Friday, November 7, 2014

October Trips

So, during the month of October I went on a bunch of trips. There were the required trips with the group, to Córdoba for one day and a weekend trip to Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo, as well as the trips I decided to go on during my long weekends, to Granada and Rome. It was a lot of travel, but it just happened to be how the schedule fell together... and I loved travelling alone to Granada and Rome. Here's a quick summary of all of the trips:

Córdoba: We went to the mosque/cathedral, a small art museum, and maybe one or two other places I can't remember. I was tired and kind of frustrated at the size of the group and running around from one place to another, but I think that might have been because I had a headache or some other problem internal to myself. That and the fact that I've been on a few too many group tours seeing tons of sights over the last three months that I've been in Spain. The pictures I took are combined with those from Granada.

Granada: It was the first trip I've done solo, and it was a great experience. I stayed in a hostel between the Albaycín, which is a lovely neighbourhood on a hill and I suspect is somewhat old and the Alhambra. I never actually went into the Alhambra, I just spent my time wandering around the streets and reading, relaxing. I spent the first day in two different neighbourhoods on hills and the second walking around the Alhambra and enjoying the views down from the hill it's on. I especially enjoyed that it was in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, since I've been getting rather tired of being in a flat city and I rather suspect that being on hillsides makes cities forced to be more open and less constricting--something I desperately needed. My pictures are here: http://tinyurl.com/np45ty3

Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo: Again, I went on this trip with the group. We were about 35 people, I think, and moving around touring places as a group. However, it didn't feel as bad as it had in Córdoba (probably because I didn't have a migraine or whatever had been ailing me) and I rather enjoyed it. In Mérida we saw some Roman ruins and a museum full of artifacts from the ruins, in Cáceres we saw the medieval part of the city (which remains almost untouched), and in Trujillo we visited the castle and the house/museum of Francisco Pizarro and had an hour left to wander where we wanted to. I enjoyed all of that, but especially Trujillo. It was nice to be allowed to wander freely again, and it was nice that the town was on a hill. (I'm beginning to think that I have a thing for cities on hills....) My pictures are here: http://tinyurl.com/jvn9s48

Rome: Well, other than some trouble getting there (I forgot my passport and had to take a taxi back to the apartment to fetch it, which was quite expensive and stressful), it was a great trip. I visited the Roman ruins on the Palatine hill, the Colosseum, St. Peter's basilica, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, St. Peter in Chains, and a couple of other churches I found. And... I found another hill on the Sunday afternoon and hung out on the ridge relaxing and reading. Because apparently I relax by finding hills and reading books. My pictures are here: http://tinyurl.com/n8394wb

As far as plans for future trips, I'm going on a trip to Morocco with the group in a couple of weeks and I'm considering travelling to England in December. That depends on if I can afford it, though, so we'll see what happens. (Morocco is definitely going to happen.)

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