Day 6 of Jordan

Today's plans were all based around going swimming in the Dead Sea.  So we packed up our things, mapped out the route and headed out.

Along the way we came to find out that we could also visit Jesus's baptismal site and decided to that too while in the area.  None of us are super religious but found that it would be intyyueresting to see anyway.  We had just missed the bus and would only need to wait a few minutes for the next one.  

Soon enough we were on the bus with a small group of people and our tour guide.  The actual baptismal ended up being very different from what I had imagined but it was cool to see the ruins. The tour ended on the Jordan river where we could see people on the other side of the river being baptized.  That was really neat to see how other people who are religious had taken this trip to this area for a very specific reason.

Afterwards we headed over to the Dead Sea.  Swimming in the Dead Sea is very relaxing but also hard.  The salt of the water keeps you floating but also very easily flips you around.  Transitioning from the Dead Sea to a pool is also very difficult because you expect that the water will keep you afloat but it does not.

After hanging out in the sun we decided that it was time to find some food and head back into Amman. Afterwards we headed out via taxi to go to happy hour.

Day 5 of Jordan

After a decent nights sleep and breakfast we packed up our things and head out from camp.  After bumping along the wadi for one last time we arrived back at our car. Our next and final destination would be Amman the capital.  It was about a 4 hour drive from Wadi Rum.  The hardest part was getting through Amman traffic to find our hotel.  The hotel that we had originally booked ended up not being what we had hoped it so we packed up our things again and began to search for a new hotel.  With shady internet we did end up finding a hotel that would meet our needs.  Finding that hotel proved to be the biggest challenge though.  After about an hour of driving an asking multiple people we finally made it to the hotel.

After unpacking we decided to head out to find something for dinner.  We found this great place with a good happy hour that would suit our needs.

Day 4 of Jordan

Today was an early morning.  We are off to Wadi Rum to hang out with some Bedouin people.  The day started with us once again attempting to find a quick and easy road out of Petra.  What was suppose to be an hours drive turned into 2.5 hours but the road we took sure did take us to some amazing over looks.  Sadly we did not have a chance to stop and take pictures.

Once arriving at our destination we were greeted by our Bedouin guide and saddled us up onto camels and we began our trek into the wadi.  Our first stop was an area where there was as still a natural after spring that produced a bit of a water.  From this point we joined up with a small French family and the rest of the day was spent bouncing around the wadi in the back of a pick up truck going from one area to the next.  One stop was designated a sand boarding spot where Inara and Damien decided to conquer the mountain and try it out.  Finally ending the day climbing to the top of a mountain to watch the sun set.

Then we arrived at our camp site where we were greeted by more Bedouins, tea, and dinner that they had cooked under ground in a large barrel.  Later some musicians played some music while student from a university exchange program learned how to dance traditional dances.  Damien decided to help the band by joining in as a drummer.  The rest of us just sat on the side lines watching.

Camping with the Bedouin was not exactly roughing it in a tent.  We crawled into a plush and bedded cabin and fell asleep under nice warm blanks.  Sleeping was such a great reward after everything that we had seen and done.

Day 3 of Jordan

Today we left Aqaba and begin our trip back up north with our first stop being Petra.  Petra has been a long time bucket list item and it was a required must do for our trip.  

Getting to Petra seemed easy enough based no the map instructions that we had but we were quickly proven wrong when our car navigation system wanted us to take roads that no longer existed.  With the help of google maps put together with Garmin maps we found our hotel which was right outside of old Petra.  We quickly got settled into our rooms, put on comfortable shoes and headed out on a small trek to see old Petra.

The walk to the treasury was just stunning.  You could either walk to whole way yourself or you could ride a horse or even take a horse drawn carriage.  We walked the whole way since it was not that long of a walk. Plus it was a nice day and we don't get to walk that often.

The treasury was all that I had hoped it would be. Walking beyond the treasury was also interesting to see what other structures there were.  W did not make it to the monastery because apparently that is a 6 hour walk and none of us were ready to quite walk that far.  That could be left for another time.

After exploring old Petra we at down at our hotel's bar to have a few drinks nudged to grab some much needed food.  Ending the night with doing a bit of shopping and finally bringing the chairs in our rooms out onto the balcony and watching the sun set on the city and just reflecting on where we were and how amazing life can be.

