From One Beautiful Place to the Next: Spain and Morocco

Hey all,

Ryan here--my first official post on our new site. Matt and I just got back from a wonderful week in Spain and Morocco. Both are such beautiful places and we had tons of fun. We started our journey in Madrid—my new favorite city in the world—where we walked around taking in all the beautiful sites it has to offer. The most interesting part of our day was our tour of the King of Spain’s home...or should I say mansion!! It was too bad we couldn’t take pictures in there because it can be simply hard to believe someone can live in such a stunning place. The King’s palace was not the only breathtaking place in the city. Great arches and buildings and even the bull fighting arena are just marvelous to look at. It was also fun to practice some of my Spanish with the locals—I can’t say I’m any good, but at least I was able to communicate!

Than off to Morocco we went, another beautiful place to visit. The city we went to is called Tanger, right on the Straight of Gibraltar. The weather was so warm (mid 60’s) and the view was stunning. Unfortunately, Matt and I got a little intimidated by the swindlers in the city, so we spent most of our time near our hotel. Not a bad thing since it was right on the water. But it was a fun time to play games and even talk science, which is always a treat for me .

To finish our travels, we stopped in Toledo, Spain, a suburb of Madrid, to visit our friend Sarah Ruszkowski whom we met at ND Vision this past summer. Sarah was able to show us around the town and take us to the popular hangout spots to experience the local food. I must say I have fallen in love with churros con chocolate a whole lot!! We had this for breakfast one morning and it was to die for!! Then again, anything that involves sugar and chocolate is good for me .

Matt and I arrived back to Belgium safe and sound and now we are getting ready to start classes this week. It will be great to settle down and get into a nice routine over the coming weeks. Even though we’ve been here for seven weeks already, we really haven’t been “here” in Belgium, but out and about. Our next adventure will hopefully take place in Dublin, Ireland in about a month, which we are already starting to make plans for. Can’t wait to see what else Europe has to offer!!

In Christ,
Ryan Pietrocarlo