Espana: Parte Dos

Woo hoo - we made it to the 2nd part of the trip!

Day 4:

This was my favorite day in Spain.

I mean, I even got to order my tall, non-fat, vanilla, chai tea latte

Our stop of the day was the royal Alcazar Palace. 

This was the first Moorish palace of Spain and was the most tranquil and beautiful location I have ever been to on earth/

     the court yard

 

This was the royal bath for the King & Queen

While you are at the palace, you basically walk all around the grounds. You can walk inside the palace, to view the many rooms, and then you go outside to the lush gardens. The gardens were built to represent paradise.

Within the Koran paradise has 4 components; fruit on trees, strong botanical smells, lots of greenery, and different colors. *please note that I am paraphrasing

It was breathtaking. 

We took almost 3 hours just walking around the expansive lot taking in the beauty and the smells. It was honestly impossible to feel stress within the palace.....

....unless a bird poops on your head.

Along the grounds, painters were busy recreating the beauty 

That night, we went to a fancy dinner for my cousin Luke's 17th birthday.

I had delicious seafood risotto and rang in Luke's big day 

After some tea, and a pretty funny walk home, we headed back to the hotel because we had an early bus to catch in the morning for Marbella.

Day 5:

Day 5 was our first day venturing out of our little bubble known as Seville.

My mom and I managed to get 8 bus tickets for the 3 hours trip down to the coastal city Marbella.

I couldn't look out the windows because at any given time, it looked like we were going to tumble to our death.

my sister wasn't fazed.

Luckily the horrible bus ride was worth it. 

We stayed in a villa in Marbella that was perfectly sized for our family of 5.

After we freshened up, we headed into "Old Marbella" to have a big lunch around 4pm. 

Michelle Obama was recently in Marbella ("it is the St. Barts of Europe") and dined at this fabulous diamond in the rough

Champagne and Oysters is basically the world's best combination

I had another really good dish (these were few and far between) which was great:

A creamy seafood linguine which I split with mi mama.

After lunch, we took in the ocean, and headed home.

My Mom and Dad and I weren't quite ready for bed so we decided to grab a drink at the hotel bar and take in another flamenco show. 

Day 6:

Day 6 was all about relaxing.

We spent the day lounging by the pool, catching up on books, and drinking pina coladas.

Often times when you travel Europe, you don't get an opportunity to just simply relax. I really cherished this day because I felt like I was able to recharge my batteries.

The beach at our hotel

That night we went to the "port" where all of the rich Europeans like to play.

Yacht after yacht lined the horizon and allowed a lot of really good people watching. (i.e. really rich euro trash)

The port had lots of great stores and I was able to pick up a new pair of Dolce & Gabana shades

We had dinner at a so-so restaurant where I made the worst decision EVER.

I ordered a ceaser salad.

Big, Big, BIG mistake.

the last picture I have of me until Day 8

What happened to Day 7 you may ask? That ceaser salad I ordered decided to murder me. I got horrible food poisoning and spent the entire day making trips running to the bathroom. I had the worst body aches of my life and could barely stand up straight. Thankfully it only lasted 24 hours, but I learned very quickly that it isn't fun to be sick on vacation.

Final Parte Tres on deck!