If you would have asked me upon graduating from college if I would ever go to the Middle East, I would have probably quickly responded with "probably not".  But to be currently sitting in the Middle East and exploring all of its wonders it prove that life can really take you anywhere.

Day 2 of Jordan

A day of complete relaxation was all that was on the plan for today.  We started the day off with buffet breakfast that included anything that your little heart could desire even pork bacon. The rest of the day was spent on the beach soaking in the sun and watching some stunt planes fly above our heads.

After soaking up the sun we decided to head out into Aqaba to see what the city had.  We ended our wandering at an Irish pub where we ended the night with multiple pitched of drinks and good food.

Day 1 of Jordan

2am is an ungodly hour to have to get up at.  But when traveling, getting up at 2 am is only slightly ungodly.  The pure excitement of traveling helps with the getting ready process.  

Today we flew away form Kuwait for spring break to Jordan.  The trip began with a very very short layover in Doha.  Because our flight was late arriving in Doha we had an even shorter layover.  Thankfully they were loading the plane late too and we all made it onto the flight.  Upon arriving in Jordan we grabbed our bags, stocked up on duty free and headed over to find our rental car.  The trip would continue by car down to Aqaba.

The drive down was absolutely amazing.  Mountains on all sides and very friendly police officers who would continue to welcome us to Jordan along our drive.

After checking in we wandered around the hotel, found dinner and continued to hang out in our hotel room enjoying each other's company. 

Hello it's me again!

A year has gone by and so much has happened but my blog would never know that because it has been ignored.  Sorry blog. Having spent the year working on my masters program, any other type of writing was not on the list of things to do.  Since my last post the major events that have happened are as follows:

Went to Thailand and rode elephants

Enjoyed the Latvian song and dance festival in Latvia 

Traveled around Croatia for the summer with my cousins

Decided that this year was going to be the year that I focus on my teaching and getting out of Kuwait

Rethinking getting out of Kuwait

Signing a 2 year contract to be the grade 3, 4, 5 tech teacher

Celebrated turning 30 in Dubai with my close friends

Visited India for a tech conference

Currently hanging out in Jordan with good friends

Getting back into blogging one day at a time.

Just Google It!

A week has passed since I attending the Google Conference in Dubai, and my head is still buzzing with ideas of how I could use what I learned next year within my classroom.  So many ideas were discussed during the conference that my mind continues to come up with new ideas.  But the goal of the conference was to pick one thing and become good with it.  Do not try to do everything, you might be only setting yourself up for failure.  But picking that one item is the hardest choice.  The options are endless so where do you begin?

I am currently playing around in my head with the idea of using Blogger with my kids.  Each year I have had my students keep a reading journal about what they had read for homework.  Each month I take the time to make a new journal for them that has the perfect layout and gives them structure so they know what to do.  We talk about summarizing and how we do not need to include every little detail but enough for the reader to understand what happened.  We have even talked about reflecting about what we read:  what do you think might happen next, which character was your favorite and why, how would you change the ending of the book or if you were to write the sequel to the book what would you right.  Why couldn't my students do the same task just within a blog?  It seems easy enough, all I would have to do is get my students set up within the blog at the beginning of the year, teach them how to use it, and then let them have fun with it.

But using technology is not just about using it, it is also about using it safely.  One of the lectures that I went to was about internet safety and how to teach students how to be safe on the Internet.  By the end of the session, it still was not clear on how to do this without close supervision of what the student is doing while online.  So now it comes down to not only training the students about safety but also training the parents how to help their child and how to make sure that they are safe.

My other thought was to have my students at the beginning of the year begin a digital portfolio.  Currently, with the help of my mother, I am looking to purchase a bunch of Flip Video recorders.  They are the easiest way for anyone to record a HD quick video.  At the conference there was a show case of students who displayed their work that they were doing in class.  I had the chance to sit with one girl and we looked at her digital portfolio and it was amazing.  Everything from videos to writing pieces were saved online, organized by subject.  It was all there and she was so excited about sharing it with me.  Now this too would take a lot of time but I feel that the students would then really take ownership of their work since the work is being displayed online.  Honestly who wants to post something that is not showing their best work?  The biggest challenge with this project would be getting enough computer lab time to create it all.

