Finally we have arrived at the last trip of my study abroad. Crazy to believe how quickly it all went but this trip was probably the best way I could imagine to close out all the amazing trips I have taken with all the incredible people I have met during my time in study abroad.
We drove to the south eastern coast of Spain to Cabo de Gata, partially a desert and the driest region in Spain. After a long bus ride we stop in the middle of a highway, almost back up over the edge of a cliff, and then get off the bus and start walking along the coast. We had a few guides leading us and after 5 minutes off the bus we were on our way. (Dont worry Mom I knew it was a desert and coated up with sunblock well before we arrived and recoated several times).
At the edge of the first cliff we got to look down on this lovely beach.
So begins the 9 miles hike that took seven hours. We had no idea what we were about to witness but honestly we were about to have our worlds rocked yet again by the beauty that Spain has to offer.
Now the unfortunate thing is my camera died 2 hours into the hike, and my backup batteries turned out to be empty but fortunately I have lots of friends with cameras and because of that I will have lots of extra pics beside my own. Believe me they will give you a real good idea of all the amazing things we saw.
It started pretty calm just tall rolling hills. It was such an amazing feeling though, cause we knew this was our last big trip together as a group, in fact it was many of our last trips entirely and because of that we wanted to live up every minute. When you get a group of people together that is trying to do nothing more than live in the moment and enjoy every second, it's really a beautiful thing.
Here you get a look at a bit of the desert.
We hiked along the highway for a bit before heading off the trail following our fearless leader who really seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. Rafa was his name and the guy just kind of wandered, took us on some fairly dangerous little treks but we all made it out alive.
There we see Rafa leading the way, where that way was no one really knows but he was leading the hell out of it.
First stop was a little beach not too far from where the hike began.
Some of my buddies decided to go for a swim but we had just gotten started so I wanted to wait till I'd worked up more of a sweat before headin into the ocean.
Now begin the beautiful views. The further we hiked the more impressive we got and this hike truly showed us the versatility Spain has to offer. We went from desert, to mountains, to white sand beaches, to grassy plains, in seven hours we saw just about every type of landscape you could imagine besides the tundra.
The water of Cabo de Gata was life changing and I'll talk more about that a bit later on.
Now if you look down to the left of this picture we scaled those rocks and climbed along them which was sooo much fun.
We walked on rocks, sand, grass, dirt, concrete, just about any surface you could imagine.
Some of the rock formation we saw were absolutely incredible, they were so varied and unique, I really was in awe of this part of Spain (but lets be honest what part of Spain did I not love?)
We climbed several mountains and at every peak we'd look out on the next part of the hike and see what appeared to be a completely different country, I never realized terrain could vary this dramatically in such a short distance.
Now this is really cool, that point right there is where the Mediterranean Ocean ends and the Atlantic Ocean begins. Because the warm water and cold water currents meet here it causes the waters to be extremely rough and back in ancient times that rock right there was believed to have a very important purpose. If you've ever read about the Illiad and Odyssey you know that Homer encountered some sirens that wanted to lure his boat to destruction with their beautiful song and the only way he was able to avoid it was by putting wax in the ears of all the crew. Now whats the point behind this rant? That rock is where they believed sirens lived and lured sailors to their doom. Pretty awesome the things I've seen.
Lead the way Rafa.
Now the really beautiful things start.
I have no idea what those white rocks were but they created such a stark contrast against the sand and rocks around them it looked absolutely amazing.
We had some pretty precarious edges that we walked on which made it that much more fun and exciting for us.
Rafa asked me for the camera so he could snap this beauty. Even with my broken camera he captured the magic. Not much of a guide but a hell of a photographer.
Just look how the white rock juts out of NOWHERE, God has made some really beautiful stuff on this planet and I intend to see it all!
Standing right on a cliffs edge is something I got very used to and learned to love during my time abroad.
Check out how clear the water is, on a normal day, they have 60 feet depth visibility, just like we have at the Jersey shore... okay not quite.
