Wow, what a weekend! This weekend we took an overnight trip (Sat+Sun) to Extremadura with CIEE and it was absolutely amazing. Saturday was definitely one of my best days in Spain so far. Initially, a bunch of us were thinking of skipping this trip to go to Lagos, Portugal, instead because many Spaniards told us that Extremadura wasn’t very interesting. But we later realized that it was just a vague question–Extremadura is a region of Spain, just like Andalucía, and thus it really depended on which cities we were going to in the region. Prior to this trip, I had never heard of the Extremaduran towns we went to (Merida, Trujillo, and Caceres) since they are so small, but each was spectacular in its own way and honestly, they are truly underrated.

               Sleeping on the bus was a little rough on my neck. I should definitely have invested in a neck pillow. I almost bought on before I got on the plane to Spain, but I figured that I didn’t really need it since it was only a 7-hour plane ride (and I’ve been on 14-hour ones to Asia). Apparently I didn’t think ahead to all the bus riding I’d be doing! I also decided that traveling with a group is the best thing ever because I don’t need to worry about a thing! I don’t need to know where I’m going because I always have a guide, there are always tons of people to take pictures for me, busses magically appear as soon as we need to hit up the next destination (also carefully selected and pre-planned for us), and room and board are all taken care of as well! I don’t know what we’re going to do in Barcelona on our own after being so pampered.

            Merida is the capital of Extremadura and is famous for its ancient Roman ruins. It has an amphitheatre and theatre that are fairly well preserved, especially the theatre. An amphitheatre is the typical circular Colosseum-like stadium of the Roman Empire and it was used for violent shows and games like gladiator fights. Theatres, on the other hand, are semi-circular auditoriums with a straight stage across the front. This setup provided great acoustics and was used for musical performances and drama. Our tour guide, Angel, actually made me sing from the bottom of the theatre and people all the way up top could hear me! It was really fun, but I wish I had actually prepared a song. I kept messing up the lyrics to “Belle” (one of my favorite Disney songs). After our tour, we had our bocadillos and then we went shopping, which in retrospect was probably not the best use of our time especially since we went to stores that we already have in Sevilla. While others returned with tales of ancient monuments and beautiful bridges, I returned with the less impressive sentiment of having almost bettered my wardrobe (I didn’t even buy anything).

The Amphitheatre in Merida

The Theatre in Merida

Trujillo is dubbed by many guidebooks as “one of the most perfect little towns in Spain” and “the gem of Extremadura” for great reason. It may well be the most beautiful, quaint little town I have ever seen. Before we even had our tour, however, we rested and marveled in our palace of a hotel. Literally. Our hotel was called Palacio de Santa Marta and it legit was a palace for royalty before it was converted to a hotel. It was hands down the coolest place I’ve ever stayed in. Amidst all the modern furnishings, some of the hallways preserved characteristics of a medieval castle and the juxtaposition of the marble steps with gray stone walls was absolutely beautiful. The whole night, my friends and I could not get over how gorgeous our rooms were–especially Ginny and me. Our hotel room was absolutely enormous–definitely the biggest I’ve ever seen for two. It had a living room with 3 couches, a long entrance hallway, and two showers! The furniture and flooring were all made of a dark mahogany wood and I seriously felt like royalty in that room. We just kind of wanted to chill there all the time and watch TV. The other two rooms weren’t nearly as big, but they had balconies with stunning views of the town.

Hotel: Palacio de Santa Marta

I was a little surprised at how much Trujillo looked like the perfect little Italian town rather than Spanish. I suppose that Spain and Italy are just really similar. We took soooo many pictures during our tour–especially at the famous castle (Alcazar) atop the hill. When we first got to Trujillo, Maria told us that the night we were staying there happened to be Trujillo’s Feria night (equivalent to Sevilla’s Semana Santa), and that’s a big claim, but I didn’t expect much considering how small Trujillo is. It’s also a retirement town so I thought that the Feria would be mostly filled with old people. Oh how wrong I was–nothing could have prepared me for that fantastic spectacle. After an extremely shady walk through the deserted, dark streets of the town (we were nervous even in a great of 8), we arrived at the Feria completely stunned to find an exact replica of your typical American summer carnival. At least at first glance it seemed the same, but this Spanish version was 100% more spectacular. Not only did were there food vendors and games similar to those at American carnivals, but there were also tons of little booths that sold cheap clothes and bags. And the rides were absolutely insane. I so wish that I had brought my camera to the Feria. My absolute favorite was similar to our “Monster/Scrambler” (basically you sit in a cart of 3 and go around in a circle and up and down in the air), but the Spanish version was so much more intense. For 3 euros, our ride lasted almost ten minutes and we got so much air each time the ride jerked down. The best part though, was the men in somberos (I mean live people) doing a choreographed dance to Danza Kuduro (best song ever, check it out!) on top of the ride machine, on the carts, and in front of the machine. It was hysterical! I literally could not peel my eyes away because I’ve never seen anything like that in the United States. The ones dancing in front of the ride were so close to the carts that I was just waiting for the moment that one of the carts would come crashing down on a dancer. Liability is clearly not an issue in Spain.

There was also this other ride that was kind of like a see-saw pirate ship and people were in cages on the ends. There was no safety mechanism though–people just held onto bars and kicked their legs up in the air. If anyone had slipped, it would not have been pretty (again with the liability). However, the most shocking ride I saw was the merry go-around: instead of plastic ponies, they had real ponies chained to the center. They also had a ride just like the Claw at Hershey Park, but it went all the way up vertically in the air (doing 360s). We don’t even have a ride like that at a real amusement park, let alone a temporary carnival! Nope, none of these rides would be legal in America. And at the entrance of the carnival, they also had 3 big tents that served as clubs/bars (each played different music). The whole experience there was so much fun. And again, I could not get over the dancing men.

We left for Caceres this morning after a delicious hotel breakfast (I am in love with chocolate-filled croissants), and although it’s more famous than Trujillo, I still liked Trujillo much better. After all, it’s pretty difficult to top our hotel and Feria experiences. After our tour of the town’s historic center, we had a huge 3-course lunch. We all thought that there was just one course, so we stuffed ourselves with our first course and bread, but then the food just kept coming! After lunch, we hopped on the bus to return to Sevilla. It was really an awesome weekend.

Our Tour Group in Caceres

Location: Trujillo, Spain