Blogger is something that I am decently well acquainted with and I feel that I would be able to do this with my class.  Come to think of it, these two projects could easily be put together.  One blog with multiple tabs across the top (Reading, writing, science, social studies and math).  The reading element could be their daily blog about what they are reading, science could be videos about the labs we have done, writing would be publishing their writing pieces, math could be having them answer a daily/weekly math problem related to what is being taught in class and social studies could be a space for show presentations that were created in class and reflecting on what is being taught in class.

So the conference was not just about blogger. We also got to see how Google Docs would make team projects a lot easier.  Google has created their very own Microsoft type documents.  You can create a regular "Word" document, spreadsheets and even a presentation.  One person creates the document and then shares it with their team members. From there, everyone has the ability to edit the document on their own time.  Everyone from the team can be editing the same document at the same time with each person having their own curser and own font color.  This way the teacher can see who has done what part and if everyone did their equal share of the final product.  The school that we visited said that they have all of their work done through Google Docs and that the students are trained not to delete anything.  Just in case there is a way to go back within a document to see when it was edited and to retrieve any data that had been deleted.  Every step of the way the document is saved.

Another popular tool that I learned about was Youtube and how you have the chance to create your own videos right online.  Youtube has an editor mode where you can upload your videos, use music, splice it all together and create home movies without ever having to download a program.  It looks just like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker and is as simple as can be.  The video gets uploaded right to youtube and can be saved as a private video.

Technology is moving at such a fast pace these days and this conference was so eye opening.  My school might not have wireless or multiple computers in a classroom, but still all of the above mentioned projects can be done and it has made me even more excited about next year.

Why is it that updating a blog is so easy but so hard a the same time?!

Wow an entire month has gone by and what has happened?  Not much.  Life here in Kuwait continues to roll along.  With each day it is getting warmer and warmer which is nice but at the same time not nice because I know that soon it will be ridiculously hot which is not fun at all.  Cause we all know there is only so much you can take off when it is hot outside, even more so living in the Middle East.

So in January, my friends and I took a long weekend's trip to Doha.  They say that Doha is the future and that can be seen all around.  The city is pretty much still being built but it is already quite nice.  Here are a few pictures to show you what we did on our trip.

Since Doha I have been working on my masters program which is also going well.  It has not been as hard as I thought it would be which is good.  But it has been worth it and in the end it will be good to have a masters degree on my CV.

Next weekend I am off to Dubai for a Google Apps conference which I am really excited about.  Only sad thing is that I am the only single teacher going.  Oh well I still think it will be great cause I am friends with the other teachers.

And that, in a nut shell, is all that has happened since my last post.

breaking new years resolutions

Three weeks into the year and I have already broken my resolution of attempting to update my blog more often.  At least I was honest with myself and only attempted to update more often.  Sorry guys!

So since the last time . . . .

Home for the holidays:

Home for Christmas is always my best trip.  No matter where I am, being home with my family for Christmas is the best choice.  Even though it is only for two weeks, it is always money well spent.  This year for some reason it was extremely hard to come back.  Being home felt so nice.  Two weeks is always a mad dash to see everyone and do everything but some how this year it didn't feel that way.  Everything that I did was perfectly planned out.  Christmas with the family, then a few days later up to the mountains to hang out with friends and enjoy some snow, then down to Philly to ring in the new year and finally back home to have the last two days at home.

Some how this year being home has made me consider moving back to the states to continue working.  Being internationally is great, don't get me wrong.  But at the same time can be a bit lonely at times too.  Minka sure does help with her constant love and affection that she gives.

Nearing the end of another decade

29 . . . a few years ago that seems so far away and now here it is.  A week into being a 29 year old and life is still good.  I was born on Friday the 13th so maybe 2013 will bring me some kind of weird luck.  Cheers to hoping so!

Mastering Technology

Course work continues to press on.  Coming to the end of my 3rd course.  This whole masters program has really solidified that concept that I know what I am doing.  It isn't that I am learning much, but it is making me think of using technology in new ways.  I have read some great articles and had some good conversations with my classmates (like facebook in the classroom . . . hmm not sure about that)

Another year in the Sandbox

This week I officially signed on for another year here.  It took me a while to think it through and actually agree with the idea of staying here.  I do enjoy working at my school because of the great opportunities that are there for growing as a teacher.  The amount of support we have is great.  For sure my last year here but I think it will be great.  New opportunities on the horizon and learning experiences.  It will also be a big year, based on deciding where to go next.  Torn between different coasts.  Lots to consider and think about.  Staying is the right choice.  I am not ready to move, plus I would like to finish my masters before that happens.  It will be a busy year.