Now you see that liiiiittle tiny rock jutting out at the top left of the pic, that was the siren rock I referred to earlier. If you remember I was dead even with it a few pictures ago, we did us some hiking.
Coming over yet another ridge to yet another amazing view.
Rafa teaching lessons, God only knows if he actually knew what he was talking about. Part of me feels like some guy in a shirt just took some money and offered a tour to us figuring we'd never catch on that he actually worked at the post office.
I love the sheer drops that reveal amazing beaches and water.
And there you have one.
Grassy plains that remind me of what I imagine Africa looks like... Spain's got it.
My IES program, I love these people and I'll never forget them.
It is weird writing this blog sitting on my couch in Indianapolis. Currently I am in week 4 of my internship with the 4th of July weekend only one day away and I'm loving it out here but the beauty of doing the blog back home like this is that I get to reminisce about all the amazing things I've seen and done. Let's keep the good times rollin'..
Look at that WATER!
Like I said everything was so unique, each rock formation, the colors, each mountain, each plain, everything.
One of the many many beautiful beaches we traversed during our trek.
All I could think of when we walked through this plain was the scene in Jurassaic Park, "Stay out of the tall grass!" I was waiting for a raptor or at least a lion to jump out of a bush and maul me.
Now here is where the pictures from my facebook begin which means they are random and helter skelter but it'll make the story telling pretty interesting.
Some of my closest friends on the trip who I am happy to say I keep in touch with still and plan to for the rest of my life. Because of this trip I not only have friends all over the world but all over the US! Study abroad is such a beautiful experience for so many reasons, I don't regret one second, one euro spent, or one experience. Each one helped shape me into the person I am today and overall I am a more complete, worldly, and better person. I don't mean to say that in a bragging way I mean to say that in a way that means I found out a lot about myself and have a much better idea of who I am. I love the changes and growth I experienced as a result of my time in Spain, I'll never forget it.
So here we go, you ready? Wanna see a bunch of different countries without ever leaving the one I studied in?
Okay we got Spain.
Go ahead and tell me that doesn't look like the coast of Africa.
Just celebrating life and enjoying our last trip in style. And on a side note, that hiking pack paid for itself time and time again, it was comfortable, offered support, and carried SO much. Thanks to my parents and brother again for giving me that, one of the most useful gifts I've ever gotten.
This rock face was all small rocks and prettttty dangerous. One of my good friends is afraid of heights and she held my back the whole way down. Once we reached the bottom she said, "MY MOM WILL NEVER BELIEVE I DID THAT!! I gotta take pictures." I love those moments. Study abroad really does bring out the best in people so often.
Some of my best buddies, just chillin in a cave.
Look at how expansive and beautiful these beaches are. There have to be hundreds in Cabo de Gata alone.
Now I love this picture but the story behind it I think you will enjoy even more. My buddy (if you recall the bloody hands dress wearing guy from Cadiz way back when) said, "Hey Brian smile" so I turned around gave him a nice thumbs up pose. He looks at the picture and goes, "Great. I told the guys in my frat how white you were but I knew none of them would believe me so I needed photo evidence." Hahaha I mean come on you can't help but laugh at that.
One of my best friends on the trip, so I figured it would be appropriate to have a picture of me holding her in my arms on top of a mountain. Good news is she is a Penn Stater as well so we will be seeing lots of each other back in Happy Valley.
Drink it in, it always goes down smooth.
Its a repeat, I don't feel like deleting it, enjoy it yet again.
More of the African safari we enjoyed.
Probly a solid 90-100 foot drop right over that edge behind us, but just look at that water.
Some more great friends on top of yet another mountain.
We took a short break on one of the beaches where we all took a dip in the ocean and ate our lunches. The water was freezing but it felt so good after all the hiking.
At this break we gave birth to about 50 new inside jokes including, "If you got two hands on it you're scared, one hand means you a pimp" and a variety of jokes about nudity on beaches and what not. Unfortunately I can't explain them, sorry everybody but some of them might not even make sense to you so these are just memory triggers for me.
