5" I was not the only person waiting for their return. Finally they came back and it was my turn to speak the best Spanish I had because I had been practicing what I was going to say in my head all day so I wouldn't sound stupid. I approached the counter and the jolly man said, clear as day, "Hello, How are you doing today? What's the name on your reservation?" I was shocked but determined to practice my Spanish so I answered in Spanish, " Me llama Lauren Stevens" He responded, "Oh you prefer Spanish, Okay" Then he proceeds to speak very fast and I gave him the deer in the headlights look and he said, "That's what I thought!" I made the transaction in English :(

I took my time checking over the car and figuring out where the buttons were for everything then I took off to find a parking spot near our apartment. I was shocked how easy it was to jump back in to driving a 5 speed because I hadn't driven one in 8 years. As I was concentrating on both finding a parking spot and not killing the car I had to drive around the block twice before I found a parking spot. On my second time around someone yelled at me. I quickly recognized the man from church. We had been over to his house a few times and he doesn't speak any English. I pulled over and he yells, "Esposo correr" I thought my husband is running.... NEVER.. and Yelled back, " Ropas en Melletas, Adios" and I drove away slowly as I was so confused. Next thing I see is Nick in front of me huffing and puffing and it hits me like a ton of bricks, OH NICK WAS RUNNING AFTER ME!! JAJAJAJAJA! Turns out that I passed him in front of our apartment but didn't see him. He decided to run after me yelling and screaming in the street like an idiot. I never heard him.

We packed up our stuff and went to pick up Kylie, we were running late and had no way to tell her so when we got there she was nowhere to be found, so we waited. She arrived and told us that she second guessed herself and walked across the street to make sure she was in the right spot. She added her bags, jumped in and we took off for Seville!

Our ride was wonderful here are some of the views.

The bull billboards are everywhere and they were fun to look at. We wondered why they are there and if there is a certain purpose to them. Turns out there is a really cool reason read about it here.

We arrived in Seville with plenty of time to explore but we had to find our AirBNB first. We got lucky and found a great parking spot so we jumped out and went searching on foot. Nick was told through text we would have a parking spot available to us and all we needed to do was talk to the "gordo, gordo hombre" (she wrote those words in the text) As we were searching we knew we had the right building when we saw the fat man guarding the door. We said hello and walked upstairs to our apartment. When we exited we didn't see him so we decided to search for the parking garage on foot first before we got the car. We found the garage quickly and went to grab the car. When we arrived back to the garage it was open so we went in and parked. As we opened our car doors we heard the gate closing. We all got a little worried at this point because we didn't know how to make it open. Nick ran to see if the metal door was really closed and if he could open it. It was shut and there wasn't a button to let us out. We had an "oh shiz" moment then we knew we had to act if we wanted out!

Nick and Kylie picked me up so that I could see out of the top and then I proceeded to yell at people walking by. Finally a lady stopped and in my panicked Spanish I told her our situation and to please to get the "Gordo, Gordo Hombre" she left and a few minutes later returned with the fat man. He let us out but he would not open the garage so we could get the car out. The conversation turned a little heated so Nick, trying to think quickly on his feet, showed him the messages from owner of the apartment. The man became enraged and started yelling at us and then he just walked away. As he walked away Nick looked at his phone and realized that the man had read and realized that he was the "Gordo Gordo Hombre" Whoops!

A minute later a woman pulled up and opened the garage with a clicker. She laughed at our story and helped up get the car out.

 Us inside the garage.

Us outside the garage.

Once we parked the car in a free area we ate and walked into the main part of the city. The views on the way were beautiful. If the sun was going down then it's around 9 or 9:30 PM.

Right when we entered the city we were attacked by a man who wanted us to purchase a fan. Kylie and I walked away..... we thought Nick was right behind us but when we turned around the man had Nick and wouldn't let him leave. We walked over and snapped a picture. The man displayed his fans for Nick and then realized we took a picture so he posed for the second one. Nick bought a fan.

