Hola a todos! I’m back once again after two weeks of midterms (which felt like 5 weeks), which has kept me and my brain extremely busy. On top of that, I came down with a pretty nasty cold three days ago which has certainly taken its toll on me. Thankfully I’m feeling a bit better now. My temperature broke, my stomach has decided to let me keep down toast and apples, and my head no longer feels like I have a screwdriver through it. I’m also quite thankful that I took my last midterm yesterday, so now I can finally have some time to myself to just breathe (and catch up on my Gossip Girl, Glee, Desperate Housewives, and Modern Family of course haha). School has definitely picked up the pace and seems to get more and more challenging as the days go on. But thankfully I still have Fridays off, and the occasional holiday break from time to time. Three weeks ago I had a nice, long six day weekend and was lucky enough to have my Dad fly all the way from California to Spain to spend it with me…and boy was it a crazy/fun/amazing adventure.
Saturday, October 9th couldn’t come soon enough for me. I had been counting down the days until my dad’s arrival since I had gotten to Spain! Not only was I looking forward to seeing him and getting to travel, but also to sleeping in a quiet, peaceful hotel, and not having to eat one morsel of fried food! That morning I took the shuttle bus to the airport to meet him. As I waited for my dad on the other side of the baggage claim doors, I could barely contain my excitement and anticipation. Finally after what had seemed like 3 hours, my dad walked through the doors! You really don’t realize how great it is to see a familiar face after you’ve been in a foreign country for two months! It’s wonderful!! After several hugs, we made our way over to the rental car station to pick up our car, a trusty little Citroën C4 diesel :)
After getting situated in our car, we were on our way; dad in the driver’s seat, and myself, the copilot, in the passenger seat…embarking on our adventure and doing it old school: no GPS, just a map and a few hand written directions to guide us. :)
Before we got to the hotel in Sevilla, we made a quick stop (or so I thought) at my apartment so my dad could see where I live and meet my host mom and dad. Little did we know that mama was going to prepare a “delicious” lunch filled with french-fries, chicken, ham, cheese, bread, beets, and beer…epitome of health. So dad got to experience first-hand the scrumptiousness of Mama Mary Paz’s cooking…yum. After eating, and playing translator for 3 hours, my dad and I were finally on our way to Hotel Silken Al-Andalus Palace (yeah pretty royal sounding I know…that’s how we role lol)
Our first full day brought about excitement as we decided to take a road trip to Cádiz, a beach town along the southwest coast of Spain, about 2 hours outside of Sevilla. After a quick breakfast of some awesome donuts we were on our way. We made it to Cádiz without any problems, and even found a prime parking spot that my dad so cleverly parallel parked into :) Cádiz was absolutely gorgeous! The old historic town sits on the edge of the ocean and it seriously looks like something out of the movies. We explored the town, the church, ate some pizza, got “lost” down the many tiny side streets, and somehow ended up right where we needed to be…back at our car.
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| City of Cádiz |
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| Dad and I exploring Cádiz |
After Cádiz, my dad and I had planned on driving to Ronda (about another 2 hours away), but since we were losing daylight, we sporadically decided to go to Los Arcos de la Frontera…a small rural town which we sort of stumbled upon. Good thing we did because Los Arcos was beautiful!! The little village pueblo balances atop a rocky limestone ridge, and its whitewashed houses and stone castle walls stop abruptly as a vertical cliff face plunges down to a huge valley. We decided we’d be adventurous and drive up to the Church of San Pedro which sits at the top of the cliff. So we began our journey driving down the narrow cobblestone streets…and when I say narrow, I mean narrow!! We couldn’t even open our doors, and at some points had to fold in the mirrors! I of course was a bit nervous and telling my dad “Nooo I don’t think we can drive down here” and he being the more daring/adventurous one just laughed it off and said “Oh sure we can.” The road kept getting progressively narrower, and at one point, a car in front of us turned around, so we decided to make a 17 point turn and do the same thing. Little did we know that the street was only one way! And who do we run into on the opposite way down the one way street?? The police of course! The officer got out of his car and must have known we were tourists because he politely told us this was a one way street, smiled, and then directed traffic so we could navigate back down the road. We decided to park the car, play it safe, and just walk up the steep hill (but not after almost burning out the clutch trying to parallel park down an incredibly steep side street haha). The view from the top of Los Arcos de la Frontera was breathtaking, and although chilly, nothing could ruin the beauty of it. After walking down a couple more cute side streets, my dad and I called it a day and drove back to Sevilla.