This is from the rock climbing along the coast.
After the break at the beach and lunch we hiked through what felt like 10 other countries until we ended up in the place that looked like Africa. We walked along this 2 mile stretch of beaches that was littered with jelly fish and this was the home stretch of our trip.
This is where my friend Ray and I came up with the "Shells on shells on shells" rap and created our rap group. No I am not writing the song, you'll have to wait for the mixtape to drop. For those of you laughing, we had already hiked for like 6 and a half hours at this point, everything we said was awesome.
We finally reached the end of the trail after a lot of laughs, reminiscing, and good times. We talked so much about how quickly it passed, how we would never be able to describe the beauty we witnessed during this trip, how much we had all changed, so many things. I loved those conversations and I haven't stopped loving them now that I'm back home.
Recently I received an email asking me if I would like to become an IES Ambassador to offer insight and information to future study abroad students. You can bet I signed up in the blink of an eye and I can't wait for my first email from a future student lucky enough to be studying in Granada!
Once we reached the end of our hike we hopped back on our bus and took a short ride back to the small town near Cabo de Gata where we were staying. After a nice little walk through town we arrived back at the hotel and showered and changed. Now when I say we showered, we did but it was about minus 2 degrees. We got through it then we all went to the group dinner.
Now this night was dripping with nostalgia. We all were talking about the beginning, the end, our favorite trips, memories, how all our relationships had developed. It's amazing how when you go through something like this with people, the bonds you build grow faster and stronger than they would in just about any other setting. You go through the highest highs of your life with these people and endure the difficult times. I met so many incredible people and above all it was the people that made this trip.
We were beyond fortunate to have the people we did. We had someone from every walk of life and each person had different intentions for studying abroad but it seemed the one thing we all communally shared was a desire to enjoy every second of our time in Spain. Whether it was a person who wanted to practice their Spanish, party, or simply try every type of Spanish cuisine they could, every day you could find someone to do something new and exciting with.
As we left our small little hostel, where we had taken up just about every room, every conversation had a hint of reminiscence. It varied person to person but every conversation was special in its own way and brought back a different memory for me. We got to this small restaurant and naturally I was starving. One of the best analogies I ever heard about my appetite was from my friend Michelle freshman year at Penn State. She said, "He may only be 5' 11'' and about 175 but he eats like a 245lb linebacker". So sitting at the end of the table was like torture as I watched the plates getting passed down and the food gettting less and less but dont worry I got my fill.
One of the best parts of the end of all of this was that people werent sad or miserable or negative. Dont get me wrong, there was a fair amount of sadness saying goodbye but when we were together we made the best of every moment we had. It was so positive and again I have to harp on how incredible the people were in this program.
It was Marianna's birthday so we gave her a whole chicken and said she needed to eat the whole thing.
I can hear my Mom's voice now, "You boys look so much better when you smile, why make such silly faces?" Gotta mix it up everyone once and again Mommy.
That dinner is kind of a blur but all I can remember is laughing the entire time and talking about all the amazing things we had done and probably the best part was hearing everyone talk about where they were going next. Because once you have an experience like this, at least for me, it opens your eyes to how much is out there. And once you get the traveling bug you gotta keep feeding it so we all know that we will find a way to make travel a part of our lives. As I get ready to move into the real world I ask myself the question, why shouldn't travel be a part of it all? And there is no reason it cant as long as I work to make it a part of my life.
The dinner ended and in the small coastal town neighboring Cabo de Gata we didnt know what to do, but what better option than to head down to the beach at night.
In a big group we all walked on down to the lovely beach and sat down under the stars. Quite possibly one of my favorite things normally and to have the opportunity to do it in Spain with all the great people from my program, just the best.
We sat and talked for a few hours, Antonio (my language professor) was off playing the guitar in a circle of people, singing, laughing, everything you could hope for and more.
