Spain

This trip was with People to People Student Ambassadors.

Friday, June 27th - Philadelphia to Madrid
Left Philadelphia International Airport around 4 pm on a six hour flight to Paris, France. Once there we had a 3 hour wait until our connecting flight to Madrid.

Saturday, June 28th - Madrid, Spain
I only slept for an hour on the plane so when we arrived in Spain around 10am I knew I would be dead my nightfall. We stopped at our hotel and dropped off our luggage and proceeded to a nice little restuarant. Here I was introduced to the three course meal, and well I have to say I loved it! After lunch we went on a bus tour of Madrid, which I barely remember because I was nodding off around this time. Back at the hotel we figured out how to work our phone cards and got ready for a night in Plaza Mayor. We had free time to wander around the area and try to talk to the locals, which was pretty easy. It's a wonder how far basic language skills will go. This is where I learned to never make fun of people struggling with English in the US. Once you see the other side you completely understand. So after some shopping we went to dinner at a flamenco restaurant. By the end of the show almost all of us were starting to fall asleep on the table. Finally the day ended back at the hotel with me passing out cold.

Sunday, June 29th - Madrid, Spain
After a breakfast in the hotel we went to the Prado Museum and went on a savanger hunt. It was basically a race to see who could locate certain painting the fastest, our team won and we were later rewarded with small swords from our visit to a sword factory in Toledo. After our hunt and a quick lunch we stopped by the Palace and gardens. We had a small amount of free time and a number of us went to a cafe and meet a wonderful lady. She worked at a translator and moved from country to country with her two dogs. She remains one of my heroes. After this we had dinner and returned to the hotel for the night.

Monday, June 30th - Granada, Spain
We woke up and packed to leave Madrid but not before stopping at the Moncloa House for a lecture on Spanish government. We then left for Toledo, which is my favorite place in the world. We visited the cathedral and wandered around the city for a little bit. We also visited a sword factory and had a lecture about that followed by lunch overlooking the olive fields. We then began a long bus ride to Granada.

France

This trip was with People to People Student Ambassadors.

Saturday, July 5th - Montpellier
We left Barcelona just before dawn and crossed the border into France without any problems. After half the day on the bus we stopped at a beach for some swimming. Also our first taste of topless beaches! The guys on the trip were more than eager to see...well you get the idea...however they didn't think the French reputation for not shaving would be so right. Score one for American chicks! After some frisbee and sunbathing we headed to our hotel near the Place de la Comédie in Montpellier. After check in me and three other students headed out to wander around town. This also provided the first glimpse of European sex shops. After about an hour of wandering side streets we noticed a group of 3 locals following us. All were a few years older than us but looked very 'street savvy', for lack of a better term. We headed back to the main square where most of the other students had stayed, watching various street performers. When we thought we lost them we stopped at a fountain about a block from the main square to take a breath. Not five minutes later the three locals were surrounding us. Asking if we were Americans, how old we were and where we were staying. Of course this was all through extremely broken English. At first it seemed okay, they were simply curious, we'd had lots of moments when locals started asking us about America - nothing new there. Then it turned ugly. One of the guys (who had somehow gotten a bike since they followed us) started touching one of our backpacks that was laying on the bench between us. The other guy walked behind us (automatically we put our hands over our bags and tried to stand up) and started touching our hair and contunied the questioning. The third, a female, stayed in front attempting to distract us from the two others. As soon as we realized what was happening we got up and said we were missing curfew. They attempted to follow us but stopped once we hit the square. That was the only moment during the whole trip that I was scared for my life. After that we headed to the hotel and spent the rest of the night watching South Park in German with French subtitles.

Sunday-Monday, July 6-7th - Annecy
Since Montpellier was only an overnight visit we headed towards Annecy early the next morning. We stopped in Orange for a quick tour of Arausio, a 2,000 year old Roman theater. Although it was a tad pricey to just enter (even more for a tour or audio tape) it was totally worth it. Climbing up to the top of a 7,000-seat theater is not an easy task after spending all day on a bus. We had a bit of free time to wander around the town but spent most of the time looking in the tiny shops they had. Back on the bus we followed the Rhone valley to Annecy.

July 8th-13th in Germany and Switzerland

Monday-Wednesday, July 14-16th - Paris

Thursday, July 17th - Paris to Philadelphia
We left the hotel just before dawn and headed to C