The Beginning of the End... Ibiza Island :)

For those of you that are following this blog... and who receive updates... I know this is VERY delayed. I have finally gotten around to writing about our last trip in Spain... the last big excursion of my study abroad experience. I have written this mostly for my benefit, but definitely still for all who are listening. I do not want to forget all the wonderful things that happened for both me and my friends while abroad. I wanted to write these experiences down to have something to come back to years down the road. Memories fade... I'm sure we all know this all too well. I want to have a way to relive all of the crazy, fabulous moments of my my time in Europe. So, if you are going to read this post... you deserve warning, it's LONG :) but it is good. Our last trip was amazing. And it was a good end to the trip. I will never forget my time abroad. And I appreciate all of you who followed along with me right here on this blog. You gave me a reason to share and a reason to remember. So, thank you. I hope you have enjoyed listening to my stories, and I hope to hear some of yours in the future.

Here it goes...

On the beach in Ibiza!! :)

Ibiza was probably the most relaxing trip I have EVER been on. We spent the days leading up to the trip cleaning and packing, all in preparation to head back home! It is unbelievable how quickly the time went by!! There was definitely moments when I felt as though I had been there forever and I was excited to go home; but now, it is so bittersweet to be home. But more on that later… first, IBIZA! We took the bus to Barcelona this time because it ended up being cheaper to fly out of there as opposed to Madrid. We then took the short flight over to the island! Even flying in over the beach was beautiful! We landed and stepped out of the plane to be greeted by the warm summer breeze and palm trees at the airport! We knew it was going to be a good trip. In an effort to save some money (always the penny pinchers!!) we decided to take the bus to the center of town instead of taking a taxi to our hotel. We did end up saving money, and getting our exercise!! It took us a while to find the hotel… but, a few nice people and wrong turns later we arrived! We stayed a place that actually rented out little apartments as hotel rooms. We had a bedroom, bathroom, living area, and a little kitchenette! We even had a cute little balcony overlooking the hotel pool. And it was so cheap for all that! Traveling in Europe really was so much more inexpensive than I expected. My money went so much farther than I thought it would, which is great because it allowed me to do all of the traveling! Anyway… our hotel really wasn’t that far from two different beaches, which was very nice. We arrived at the hotel about mid-day on Tuesday and headed right for the beach! We relaxed most of the day on the beach, enjoying the sand between our toes and the cool blue water on our bodies! The water was absolutely beautiful. It was so blue and so clear! It was so nice to swim in! And coming from me… that means a lot!! J It was nice to be able to take a dip after lying on the hot sand for a while. Later that day, we ate dinner a cute little beach-side restaurant. After a long day of travel and beach time, we decided to relax in the room for the night. We took a nice little swim in the pool and then watched some TV before hitting the hay. Wednesday we slept in a little and then took a little walking trip to the other side of town. We had to walk to the Gran Hotel to pick up tickets for the Ibiza Music Festival that was happening that weekend. It was loooooonnnngggg walk in very warm weather, but it was still nice! We got to see the other end of Ibiza Town and stop in at the tourist office. On the way back, we plopped down at the other beach near our hotel and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon there. For dinner that night, we actually bought some pasta and cooked dinner in our little kitchenette. It was yummy and much cheaper than eating out! Thursday, we decided to take a day trip! We traveled across the island to a town called San Miguel. There we visited old caves that were used for smuggling expensive goods like gold. We took a little tour and got to see the insides and everything. The caves were on the side of the mountain so it provided an AMAZING view of the island and the sea!! It was breathtaking. After the caves we decided to take advantage of our day trip and visit a beach on that side of the island. It was a SO INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL. It was interesting because the beach was very different from the ones by our hotel. The sand under the ocean was much more “pebbley”. But that actually made the water look even prettier. And the beach itself was much more family-oriented. There weren’t as many young people. It was kind of nice. J After the relaxing afternoon in San Miguel we headed back to the other side of the island on the bus. That night we walked to the old part of town, inside the old fortress!! It is like a whole other town inside the walls of the old castle. We walked all the way to the top of the open area of the fortress for our DAVID GUETTA CONCERT!! We got there early so we were able to be in the front row J (although I later decided this was a bit of a bad idea… you’ll see why). It was such an incredible experience to share with friends. We were against the front rails of the concert arena... soooo close to David Guetta. He was such a cool performer and really connected with the audience. You could tell he was just as happy to be there as we were. You could feel the beat of the music in your whole body, which made everything so real. At one point, David Guetta even reached out to my friends and me with the famous heart! In one word... it was AWESOME. We left the concert so happy and still waiting for our hearing to come  back. On the way back to the hotel we stopped to get some food. It was there that I realized that I still had no hearing in my right ear!! My left ear was fine and everyone else’s hearing had already returned. I figured it would eventually come back. We settled in that night… so tired. I still had no hearing at this point and my ear was ringing SO LOUD. We slept in a bit the next day. I woke up… still no hearing and still ringing! At this point my ear began to hurt. But, we hit the beach for the last time on the trip and enjoyed a final day of relaxation. The weather was a bit cloudy on Friday, but it was still nice to drift in and out of sleep on our towels in the warm air. The whole day my ear was still bothering me… no hearing, loud ringing and it just felt like I had cotton stuffed in it. I took some acetaminophen and was comforted by reassuring texts from my momma that everything would be okay. J  We were scheduled to attend a second concert that night… but no big names were set to perform at this one. I decided to skip out on that event and get some extra rest to help heal my ear. My roommates went, and said it was a good time. I’m sure it was, but it was definitely the right decision for me to say home. The next day, Saturday, we woke up and traveled to the airport. We headed to back to Barcelona by plane. After the quick flight we traveled back to Pamplona for our last time by bus.

