It has been a long time since I last wrote a blog and a lot has happened. I suppose I shall go in order of the happenings. Over break I went to Spain and had a lot of fun there. But did I stay in just one city? Of course not. :-D On friday my friend Kat and I left for Madrid. We took a night train that was 15 hours long but we slept the first part of it so it was alright. We finally got to Madrid and my friend Beth met us there. We stayed with her and her boyfriend for the whole time that we were there. She was really good to us and we had an amazing time with her. We went to a birthday party where everyone spoke Spanish on saturday night. We stayed out till the wee hours of the morning then had a Spanish specialty called Churros con Chocolate. You dip churros in a cup of chocolate and its pretty sweet.
We walked around a lot at night too. Madrid is in the exact center of Spain apparently and there in a plaque in the exact center of Madrid. It is from this spot that all of the roads of Spain start from apparently.
The next day we woke up and went to the giant market in Madrid and we bought some scarves for super cheap. We met up with our other friend and went to a BULLFIGHT!! We found out later that it was the last one of the season so we had perfect timing. It was so much fun! Kat didn't know that they kill the bulls at the end so she was freaked out, but I thought that it was a fun thing to watch.
Kat and I also went to a few museums. We went to the Reina Sophia and saw some awesome Dali paintings. I fell in love with Dali. There were also some Picasso paintings there. We went to the Prado museum too but I didn't like it as much. We waited in line for so long to get in because it is one of the most famous museums in the world and it was not worth it for me. The paintings inside were by people like Raphael and El Greco and I don't really like their paintings as much as contemporary art. This is me in front of the Prado, on the day that it was closed so there is no one there.
We also took a boat ride. We rented paddle boats and went out on a lake in the giant park in the city. It was beautiful and it was a perfect day for it.
The bad part about Spain is that they had a lot of fast food restaurants. There was a KFC everywhere we went and I am in love with KFC mashed potatoes, as is evident:
Unfortunately there are no burritos in Spain. I was not informed of this before I left so I was really looking forward to a burrito and I was disappointed. They do have a lot of tapas though and we got some good ones. I also learned that Madrid is a city that has a lot of ham. Beth was explaining that the cooks in Madrid try and put ham/bacon/pork in everything that they can, which is not cool cuz it is not my favorite food. But I survived. There was a lot of good food there besides the food with ham.
Kat and I took a day trip to Toledo one day. Toledo is an amazing city. At one time it was in the running to be the capital of Spain, but Madrid beat it out. Toledo is surrounded on three sides by water and the three main religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) have lived there peacefully for a long time.
It is a medieval town too so there are a lot of stories and legends about it. We took a little train around the city and learned about how you can still hear the cries of a princess who jumped off of a building and took her last swim because her dad had not allowed her to be with a man she loved. We walked almost down to the water and explored a lot. It was such a cool town. :-D
On our last day in Madrid we explored a little more. By this time we felt like we knew the city pretty well because we were there for 6 days. We went on almost every metro line and we visited all of the things that we wanted to. The park was one of our favorite places, we were there almost every day. This is me and Kat and Saqib in front of one of the fountains in the park.
This is a really cool place called the crystal palace which was also in the park.
We also found this building when we were walkin around. We were trying to figure out what it was. When we figured it out we were amazed. What do you think it is??
Nope you are wrong....its the post office!!! pretty fancy for a post office huh.
Our next stop was Barcelona. We met up with a bunch of other people from our group in France. In Barcelona, instead of taking the metro everywhere we bought a 2 day sightseeing bus ticket. We got to see all of the things that Barcelona is popular for. We took a skycab up to the top of a hill so we could see all of Barcelona. It was pretty cool up there.
We went to Guell Park and we saw the Sangrada Familia which were both designed/have a bunch of stuff in them by Gaudi. A Guadi house:
We also went and saw a light show. It was so beautiful!!
We also walked around the port a little bit. The bus ride back to Aix from Barcelona took forever and we all just wanted to get home, and when we did I was happy to be back in France. :-D
I have been rock climbing a lot as well. This weekend I am going to learn how to "grimpe en tete" which means lead climb. I am lookin forward to it.
I also got a job. I am babysitting three french kids on tuesday nights and wednesdays. It should be fun. :-D They are all really cool and I will learn even more French!
Well that is about it. Hope everyone is doin well. For the few of you that read this. :-P
