MAY 2022

SPAIN

From May 16th to May 26th, a group of CCS students went on a study abroad to Spain and Morocco.

May 16 & 17

We flew from Detroit to Amsterdam overnight, I got no sleep but I was able to watch a bunch of new movies. We landed in Amsterdam the next day, the airport was crowded and awfully busy, the workers were really rude and acted like we were all dumb. Not a great experience but is the airport ever a good experience? We just made it to our connecting flight as they were shutting the doors, & funally made it to Madrid a few hours later. We met with our tour guide, Bev (who is from England but has lived in Spain for 22 years!) and she took us to the Museo de Prado. It’s an art museum that houses works from Goya, Da Vinci, Velasquez, etc. I couldn’t take any pictures inside since the work was so old! From there we did a wuick walk through the city, coming to Puerto de Sol, the very center of Madrid. We had free time to roam the city streets and explore the culture before heading back to the hotel for the night.

May 18

We started the day with a guided bus tour around Madrid. The city is the capital of the Country, so we mostly saw government buildings placed tightly into the space. We stopped at Las Ventas, the biggest Bull Fighting ring, we learned the rules of the game but was in no way eager to play! Our next stop was the Royal Palace, we walked the grounds outside, and saw the change of the Traditional Spanish Gaurds outside the front gates. We had free time after this, my small group parted ways with the rest of the tour and went shopping, buying crystals and having lunch at a Tapas market. It’s basically like a bunch of food trucks in a building, we shared a bunch of little dishes and got Mojitos! We were walking to the subway station to get back to the hotel when we stumbled upon a couple Catherdrals. It was very beautiful architecture. We met up with the rest of the group, our CCS trip leader took us to Casa Antillion, an art collective based out of Madrid that houses young and upcoming artists in the area.

May 19

We woke up at 6 AM to take the train from Madrid to Granada. It was a 3 hour ride throud the Spainard countryside. We started in Alahbrum, the oldest part of the city, walking the narrow corridors of the streets to look at the Muslim-influenced architecture. Later that night after we made it to the hotel, a small group of us went out to explore the nightlife of Granada, finding a nearby liquor store to celebrate our first night in the city. ;)

May 20

We woke up to getting nose swabbed for COVID-19, to make sure we all could safely go to Morocco. After that lovely experience, we went to the Alhambra, an ancient Muslim fortress in Granada from when they took over Spain. It was an incredible, the palace was inscribed with arabic & sculpted textures/patterns. Large high ceileings that were sculpted with complex patterns. We walked through the palace gardens and saw the leftover ruins of the garden that was barely standing. We made our way back to the hotel to get ready for an exciting night! We had Flamenco lessons from a seasoned professional, before we had dinner and enjoyed a Flamenco show!

May 21

Today was our last day in Spain. We spent our morning on the beach in Nerja, a small coastal town in the southern part of the country. We walked through the quiet streets as they began to open up their businesses. The Mediterrainan Sea was really cold, and frankly, I did not want to get my hair wet before a two hour flight. My friends and I (AKA The Spice girls) walked along the shore, finding perfectly rounded stones, collecting them like we were crows. We had lunch with some of the group memebers from a Tennessee College, getting to know some lovely people!

We wrapped our day at the airport, heading to Casablanca, Morocco. I would love to go back to spain and explore the country more, there is so much I haven’t seen!

LAS VENTAS (BULL FIGHTING RING)︎︎︎