Voy pa´ Ronda a ver lo que hay

Bueno...

¿Por dónde empiezo? (Where do I start?) Saturday, the 27 of February, I got the opportunity to go to a city that I had never heard of before--Ronda. It all started when Teljer, one of my friends from GSU, got a recommendation from Dr. Elena del Río Parra, one of our professors from GSU. Neither one of us had ever heard mention of Ronda before, so I mentioned to one of my roommates that we were going to see what all the fuss was about, and she said that Ronda was a beautiful city. Supposedly, she had heard that it was one of the older cities in Spain that had been pretty well preserved and that it sat on a cliff. After speaking with her, I figured it was worth it.

We decided to make it a day trip since the city was only an hour and a half by bus from Málaga. So Saturday morning comes around, and sadly I was not feeling too well. I don´t know how, but I somehow got sick with a cold. When I woke up at 6 am, I was still half asleep because the night before I had not gotten any sleep because I was coughing so much. My alarm had gone off about 15 minutes earlier, and I did not hear it. In my head I was debating with myself--do I go or stay? I started thinking about it and right when I had almost convinced myself to stay, I started thinking about my day if I were to stay. I thought, if I stay, I will regret it so much and just sit around doing nothing thinking about what the other girls were doing in RONDA!

So I get up in a flash, shake off the sleep, and start to get ready. I get down stairs and pick up my bocadillo that the dorm prepared for me and headed to the bus station with Teljer. We end up meeting Michelle and mount the bus to Ronda at around 8 am.

The bus ride was not bad at all. I was so hungry on the bus that I ended up eating my bocadillo and everything else the dorm had prepared for breakfast. While I was eating, I was taking in the experience and was happy to be able to share it with my friends from GSU and with some of the other ERASMUS students we have met here in Spain. We stopped a couple times before getting to Ronda in some smaller towns, which made me want to find out about those too because they seemed interesting. However, I was half asleep on the bus so I did not really notice how long the bus ride was in actuality.

Anyway, we get to Ronda and start walking down to the tourist center of the city. After a couple minutes of walking, we run into this beautiful church. I cannnot get over the architecture in Spain. It is absolutely breathtaking. Then right next to the church is this very large but calm and well kept courtyard. The courtyard has benches and fountains, but in the middle it had a small garden. I thought it was pretty cute. But then when you look down the courtyard, you see a fence and the courtyard almost stops and beyond the fence is just the most beautiful scenery you have ever seen. So I make my way down the courtyard and realize that the couryard is actually on a cliff! I look out over the fence and see rolling hills and green pastures divided by a rushing river. It was awesome! The hills eventually become mountain ranges and it was something like in a fairytale.

As we kept walking, we ran into the oldest bull fighting ring in the country! It was pretty interesting because it is now a museum and the museum had information about everything--arms, knights and chivalry, attire (for both men and women), and of course bullfighting. While there, I thought to myself how awesome it was to be in a place where millions had watched and experienced a famous sport that still lives on today.

After the bullfighting ring, we walked a little and saw the new bridge linking old and new Ronda. This bridge is awesome! You see it and it overlooks the entire tapestry. It is so high up and everything that surrounds it is beautiful! Plus, at the time, the weather was gorgeous, which made everything just 10 times better. When you cross the bridge, you feel like you are in a small little town. It is very cute. Ronda, like many of the other cities in Southern Spain, is influenced a lot by the Arab architecture and design. We went to "La Casa del Rey Moro" which is pretty much a huge ancient home that overlooks the tapestry next to a garden. It also had a mine that led all the way down to the gorge. So we walked down a bunch of stairs to see the gorge, which was gorgeous. Then we had to walk up (talk about a workout!) and by that point the day had become overcast, and it was evident it was going to rain.

We saw the Ayuntamiento and had some delicious tapas--chicken and shrimp skewers! Since the day was started to turn overcast, we decided to check out the Vine Museum as a last hoorah in the fabulous city of Ronda. The wine museum was fairly interesting. We participated in a wine tasting and the rest of the museum explained the process of wine tasting, which I have always been interested in checking out.

Overall, I would recommend Ronda to anyone! It has to be the most beautiful city I have ever seen or at least amongst the most beautiful cities. Spain has so many hidden beauties to it, and I cannot wait to continue discovering more about it.

I am starting to miss my friends a little bit, but I know July will be here before I know it....

Los amo a todos