I had a long, deep, reflective conversation with a group of people that was absolutely incredible. We talked about everything. What we were excited about seeing at home, what we were going to miss, how hard it would be for our friends to understand everything we had seen and done, how amazing Spain is, everything. After about 2 hours we decided to head back up to the hostel, we had to be up early for our snorkeling/kayaking the next day.
We got back to the hostel and in my room we had 4 people total. Had another good convo with my good buddy Alex and then flipped off the lights and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning was farrrr from typical. I know a lot of you are wondering about the title and the hospital visits reference, well now you're about to find out.
I wake up in the morning and there is a bit of commotion. As I get out of bed I see one of my friends and he cant even walk his ankle is so hurt and swollen. (Names will be exempt from this portion of the story just in case these people don't want the story spreading beyond our study abroad program). And I said hang on let me go get you some help man. So I go out into the lobby and one of the girls from our program has a huge gash on the bottom of her foot and is in a LOT of pain. I find out yet another girl had already gone to the hospital with a badly twisted ankle. So naturally everyones asking, what the hell happened?
Well first my lifeguard instincts kicked in and I had to make sure to help the remaining guy and girl in every way I could even if that just meant giving a hug or helping them out to the cab to get to the hospital. After we got them taken care of we found out the story.
After some sangria some of the people in my program thought itd be fun to go skinny dipping at night. So they got to a fairly secluded portion of the beach, stripped down and ran into the water. Shouldnt be any kind of a problem right? Well the way this beach works is that it is very rocky when you first enter the water, then it moves on to bigger round rocks, THEN you reach the sand. Well for a few drunk college students that fact must have slipped their minds because they bombed into that water twisting and slicing all kinds of things. Of the 4 people who went skinny dipping only 1 escaped unscathed.
And the fun doesnt end there. 2 of the students had had enough sangria and cerveza to not realize the extent of their injuries until the next day so they helped the one other girl by carrying her back to the hostel, and it was not a short walk to be carrying someone. So the girl with the gash on her foot walked barefoot through sand, rocks, and all kinds of stuff to get her friend back. Well we found out when she got to the hospital they had to numb the whole area and dig out everything in there (I know Im cringing too). Fortunately no serious injuries and they all had a good sense of humor about it after it happened and it became yet another funny story to look back on.
After a very interesting morning we all headed down to the beach. If you had signed up for an optional activity you either had the early or afternoon session and I had the afternoon session for kayaking so for the first few hours it was just chilling in the beautiful Spanish sun.
The small group of us that got there first. There is me drinking water and putting on sunblock. Glad I accepted my whiteness and have come to terms with the fact I will never tan otherwise I would have a lot more painful beach experiences in my life.
We all played some beach soccer then it was time for kayaking. We all went over and I paired up with my great friend Alex (the girl Alex). With us being so competitive even before we had started we decided we were going to be the best and fastest so we went through our training then got into the water and hopped on our kayak to take our tour of the coast of Cabo de Gata.
Now I had never gone kayaking in the ocean and I only have kayaked on Budd Lake while lifeguarding so my experience with doing it in beautiful locations is minimal but let me tell you this trip to Cabo de Gata could not have been any better of a way to close out this trip and this kayak trip was yet another reason why I feel this way.
We head out and the water is incredible, so clear and blue. So we paddle out along the coast in a single file line following our instructors and he pulls us into this little cover. A hidden beach, a cave, and a protected beach was the first thing we saw, as well as some nude sun bathers who had come to this spot for some seclusion.. little did they know that an entire group of kayakers would come through but honestly they didnt seem to mind one bit. Europeans are a lot less freaked out by Americans in my experience.
In this cove our guide told us a bit about the plants and creatures we could see beneath us. Turns out there is a sea plant that grows in that one cove that does not grow anywhere else in the world. Literally this 50 foot wide pool has a plant in it that does not exist anywhere else in the world and we saw it, that is just incredible. This is also where the guide told us that on a good day the water has a 20 meter visibility. 60 feet. And I can say that after what I saw, I dont doubt that for a second.
