Ronda's A Babe

            Last Friday me and 9 other people traveled to Ronda, Spain.  It is located southeast of Sevilla.  5 of us traveled by bus and 5 traveled by car.  I must recommend to you that if you purchase a bus ticket, get a direct line.  Ha, we did not and so we stopped about 6 times at various stops.  As a consequence, it should have taken us 2 hours and 15 minutes, but in reality it took us 3 hours… oh well we got there nonetheless.

            Thanks to awesome signage in Ronda, Spain we found our hotel so easy.  It was literally a 2 minute walk – which was really comforting considering this was our first big adventure away from Sevilla.  So we got settled in our room (which had a heater!!), met up with the people that traveled by car and we went to grocery store to pick up some food and drinks.  We went to the room to hang out and then we went to Traga Tapas for some tapas.  I had this delicious salad with goat cheese and honey salad – ah heaven.  We tried to find a place to “go out” to but in reality the nightlife was tame in Ronda.  Apparently one of my travel friends talked to someone and people don’t go out until 3:30… but I think that Ronda has a lame night life haha.  Anyways, we headed back to the hotel and hung out in a room and danced and listened to music– it was a fun night.

            Saturday morning was quite the day.  We got up and had the most delicious yet simple breakfast.  We got these huge pieces of toast and then on one half I put strawberry jam and then on the other half, I put on Nutella --- ahhh heavenly.  We also got some delicious coffee, cereal and milk, orange juice and then a little sweet for later.  Needless to say, I tried to have a large breakfast to try to tide me over for most of the day.  Anyways, we set out exploring Ronda and the city is so charming.  The streets are tiny and the architecture is just gorgeous.  However, seeing el Puente Nuevo – the new bridge was incredible.  The town is literally built on one side of a cliff and it is just a straight down drop. The bridge was completed right around the time that the United States was becoming its own nation – which is crazy to think about.  And because Ronda is so high up in the mountains, it was one of the last cities in Spain to fall to the Christians during the Reconquista. 

            Because the bridge is one of the main symbols of the city, we went on this incredible hike to see bridge from the ground up.  On our way, the views of the Spanish countryside surrounding Ronda were incredible – I mean absolutely beautiful.  When the new bridge was finally in sight, we were just all in awe of this bridge and how it connects these two cliffs / mountains together.  We hiked around the bridge for at least an hour and half taking in the scenery and snapping pictures – it was great.  Afterwards, we did this other ridiculous hike up the mountain to get back to the city.  We were extremely tired after the hiking in general, so we decided to grab lunch at a low-key café. At lunch, I decided to be a little more adventurous and had a toasted bagel with cheese and salmon – it was so good.  After resting and enjoying the central heating at the cafe, we trekked back to the hotel to siesta.

            After siesta we headed out to walk around some more and explore the town.  We went to a park named Alameda del Tajo that was on the edge of the cliff, and again the views were incredible.  One the guys I was with, David, had a dream of throwing paper planes off a cliff.  And that is exactly what we did.  It was pretty fun to watch the planes just nose dive and be blown into the wind off of this cliff.  It was any child’s dream.  We then met our other friends who stayed at the hotel, to get dinner.  We ended up going to this restaurant where we were the only ones there – but we had awesome dinners nonetheless.  I had Mexican food because I miss it so dearly and it was delicious.  They were little fajitas wrapped up and then I had some delicious guacamole with it.  And as a part of the dinner we got ice cream with the meal – it was great.  We didn’t go out, but we went back to the room to relax after a long day.

            The next day, Sunday was our day to leave.   So I tried as best as I could to see the other sights.  Therefore, I went with Will, Patrick and Kristen to Plaza de Toros, another symbol of Ronda.  The bullring is by far one of the oldest in Spain and it is incredibly large.  For such a small town, it was interesting to see such a large bullring. It is also one of the oldest in Spain.  Also, Ronda is also considered to be one of the birthplaces of this “art form.” It was very cool to see and I’m glad I got to see such a monument to Ronda.  Afterwards we then walked around to see the last few sites, such as the Arab Baths, Palace of Mondragon and Church of Santa Maria la Mayor. At this point, it was time to head back and catch the bus home. 

