Birthday festivities and Ronda!

Yesterday was Mary Carr's birthday! Friday night we started celebrating when Cristina made her a cake and then we went out for tapas downtown with friends.

Cristina's tarta... we can't exactly call it cake (a flan with thin cookie slices and chocolate sauce more or less)...but it was pretty delicious for something non chocolate-on-chocolate fudge-on-chocolate (my first preference for birthday cakes)

At Tablerna el Papelon I ordered a GREEK SALAD knowing the risk that it could turn out to be a big let down or everything I could dream of and more, and it was the latter; and a glass of vino rioja...all for 5euro. Oh balsamic and cucumbers how I've been missing you.

It turned Mary Carr's birthday at midnight, so we all sang to her at our second tapas bar where friends ordered paella, chocolate caliente, chocolate con churros, and bull's tail. We all wanted to take it easy because bright and early Saturday morning we were headed to Ronda! It's a city about 1 1/2 hours away by bus. 

I had heard the sights here were incomparable, and I'm always up for a hike, and it was a birthday occasion, and we wanted to do something different from the usual weekends of sleeping in until 2pm... so it seemed like it was the perfect trip to take. I can only really describe this little quiet, sleepy town as magical.

I fell asleep on the bus on the way there, but when I woke up halfway through the ride, this was the view outside the bus window.

When we arrived everyone was pretty much immediately hungry, so we had an early lunch in an awesome little restaurant. We were the only one's there, so the man (left, back of the picture) that owns the bar loved chatting with all of us. His son (took the picture) works in the restaurant but is also a professional bull fighter and is rather famous. His dad was more than happy to show us photos of his victories; he was so proud. It was so cool to be around them; they genuinely wanted to strike up conversation- and I definitely couldn't  complain about the food. He also made my hot chocolate extra chocolate-y. The group in the pictures is the 6 of us from UNC (MC, me, Chloe, Emily, Eric, Tim...we all got so lucky as far as being put in houses within a few minutes' walk from each other. It makes getting together so much easier), and we were also joined by 3 other girls from another program that we've met so far in Sevilla. After lunch, it was time to explore.....

 There's two parts to the town-- old and new (new being built after the Spanish Civil War). They're separated by a massive dam/bridge. The town on both sides is built into the cliff.

It was crazy to start from up top and as we hiked our way down get to see the town from further and further away.

The six of us. Love you guys! And happy birthday MC!

In other news, I've spent all of Sunday in bed. Watched Vampire Diaries, Revenge, Modern Family, Shutter Island, Bounty Hunter, and an episode of Full House. Took 2 naps. Laid in child's pose in bed for a little bit to stretch out my back which has been so sore lately...but didn't bother to roll out my yoga mat for it...too far across the room. I can't wait to start going on weekend-long trips to avoid this Sunday trap, as I like to call it. For now, I'm settling with the fact that there's nothing to do on Sundays (no stores open, gym closes at 2, senora sleeps all day) and the city of Sevilla is basically asking you nap all day long. I got out of bed to eat lunch and then to eat dinner (a very bony fish, and then tortilla de patatas with chorizo). First day of class starts Monday! But not until 5:30 pm........what to do all day until then??