I know all of you are probably wondering… did I get sunburned really badly?! Well, I did burn, but not as bad as expected. I only burned from the times we were walking around town. On the beach I was protected by SUPER STRENGTH sunscreen… or at least that’s what I liked to call it. J The stuff was amazing. I could put it on once and lie in the sun, go in the water, lie in the sun again… and no burn!! They must use much stronger chemicals than we do (makes you wonder what’s in there J haha)

Also, I did find out later that I most likely broke my eardrum at the concert. That’s what I get for being too close to the speaker!! I am so LUCKY that I fully recovered and regained hearing in my ear. And, the ringing is gone!! But, I did learn my lesson and I will no longer sit so close. Or, I will at least use earplugs.

And then the end became real...

It was sad returning for the final time, knowing we wouldn’t take any more trips. But it was comforting at the same time. I think a part of all of us was ready to go home. We arrived with only a few days left before departure. We spent the next few days cleaning, packing, and enjoying that last bit that we could of the city of Pamplona. We ate gelato, drank wine, and walked the streets we had become so comfortable with in our time there. We said goodbye to the city that had become our home away from home.

The trip home was a fiasco. After the 6 hour bus ride to Madrid, the flight was delayed and delayed due to “technical problems”. We were boarded and de-boarded several times. Finally the flight was cancelled until the next day. Lucky they put us up in a nice hotel and fed us yuumy food. J We flew out the next day and enjoyed a wonderful homecoming with our parents!!

It’s been 4 months that I have been home now. This experience changed my life. I have a different perspective on the world and a better understanding of other cultures. I have made so many new friends and I have grown so much as an individual. I feel like I can do most anything now. If you are reading this and you have the chance to study abroad… DO IT!!! J

Stephen's Visit - Semana Santa!!

Stephen got here Thursday April 21st!!! :)

We spent the first few days relaxing here in Pamplona.

