22/23-09-07RhondaWeekend

After school Friday I headed to the beach to begin the most packed weekend I’ve had. John and I played soccer with some local kids and some guys from Pamplona. We were both on the Pamplonan’s team and played for a few hours. The end result was fun and pain. There were little shell fragments on the beach, the sand was hard and rough, and we were most certainly barefoot. Both John and I felt like our feet were burning which made walking home a chore and our excursion the next day – where we walked for hours and hours – a trying experience. That night we went out for a while, had some beers, and I got home around 3:30 AM which gave me 3.5 hours to sleep before I had to wake up for our excursion to Rhonda.

And to Rhonda we go! I was up at 7 to catch our bus to Rhonda at 8. We weaved our way into the Spanish mountains which are NW of Cadiz and towards the center of Spain. The trip took us through some wonderfully quaint countrysides and hills to a pueblo blanco (white town) Rhonda which is on a hill itself and extends across the ravine which cuts the hill in half, providing beautiful views down into the surrounding fields. We walked around the quaint streets, crossed old bridges, and climbed the city wall (which didn’t look like it would keep an army out for more than a few minutes). All in all, the actual city itself was what I enjoyed the most. We saw some cool sites, more churches and palaces, but the town of Rhonda took the cake. Rhonda also has the oldest bull ring in all of Spain. It was there that the Spanish developed the modern form of bull fighting which is so famous today. Before they would fight while on horse rather than by foot. Another interesting fact is that Hemmingway was lived in Rhonda for a long while during his writing years and refers to it in his writing. After spending some time site seeing we had some lunch (as always, mine was enormous and I supplemented the lunches of others) and then headed off on the bus again to Arcos, another pueblo blanco. Arcos was less spectacular but beautiful regardless.

We made it home around 6, promptly after which I fell asleep. I woke up at 10 PM to have some leftovers for dinner (my mom was gone for the weekend and I could actually eat as much I wanted without having to fend off extra food). The leftovers I chose were albondigas (meatballs) on cuscus and paella – pretty amazing leftovers. After that, to the streets! We botellóned in San Fransisco and then hopped to a couple bars before heading out to La Punta for hours and hours of dancing and drinking until 7:30 when the discotecas closed down. When they did, we headed to the upper level, above the clubs, to hang out some more and watch the water. Up there we found the ground COVERED with trash (seriously there was trash everywhere) - plastic bags, alcohol, mixers, etc. Regardless, we hung around.

At around 10 AM I stumbled home and proceeded to sleep till 3 PM. I ate lunch alone since I missed the earlier hour and headed directly to the beach afterwards. There I found a huge group of people from the program, which is fun sometimes but is really getting old. The group of peeps I hang with is sliming but occasionally those crowds remain. I got home from the beach at 9:30 PM, headed back out after dinner and despite the lack of sleep stayed out till about 6 AM. Good idea? For now sure, when school starts, maybe not so much but so far all work has been done, no classes have been missed, and I’m actually staying attentive in class and learning something.