Our final trip while in Spain was to Málaga, down south in Andalucía and in the same region as Sevilla. Everyone met at the bus station as we normally would. And blast off, on the bus to Madrid, then to the subway, then finally to the high-speed train. Three hours later were walking through the streets of Málaga to get to our hotel, taking in murals and graffiti, as well as the warmer temperatures. The rest of the afternoon consisted of free time to wander the city, shop, and explore. I got lost. Then we joined back with Ryan for a little orientation, getting gelato, and seeing an ancient Roman theater in front of an old Moorish castle. The day wound down with an excellent dinner at a Spanish-Argentinian fusion tapas restaurant. 

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” -Gail Sheehy

This is our last week at home before heading to Florence for the final trip. It’s a week of wrapping up personal works, finishing our term long book project, and enjoying the last cups of Chocolat Viennois from Le Festival, the café where we have Literature class.

Our day officially started at 1:30 pm when we met up at the aqueduct to head out to Madrid. We filled the bus for the hour-long drive we had all come to know well. We arrived and ate our bocadillos in the gardens in front of the Palacio Real. We sat absorbing the sun and enjoying the good weather as we finished up our lunches.

To be blunt…This week was kinda crazy. There we were, at home in Aix, giggling over our German lessons and researching cool things to do during our free time in Munich with little success to find anything better than an apparently sub-par aquarium when right under our nose, Storm Ciara was raging her way across northern Europe.

Friday: After waking up from a nice 10 am sleep-in, I got up out of my bed and threw on the outfit I had planned the night before. With my full bag of clothes, and the yummy bocadillo (sandwich) that my mom made me, I headed for the bus station. The travel was long and included an hour bus ride to Madrid, a two-hour train ride to Seville, and lastly a thirty-minute walk to our hostel.

From Nikki you have heard of the Tête, which towers above our home here in Vauvenargues. From Tori you have heard of our custom napkins and pre-dinner traditions. But...do you ever wonder what happens when we venture outside of Vauvenarges? 

Traveling to Barcelona has always been a dream of mine, so I was incredibly excited on the days leading up to our excursion. The travel day was very long and tiring. We were on a bus heading to Madrid by 10:30am, dashing on the metro to the “Renfe,” or Spanish train service, station as soon as we arrived. The train flew through the Spanish countryside and about three hours later we were in Barcelona. After another sweltering hot, sauna-like metro ride, we were within walking distance to our hotel. Exhausted, we took the 45 minutes of free time to do absolutely nothing — and I was totally happy that.