In a nut shell, that is about it.  heading into a short week which ends with a trip to Doha for the long weekend.  It will be nice to do some traveling again.

Masters Program

Creating a blog here at Blogger.com is quite simple.  All you need to do is decide on what you want to blog about, pick a layout and start typing.  My challenges with this blog are to keep it up to date.  With teaching, you always have to make sure that your blogs are neutral.  Because of that, I decided to focus not just on teaching but also on the traveling that I get to do while teaching over seas and the cultural experiences that I come across.

Wow it has been a while!

Hello from the Sandbox!!

So I am almost positive that I warned you when I started this blog, that updates might get scarce from time to time.  And I have kept to my promise.  But not to worry, I am still here and will try to be better with updates.

So what has happened since Latvia . . . .

A new school year has begun with a new group of students.  My kids are great and school life has been very stable.  I have found a great routine that works for both me and my students and we are successful in working together.

Outside of school I am working on my masters program . . Masters of Teaching and Learning with Technology.  It has been on my list of things to do for a long time and now I am 2 courses done and currently working on the 3rd one.  It is a year long program, so by this time next year I will have a masters in technology.  Pretty exciting!!

With that being said, my current course is having me set up a blog.  So why set up a new one when I can just use this one.  So once in a while you might find a post that seems out of the ordinary.  That is me fulfilling my course requirements.  (Hence the newest post).

I am a week away from being home for Christmas which is really exciting.  I have no idea where this first half of the year has gone.  Time sure does fly when your having fun.

Though I am in a slight predicament . . to stay or not to stay.  I will most likely be staying for one more year in Kuwait but I am conducting a very soft search for what else the world has to offer.

Future travel plans:
January - Doha for a long weekend
April - Bangkok for professional development

My brother is moving to Kazakstan within the next few months so I am sure to travel there too.  And before I know it, it will be June and I will be flying back to Latvia. Wow!!

Life here in Kuwait just continues to be steady and enjoyable.

the first two weeks

Wow the first two weeks have just flown by!  I have a big class this year.  24 awesome kids to train so that we can work together.  The first two weeks really are just training for the year.  We have practiced so much but we have also gotten into real lessons too.  After a while just practicing gets boring so I trick them into practicing by not calling it practicing.  I think it will once again be a good group of kids. Just need to get them back into the school mindset.

During these first two weeks my Masters program has also started up.  For a long time i had planned on  completing a masters program and finally this summer I buckled down and applied.  Teaching and Learning with Technology is the name of my program and it will take a year  and two months to complete.  Its going to be intense.  Each 6 weeks a new class starts.  Already this week we have read two chapters and created an introduction glogster poster.  Here is the poster that I created.  Glogster is a fun program that my kids used a lot last year and I was glad that I finally had the chance to use it.

Even though I am very excited about the entire program, at the same time I feel a bit stressed about getting all the work done on time while also teaching and doing everything for that.

Goodbye Latvija . . Hello Kuwait

My goodness where did the summer go?!  After our trip to Spain and Portugal it seemed like it never stopped.  Since my last post so much has happened.

Pecis flew back to America, I was glad that he could come out for yet another summer of fun in Latvija.

Kaija decided that it wasn't going to be possible to bring her cat back with her over the summer and decided to come back during the winter time to collect him and with hope Latvian citizenship.  Finally discussion is really underway of allowing dual citizenship.  I was lucky, when Latvija first regained independence there was a short time span where people could gain citizenship without giving up another one, IE American citizenship in my case.  So Kaija made her trek home minus the cat but with everything else.  I am pretty excited about all of what she has accomplished this year.  But sadly her cat did not survive.  The day after she left, he decided that enough was enough and passed away among the bushes.  It was a sad moment and very unfortunate.  But at least he was in my yard and not in the airplane.

After that the summer continued to become calmer and quieter.  I went to dinner at a few colleagues houses and started to say the "see you next summers" to all of them.

I got news of a distant relatives mother who passed away too.  So being the only Aivars in Latvija I went and represented the entire family.  Open caskets are not my favorite thing, but I was glad that I went as was the family.

