Marseille, Arles, Madrid, Cordoba...travel travel travel

Hola,

so I will finally write a bit about my trip to France. It was pretty nice. We did a lot of touristy things and didn't do any night life. Which is fine because by the end of the day, we both had stomach aches...it could have been the weekend of stomach aches haha but it's probably because we ate so much food. Pasta, fish, pastries, crepes, chocolate...so much. First we ended up taking a 1:30 am bus thursday night so we would get to Madrid with plenty of time for our 1:55pm plane...but the only other bus we could have taken would have only gotten us to Madrid by 12:30 and that was just cutting it a bit tooooo close. Anyway, it was fun...kinda haha. We flew to Marseille and everything worked out fine. When we got to Marseille we wondered around and found a map so we could find our hotel. Our hotel was great because it was so close to the old port, but our room smelled really bad and it was 4 flights of stairs haha, but other than that it was fine. Friday we really just walked around and saw the city at night. One of the nights, I don't remember which one, we met these Californian students who are studying in Bordeaux. We hung out with them for a little and got a drink at a bar near our hotel. Saturday Sally and I went to Arles, where Van Gogh did a lot of his paintings, lived and died. It also is known for having a lot of Roman Ruins! We saw an Amphitheater, Roman Baths, an old Roman Theater, and Crypts. It was pretty sweet. The town was sooo cute and picturesque. Throughout the day we kept running into these older couples who were traveling together. Its a small town so we saw them at all the monuments. We even saw them at the train station on our way back to Marseille...they were going to opposite way and sat across the tracks but we yelled back and forth to each other. I loved it! They were so nice. While in Arle we also had a wonderful lunch at a little cafe. Sunday we did the walk up to the Notre Dame of the Guard. It's a beautiful church and its huge. It has a 360 view of the entire city so that was really pretty. Apparently the statue on the top of the church has a baby jesus whose wrist is 3 meters thick! After that we went to the Cathedral and then we went to lunch. The best part of the day though was taking a boat to the islands. We went to If Island and Frioule Island. If Island is where the Count of Monte Cristo was supposed to take place. Both the islands were cool, but I wish I had brought my bathing suite cause the Frioule Island was beautiful and you could just jump into the sea! That was pretty much my time in France. Then we traveled back and had a few hours in Madrid so we went to Plaza Mayor and had lunch and walked around. We got good at the Metro in Madrid...I was quite proud of us! It's soooo easy actually and they are so fast and clean and reliable. We went into a Corte Ingles while in madrid, i think I've mentioned those...they are HUGE ASS department store type things that is also like a walmart superstore but so much nicer...they have anything you would ever want ever. The one we went to in madrid though was specialized and had 5 floors of like eveyrthing to do with electronics/music...first floor cds, second movies, 3rd computers, 4 music instruments/sound systems, 5th Vinyl records!!! Then across the street was a bookstore Corte Ingles...So I bought a book in English (The Firm by John Grishem). Corte Inges's are alllll over Spain and everyone loves them haha. Anyway, so finally we got home around 11:30 at night, and I realized that I have SCHOOOOOOL still. What a thought right? So I was up until 2, which is crazy for me because I never stay up late doing work. Next week I have 2 midterms and then the next week I have another 2, and we have major projects due eventually and I kinda feel like need to start working on them. Well anyway
This Friday we are taking a group trip to Cordoba to see the Great Mosque and I am really looking forward to it. Its just a day trip, so when we get back to Granada (around 9:30) we are going to see a Flamenco show for our Flamenco class...its gonna be a Crazy day, and I am gonna be exhausted. But it's gonna be great too. I am staying in Granada this weekend, which is necessary for all the work I have to do.
Ok thats all for now I guess...below is a link that I THINK will work for everyone to my facebook album about France. Please paste the link in your browser and let me know if you can see the album..this way, if you can, I don't have to upload pictures to this blog as well!!!
Ok love you all
Kate

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2669041&l=31add&id=9380060