Submitted by Rachel Levithan on the 2016 winter session program in Spain and Italy sponsored by the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice…
During week three, we traveled to Sevilla. On our way to Sevilla, we stopped in the cute little town of Ronda. In Ronda, we had the opportunity of touring the oldest bull fighting rink. This was very interesting to see. We were able to see how the bulls were kept and the uniforms that were worn. The uniforms were so tight and small because they were made to be skin tight so the bull couldn’t rip through it and hurt the person. Ronda was just a pit stop on the way to Sevilla which is the cutest town. Sevilla was my favorite place. If I had to pick one of the cities that we visited to live in, it would be Sevilla. The city of Sevilla was set up so cute, I felt very relaxed and it was not a busy place. Madrid was very touristy and Granada was just simple, but Sevilla I felt was where the locals were. In Sevilla, we toured the Cathedral. Attached to the Cathedral was a bell tower that looked over the entire city and we climbed to the top. The view from the top was amazing and I felt like I could see everything. I also loved the food in Sevilla. We found a cute little restaurant and ate at the restaurant three times and we were only in Sevilla for four days. At the end of the week, we traveled to Barcelona. We took a bullet train and that was my first time ever riding a train. Let me say, it was very interesting. The train traveled at 300km. I almost felt like I was on an airplane. While in Barcelona, we had an excursion to the monastery of Montserrat which is in the mountains and that was where the Black Madonna statue was held. There was an amazing view looking over the mountains. After a few more days in Barcelona, we would head to Rome!