oh hello, neglected blog of mine

wow, it's been over a month since I have last written. Sorry about that, guys. posting pictures on this slow computer is proving very difficult, so until then I'm just writing. This is for the fam: happy easter! wish i could be there with you guys.
today is the last day of our semana santa break. i started out in tarifa, the furthest south you can possibly go in europe, and i saw africa! so excited to go to morocco in 2 weeks. we took a side trip to gibraltar, got to speak some english, went up the rock and saw the monkeys etc etc. i got some interesting pictures of the monkeys. they are so used to people that one of them even knew the guy who drove the van that took us up the rock. i didn't expect that at all: i knew we were going to see some monkeys, but i didn't know there would be so many of them and they would come right up to us.
tarifa is an awesome city. it's really small: you can walk across the whole city in about 25 minutes, but it's a huge kite surfing hotspot because it's so windy all the time (and i mean ALL THE TIME). it was amazing to be able to see people getting pulled up 20 feet into the air while lying on the beach. we saw a few semana santa processions there, but not like the ones we saw later in cádiz and back in córdoba.
after 3 nights in tarifa (i didn't want to leave), we spent a day in cádiz. i was excited to see the place without all the carival stuff going on, and it's a really nice place. we saw the end of a procession where they walked into a church and the marching band exploded into a beautiful song. i'm not sure if you guys know this but during the processions a group of men carries a giant thing, usually with some statue of jesus or the virgin mary on top down a few streets and then ends it in a church. we saw them practicing all around córdoba for weeks because the thing ways a few tons. definitely impressive! oh and i also did something in cádiz that i've always wanted to do: i tried sea urchin! i ate it raw right out of the shell with a spoon (the old man told me to eat it "como yogúr" like yogurt). it tasted like the smell of the sea, if that makes any sense.
after our day in cádiz, we took a bus to sevilla and then an overnight bus to lisbon. this was my second time in portugal and i loved it even more! it's a beautiful city. a lot like san francisco, actually. it even has golden gate and bay bridge look-alikes. oh and the portugese are my favorite people in the world. so nice! and there was a flea market right by our hostel that was just like the flea markets at home, if not better. i went to one last week in sevilla and it was alright, but this one had all the good stuff: old cameras and records, antiques, local artists selling their work etc. i bought a painting straight from the lady who painted it, which always feels great. once again, i didn't want to leave, but my friend said when we left tarifa that you should leave a place before you get bored with it, so then you'll have a reason to come back. and i'm definitely going back to all of those places someday.