Estella

Easter Sunday we went to Estella! It is a little town about and hour from here. We went by bus, to see the Easter craft show they were having. There were so many vendors with so many different types of things. From cheese, to leather, to woodwork.. we got to see a lot! It was a little rainy in the morning, but luckily the rain held off for most of the time we were there. It was neat to be there for cultural event, which is what I wanted Stephen to experience. After the craft show, we walked around Estella a bit and explore the beautiful park on the outside of the town. We caught the 7:30pm bus home. When we got back to Pamplona.. we explored the city a bit. I showed him the bull fighting ring and the old part of the town. We did a little souvenir shopping and then walked up to the look-out point at the edge of the city. It was nice because he got to see the whole city.

San Sebastian

The next morning we head out to San Sebastian. It is a coast town about 45 minutes from Pamplona and it is beautiful. We spent two days there.. but, unfortunately, the weather was really sucky. :( Monday we walked around town a little, saw the beach, and had a yummy Spanish burger at a nice littler restaurant by the beach. Tuesday, we went to the aquarium! It was the best part of the trip. The fish and other sea creatures were really cool. And it was nice to spend some time inside, because it was rainy, windy, and chilly. After the aquarium, we explored the old part of the town some more and saw all of the historical monuments like the churches and what not. We also saw the other beach which has much bigger waves. We even saw people surfing! CRAZY! Then we got some yummy mango gelato and enjoyed it by the beach. I wish the weather was nicer.. because we didn't even really get to go down to the beach at all. We just looked at it from the "boardwalk". But, even though it was sucky weather, we still had a good time. We got to see all the beautiful architecture of San Sebastian and enjoy the aquarium. We headed back to Pamplona at 5pm on Tuesday.

Olite

Wednesday, we took our last trip to a little tiny town about a half hour away from Pamplona called Olite. The weather was great!! :) It was sunny and warm.. a little windy, but nothing too bad. Olite is a tiny old town with a huge castle! And the castle is unreal. It looks exactly like what you think a castle should look like. And I'm pretty sure it takes up like 75% of the city!! After exploring the whole castle, which took about 2 hours.. we went to the Wine Museum of Navarra, which is right next to the castle. It was nice.. and very modern. We spent about a half hour in the museum, and the headed back to the bus stop. We got back to Pamplona and relaxed after a couple long days of traveling.

Pamplona

Thursday, Stephen's last day here, we slept in. :) We both needed it after so much traveling. Then we went out that afternoon to get some yummy gelato in the main plaza in Pamplona. And we walked over to the Taconera Park. It is a beautiful little park with lots of flowers and bushes and benches. And then even have this little sanctuary area with deer and pheasants and goats and lots of other little animals. It was so nice to just sit in the beautiful afternoon weather and enjoy watching the animals in the park. It was a nice relaxing thing to do for his last day here.

This morning (Friday).. we woke up SUPER early to get Stephen to the airport for his 8:25am flight to Madrid and then back to Philadelphia.  He is on the plane to Phila now.. and I am still waiting to here from him when he lands.. which he should be doing in about an hour.

It was a fabulous week for the both of us. As Stephen's first time out of the country I think, I hope, it was a great experience. I think he got a little taste of Spanish culture. And, it was nice to travel and relax and just have fun. I already miss him. :)

I am now looking forward to my last month here in Pamplona.. which will consist of LOTS of projects and studying for finals. And hopefully a trip to GREECE! :) But we're still working on that.

And then I get to go HOME!! I absolutely cannot wait to go home on June 6th. I am counting the days until I see my family and friends and Stephen again.

I love and miss you all!!! :) <3

ROMA :) You really just have to go!

At the Spanish Steps!

Rome was AWESOME :) What more can I say?