We decided since we only had so much time to spend on Saturday that we would go see one of the places now. Our 25 minute walk turned out to be a 1 hour walk but the sight was worth it. The
Basílica de la Macarena was beautiful!

We walked back to our apartment and we took pictures a long the way.

The next morning we got up and walked into town again to visit the Plaza de Espana. Guess who passed us on a bicycle? Yup, the gordo, gordo hombre. Then, we passed him as he took a smoke break. We couldn't help but laugh.

Next on the list was the Real Alcázar de Sevilla. It was a beautiful palace with amazing gardens and tile work. It was one of my favorite places out of our whole trip!

After we finished our visit we jumped in the car and drove to our next destination.

Valencia and the Beach Festival

Valencia: June, 23-25

If you didn't know, traveling in Spain is expensive. So, before we left we did a lot of research. This weekend we decided to use BlaBlaCar and we had a great experience. It's like hitch hiking and carpooling all organized online and we reaped the benefits of the low prices. Our driver picked us up at our apartment and dropped us off at our Airbnb, which is very unusual, but he wanted to make sure we were okay because of the language barrier. He did not speak ANY English but we got lucky because another person rode with us. He was Italian and spoke Spanish and, enough, English. It was a very long ride to Valencia due to traffic but we didn't mind because we learned all about the festival everyone was going to that night.  We got a 10 minute break to shove food in, because we couldn't eat in the car. 

When we arrived we changed into our beach clothes and joined the festival. We couldn't believe that it was near midnight and families with young children were showing up for the festival too. We had to jump over the warm ocean waves 7 times to bring us good luck.

The next morning we headed to town and we just happened upon another festival. There was so much free entertainment around and in the bull fighting ring.

These people scared the crap out of a little kid and he was doing the terrified scream thing, the parents were not happy, but we laughed hard! Below, we were in the bullfighting ring for a while listening to some live Spanish guitar music.

We walked around and found some beautiful sights. You can't dream these places up that's for sure. I stayed at the fountain for a while because it was so beautiful and because it took a long time to get this photo.  

We snuck into the Cathedral right after a first communion and it was definitely a treat. We sat here for a while taking in the people and the scene. As we walked around, we found a mummified hand of a saint and it was kind of freaky.

When we were doing our research about Valencia two things stuck out: we had to have Horchata and Paella while we were there. So, naturally we took a break from the heat and drank some Horchata from this really really old place. Horchata is a Spanish drink made with Tigernuts, water, and sugar.  I was not the biggest fan of the flavor but Nick liked it.

After exploring the city for a couple of hours we went right back to the beach and made a reservation for this famous place (La Pepica ) If we would have made the reservation days in advance we would have been able to sit outside and watch the sun set, but we were able to see it at our table inside a little.

SO GOOD!!!!!

Sunday we woke up and went to church and did more exploring before we hit the beach again. We decided to walk the park that goes through the center of town and towards our house. The park used to be a river but they rerouted the river around the city instead of through it. Now you have a bunch of beautiful trees and fun things to do. First we stumbled upon Gulliver, the giant that was tied down. He had been made into a park for kids to play on.  It was really cool because it had a lot of natural places to climb up and slide down.

When we finished playing we walked to the City of Arts and Sciences and they had some cool buildings.

We walked to the beach, grabbed a bite to eat, swam, and sunbathed. Did you know that the women in Spain sunbathe topless? Well, we found that fun fact out right before we went and I'm glad we did so we could mentally prepare ourselves. (not pictured for obvious reasons)

We rushed back to our place to shower and pack before we left for our long adventure back home. We had the same driver and that made life a lot easier, but the third passenger was a woman who spoke less English than we spoke Spanish. For some reason he had this little guy in his car and he was very confused about why Nick was taking a picture of him. (Apparently Big Bird is a Valencia CF fan)

Oh and here is a little bit of the amazing storm we drove through on our way home.