As we moved from one amazing coast to another, paddling between rocks, splashing each other, and seeing one incredible thing after another I had such an amazing euphoric feeling wash over me. Then at one point I looked down at the water to my right and I literally can not put into words how beautiful and incredible this blue color was. It was like nothing I have ever seen before and to be honest I didnt think a blue that beautiful could exist but there it was right next to me and I was staring at it. I feel like I could have sat there all day staring at it, in fact I kept touching the water to try and associate as many of my senses with it as possible to remember it as distinctly as possible (granted I know I can't feel blue but it really was that awesome).
We carried on with our trip, occasionally breaking the line to race my other friends Ray and Carson until we were told to get back into the line and on our way back we saw a taxi sign that you would see on top of a taxi floating randomly in the water and we blew by it. It was covered in little shells and honestly woulda been an awesome souvenir but by the time we decided we wanted it, it was too far gone. Now it will just have to remain a memory, woulda been a sick thing to have in my dorm room next year but now I can just remember it as another fun awesome thing that happened in Spain.
We got back to the shore after seeing a jelly fish that was the size of a man hole cover floating about 100 yards out from the beach and headed back over to our group. Pretty much the entire group was there now and everyone was living it up in the sun. Our various injured soldiers were enjoying some rum with there new ankle wraps and bandages covered in plastic bags.
I went with a small group of people to grab some food and since were on the coast its about time to grab some paella. We went to a small restaurant with a special and all had a bunch of paella.
Its amazing how many people you meet and friends you make in an experience like this. What's the best is the people you dont hang out with and dont expect to be friends with then somehow you end up spending time together you realize how much you have in common and become great friends. And what better place to do that than studying abroad in Spain.
Here are two of my good friends from Spain, Marta and Carmen, they are training to become teachers in the US. They speak English really well and helped me a bunch with my Spanish. Really great people all around.
After our meal we headed back to the beach to enjoy the last few hours.
The girls (minus Christina) who I got lunch with.
So I went and sat with a bunch of my friends and talked and laughed and soaked up the sun. There was a huge soccer game going on in which a couple teachers got involved with, particularly Antonio who was probly my favorite teacher in Spain, possibly the happiest person in the world. He was playing goalie (and was surprisingly good) but even when someone scored he would laugh, throw his hands up and clap, just one of the most awesome dudes Ive met.
Then we heard what we knew was coming but never wanted to hear, "time to head back to the buses". This was the conclusion of traveling, the last trip we'd all be taking together and for most of us the last trip we'd be taking during our study abroad. We packed up, helped carry our injured friends, and made our way back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and headed to the buses.
Cant even tell you how surreal it all was. We all kept saying how it didnt feel real, didnt seem like this was coming to the end but this experience couldnt have been any better. I could talk about all the things we thought and said for hours but I still have a few more blog entries to get through so I will save some of that for the upcoming blogs.
Sometimes I look at these pictures and it doesnt even seem real. I have to remind myself I did these things and I WAS there and pictures like this help. Fortunately some of the best friends I made are from Penn State so we have at least one more year to live it up together. I made so many amazing friends and I am going to keep in touch with all of them. These days with social networking its never been easier. And now with all my friends all over the country I always have somebody to stay with. And all my new friends should know if they EVER need a place to stay I got them covered. True friends are always there no matter how much time passes and I stand by that for all the people I met during my time abroad.
So say goodbye to Cabo de Gata because after this blog we got 2 weeks left in Spain and a lot of living to do and experiences to have!
I'm excited and scared for this blog to come to an end. Im sitting here on my couch in Indianapolis and I have so much to write about from Spain and Indy but sooner or later I will come to the end of the last blog and put down that last period which blows my mind. All good things come to an end but the great thing about this one is that I can come revisit whenever I want to or need to. So for now this ones comin to an end and Im movin on to the next one, Ill try to get the next one out ASAP!
Im gonna close out this blog a little differently with some quotes that apply very nicely to this whole scenario.
"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."
"All the art of living life is a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."
They make a lot of sense dont they? Keep them in mind and dont waste a minute!