We got there at about midnight on Thursday, after the hour and a half delay of our flight and the 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel. We pretty much went to sleep right away. The next morning we enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel and headed out to the Vatican Museum. After about an hour wait in line.. we finally got in. And it was breathtaking. The whole place is astounding. Every room is everything you would imagine the Vatican to be like. The artwork and statues are unreal. And the Sistine Chapel... WOW. At the top of the Sistine, the picture of the two fingers touching (I don't remember the name) is right in the middle. It is so cool to see it in real life. :) I have picture on Facebook of the Vatican. You should look if you haven't already! After the Vatican, we headed over to St. Peter's Square and Basilica. The Square is massive. And the Basilica is so high! And we climbed all the way to the TOP! It was a total of 551 steps.. but it felt like a MILLION. It was so worth is though. The view from the top of the Basilica is unbelievable. You can see the entire city of Rome. AMAZING. After the Basilica, we were lucky enough to meet up with Megan's friend Brittany, who is studying in Rome right now. She took us around on a little tour of the city! And we all got some REAL ITALIAN GELATO together. It was absolutely delicious. We stopped at the Spanish steps were Megan and Brittany went their own way and Candy, Maria, and I took a free walking tour. We got to see so many neat things and hear the amazing history behind it all. The Pantheon is unreal. And there is a real hole in the top!! So when it rains, it rains inside! There are even drainage holes in the floor! And we saw the Trevi  Fountain!! We threw in our coins and made our wishes. :) We finally met back up with Brittany and Megan and had dinner at a local restaurant called Dar Poeta. It was cute. And for those of you that like Nutella.. it is huge here in Spain and even bigger in Italy. At this restaurant they had a Nutella Calzone for dessert. It was awesome! Haha :) It was a super long day so we crashed after that.

Saturday, Megan traveled to another city with Brittany since it was not her first time in Rome. Candy, Maria, and I went to the Colosseum!! ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE. I am telling you.. if you ever get a chance.. GO! It is amazing. It was so cool to be in such a old place with sooooo much history. Gladiators really fought there!! And we stood in the same spot!! With our tour of the Colosseum, we also got a tour of the Forum. It is where the Emperor lived wayyyy back when. :) We spent most of the day soaking up the amazingness of the Colosseum and the Forum. After we were done.. we walked around the city some more, we went to the Trevi Fountain to get some pictures during the daylight, and went to one of the main plazas for dinner. We had dinner at a cute little Italian place where Maria and I had pizza and Candy had pasta. And then, of course, we got some more gelato. :) We ate it in the plaza while we watch a group of guys break dance. It was so cool!! After that we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

Sunday morning we had our free breakfast again.. and then headed out to do our souvenir shopping before our flight home. We also got paninis for lunch! We were really trying to experience Italian food. :) We finally headed back to the airport to catch our flight.. only to find out that it had been delayed. AGAIN. We tried our hardest, but the delayed flight caused us to miss our bus back to Pamplona from Madrid. So.. instead of getting back to Pamplona Sunday evening.. we got back at about 7am Monday morning. I slept a little and got up for class at 1pm!! It was rough.. but I did it. And it was totally worth it.

Roma was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. And would definitely recommend to anyone that gets the chance.. GO TO ROMA. It is something you will never forget. It is a city where you really feel like history is REAL. You can SEE the efforts of the people that lived there soooo long ago. I loved it!!! :)

Bilbao - Guggenheim!

The "Puppy"

(Part of the Guggenheim)

It is GIGANTIC! :)

The weekend following our Lisbon trip, we had no trip planned. We decided to take a day trip to Bilbao, Spain on Sunday. Bilbao is about 2 hours from Pamplona, therefore it was an easy day trip. We arrived around lunchtime, so we were all ready for food. :) We ate at subway.. a little taste of home. I had a delicious Italian BMT hoagie. MMM it was so nice to have a hoagie :) because they are not very popular here in Spain. After eating, we headed over to the Guggenheim.. the reason for going to Bilbao. Like they say, the architecture of the building itself really is the most amazing part of the museum. It's unbelievable the way it is built (pictures on Facebook). The exhibitions inside were pretty cool, but unfortunately the biggest part of the museum was closed off for a change of exhibition. That was a bummer. After we explored to whole museum, we ventured through the old part of the town a little as well. It was nice. Nothing too exciting. But, it was raining.. of course. So we found a nice little restaurant to eat and relax until our 8pm bus arrived.

