Stef on Stuff: Ronda is Gorges and the Nunderwear

Today, Ithaca was put to shame.

A year and a month ago, the Plauts, the Groners, and the Medins dropped three very special kids off at Cornell and took a mini trifam trip around Ithaca. We hiked a gorge together. It was excellent. But I was wearing sandals and I complained once we got halfway because it all looked the same.

Today, I was footwear winning in my cheetah Sperrys when Sarah Lanners and I randomly and somewhat accidentally ended up descending and ascending a gorge with a 300 year old bridge stuck inside of it. Just see the pictures and stop breathing. I did, but it was real life.

We got to this point by waking up pre-dawn to get on a bus to Ronda, a pueblo in southern Spain. I passed out on the bus so when we showed up in Ronda, I was completely unaware we were actually mid-spectacular mountain range.

I'd seen this dumb poster of Ronda in our classroom every day of orientation and had thought they just juxtaposed the only cool things in the city onto one image and magnified this cliff-cleft with a bridge and waterfall plunging through it.

Nope. All real.

First was a simple and sweet tour of Ronda's world-famous bullfighting plaza. Kind of wished I'd gotten Jesus to tell me all these things about bullfighting before I saw my corrida - now I know those bulls cost upwards of 6thou euro and a matador can make more than 140,000 euros per bullkilling event, which he may be invited to 80 such occasions per year. New professional consideration?

We walked through the entire city (it's not that big) to some incredible views cut out of a mountain and then crossed a bridge from Arab rule to the ancient Arab baths. They were little, implying that back then, people were littler. The doors were perfect height for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 3-d visionvideo of how things were when the Arabs ruled the land, so I was inspired to seek other cultural experiences after Jesus dropped us at an incredible set of scenic views that looked just like Cordoba and the Tayelet that I went to in Israel. The whole Mediterranean zone is rather stunning.

Sarah agreed to go to do something cultural with me while others sought out ice cream/beer/tapas. I only had 3.38 euros so it turned out I couldn't even pay to visit a church. Or another church. Or a thematic bandolero museum. Or a municipal museums. None of those should cost money.

Anyway, we ended up sneaking into some courtyard of a Cloister convent. The nuns living there never leave, but they do wash their underwear and hang it in a public window. I have now seen "nunderwear." Funny that they'll never leave but in a sense have now been far over-exposed to me.

After finding Jesus (see photo), Sarah and I continued to get lost throughout Ronda's crazy streets and ended up climbing down the gorge, under the bridge, and into a pot. Pictures are really the only explanations for these statements.

If you're ever in Spain, go to Ronda. The hike I took down that gorge in my Sperrys was one of the most satisfying adventures ever. Plus, we met a cute German unistudent studying English and he chilled with us under the gorge. Casual. Whatever. #MyEurotripLife.