            Okay funny bus story time.  On our way to Ronda, my friend Kristen needed to use the facilities.  At one stop the driver decided to have a smoke so Kristen then had time at the bus station to use the bathroom.  On our way back to Sevilla, Kristen and our friend David both needed the bathrooms – we had a different bus driver, but we all thought that the drivers took more time at this bus station.  False. 30 seconds after Kristen and David got off, the driver pulled away.  I, seated in the last seat of the bus, had to yell at the bus driver to stop because my friends were in the bus station.  I ran off the bus and ran back to the station where I yelled for Kristen and David to hurry up, that the bus had proceeded to leave without them.  We caused quite the scene in the bus station haha. So lesson learned – let the bus driver know that you need a little break. 

            All in all Ronda was beautiful and I highly recommend visiting it if you ever have the chance.

Things to Note:

-You watch the news here in a different perspective. The United States is incredibly isolated.  You hear news about Egypt or Tunsia in the United States and you think, no big deal. You don’t necessarily pay close attention to what’s happening there because we are so far away from the conflict. However, now that I’m in Spain and not very far from these dangerous rebellions, my anxiety and my nerves have increased.  Everyday we watch the news and see these angry and frustrated people and I can only hope that the conflict don’t enter Spain – however I wouldn’t be surprised if something like an up-rise or rebellion happened in Spain.  Reason being:

-The unemployment rate for 25 year olds is 48%.... yes that’s correct almost half of 25 year olds do not have a job. And 24% of the population who wants a job can’t find one. Those are scary statistics because that is 1 out of 4 people who are extremely frustrated. Or 1 out of 2 – twenty-five year olds are frustrated that they can’t find work. 45 million people live in Spain and 4.7 million do not have jobs. Crazy.

-The Spanish government also thought it would be a good idea to increase the age to retire from 65 to 67 – another great way to please the people. 

-Therefore as a trend with the other regions of the world such as Northern Africa that is up and arms against their government it will be interesting to see if that sort of rebellion against the government could happen here.  Granted, Prime Minister Zapatero has not been in power for 30 years like some of the North African leaders, but he has been in power since 2004 and will remain in power until 2012.  All in all its been interesting to see how my perspective has changed since I am now closer to the conflict.  Also the fact that I am so interested and studying the conflict is something I would not have otherwise done had I been in the United States.

-If you must go to the bathroom, have a quick chat with the bus driver

-You can see Ronda in one day because it is so tiny

-Ronda is a babe

-Okay, so I live with a host family and they feed me – so I pretty much don’t have control over my meals – except for the quantity of food I’m given. But here are my feelings after a few weeks:

            -I love breakfast.  I have this cereal with dried fruit and its delicious – because its cold in the morning I put it in the microwave and it becomes sort of an oatmeal and its delicious

            -I love lunch – in Spain it’s the most important meal of the day, and let me tell you I haven’t been disappointed much

But here are my downfalls:

            -I’m tired of eating meat at every meal (minus breakfast)

             -I’m tired of lame soups for dinner. AKA carrot or pea soup.  Let me tell you, if you are having soup freaking put some veggies or chicken in it – give it some life please. 

            -I’m tired of eating something fried for dinner. Please stop frying the potatos, or giving me fried fish sticks or french fries. How about some strawberries? Or Pineapple? Please?

I know I’m lucky to have someone cook for me, but there are sometimes I miss having control over what I’m eating. And not to mention Laura Zahn Pohl. Master of all cooking. Ma, I miss your cooking dearly. Send Mexican food for help. Hahaha.

That’s all for now but stayed tuned for updates on school J I finally have my first full week of normal classes.  Woot woot.

Miss and love you all.

Besos y salude,

Erica