It was a good day trip.. except for the rain. Now, I would like to see the Guggenheim in New York City to compare. :) There are only three in the world.. Bilbao, Venice, and NY City.

Portugal - "It was.. interesting." :)

Belem Tower

HI!! :) Okay, I know it's been about a million years since I have updated. Sorry! :( I have been so busy and it is so easy to forget to blog.. and then when you realize you have like 5 trips to blog about, it takes courage to sit down and do that, haha. But, here I go!

So.. Portugal. Like the title says, it was interesting. It wasn't exactly what we had expected. To be honest.. it really wasn't as great as we expected. BUT.. I think that is because Ireland and Barcelona are really difficult trips to follow, because they were so incredible. It was still a good trip, all in all.

We arrived n Portugal early Friday morning, checked into the hotel and left our bags there to start our day of travel. The first thing we did was visit the Lisbon Aquarium. It was so big! But, surprise surprise, it was under construction. It was still really cool though. There were so many fish, and penguins, and otters, and sharks and everything! :) It was awesome. After the aquarium, it was time for lunch. We went to the Lisbon HardRock Cafe. It was sooooooo nice because we got to have burgers and shakes. A REAL AMERICAN MEAL! It was yummy. After lunch, we headed out to meet for our walking tour. However, unfortunately, we found out that you actually had to have a reservation lined up for this tour. We had never run into that problem before, so it was a little unexpected. But, we made the best of it. We decided to walk up to the look-out point at the top of the city. It was nice.. not nearly as nice as Barcelona.. but still nice. We continued on to try and find a beach, as Lisbon is a coastal city.. or at least we thought it was. We spent about 2 to 3 hours walking aimlessly trying to find sand. Finally.. we found what looked like a patch of sand! We walked excited to it.. only to find out that it was concrete!!!!! It was concrete next to the RIVER. Apparently the coastal part of Portugal is about 10 miles up from Lisbon.. NOT where we were. Oh well.. at least we didn't throw off our shoes and start running to it! Haha. :) After all the walking and the little success (it was pretty much a fail of a day), we decided it was time to head back to the hotel. We got in and reception gave us the keys to our room. We walked up and opened the door with the key... AND THERE WERE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM! The room was alread occupied. Talk about an awkward moment!! Hahahaha! :) We said sorry and quickly closed the door. We walked to the elevator and started cracking up. We couldn't stop laughing. Reception apologized for the mistake and gave us the correct room. We slept well that night after such a long day.

Saturday was a relaxing day. We woke up around 10 and decided to do a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to see the city. It was nice to be able to sit down and hear the history behind everything we wanted to see. We got to take a look at the major historical attractions, of which I have pictures on Facebook. By the time we finished the bus tour, it was raining. We did some quick souvenir shopping to get our trinkets and then had dinner at a nice Italian place. I had a delicious carbonera pasta. Yummy. :) Since it was still raining pretty hard.. we headed back to the hotel to call it a night. We had to get REALLY early for our flight home on Sunday.

It was nice to see Portugal, because it's very different than the other cities we have been to. But, if I ever were to go back.. I don't think I would go to Lisbon. I hear the countryside is beautiful. :)

Ireland and Barcelona.. "Can my life really be this great?!" :)