I applied to a masters program.  Its a one year intense program.  Masters of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.  I am pretty excited about it.  It has been in the plans for a long time now and since I am living in Kuwait with not much else to do, I will work my little tail feathers off this year and get a masters degree.

Went to a Lady Gaga concert in Latvija.  Yup she made the trip up north and was stopping in each of the Baltic states if i remember correctly.  Goodness does that girl put on a good show.  Sadly a lot of people in Latvia are far more taller than I am and there for I didn't see much, but a small group of Latvian men pushed me forward to try and get me to a better spot.  In the end I did end up seeing the show a little better.  We were quite far back, but that didn't matter cause the music was great and I even got some good videos and pictures.  Will have to upload those at some point.

Finally My cat and I made the journey back to Kuwait.  The flight was pretty uneventful.  3 hours from Latvija to Istanbul and then another 3 hours  to Kuwait.  Its weird being back but at the same time it will be good to get back into a routine.  The only downer is is that my SIM card for Kuwait doesn't seem to want to work, so I will have to see what I can do about that.  Otherwise nothing much has changed here.  A few more paved roads and building continues to happen all around our apartments.

And I think that is really all that has happened

Back home in Latvija

Sometimes when flight leaves as late as 1:00am its a good thing because you can get on the plane and just fall asleep.  Well that was not the case for me this time.  Not sure why but I did a little bit of reading, played a few games, slept for maybe 1 hour.  Knowing that we were getting in at 6:00am i figured that I would just sleep at home when we get there.

Got home, unpacked a little, attacked the cats with love, and settled down to sleep.  But once again I could not get to sleep, so I continued to unpack and catch up on missed e mails.  Since we had turned off the water heater while gone we had to wait quite a while for the water to heat up again.

It was quite the long day, my mid afternoon I grabbed my laptop, started to watch Hell's kitchen and finally was able to catch a few zzz's.  Being home really does feel good.  This was a hard day though.  at 9:30 I had had enough and gave in.

Over all, I still love Spain and Barcelona is still my top favorite city.  Still not sure what it is that draws me to the city, maybe its the constant movement of people, the internationality,  the beautiful architecture.  I don't know but I advise all of you to get on a plane at some point and visit this pretty city.

Day 17: Madrid

Well rested we packed up our suitcases one final time.  We decided that the smartest part would be to bring them to the train station to lock them up in a locker for the day.  The hostel was going to charge us per bag to be held for the day (like I said, not recommending this place to friends).  From the train station we would be able to catch a quick train to the airport for our 1:00am fight.

We made our way back to the center to find some breakfast and to continue wandering around and checking out the last few things that we wanted to see.  We wandered through a few stores because we had time for it and finally made our way to some tourist attractions and finally making our way to a park were we decided to relax for a bit and enjoy one last sangria.  Gosh sangria is amazing!  Just having a laid back day to wander where we wanted to and to not be rushed was nice. We had a few key places we wanted to see but nothing too big.  After all it was Monday and a lot of places are closed on Mondays.  But thats ok.  By the end of the day we had made it to a small park where there was a statue of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote.  There we spotted an advertisement for Indian food that seemed to fit our price range possibly and we were in the area.  Though upon arriving there it was still closed, but we were hopeful and thought that maybe they would be open for 8.  So we found a restaurant in the area, the same one we had found in Algeciras where we liked the drinks, and had a drink there.  Well upon returning to the restaurant we finally noticed that on their door they too were closed for Monday.  Oh well!  So we wandered back to the touristy area and finally settled for an all you can eat buffet that was decent.  By this time we were now fed and ready to just make our way to the airport.

Another great trip comes to the end.

Day 16 Back to Madrid

This morning we had our final train trip for this adventure. I can't believe how fast it all has come to the end.

We left Algeciras early in the morning, this time have a direct train back to Madrid.  It is clear that we are becoming tired and just about ready to be home again in Latvia.

During this train trip I finished the book "House Rules"  by Jodie Picoult.  Even though its the summer I sill find my self reading books based on children.  This one was about a child who has asbergers who had connections to a murder that had happened in the story.  In the end a really great book, a simple read but good.  I tend to like simple books for the summer because of all the intense reading that I do over the school year.

