Madrid

Since Thursday was another holiday and we didn't have school, we had a four day weekend. We decided to use our time wisely and go to Madrid. We left Wednesday night  and took a high speed train (even though it costed more) so it only took two and a half hours. Madrid reminds me of a European version of New York City. There are a lot of tourists, shopping, busy streets, and tall buildings. Don't get me wrong, I love New York City, but it's not what I think of when I picture Spain. I definitely liked it the least out of all the cities I have visited. I was starting to miss the quaint little walking community of Sevilla. Most of our trips are jam packed with activities so we are constantly running around and end up being exhausted at the end of the day so we decided to spread out our activities and try to relax. On Thursday we went to el Museo del Prado and it was really amazing. All of the paintings were so incredibly detailed I could barely wrap my head around how someone could do that without simply taking a picture. And some of the paintings were enormous! It must have taken forever. I officially have a newfound respect for anyone who paints. 

On Friday we went to the Royal Palace! I really, really wish I could have taken pictures inside because it was gorgeous. I seriously wanted to be a princess. There were chandeliers in every room and amazing artwork on the ceiling. There were moldings and sculptures everywhere and they walls were lined with perfectly designed patterns. I couldn't imagine actually living in a place where people tour through your house. Crazy! 

Overall it was a nice relaxing weekend and we got to do some shopping, explore the nightlife, and even get some McDonald's to remind us of home! 

Fun activities!

The following Monday we had a cooking class which was really cool! (Even though I hate cooking). It was great watching everybody else cook though! We made salmorejo which is a soup made with a lot of tomatoes, some peppers, oil, bread, and probably some other stuff. I hate vegetables so I wasn't exactly a fan of this dish. However, I LOVED the other one. We made Tortilla de España (Spanish omelet). I had never had one before, but it was absolutely delicious. It has potatoes and onions on the inside with egg covering the outside. Yuuummmm! I would absolutely mess up making this for myself so if anyone would like to make it for me **hint hint Mom or Urban** that would be wonderful.

The next day, I had to go to something called an "intercambio" for my stereotypes class. We essentially just talked about everyday things with people who were trying to learn English, which I loved because it was a break from struggling to speak Spanish. All of the participants were essentially fluent which was also helpful because we could basically talk about anything. I thought we were going to have to awkwardly ask questions because they wouldn't want to talk but they had so many questions for us! They wanted to know if we like Sevilla, where we had visited, what tapas we had tried, etc. and they told us a bunch of places for us to eat and important sites to visit. So we were both learning from each other and it was a really great experience!

Granada y Cordoba

Since I had to go to the Medieval festival, I couldn't leave for our next roadtrip to Granada and Cordoba with the three girls I was planning on staying with. Fortunately, a group of five other girls were going to Granada the next morning so I rode the bus with them and spent most of the day with them. I don't normally get the chance to see these girls because most of them aren't in either of my classes so it was nice to bond with some new people. When they checked into their hostal, the lady at the check-in desk told us about a bunch of great stuff to do and a restaurant to go to. A restaurant sounded wonderful so we could have a full meal rather than tapas. Speaking of tapas, I hate the entire restaurant process in Spain, but more on that later. 

We went to Restaurante Gallio which was an amazing, fantastic, wonderful, superb (more great adjectives) place. I figured Gallio was a pretty safe thing to order since it was the name of the restaurant. I was completely correct. It was spaghetti with tomato sauce, cream, and chicken which is pretty similar to what I constantly order from the delicious Carlow pasta bar except a million times better. Everyone loved their meals. I wish this place was in Sevilla or Pittsburgh so I could go all the time. Maybe I'll open one. 

We walked around the city for awhile to work off the calories from our meals. I thought Cadiz was amazing but Granada puts it to shame. It is so pretty and quaint and exactly what I picture Spain to look like. Later, I met up with the girls I was originally supposed to go with and we went La Alhambra and the gardens associated with it. It was AMAZING. Every room had the most intricate designs which were all different and lined the walls of the enormous palace. I can only imagine how long it took to do that. And I'm normally not a fan of gardens but it was by far the nicest, prettiest garden ever. We also went to a restaurant that had an absolutely incredible view of La Alhambra and the city. I could have sat there forever. So basically I loved Granada and if you ever get the chance, you should totally go there. 

I wasn't as big of a fan of Cordoba. The city was nice but Granada made it look like a dump. I did, however, love La Mezquita. It has the craziest cathedral in the center which made all of our jaws instantly drop to the floor. I remember saying "how can you take a picture of this?" because without seeing the entire thing, it doesn't look that fantastic. Pretty much all of the pictures from Granada and Cordoba don't do the cities any justice but I love them anyway. 

Let the craziness begin

Unfortunately, I haven't written anything for about a week and a half but I seriously have no time! Have of my time is filled with going to school and doing homework while the other half is doing a ton of fun stuff but sometimes it's nice to just sit around and do absolutely nothing. I'm going to try to split this up so this isn't like ten pages long. 

Five of us went to Cadiz on a day we had off from school. We went to the beach which was one of the nicest I have seen and the day was absolutely perfect! It was warm but not too hot and there was a slight breeze to keep us cool. The ocean was freezing but it actually felt really nice when we were burning up from the sun. We ate at a great restaurant by the beach and walked around the city a little. It was so pretty. I seriously wanted to live there. 

That night we went to a Flamenco show at Fundacion Tres Culturas which was really cool because the dances were in different styles representing the different cultures. You could see how each was different but there were a lot of similarities, showing how the cultures can unite together, ideas we talked about in my Stereotypes class. My class also had to attend a Medieval festival the next night which was strange but fun. I have never been to one in America so I can't really compare it but I pictured people sword fighting in Medieval garb. Basically Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That happened very briefly but it was very modernized which I found strange but I still had fun!