St. Stephen's Green in Ireland

Beach in Barcelona

It's been so long!! I have missed writing to you all. But, it has been such a busy past couple weeks. Classes have actually had homework.. and there has been a lot going on. :) But being busy is a good thing! Two weekends ago I was supposed to go visit a little town not too far from Pamplona called Olite. It is the "Wine Capital" of Navarra. It would have been a very nice day trip.. however, I woke up sick to my stomach that Saturday morning :( Luckily, I got some sleep and felt much better. I think it may have been the nachos from the night before, haha. I am hoping to go later on in my time here.. because it looks like a beautiful place. It was probably good to have the extra rest though.. because everyone is or was sick here! Because we live so close to the mountains, the weather fluctuates a lot.. so it's really easy to get sick. Pretty much all of the exchange students have been sick so far.. yuck. I got a little better.. but then got completely sick again this weekend in Barcelona. But, it was still great! Well.. we have been on TWO trips since i last wrote.. I know, I'm slacking! I'll start with Ireland. :)
We had an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING weekend in Ireland!! Oh, I wish everyone could have been there to experience it with me. We left on the bus at 1am Friday morning. After a 6hr bus ride, a wait in the airport, and a 3hr flight.. we arrived in Dublin at 2:30pm Friday afternoon and started right away!! First we saw Trinity College and the Book of Kelhs. It is the first version of the Gospels translated into Latin. It's so ornately illustrated.. so cool. It is housed in the "Old Library" which is absolutely beautiful. Then, we took a bus down to the Guinness Storehouse. We were able to tour the whole factory and learn all about how Guinness Beer is made. It was really neat to see the entire process. I wouldn't say I really liked the taste though.. SUPER thick. But it was still neat to see it and taste it. :) Especially because the tour ended at the top of the factory with a 360 degree with of Dublin. We headed to dinner at a cute little restaurant with live music to fill our bellies for the night. It was really yummy. After walking around town for a little, we hit the sack for the night around midnight. Saturday morning we had to get up at 5:30am in order to catch our tour bus to Cork and Blarney Castle! We stopped at a couple towns throughout the day. At the first stop.. Cahir.. we saw a castle and had some coffee and pastries. Second, we stopped in Kinsale where we saw a pretty church and got to try the traditional ice cream treat called "99". Its just vanilla with a chocolate stick in it :) haha. It was good though. After we picked up a few more people.. mostly Americans :), we finally arrived in Blarney!! It was AWESOME. The Blarney Castle was beautiful and kissing the Blarney Stone was such an experience. You have to lay down on your back and reach down so far to do it!! And I ended up having to do it twice to get a picture! Haha :). We also saw the Poison Gardens.. which is just a garden with tons of poisonous plants. WEIRD.. but cool :). On the way home we stopped in a town called Cobh, which is a port city. It is actually the port that the Titanic docked in last before she sank!!!! WOW. And we saw one more castle in a town called Keshel. All in all, it was a FABULOUS day. We got back to Dublin at about 9pm. That night we went out to the Temple Bar district of Dublin, which is the cultural hub of the city. It has a ton of pubs and cute shops. We wen to the famous Temple Bar and got to listen to a live band. It was really one of the most unbelievable times I have had in my entire life. The whole bar was singing along and clapping, and the band was great. I felt like I was in a movie :). It was so unreal. I really wish everyone could have experienced it with me. Sunday we took a free tour of Dublin and got to see all the major landmarks like Dublin Castle, Parliament, City Hall, and so much more. We ended in a park called St. Stephen's Green. It was BEAUTIFUL. We took so many pictures :). Then, we visited the National Gallery Museum and saw the big name paintings like Picasso. Then we had traditional Fish and Chips for dinner! Delicious. Lastly, we saw traditional Irish Dancing that night. Like real River Dance!! :) It was so neat. We all loved it. Monday we headed back home super early. We had to leave our hotel at 5am. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. I loved it! And I would definitely recommend Ireland to everyone!!

