Granada! https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/ Mon, 6 Apr 2026 14:12:14 GMT World Nomads Adventures Lots of traveling as of late! I spent the weekend before last in Nerja, a tiny tourist town along the Southern coast of Spain. I went with 7 other friends; we rented a little villa/apartment for the weekend, which was absolutely fantastic! The villa was pretty big, with a front yard, fully equipped kitchen, comfy couches, and some American TV. (: Oh, and we got 2 free bottles of champagne, which we popped open right away, of course! Nerja was cute, lots of white buildings, palm trees, flowers….and, unfortunately, rain. We were able to get a little beach time in though. We mostly just hung out in our villa, cooking, sleeping, drinking, and watching TV. It was nice to just be away for the weekend and have time to hang out with friends in a home setting. I came back to a very short 2-day week of school, and then left for Madrid, Segovia, and Toledo with my program. Madrid was huge and overwhelming, but it was also exciting to be in a big city. We went to the two big art museums (Prado and Reina Sofia), which were both great. I liked the Reina Sofia more, lots of Picasso (including Guernica) and more modern art. The Prado has very traditional Spanish art, by Velazquez, El Greco, Goya, etc. We also visited Valle de los Caidos, which was built after the Spanish Civil War, and is where Franco is buried. It’s pretty creepy, basically built into this cliff with a giant cross towering over it. It was supposed to be built to honor those who died in the war, but only two names are commemorated, one of them Franco of course. Segovia and Toledo were both very cute. We took some day trips there, did a little sightseeing. I had a great lunch with friends in Toledo, paella and quail (cooked Toledo style!). Our hotel room in Madrid had a balcony, so we spent lots of time outside, just eating and drinking and hanging out. The weather was fantastic, in the 60’s or 70’s most days! I frequented H&M too many times (of course!) and went to a very cool Cave Bar with friends one night—the drinks come out of stalactites and you get free candy! We also went out for some really good Indian food. I’m excited to go back to Madrid (during Semana Santa) with Sam to see more of the city. Miss you all tons. Keep in touch! I love getting your emails! Anna https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/16103/Spain/Nerja-Madrid-Segovia-Toledo Travel Spain annabeers https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/16103/Spain/Nerja-Madrid-Segovia-Toledo#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/16103/Spain/Nerja-Madrid-Segovia-Toledo Tue, 4 Mar 2008 22:28:00 GMT 0 Hola! Hope everyone is doing well! I just got back on Wednesday from a trip to Seville and Lisbon, Portugal, which was amazing! We went to Seville for a few days with our program, but then a few girlfriends and I returned after Lisbon for two nights. We officially started classes on Thursday after we got back; next week is our first full week. But we never have classes on Fridays, so three-day weekends all the time! We saw some beautiful sights in Seville, but I didn’t end up liking it as much as I anticipated. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but something about the atmosphere. Also, compared with Lisbon and Granada, it felt much more Americanized—we saw six Starbucks just in one day! The Cathedral there is amazing though. It is the largest gothic cathedral in the world, and overall the third largest cathedral in the world. We went to some pretty amazing palaces and gardens as well, and ruins of a Roman city. Also found a bar with an excellent happy hour (!) that we frequented quite often. I traveled from Seville to Lisbon via a five-hour night bus with a big group of 9 other students. We successfully found our hostel, which will probably be one of the best hostels I will ever stay in. The young guy who owns the hostel with his family, Joao, was really friendly and helpful. There were two big common rooms with colorfully patterned couches and pillows, beanbag chairs, beautifully molded, tall ceilings, and dark green trim. A bunch of us had a huge room of 8 to ourselves, equipped with red lockers and bunk beds. There was a kitchen that we were able to cook in as well! Two nights we went to the market and helped Cully cook stir fry and shrimp (and drank lots of gin and tonics and wine!). We befriended an Aussie guy at our hostel and ended up hanging out with him a lot, which was really fun. We saw a lot of great sights in Lisbon as well. We spent some time just exploring the city, wandering around and getting lost. One day Cully, Ashley and I took the tram (really scary!) but to some markets. Later in the day all of us took a train to the beach, which was absolutely beautiful! We went to an amazing castle in a little town called Sintra. The castle had an incredible view of Sintra; it was just beautiful. The picture of me in the yellow turret is there! It felt really nice to get back to my host mom’s apartment in Granada. My first day of classes went pretty smoothly. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Society and Politics in Modern Spain and Political Structure of the European Union. All of my classes are in Spanish but only with international students. On Mondays and Wednesdays I will have a grammar class, Islamic Culture in Spain, and History of Spain from Franco to present. I also have yoga classes two times a week! I miss you all tons! Chau! Anna https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/15162/Portugal/First-Traveling-Adventures Travel Portugal annabeers https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/15162/Portugal/First-Traveling-Adventures#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/15162/Portugal/First-Traveling-Adventures Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:06:00 GMT 0 HI Everyone, Hope this works well! I've been in Granada for about two weeks now, and I have finally adjusted somewhat! It was really hard at first but things are getting much better. I really like my host mom, Elvira, and my roommate, Ashley, who is from Spokane and goes to Seattle University. Elvira has a son and a daughter, but they are both older and don't live with us. Her son, Sergio, has about 4 rescued dogs that he brings over sometimes! Fun! We have a little white dog that lives with us, Coco. It's about a 25-30 minute walk from the Centro de Lenguas Modernas, where my classes are. We're doing language intensivo right now, it's about 4 hours of class in the morning, and then we have another class from 5-6:30. It's a preparatory class for the DELE, which is a Spanish level placement exam we take at the end of the semester. My classes start in early February. We have a break right before this, so I think some friends and I might travel to Portugal and Barcelona. We hardly eat anything for breakfast here, then go home for lunch around 3-4ish. My mamasita serves a lot of soups, and we always have salad and pan (bread) and fruit. She always says "Come mas, come mas!" (Eat more, eat more!). Then dinner is late, around 9:30 or 10:00. I've gone out for tapas and drinks with friends after dinner, which is lots of fun. Last Saturday we stayed out till 8am, going to different tapas bars and discotecas! Yikes! This weekend we have a tour of the Alhambra, which should be amazing. This past weekend we went on a tour of the Albaycin, which is the oldest neighborhood/district of Granada and has a lot of Arabic influence--really beautiful! We got to go into a really old Arabic bathhouse--very cool. I've been having a lot of fun just wandering around the cobblestone streets here and finding new ways home. There are huge sales in the stores, the Rebajas, so we've all been shopping a lot too. Just fun to wander around and explore. There are lots of cute pastry shops everywhere and guys playing accordians in the streets. I'll be sure to write more later, after our visit to the Alhambra. Miss you all! https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/14247/Spain/First-few-weeks Travel Spain annabeers https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/14247/Spain/First-few-weeks#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/annabeers/story/14247/Spain/First-few-weeks Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:33:00 GMT 0