Day 3: Ronda & Antequera

This vid would not publish on my last post so I'll post it here. Day 2:

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Onward Christian soldiers, day 3 is up! We met down at the hotel at 6am and taxied over to Enterprise (hi Roger). I can't believe I never took a picture of our tiny car! In the photo, you can see behind us how small the cars were. They weren't as small as a Smart car but we were pretty crammed in. 

So let's discuss this rental car situation for a second. Overall, it was incredible to have a rental car because the taxi's sure added up. However, we didn't make that realization until after the first hour and a half with it. It took us longer to get out of the parking lot than it should have. We were trying to inch our way to the exit while Shaun was trying to fall back into his old stick shift habits. Once we found the exit we realized we didn't validate our ticket so we couldn't get out of the parking lot. We reversed our small car back to the attendant. It was pretty hilarious. I saw a car full of college girls renting a car so I kept thinking in my head "okay if they can do it, we can do it!"

Once we got out of the parking lot (woohoo! we're free!) we made our way back to the cathedral that we saw the day before. Becky and Matt hadn't seen it so we dropped them off and tried to circle around to pick them back up. Here starts my panic attack. It was a similar feeling to riding in a taxi around New York. I was so tense. Drivers seemed to ride you or drive pass you BARELY missing your mirrors. The GPS we had rented was CRAP! It was telling us to go every which way and wouldn't make up its mind. Between my nerves and the annoying GPS voice, I just had to close my eyes and hope SJ made his way to where he was supposed to go! Poor Shaun, what a morning. As I am yelling speaking loudly and telling him we should return the rental car because we have no idea what we are doing, I see blue lights flashing behind us.

WE ARE GETTING PULLED OVER?!

I won't lie. For 0.0005 seconds I thought we would be arrested

 and spend the rest of our ten day vacation in a Spanish jail cell. 

(I know, I'm that 'worse case' annoying person)

Not knowing Spanish made me even more antsy because I couldn't understand what they were saying to each other. Come to find out, we had gone down a pedestrian only road. Our excuse?

"My GPS told me too!" 

hahah

After a lecture from the cop telling us that we have the same rules in the United States, he let us go on our way. Although he proceeded to follow us and when we tried to pull over to wait for our friends he pulled up beside us and said "You can't park there! Taxi only!" Ahh! Stop following us. I finally just got out of the car and booked it for the cathedral trying to get Matt and Becky out of there.

.deep exhale.

Once we got out of the busy-city-narrow-street-area, Spain was so easy to drive in! They had huge freeways like we do here and wider city roads in the other cities. It was just that morning in claustrophobic Seville that we had an issue. Poor Shaun. I am so proud of him for driving and dealing with the panic attack backseat driver. Now it's a hilarious memory we can look back on (right babe??).

One more story. We stopped at a market on our way to Ronda. Spain is full of pastries. You eat one with every meal, at least we did. One of their most popular is a croissant that is filled with chocolate. Deliciouuuus! So for some reason we are in two separate lines at the grocery store, buying our pastries. We hear Matt & Becky's cashier talking to them in Spanish and pointing to their food. Matt calls Shaun over to translate (I think they didn't weigh their bread before they checked out or something). As Shaun is dealing with that, our cashier begins to talk to me... and in lightening speed!

"Uhhh... Shaun wait come back over here! She's trying to say something to me."

Basically we just were a hot mess and Shaun was running back and forth between the two cashier lines. Pretty eventful morning!

With all of that behind us we made it to the beautiful city of Ronda!

It's a beautiful town that is on a cliff above a gorge. The gorge separates the old town from the new town.

After that pit stop we headed to Antequera. Shaun was most excited for this city. He and his friend Ryan (who tragically passed away back in August) were the first to 'open' this little town. It's where he has the most memories from his mission and where he started to find his groove on the mish. I have been staring at his pictures for the last four years of this beautiful white-house filled city and was most excited for that view! 

Larissa, I know you're loving that selfie-stick action

It was pretty amazing to go back to the same spots where Shaun and Ryan became friends. Hearing stories and actually being present was seriously magical. When we were just a few miles away and got the first view of this charming town, our friends were asleep in the back. The radio was off and Shaun was able to just take it all in. It was a really special moment. 

I lied. One more story. We sent our friends back to the car while Shaun and I went and tried to find old spots from his mission pictures that we could recreate. There was this one that he really wanted to find but we weren't having any luck and we were losing light. We then saw this random woman coming out of a corner store and asked her if she had any idea where this was (there is a huge church in the background so our hope was if they lived in the town maybe they would know a general area..). They conversed in Spanish for a few seconds and Shaun turned to me BEAMING. 

"She said she lives RIGHT by those stairs and to follow her home!"

It seriously was a miracle. Especially walking with her back home, there was no way we could have found it by ourselves. It was a fantastic recreation and an amazing end to our day in Antequera.

Day 2: Córdoba & Seville

I would just like to apologize in advanced for my oh so attractive bright pink running shoes in pictures. I know you will swoon over them. Shaun and I chose comfort over fashion this trip (which is a side I also choose at Disney) so you get to enjoy some florescent pink and red tenni-action! Moving on...


We got up at 6am and headed to the train station. We couldn't believe how many people were JUST going home from their night of partying. We barely made our train, and I mean barely. We're talking right when my foot stepped onto the train, the door closed behind me. We didn't even know if our friends made it since they ran to another part of the train where their seats were. Let's just say from then on out, when we were traveling by train, we made sure we had a huge time buffer.

