Thursday, April 27, 2006

I Made it Back!

For the last half of my vacationing, I went to Spain and Morocco, London to visit Rob and to do some dancing, and Finland to visit Kristy.

This picture was taken in a beautiful garden in a castle in Spain. We took a self-guided tour which was free for students and three euro for the hand-held guide. The castle was amazing and the gardens were wonderful. They are full of sweet smelling flowers because everything in Spain is blooming right now. We spent four nights in Spain and also visited the cathedral, saw a flamenco show, hung out in the city park, visited with friends of Kathy's, went shopping, and went running along the river. It was wonderful and the weather was always great.

Our next stop was Cadiz where we hung out on the beach for two days and tanned. Mmmmm... The water was too cold for me to get in but one day Kathy tried it out. Burrrrr... The sun was always warm but the wind was always cold. It was ok to lay on the beach if there weren't too many clouds but I was sure that I would not warm up quickly from jumping in the ocean.

After Cadiz, we took a bus to a ferry to get to Morocco. We got off the boat in Ceuta and walked right into the street. We were confused. What about customs? A man walked up to us and told us that the reason we didn't have to go through customs was because we were still in Spain! We ended up having to take a bus to the boarder and then walk across. Then we took a taxi to the next bus to get to Larache, a city on the northwest cost. It was a little scary because we had to take a late bus and didn't arrive until 9pm, but everything turned out well.

We stayed in Larache for two days and then decided to go a little further back north to Asilah. In Asilah we found a market (set up for tourists I think), went jogging along the beach, and layed in the sun.

I came back from Spain and the next day flew to London where I met up with Rob. I got to see the play "Waiting for Godot," I went dancing with Rob and some of his friends, and did some sightseeing. This pic was taken in Hyde Park.

After London, I flew to Finland to visit Kristy and to experience a Finnish sauna. The Finnish sauna experience requires one to run outside and jump into the sea every 10 to 15 minutes. I have to say I tried but I couldn't get farther into the water then up to my knees. It was 32 degrees farenheit! It was a great experience anyway :-) This pic was taken in the town where Kristy is studying... Yes, it was still very cold in Finland!

Now I am back in Landau and we are having our first week of classes. I decided to take everything in German this semester which I think will be tough, but I was happy to find that I am understanding a lot more that what I had expected. I hope it works out... Wish me luck!