After Elisa's Italian meal it was decided that Aleisa would be the next to do her meal so the following week she prepared us a yummy dinner of tortillas stuffed with chicken and topped with a sauce of refried beans, soured cream and cheese accompanied by her famous guacamole which she's had to make us several times since!
Yummy Mexican meal!
My English meal came a few weeks after, and after much deliberation I finally decided to make a fish pie and an apple crumble which both seemed to go down quite well!
My apple crumble :)
After this first round of international dinners we decided to each have another turn, beginning once again with Elisa. This time she made us a plate full of olives, tomatoes, turkey ham, cheese and little pastries along with a mushroom risotto and a tiramisu, yum!
Second Italian meal!
Sevici bikes
Not long after my last post I went to Morocco for the weekend with my flatmates! We went on an organised tour with an Erasmus group. We left on the Friday morning and went to Gibraltar where we had a tour which included Europa Point- a viewpoint from which you can see Africa on a clear day, and we were lucky as the weather was lovely! After that we went to St.Michael's Caves and then we had time to see the infamous monkeys! After that we were taken to the centre where we had 45 minutes free time. I was highly disappointed that we didn't have enough time to a) have a roast dinner b) do any real shopping c) find Marks and Spencers to get percy pigs BUT I did manage to get a decent cup of tea and a sandwich and we had a little wander before we had to walk back across the border to get back to the coach. To walk across the border you have to first cross the runway of the airport there which was very strange!
Me at Europa Point
View over to Africa!
St.Michael's Caves
Me with a monkey that was clearly not interested in posing!
Crossing the runway!
We then journeyed to Algeciras where we boarded the ferry to Ceuta, it took about 45 minutes and the crossing was very calm. We met our Moroccan tour guide in Ceuta and headed towards the Spanish/Moroccan border and then onto our hotel near Tetouan. We had dinner in the hotel before crashing after our busy day!
In our hotel room
The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then headed to Chefchaouen, a very beautiful town where all the houses in the historic centre are painted a lovely shade of blue. A local tour guide took us through the maze of narrow streets and along the way we were shown a family making bread and a co-operative that produced rugs, sheets and scarves, I bought a scarf! We then continued through the winding streets until we emerged into a large central square, we then had about an hour's free time during which we tried our hands at a little bartering with the market sellers.
Market stall in Chefchaouen
Blue walls in Chefchaouen
In the co-operative in Chefchaouen
Market square in Chefchaouen
After that we drove to Tetouan where we headed straight to an Arabic palace for a late lunch. On the way into the palace there were various traditional performers singing, dancing and playing instruments. The meal itself was delicious, it consisted of a soup, a chicken pastry, chicken kebabs, Moroccan tea and a little traditional cake/pastry thing. Me and Aleisa also got henna tattoos on our hands and had to spend the rest of the afternoon trying very hard not to smudge them! Despite all my efforts I still managed to smudge mine a little!
Performers in the palace
My henna tattoo
After that we had a tour through some of the various markets in the town of Tetouan and also some free time to perfect our bartering skills! We were also taken to a Berber pharmacy where they did demonstrations of all their products, which were very convincing and I ended up buying argan oil, moroccan tea, mixed spices and a lip/nail balm!
In the maze of alleys in the market
In the Berber pharmacy
Following that we journeyed to our hotel in Tangiers and finally arrived around 10pm! We then went to a dinner show in a big canvas tent in the grounds of the hotel. On the way into the show there there were horses and camels and people dancing and playing music! Once inside, the meal began and once again it consisted of several courses- a salad, chicken in a yummy sauce, couscous, Moroccan tea and pastries. Throughout the meal there were various performers on the stage in the middle including a candle dancer, a belly dancer, acrobats and a traditional Berber dancer.
Outside the dinner show
Candle dancer (yes those are candles that he's balancing on his head!!)
Yummy couscous
Belly dancer
In the disco
Outline of Africa
Baby camel!
Me on a camel!
Our last stop in Morocco was the Cape Spartel, where the Meditteranean Sea and the African Ocean meet.
Cape spartel
After that we made our way back to Ceuta where we got the ferry back to Algeciras. Unfortunately the crossing on the way back was nothing like that on the way there, the sea was very rough and it felt like we were on a rollercoaster as the boat was being thrashed around by the waves! It was actually a bit scary, especially when people started screaming and we were all told to remain in our seats for health and safety reasons! But we finally made it off the boat and got back on the coach and travelled back to Seville.
The weekend after our Morocco trip Sadie (my housemate from the last two years) came to visit Seville. One of her friends from home also goes to the university here so the three of us spent the weekend sightseeing in Seville. We were very lucky with the weather as it's been raining a lot here recently but it stayed nice for almost the whole weekend! Seville normally has an average of 11 days of rain in the whole of February and March but I'm sure we must have had at least double that! I've been told by many Sevillanos that they can't remember it ever raining this much here! Typical!
On Saturday we started off by visiting the Cathedral and the Giralda before going for tapas for lunch in Seville's oldest tapas bar-El Rinconcillo. Then we stopped for ice cream since the sun was shining! We did a bit of shopping on our way to the river, where we chilled a bit before going to an Irish pub for a drink!
Us in the cathedral
At the tapas bar for lunch
Ice cream stop!
We then went to the Metropol Parasol (or the mushrooms as it's familiarly known!) We wandered around the viewing platform and then stopped for a drink at the bar at the top before heading back down and meeting some of the others for dinner. We went to our favourite tapas place- Los Coloniales.