Upon arriving in Madrid we had figured out about where our hostel was and started to head in that direction.  Based on the address that we were sent in the confirmation e mail we had found on the map the area and which metro stop to get out at.  Well after wandering around the area, we realized that it was not the right address and decided to head to a Mc Donald's to get something to eat and to use their internet.  After re-energizing ourselves and seeing that their address is different on their website, we once again headed out to find where the hostel really is located.  I am not even going to tell you how this place is called because its not worth the stay.  The people there aren't the most friendliest, plus their english was non existent.  But the location was good and the room was fine for the one night we were going to stay in Madrid.

After getting settled we decided to head out to do a little shopping.  Spain has this really cool colorful clothing line called "Desigual".  Not sure if I have told you about them but the clothes are amazing, expensive, but fun.  They were having these pretty amazing sales so it was hard to hold back and not get something.  After that we continued to look for our small tourist items that we collect.

Way back at the beginning of the trip we had found a bar that we liked, so we decided to return there for dinner, because they also had the beloved paella that we wanted to have.  After being stuffed to the gills we decided to walk off all the food for just a bit more.  We wandered through one area that was clearly the area you might go to pick up a hooker.  Quickly leaving that area we found a nice pedestrian zone to walk along.  We found a few places to return to tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our final day here in Madrid and in Spain.  How time really does fly when your having fun.

Day 15: Algeciras y Gibraltar

Today we planned to go to Gibraltar.  I honestly didn't know much about it other than that there were monkeys and it was a really big rock.  We first had to take a public bus to La Linea from where we could walk into Gibraltar.  The 30 minute bus ride was nice because we got to see the local area.  Still not much there which makes me think what do people do here?  There are a lot of apartment buildings but it's can't be that they are all shop owner or having something to with tourism. Then I remembered this is a port area so many of them must work there, either loading or unloading or anything else related to port work. We had to go through past port control to get into Gibraltar.  It was neat being able to walk into a country.  Once we got into Gibraltar we stopped to check out a map of where to go first and try to decided what we would do.  There we met a man who offered us a tour of pretty much everything for a good price.  Seeing all the great distances between the different points of interest, I knew that we would not be able to get to them all on foot.  So we signed up for the tour which worked out nice because it was the three of us and a family of 4 and that was it. He was great he drove us around in a 8 passenger van and gave us some fun facts about the country.  Our first stop was a look out point at the Pillars of Hercules.  It was a clear day so we could seed all the way across to Africa.  Next he led us farther up to caves where there were stalactites and stalagmites.  This was really cool to see because I had never been in a cave like this, also this cave had an area for concerts which I thought was really cool and would be a fun place to see a play or listen to a concert of some sort.  Out side of the caves there were monkeys just wandering around and trying to get you to feed them.  Wile Kaija and I were taking pictures of this one monkey he decided to crawl up the fence and then he jumped onto her shoulders.  He just hung out on her should as if it was something he did every day.  He also did the standard monkey move of picking through her hair.  After capturing a few good pictures we coaxed him to get off. Our next stop was on top of the rock were there were even more monkeys.  Here our guide coaxed a monkey into getting onto our shoulders for nice a nice photo opportunity.  After hanging out with the monkeys for a bit we were ready for our next stop which were the army caves.  In these caves is where the military. Was stationed and from where they shot their canons.  This was also pretty neat to see how it was organized and how well it had preserved itself. From there we returned back to the town to the main pedestrian street and the tour was over.  I thought it was a great tour, the guide was funny and interesting and gave us enough time to see everything.  We continued to explore the city on our own.  We found some lunch and then just warned along the pedestrian street to find our touristy souvenirs.  As we were getting tired the city too was closing down for the mid day siesta.  So at this point we decided to head back to outside of the port to our hostel to relax. In the evening we went out to wander around just to see a little more about Algeciras.  We found some place to eat dinner, found some breakfast and eventually made our way once again back to the hostel to play cards and drink some wine.  A cute small town.  But for all the people who do go there to get to Morocco or Gibraltar they don't seem to do well with tourists.  Aside from our hostel owner, he was quite nice.  Tomorrow we return to Madrid for our final days in Spain.  

