When I told people we were going to Seville for only a day, they looked at me like I had two heads. Why are you going back to Spain, you already went? Why only a day? Why didn’t you plan to go earlier?
WELL, long story short, we planned several different trips that ended up being back to back. The whole point of going to Seville was to get to Morocco. We had been trying to get to Marrakech all semester, but flights to and from Amsterdam were crazy expensive. The only truly cheap place to fly to Morocco from? Spain. So we figured it out: fly from Amsterdam to Lisbon, spend 2 days in Lisbon, take an overnight bus to Seville (saves a ton of time!!), spend half a day in Seville, then hop on our 20 dollar flight to Marrakech for 24 hours.
Yeah, I know we’re crazy. I know this sounds like a lot of travel, and it was, but as I repeatedly told myself throughout the semester, “When else am I going to be able to do this??”
So, after our two days by the sea in Lisbon, we arrived in Seville just before sunrise. We had planned to take pictures as the sun came up in the Plaza de España, but the cloud coverage had other plans for us. So if it looks like all of the photos were taken at night, keep in mind that it was about 6:30 in the morning.
We definitely didn’t mind the clouds though, because this place was beautiful. Since it was sunrise, the plaza was completely empty and allowed us to take photos without any tourists there to ruin our shots.
Clearly my blue and white obsession was fueled by my semester abroad. 
I could have spent all morning running around the Plaza, snapping pictures and pretending it was my own private palace. But, hunger prevailed so we set off to explore the rest of Seville.
This picture is the most accurate representation of me. Coffee in hand, ruining my own shot. Also, in case you’re wondering why I’m fully covered in sweltering Spanish heat, we had changed into our Morocco outfits in preparation for our flight that afternoon.
We wandered back to the Plaza, eager to see it in fully daylight. While it was full of tourists, the colors were brighter and the fountains were in full swing.
I fell in love with Seville pretty quickly, and instantly regretted not spending more time there. I would love to dedicate a whole vacation just to Spain, since I feel like I didn’t see nearly as much as I wanted to.
With a few more hours to kill, we wandered to the Alcázar of Seville, an old palace built by Muslim rulers. Seville is located in the Andalusia region of Spain, once known as Al-Andalus from the 8th to the 15th centuries. Seville is a perfect example of the old Moorish architecture; when we walked onto the palace grounds, I thought we were already in Morocco.
The interior of the palace looks like an ancient Moroccan building, with stunning mosaic tiles and intricate details.
Now that you have enjoyed the pictures of Alcázar, here’s a fun story about how Tori and I almost didn’t make it to Morocco. Somehow, while we were exploring, I wandered off and ended up getting separated from Tori. Long story short, I spent over an hour running around the palace, asking the security guards in my elementary school Spanish to find her, calling her name in the gardens, asking the tourist office for help, until I realized that our flight to Marrakech was in an hour and a half. I thought, “If I were Tori, where would I be?” And I knew that there was no way she was skipping our Morocco trip, and was probably already at the airport. Not wanting to risk the bus, I hopped in a cab and, by some miracle, ran into Tori as soon as I walked into the airport. Moral of the story- sometimes you have to anticipate what your travel companion is going to do, and while it might seem crazy, we made it to Morocco without any other problems.
I have some kind of crazy story from nearly every trip, but getting lost in Seville was probably one of our most dramatic. But study abroad is all about making memories, and sometimes those include stories of nearly missing flights. Studying abroad teaches you to figure things out, to learn on your own, and to learn all about yourself while seeing the world. Yes, it’s stressful, but I would never trade any of my experiences. 
