España

Our next stop on our semester break was in Spain. We flew to Madrid and then travelled by bus to a small town in Extremadura called Navalmoral de la mata. In Navalmoral we stayed with a fellow Eagle, Jaimie. She graduated last spring from EWU and is now Teaching English in Navalmoral.

We spent 3 days with her and while we were there we went to her classes and helped teach English. It was a lot of fun and I think the students enjoyed it as well. We enjoyed “jueves social” which means social Thursday and then it was off too Andalucía to the city of Granada.

We took the bus and made to Granada in about 5 hours. Then we met up with a friend of Jaimie’s and went to find our hostel.

As you walked through the city you could see the Arabic influence everywhere. It was absolutely beautiful and so was the Alhambra.

Our accommodations were located in the center of town which made it easy to walk and see many of the tourist attractions such as; the Alhambra (above), the Generalífe, the téterías (Tea restaurants where you could drink traditional Moroccan tea) and Tapa bars.

While in Spain we tried many dishes that included;pulpo (octopus), squid, jamón (salted/cured ham), bacalao (cod), fresh olives, tortilla (similar to an egg omelet with potatoes), hummus, falafel, churros, hot chocolate and couscous. It was a very tasty trip to say the least. However, the weather was a different story. It rained more in Spain than it has while we were in London, but it was much warmer.

I would love to go back to Spain in the near future and help teach English while improving my Spanish skills.

Hasta luego, until next time.

Scotland!

Scottie Land!

While in Scotland we again stayed with a friend from Passau. This time we stayed in a small town called North Berwick. It sits directly on the North Sea. The weather was surprisingly magnificent. It was somewhat warm and the sun was shined bright the entire four days we were there.

While in North Berwick we walked to the top of Law Hill, around the town and then had fish and chips on the sandy beach. The next few days we went into Edinburgh. While in the ancient city we went to the Edinburgh Castle, saw the Crow Jewels, the Edinburgh museum, the Royal Mile, Parliament, and I went with another friend on a whiskey tour.

This is a very neat pub and marks the "World's End" for the people who lived back in the old city of Edinburgh. 

The whiskey tasting! Behind us in the background is the largest whiskey collection in the world with over 3,400 bottles. Each bottle is different, there are no two whiskeys alike.

The Royal Mile

And here is a photo of Dolly from the Edinburgh museum.

 

I really enjoy seeing all of the different kinds of patterns and techniques people use to create their national currency. Here is a photo of the British pound and the Scottish pound next to one another.

All in all we had an amazing time in Scotland and I was shocked by how sunny it was. Talk about luck!