We were headed to Seville, Spain but on the way we got out in a town called Córdoba. A real quick spot for some lunch and a visit to La Mezquita, a mosque dating back to the 600's. Shaun served in this city for just a few weeks.

I never used to put my hand in my pocket! In fact, I would always tease SJ about it.
Now look at us!!!!!!! 

While SJ was waiting in a long ticket line and the happy couple was off trying to get something for morning sickness, I started exploring. I met some adorable people. This couple was in Spain celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They looked so happy studying their Spanish dictionary together, I just HAD to be a creeper for 2.5 seconds. I hope Shaun and I travel a lot in our later years.

The narrow cobblestone streets were breathtaking. One of my favorite details. The streets are so narrow! You hold your breath every time a car comes down the way (remember this visual tomorrow morning when I tell you about our rental car situation...). Another detail I was a total fan of was all the unique doorknobs and knockers!

Barbie dresses for our barbie dolls that our Mothers are still storing for us :)

Stopped for lunch and tried a Tortilla de Patata (Spanish egg and potato omelette).
Shaun then proceeded to get mad that nobody said anything about his hair up until this point (hahah) 

Finally made it to Seville where we saw the 3nd largest cathedral in the world. It was super impressive. Unfortunately I only cared to take video inside the cathedral so we don't have many pictures. 

Buried in this cathedral is the son of Christopher Columbus and Christopher himself!

We split up from our group (aka our photographers) so we had to keep asking people to take our picture until they got the whole cathedral in the shot. "gracias! Muy bien!" then we would wait for them to exit the courtyard so they wouldn't feel bad and then we'd say "k that looks like crap who else can we ask??" Probably took about 8 people until we got this one. The winner got a huge pat on the back! (grr, why am I such a perfectionist about pictures?)

The night agenda had a visit to the Plaza de España.  

Star Wars fans should recognize it as the Planet of Naboo! 

I could post an adorable picture of Shaun and I in front of this amazing site but instead I am posting this and showing you how completely nuts and annoying I get about pictures. I love this guy so much. He puts up with my picture taking perfection everyday of his life. I mean look at this? A literal saint!

this sick pregnant bff of mine also deserves three cheers! What a trooper.

Ended the night front row at a Flamenco show. The guitarist was sensational. I don't even know one thing about the guitar and I could even tell how crazy good he was. Also the guy the clapping and singing along was super passionate. It added a lot to the show. Unfortunately they wouldn't let you take pictures or film until the last 60 seconds. Of course that made us enjoy it more.

 Gooooooodnight Seville!

Day 1: Madrid, Spain

*We're baaaaack! A pile of work emails for SJ, and two weeks of school makeup work for me (which I begged to do before I left but I guess BYU-I doesn't work that way) await us this week. Accomplishing these tasks with a jet lag hangover is quite the sight. Considering that I'm wide awake at 6:00 this morning (noon in Europe) I wanted to start blogging our adventure before I forget the stories and feelings of Europe. I want to write about each day so bear with me for the next few days* 

I can't really say much about the trip out there because it was a complete blur. I slept a little between movies and audio books. There were delays which meant we didn't make our connecting flight with our friends. We finally arrived to Madrid at 8am. We were so excited to move our legs that I think I skipped out of the terminal (even on 3 hours of sleep).

Aren't these the nerdiest things you have ever seen? Well, not only are they nerdy, they work like a DREAM (no pun intended). Neck pillows never work for us but surprisingly these "seatbelt pillows" did... once you get over the embarrassment of blowing it up and attaching it to the back of your seat :)

We dropped our bags off at the hotel and hit the ground running. We were hoping that was the best way to jump on the time schedule. We walked around the main square, and got bocadillos for lunch. Bocadillo is a super small, thin sandwich that has jamón on it. Jamón is ham that is trimmed and cleaned and then covered with salt for two weeks to preserve the meat from spoiling. Then it is washed off and hung to dry for six months. Yep, that is how it is cooked. I ate that. Point for me. For dessert we had churros dipped in chocolate which was incredible and different. No cinnamon-sugar churros in Spain. We completely crashed after our churro run. We justified a 45 minute nap and then we would be out and about until bedtime. My beautiful friend Becky is pregnant so they slept a while longer while we headed to the MTC which is on temple square.

Plaza in Madrid

Shaun was in this MTC for about six weeks preparing for his mission. It is very small and had only about 10 missionaries when he came 11 years ago. I think they are up to 60 now. On the way to the MTC, some of the missionaries came onto our metro train and stood right in front of us. We started talking to them in english and their faces lit up. They had just arrived a week or two ago and were pretty overwhelmed. They led us back to the MTC where we got approval to go on a tour (one of the benefits of having a small MTC). It was cool to see Shaun run around memory lane. He thought he wouldn't remember where his room was and the second we walk into the dorm hallway: 

"509! THAT was my room!"

Getting around was a complete breeze in Spain with the language on our side.
(Italy was a different story)

That night we went to a gorgeous park called Parque del Buen Retiro. You could take boats around a lake in there. It was breathtaking! I think that is one of my top highlights of this trip. So relaxing but yet we still had so much adrenaline for what was in store for us the rest of the trip.  

We ended our night visiting the gates of the Royal Palace and not too far from it was the Temple of Debod. The Temple of Debod is an ancient Egyptian temple that was built in early 2nd century BC and was relocated to Madrid in the 70's.

Royal Palace

Temple of Debod