At the Metropol Parasol viewing platform
At Los Coloniales
The next day we went to Plaza de Espana where we hired a rowing boat and rowed around the little canal which was lovely but much more like hard work than you would think!
Me and Fran rowing!
After that we went to the fancy 5* hotel in town for hot chocolate and tea! It was really nice and we even got complimentary macaroons! (my kind of place!)
So posh!
We then went to explore the Real Alcázar where unfortunately it began to rain! We sought shelter in an Italian restaurant where we had a yummy late lunch before going our separate ways! It was a really lovely weekend :)
In the Real Alcázar
At the Italian restaurant
In Carmona
Tapas!
Flamenco at La Carbonería
The next day was St.Patrick's Day so a small group of us went to the Irish pub near us for a token Guinness and lunch, I opted for a chicken curry and chips for a taste of home!!
Me and Gopi at the Irish pub
The weekend following that brought the start of 'Semana Santa' or the Holy Week for which we had the week off uni. On the Friday night we had a bit of a flat party before going to a club. The three of us made lots of snacks which seemed to go down well! I made blondies for the first time and I don't know why I've never made them before! I can see they could become a favourite now!
The 'blondies' I made
With Aleisa, Carlos and Elisa
Tequila time!!
A lot of people I know were going home or going away on trips for the week but I didn't have any plans and I didn't want to waste it, so on Sunday me and my friend Gopi finally decided to go for a little trip to Malaga! We got the coach the next morning at 8am and arrived to a sunny Malaga about 10.30am. We found our way to our hotel which was surprisingly nice since we'd booked it the day before and it had only cost us 27,50 euros each, especially since hotels are more expensive during Semana Santa!!
Our hotel room
Once we'd dropped our bags off at the hotel we headed down to the seafront and made an ice cream stop! (haagen daaz, yum!)
Ice cream stop!
After a wander along the seafront and in a few shops we headed back towards the centre where we visited the Alcázaba and the Roman Theatre which were both very impressive! The Alcázaba is set up on a hill so the views over the town were stunning!
The entrance to the Alcázaba
The view from the Alcázaba
The Roman Theatre
After all the steps in the Alcázaba we decided it was time to go for lunch! We found a nice tapas bar where we shared a tortilla de patatas and fried calamari.We then had a wander in the town and in some shops before we accidentally came across a music museum which was only about 2 euros to get in so we decided to go in! It was quite interesting and very interactive with lots of instruments that you could try out!
Trying out the sound tube in the music museum!
We then decided to go to a café near our hotel that we had seen earlier, on the way there we ran into a procession so we stopped to watch for a while before carrying on. I had an Arabic tea at the café and a yummy pastry to go with it.
Arabic tea, coffee and pastries :)
In the evening we went out for dinner and everywhere we walked past was really busy since it was Semana Santa, that was until we came across a Chinese buffet which was fairly quiet (Chinese food doesn't seem very popular in Spain!) so we were in there like a shot! It was really good food, you could choose the raw vegetables and meat that you wanted then you gave it to the chef to cook in front of you and then you choose what sauce you want!
After leaving the restaurant we got a little caught up in the processions whilst attempting to get back near to our hotel and ended up walking around for about 45 minutes trying to get around them all and ended up quite lost. We decided to give in and went to a bar to figure out where we were and wait it out a bit! We found a route back to near our hotel that we thought would be procession-free so we attempted it and luckily we made it back to near the cathedral- where our hotel was, but also where also the processions were headed for! We found a cocktail bar just near there and sat with yummy cocktails watching the processions pass before heading back to our hotel when there was a gap in the processions!
Yummy cocktails!
The next day we went to the Picasso Museum, although we're obviously not nearly arty enough to appreciate it because we spent most of the time declaring that we could've done better or laughing at paintings of women that appeared to have 3 boobs and limbs all over the place! We then wandered the streets a while before returning to the café we went to yesterday, that time I had a milkshake which was equally good!
Me with my milkshake!
We then picked up our bags from the hotel and made our way back towards the bus station, stopping on the way for my first try of Taco Bell for lunch! We left our bags in lockers at the bus station and eagerly headed to the shopping centre across the road which we were very excited to find had a Primark! We spent a couple of hours shopping before heading back to the bus station to catch our bus back to Seville! It was a really good two days and Malaga was much nicer than I thought it was, I don't know why but I had the impression it was a tacky, British holiday destination but it wasn't at all like that at all in the parts we went to!
The next day Rhian came to visit from Cadiz. She arrived around lunch time so we headed straight for Montaditos since it was a Wednesday and stuffed ourselves silly with chips and mini sandwiches!
Montaditos!
In the afternoon we headed into town and had an ice cream while we waited to see some processions. We went for a light dinner where Rhian accidentally ordered chicken livers! Then we saw another two processions and almost got trapped by the cathedral when we had to get the bus to the train station for Rhian to catch her train! We eventually managed to battle our way through the crowds and made it to the train station in time!
Ice creeeam!
Semana Santa procession
Rhian with her chicken livers!!
The Saturday after that my family arrived in Seville but I'm going to end this post here, as it's already so long! I'll write another post soon about my family's visit and my trip to Barcelona!
P.S. Sorry that this post isn't terribly well written or very entertaining but I was so behind I was almost tempted to give up writing my blog so I thought it would be best to quickly write this post and be up to date than to give up! I'll try to update you sooner next time (I know I say this every time and it doesn't happen, but maybe this time?)