Last week was really busy with schoolwork.. needless to say because I obviously didn't have time to update. :)

Last weekend Candy, Maria and I went to Barcelona!!!! :) We didn't leave until Saturday morning because we took the train, which was nice. We arrive at about 3pm Saturday afternoon, checked into our hostel and ran to our free tour! The tour was awkward.. because it was only us and one other person, haha :). Usually they have at least 20 people. Oh well.. it was still nice to see everything. We got to see a lot of stuff.. which I don't remember the names of. Woops :). That night we went to see a light show at these huge fountains in center city.. but we only caught the tail end of it unfortunately. It was still beautiful though. And we were able to get a gorgeous view of the city at night as well. We had pizza for dinner and then hit the sack. :) Our hostel was a little shady this time.. haha. It was like someone's house with rooms they were renting. SUPER WEIRD. But it did the job. Especially considering all we did there was sleep. And it was cheap. So it was alright. :) We woke up early the next morning to head to the Sagrada Familia. Maria and I tried to get coffee on the way.. it was so teeny!! Even in Barcelona they don't have normal sized coffee. Aye Aye! But we muddled through. The Sagrada Familia is more amazing than I could ever describe!! The architecture is so unbelievable, inside and out. It is literally breathtaking. Everyone should see it once in their lives. We took soooo many pictures. After seeing the Sagrada, we proceeded to see more Gaudi buildings. His architecture is astounding. I have never seen anything like it. The pictures on Facebook show how amazing it is.. but still don't do it justice. You have to see it in person. All I can say is "WOW". For lunch we headed down to the beach. It was sooooooo gorgeous. And sooooo relaxing. The weather was beautiful so we ate lunch and then just sat in the sand and enjoyed the day for about an hour. It was great. To finish the day we walked all the way to the top of the viewing mountain. It was a long walk.. but so worth! We got so many good pictures of such an amazing view. Barcelona is such a beautiful city with so much to offer. A architectural work of art with a beach right there!! I couldn't believe how much I loved it.. we all did. Oh.. and we also had Gelato (like ice cream) twice!! :) It was really yummy. We woke early Monday morning to get the train back to Pamplona in time for classes. It was such an amazing, relaxing, fulfilling, fabulous weekend. I can;t even describe what a wonderful time I had.

So.. it was two great weekends in a row!!! :D

This week has been busy.. and I'm sick again. But getting a little better now. Hopefully I will be fully better since we are traveling to Portugal this weekend!! I am so excited and the weather forecast is great! YAY!! Can't wait to tell you all about that trip too!!

I miss you all so much! Wish you could be here with me! <3 :)

Wait... there's no Carnival? (We LOVE Madrid!)

