Finally GOT to El Torcal, which is a small mountain range between Málaga and Antequer of 150 million year old limestone. Saw a couple mountain goats along the way, but the road itself was horrendous for a large bus like we had!! We bottomed out once on a corner, and each turn gave the impression we would tip over and roll all the way back down... I didn’t mind, but being in the back, many of the students had issues with motion sickness (including Grace). The hike we went on at the top was beautiful though, and I’m really glad we went up. Everyone followed Eli (after CATCHING her - she BOOKED it off the bus...) around in a large circle, then Amanda Font and I ran up to the view point to take some of the most beautiful pictures... That is going to be my facebook status. :) Then Carrie (who had joined us) and I decided to use the ‘bathroom’... meaning behind a bush. We had tried to stall so as few people as possible would be wandering around still, but Jacobo and Alex Z. actually found us... which was almost really awkward. When we all returned to the bus (Alex and Jacobo had been lost), we were almost the last ones – everyone was ready to go except four others missing from the back with us (Eric, Sarah, Atlee and Malina). Nobody had seen them – we tried calling their phones, but they either didn’t have service, or had left it on the bus. We had to wait for about 10 minutes for them, after EVERYONE tried to call them... Eli was NOT happy. Then the decent down the mountain started. By this time it was getting dark – not sure if that made the ride better or worse. We arrived in Sevilla pretty late (I gave up being nice and finally ate my bocadillo in front of Grace on the bus cause I was so hungry), at Hotel Don Paco. Eli made some disgusted comment in English about being sorry that it took us so long, and that next time, we would get a bus driver who knew where he was going. I really hope he didn’t speak English, since she was standing right next to him... This trip Liz (early start) was rooming with me and Amelia, so it was a party! We all dropped our stuff and went out to find food and explore a little (some of us had brought food, some hadn’t eaten yet). Me, Amelia, Sean, Chris, Ethan, Grace, Hannah, Carrie and Amanda Font all went out together, but ended up splitting into two groups. Amanda, Carrie, Grace and I walked further to find some food that was a little cheaper than the others, who were desperate and just needed to eat. We went around the block from them and sat down at a little Italian restaurant. Grace ordered a pizza while the rest of us got a drink (we looked at dessert too, but they were really expensive and didn’t have what we wanted). I got a glass of Lemonchello, which I will probably never request again, and then right before we left we all got complimentary shots – of more Lemonchello. ;) After that our group just went back to the hotel. Most everyone was too tired to actually go out tonight, so it was pretty mellow.Saturday Oct 24th: Breakfast at the hotel – which was HEAVENLY! We met down there around 9 to discover a full banquet of breakfast meats, eggs, potatoes, churros, cheese and jam, and an additional table for breads and pastries, and ANOTHER for fruit, yogurt and cereal. Plus juice and flavored coffees. We were all SO excited – it was something we would have been happy to find for a breakfast buffet in the States! I most definitely had two or three plates of food... including part of a piece of toast that Alex had loaded with apple marmalade, but it was bitter and gross! After breakfast we met downstairs at 10:30 to walk together to la Catedral –
which is the largest Cathedral in Spain and the third largest in the world. It took about 100 years to build the main part, and the tower was added later. We had to split into two groups for the guided tour because there were so many of us, but we had about 2.5 hours in the cathedral, most of it with the guide, and then the tower on our own. The tower was cool because you could tell the passageway was narrowing as you climbed higher and higher, but when you got to the top the view was 
incredible! And all the cathedral bells were overhead as you walked around... :D After la Catedral we got free time for lunch, so Sean, Ethan, Amelia, Chris, Hannah, Shannon (the other Ginger...) and I went to Cien Bocadillos (the chain of little sandwich shops that we went to in Madrid... tiny sandwiches for cheap) and ordered a few each (different ones, of course). We then wandered around back streets for a while before heading back to the hotel to regroup – everyone was meeting back at the Cathedral to walk together to where we would be taking a bicycle tour of Sevilla (led by Eli’s boyfriend, who lives here in Sevilla). Had to split into two groups again, and I was in Grupo Dos, with Eli (at the back) and her boyfriend (leading). The bikes were tiny!! They made me laugh when I first saw them... they almost looked like trick bikes, with their tiny wheels. It was a two hour bike tour, with each group going the opposite directions around the circle and meeting in the middle for a short picture break along the river. It was fun – during the second half, we rode around for a while through a park – around trees, through tunnels, and chasing each other in circles. I especially liked riding through the Spanish Square (I think that was what it was called...), which had tiled images of each Spanish city along the border. We had to carry our bikes over the stair-covered bridge to get into it, but really beautiful! Upon getting back to the starting point, Amelia and I decided to walk back to the hotel instead of waiting for the other group, and she took a short nap while I listened to music. We visited Ethan down the hall for a little, but returned to our room when he decided to go out and buy milk... which was really random. Liz finally got back, so Amelia and I grabbed Chris, Sean and Ethan from their room and went upstairs to the roof (where there was a penthouse pool). Hannah was in the water already, swimming (but it was COLD – Ethan was going to swim until he felt the water). The rest of us watched the sunset and just hung out. Went out for dinner again (we showed the others where our cheap Italian restaurant was, and Grace and I split a pizza). Sean took the Lemonchello shot at the end of the meal, but it didn’t settle well (I think this was the first time he had ever had alcohol...), so he came with those of us who didn’t want to go out for the bar scene, and we hit up the ice cream shop down the street. Sean and I went halfsies on a LITER of ice cream, which was the price of a medium each, and got three types of 
gelato in it. It was SO GOOD!! But we were REALLY full afterwards. ;) I went back to the hotel and went to bed (it was pretty late...), but left the door cracked for when Amelia and Liz came back later (since they were out bar hopping together). They woke me up around 4am when they got back in, but they were both such happy drunks that I didn’t mind.Sunday Oct 25th: EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP!! Amelia and Liz hadn’t believed me when I told them at 4am that they had an extra hour due to the time change, so they made me get up in the morning and check the clock against the TV (after finding a channel that had the time posted). We got down to breakfast and enjoyed another HUGE meal of deliciousness, where Sean and I got immense pleasure out of how many of our group were hung over or just ridiculously tired from being out all night. By 10:15 we had to be downstairs with our luggage, which we locked in a room off the lobby until we left later that afternoon. We then left for Los Reales Alcázares, which is the palace of Sevilla right by the Cathedral. However, there were issues with us entering the palace, and it took almost 45 minutes (and two forms of ID from each person) before they would let us in the gates. THEN, when we were entering, two random younger people slipped in between our group members... meaning that OUR last two didn’t get in. So there was an action-packed moment as Alicia grabbed Caroline (who had seen them cut) and chased them down to make them come back and pay. It was quite scandalous and entertaining... :) BUT: this Residencia Real is the oldest in Spain, made by the same people who did the Alhambra in Granada – so they look fairly similar. However, this Palace still has much of the color in the designs that the Alhambra has lost with age, so although smaller, it is quite gaudy and impressive. This palace was the home of the Spanish kings until the 20th century. We had a guided tour of the palace, and then were given free time in the gardens. We tried a labyrinth of hedges (intended for children, but still awesome), and then Amanda and
I backtracked to get pictures of ourselves with the oldest tree in Sevilla, but small children kept climbing all over it. I’m not sure if we ended up getting a good picture or not... We were given more free time to wander around the gardens some more and get lunch for ourselves before meeting back at the hotel for the return trip at 4:30 – this trip was better, but we still went round and round some intersections... We got into Granada just in time for dinner, which Alex and I inhaled before crashing in bed to get enough sleep for school the next day...
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