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| Los Arcos de la Frontera |
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| Dad demonstrating how narrow the street we drove through really was! |
The next day my dad and I woke up really early and headed toward Tarifa (the southern most tip of Spain) because we had to catch a ferry to Tangier, Morocco! The drive started out good until I accidentally forgot which exit we were supposed to take, so we were forced to take another route. However, the detour wasn’t all that bad. The drive was actually really beautiful, filled with rolling green mountains and an amazing view of the coastline. Once in Tarifa (which looks quite similar to southern California), we bought our tickets for the ferry and explored the town for a little while. Then at 11:30 we got on the ferry and headed to Africa!! It’s crazy how close Spain and Africa really are. You can see the other country across the Strait of Gibraltar, and the ferry ride only took 45 minutes! Once we stepped off the ferry we were bombarded with local Moroccans trying to offer us tours. At first my dad and I were skeptical, but this one persistent older man, Mohammad insisted that we tour with him and that he would show us the old city, the new city, the Kasbah, and even take us on a camel ride. Turns out going with good old Mohammad was a good idea. His taxi driver Abdul first took us to the camels where we both got to ride camels for the first time :) Then Mohammad took my dad and I through the side streets of Morocco…through the markets, old towns, and definitely off the beaten “touristy” path. We really got to experience the culture on a first hand basis, and even got lured into a Moroccan rug shop were we were showed about 40 different rugs and had to weasel our way out of being forced to buy one. Morocco was by far my favorite destination that my dad and I traveled to, and I’m so glad we got to see it together! After Morocco, we took the ferry back to Spain and drove to Gibraltar which was okay…not took exciting because we arrived late and couldn’t drive to the top of the rock of Gibraltar.
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| Riding the camels in Morocco! |
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| Rock of Gibraltar |
For my dad’s last day here we decided to stay in Sevilla so he could really see “my town”. We toured the Cathedral and climbed La Giralda, walked through the gardens of El Real Alcázar, and marveled at Plaza España. Although I had done it all before, it was even better the second time around since I had my dad with me! After we explored the city, and hit some of the main shops on Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuán, we took a nice break and sat on the benches right outside the Cathedral and just soaked it all in. Around 8pm we ventured to this really cool restaurant we had seen a few nights ago called San Marco. The entrance was really unique and the building used to be an old Arab bath house. Let me tell you, our last meal together was definitely the best! I had some amazing gnocchi and my dad had delicious lasagna (yeah I know Italian food in Spain, but it was incredible). We sat there enjoying our meal and reminiscing about the past few days, sharing laughs about our adventures, and both trying to hide our disappointment that our time together was about to come to an end. After our dinner, we ventured to a gelato shop to enjoy one last amazing scoop of gelato before I had to go back to my host family.
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| Dad and I at Plaza España |
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| Cute peacock in the gardens at El Real Alcázar |
Around 10:30pm dad and I drove back to my apartment, brought my luggage up to my room, talked with my host family and roommate, and tried to delay the goodbyes as long as possible. But as we all know, good things must come to an end, and we both needed to get back to reality...school for me, and work for my dad. I walked my dad out to the parking lot where we shared a tearful goodbye. We both had such an amazing time together and we didn’t want it to end, but we were so grateful that we had the opportunity to travel together and make some unforgettable memories. As my dad drove back to the hotel (a route that we had practiced a few times lol), I couldn’t help but shed one more tear because I knew I was really going to miss my daddy and our times filled with adventure and laughter :( Although I was upset and reverted back to feeling a bit homesick for a few days, I was very appreciative that my dad took time out to visit me and that we were so blessed to have such a remarkable, unforgettable time. As long as I live I’ll never forget this trip we shared together.
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| We love our gelato! |