It all started with the bus.. 6 hours to Madrid. It was soo long! But well worth it. :) We took the overnight bus to Madrid from Pamplona, to arrive at 3am in the city. Luckily, our hostel was awesome! With 24hr front desk service, it was an easy check in. We made our beds (we even had our own room!) and crashed. We were all so tired after the lack of sleep from the bus ride. We got up at 9am the next morning, had breakfast, and got to go on a free 3hr walking tour sponsored by our hostel. It was so nice, because we got to see so much of the city. Unfortunately, it was really rainy on Saturday. But, we made the best of it. After the tour, we went to a bar/eatery that was recommended by our tour guide. In Madrid, with a drink you get a free “tapa” (kind of like an appetizer). It was so yummy! After filling our bellies we decided we could continue on with exploring. :) We went to the Reina Sofia Museum, one of the most famous museums in Spain. The collection was... interesting. It was contemporary art, so some of the pieces were really neat while others were just downright weird. You’ll see this in my pictures on Facebook. :) My favorite exhibit was the 9/11 Tribute. It was a room full of the newspaper covers from all around the world the day after it happened. It was so neat to see the world’s reaction to such an immense event. After the Reina Sofia, we went to see a real authentic Flamenco show!!! :D It was so neat. The restaurant was really nice and expensive. We all ended up sharing one tapa because we couldn’t afford anything else! :) But it was so worth it. The show was amazing and the dancers were so good! I admire their abilities, because I could never do it! Following the show, we were beat! We took the metro home to save our feet. :) When we got home, Candy and I took showers, and Candy managed to flood the bathroom! It was absolutely hilarious at the time because we were all so tired. Luckily, we were able to clean it up with a mop with no problem. The hostel was very nice, in that we had our own room to the four of us and our own private bathroom! So it was an easy clean up. Finally, we made it into our beds around 1am. We woke up at 8am the next morning, had breakfast again, and went to the Rastro! It was absolutely amazing. It is the biggest outdoor flea market I have ever seen in my life! The girls and I were able to get cute scarves for super cheap. :) It was great. We spent a couple of hours just walking around the Rastro because it was that big. When we finally finished the Rastro we treated ourselves to Churros con Chocolate. So yummy! But very sweet. It is a Spanish tradition though, so we had to try it! Then, we got to tour the big and beautiful Royal Palace. It was stunning. The amount of gold in every room was unbelievable. The Royal Palace has over 2,000 rooms, of which we could only see about 50. Crazy! You won’t see many pictures of this unfortunately though, because we weren’t allowed to take them. :( By this time, we were starving and stopped for lunch at another bar/eatery in town. I had one of the most delicious burgers of my life! Here in Spain, they make they’re burgers with a fried egg on top. Sounds weird, I know. But it’s so good! On Sundays, the Prado (the most famous art museums in Madrid) is free all day. We took advantage and stood in the LONG line to see the beautiful artwork. After about two hours of admiring, we decided it was time to head back to the hostel. We were soooo tired. Surprisingly, we all stayed under our spending budget for the weekend! :) Yay! At about 11pm, we took the long metro ride back to the airport to wait for our 1am bus. It was another loooong bus ride, with a total lack of sleep. We arrived back in Pamplona at 7am.. only to have classes at 1pm! I got about 3hrs of sleep and started the new day! I have since gotten a little sick.. the whole no sleep thing doesn’t really work for me unfortunately. All in all, it was a FABULOUS weekend. We had soo much fun and got to see so many amazing things. AND!! .. The whole reason we went to Madrid this weekend to begin with was because there was supposed to be a Carnival! Candy’s 2011 guide book and the Madrid website said it was this past weekend.. well, they were wrong! It wasn’t. But it actually turned out better because we never would have gotten to see all that we did, had the Carnival been up and running. So it worked out for the best!! :) God works in mysterious ways!

(BTW.. The Spanish in Madrid is so much easier to understand! Much less of an accent! Interesting..)

We were supposed to go to Morocco this coming weekend.. so cool right!! :) We had the buses, flight, and hotel booked; but, unfortunately with the recent unrest in Africa and many other Muslim countries, the US Embassy in both Madrid and Morocco recommended that we do not travel there. So our plans had to be cancelled. :( We were able to get a full refund for the hotel and the buses (yay!) but not the flight. RyanAir is very stringent with their regulations and does not refund for any reason. But we figured we would rather be out a few dollars than dead or in a dangerous situation! We are all sad to not be going, but happy to have made the right decision. It’s just not safe. We are hoping to do a day trip this coming Saturday to make up for it though, so hopefully I will be able to tell you all about that in my next post! :) And it will also give us some time to catch up on sleep.. which will be nice. We are just so happy and blessed to be traveling at all! :)

Classes have been going well too! I am officially registered in the five that I picked. It took a while, but then again.. it’s Spain time!! The siesta slows everything down. :) Haha. Nothing too interesting with classes though. But I should say, the difference in schooling is SO apparent. Classes here is Spain are so much more laid back and less demanding. I don’t know how they learn anything! In my sociology class we have to write a paper, and the Spanish students were complaining openly in class to the teacher about how much work it is!! Honestly, its not even that bad! Classes in the U.S. are a million times more rigorous and stressful. But, as stressful as they are, I am thankful for them, as I feel like I learn so much more than I would in this education system. There were “senior” students in my class saying that in all their four years, they have not had to write one paper! And that they didn’t know how to do a bibliography.. what?! And just the fact that they were complaining in class baffled me. They were pretty much ganging up on the teacher. It was definitely an experience! :) However, as laid back as the classes are here, they are still hard for us internationals because of the language barrier. But that’s why we’re here! :)

So... I’m having the time of my life!!! :D But I really do miss you all at home! <3