Sorry I haven’t updated in so long…we went caving in Parrano, which entailed harnessing ourselves so we could climb down the mountian on ladders and then into the actual caves, where some places required us to crawl on our bellies through guano to get to the next chamber…good stuff…

Fall break started last Thursday, and my friends Meghan and Matt are doing a mini-tour through Spain. We started in Seville, which is a city of flamenco and bullfighting and rooftop terraces…The weather was perfect, and one memorable night we sat atop the roof, ate homemade couscous and listened to some other hostel guests jam with their guitars, flamenco style…incredible. We saw the Cathedral (holy crap, is all I have to say) and the juderia neighborhood of Santa Cruz and the bull ring and a flamenco show…the flamenco show was incredible. There was a singer, a guitarist, and 2 dancers. The singer, who could not have been older than 25, sang with such emotion and power that it seemed that his face aged to match the sorrow and intensity of his song. The male dancer was clearly more experienced and i can’t say I’ve ever seen a man’s feet move so fast…

Granada is cheap and permeates the North African influence that ruled it for centuries. Today we saw the Alhambra, which took literally 5 hours, and yesterday was the Albayzin, the old Muslim neighborhood that houses the last mosque in Granada.

Tomorrow is Madrid, and then back to Rome on Saturday night!