Day 14: Algeciras

Another early start to the day.  Today we are heading a little north only to go back down south to Algeciras.  We leave the hostel just before 7 to get to the train station.  Unsure of how long it will take to get there and what time the bus would come, it was better to head out earlier than later.  We arrived at the train station with lots of time to spare which is fine.  It's about 2 hours till our first transfer point, Cordoba.  At that point we transferred trains to get on a 3 hour train ride to Algeciras. On travel days we end up not doing a lot because the trip to begin with is long usually.  Upon arriving in Algeciras we make around the small town to find our hostel.  They have sent us directions but the English isn't that great and some of the directions are a bit hard to read but we made it there with out getting too lost.  Thankfully the town has posted maps in strategic places which were very helpful.  None of the apps that I have about Spain say much about this town.  We are just using it as a place to stay so that we can see Gibraltar.  So with that in mind the town is cute but very empty. After we dropped of our things we decided to go out and wander around a bit. Forgetting that it was mid afternoon, we quickly noticed that mostly everything was closed, so we spotted where the food store was and were potential restaurants for dinner are and headed back to the hostel to relax. After catching up on much needed zzz's. We once again head out to the food store first to get some snacks and some drinks.  Then we wandered around until we found a tapas place that the hostel recommended.  We weren't very hungry so we first had something to drink.  A nice refreshing drink called "tinto verano". It's pretty much. Spritzer with wine.  Very low alcohol content but very tasty.  Later on we flagged down the waitress and tried to order something to eat.  We chose off of their chalk board menus what we thought we might like and in the end did. We finished off the evening by once again hanging out on the roof top terrace drinking wine and snacking on a few things.  Tomorrow we are head to Gibraltar.

Day 13: Sevilla

Today is our final day in Sevilla.  I had read about a palace that was apparently according to the app I have a "must see".  So convincing Kaija and Pecis we all made that our point of interest for this mornings walk. The Real Alcazar was once also a fortress also.  Here you could see beautifully tiled ceilings and walls along with very pretty gardens.  We spent once again quite a while just wandering from room to room.  Some parts of this palace are still used when Spanish royals come to visit. Next it was time to buckle down and find the few touristy things that we wanted to purchase.  For as long as I can remember I have always collected these little spoons.  They end up being nice souvenirs and last Christmas my father gifted me a case so that I could display all of them.  Since moving to Latvia and through all the trips I have been on since then, I have also begun to collect magnets.  These I bring with me and make a great decoration and reminder of all the places I have been.  I have. Scratch off world map that shows me just how little of the world I have been but these magnets make me feel as if I have actually seen quite a bit.  Magnets are easy to find, they are pretty standard for every tourist shop.  While the spoons you can also find in most tourist shops, finding a nice and not so tacky one some times proves to be difficult.  After all I don't just want a spoon, I want a spoon that is pretty and I want to look back on.  With a magnet found I decided to leave finding a spoon for later as we wander around in the evening. We decided to return to our found restaurant and see if we could at least have lunch there.  To our luck that is just how it worked out.  On Thierry menu we had read that for a nice price of 5.95euro you could get a basket of bread, something to drink, a first course and then a second course.  The first course was great, a nice and small burrito with. Few fries.  Hoping the the second course would be of similar size we were excited about our restaurant choice.  though before finishing off our small burritos the second course was upon us and it as a full one!  I had ordered a chicken burger and it was HUGE.  It for sure turned out to be a great price for all the food that we got. And because it was so cheap I didn't feel too bad about not finishing the entire burger. Stuffed to the gills we headed back to our room to rest and relax again.  Sevilla doesn't have that much to see and we had felt that we had seen pretty much all that there was to see.  Until we started to write post cards and realized that we all had a post card of a place that we had not seen.  With time on our side we still had the evening to find this place and according to the map it wasn't that far away.  As we walked in the direction of Our destination we found ourselves among a rally.  One that we could only tell had to do with the economic crisis and the lowering of wages.  We observed for a little and then decided to just continue on our way (by now I had also found my spoon).  We our way into the Parque de Maria Luisa to the Plaza de Espana. This semi circle buidling was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.  Now it is a place you can wander around for free.  We wandered around here for a bit and then decided since we were still quite full from lunch that we would just pick up a few snacks from the food store and sit once again on the roof enjoying the slightly cooler air and each others company.  Tomorrow we are off to Algeciras to see the Rock of Gibraltar and to continue seeing more of the southern parts of Spain.