We hopped on a double decker bus (yipee) that took us Casemates square. From there, we grabbed a map and started making our way down main street. EVERYTHING WAS IN ENGLISH (which was just a little bit exciting). Popping into a cemetery to look at the gravestones and dead people, I saw my first wild monkey! <----I don't know about the rest of you but I think this sentence is wacky ;P While trying to find our way to the castle, we ended up walking halfway up "the Rock" where we took some fantastic photos. By then, we'd been walking for at least 2 hours, my ankle hurt and I was incredibly disappointed in myself for choosing to wear skinny jeans. Still looking for the castle, we made our way up and across the rock some more and wound up at old siege tunnels. Although we didn't go into the tunnels, there were a ton of monkeys hanging around and messing with the tourists (stealing food, grabbing hair, climbing on legs and laps, etc.). Eventually, we made it to the castle -- by this point, we'd seen so many amazing things (and we were hungry and tired) that we all took a look at the castle and said "cool, it's a castle" and continued walking back down the hill. Once we reached the bottom, we stopped to enjoy some traditional british food -- I had fish and chips and my host parents had shepherd's pie. Meandering through the shops on our way back, my host dad and I had an argument about whether or not Columbus was the first person to discover America (he thinks he was). Quickly realizing that my spanish arguing skills and lack of proper information were no match, I attempted to excuse myself from the conversation. Luckily, my host mom seemed to recognize my discomfort and dragged me into a shop with her (thank you Ana! Lol). We made our way back to the car, and finished our long, fun day by sharing some pasties from a local shop -- yum!
monkeys in the cemetary
cool photo from halfway up the rock
fish and chips
the rock
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I spent Saturday with my friend Cj, another exchange student from Colorado, in a town about 25 minutes away in Estepona (where he lives). He showed me the "sights;" cute, typical spanish streets, a beautiful beach, a small port, and all his local hang out spots. We wandered a long ways down the beach towards Marbella -- at each corner we'd say "just 'till the next one" and the next one, and the next one, etc. For lunch, we shared a platter of traditional spanish meats at one of the local restaurants (absolutely delicious) and, of course, french fries. I met his host mom, who took us out for ice cream and dinner; she's really nice and the two of them seem to get along really well :). After dinner Cj showed me the way down to a really pretty cove; unfortunately my agility level decreases about 100% in the dark, so I was pretty clumsy trying to make my way along the rocks and wall on our way to the cove. The view there was absolutely beautiful -- lights all the way along the coast, you can see Gibraltar and even a spanish city on the African coast. After sitting for a little while (enjoying the free wifi haha) we made our way back. At 11 o'clock I hopped on the bus back home, exhausted but happy to have had a good two days behind me.
the beach in Estepona
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All in all, it was a fantastic weekend (I spent Sunday sleeping, cleaning, and doing homework).
I hope everyone is doing well at home, I miss you all!
Love from Marbella,
Shona Bell
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