Day trip to Lorca, Spain

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I published anything, but I've been taking photos of stuff so I'll get everyone caught up on what's been going on.

Yesterday I went with a group to a city called Lorca. It's about an hour southwest of Murcia. It was a great, great day! We caught the (really early) bus at 6:45 am and were on our way. It was weird to think that as I was waking up and starting my day, it was midnight back home and everyone's day was winding down. Anyway, when we got to Lorca, we grabbed a cafe con leche (a latte, basically) to help us wake up. Cafes con leche are going to be my downfall - I drink one, like, everyday. :) They're just so gooooood. I can't resist them. After we had coffee, we just started walking. Here are some pictures of the local streets.

After wandering the streets a little bit, we went into the tourism office and they gave us a map and circled the things that they thought would be interesting to us. We went in to the Museum of Archaeology and then we climbed to the top of the hill and took some great pictures of the view of the city. Here are a few of those:

The city was so beautiful. There's so much tradition and history everywhere. Another thing I'm really starting to love -- people-watching. Not in a creepy way or anything, just looking at people as they walk by and seeing their outfits and the way they carry themselves and interact with others on the streets.

The full album of photos of the trip is on Facebook! Mom, you'll have to ask Claire or Rhett to show them to you. :) Also, the full album for our tourist day will be on Facebook soon. Hope you all enjoy!

Another thing that I saw earlier this week: as we were walking down the street called the Gran Via, we saw a group of people gathering in the street with candles. We asked a woman on the street what was going on, and she told us that it was a protest against the pay/budget cuts by the government. We kept walking, and within the next hour the street was full of people walking toward the main government office in the city. Everyone had candles and was walking really slowly. You couldn't see in either direction where is started or ended. We read later online that there were over 60,000 people in attendance. It made me feel both really awestruck and a little eerie. It was really quiet and somber. Here's a picture of what it looked like:

That last one is a little blurry, but you get the idea.

Also, I wanted to say that I truly appreciate that you took the time to read this blog. I know that everyone is very busy, and you don't know how much it means to me to have everyone be so interested and involved and supportive of me. Love each and every one of you. :)