View high resolution
Truth (Taken with instagram)
A glimpse into the everyday of an American girl abroad in Madrid for the time being.
-
-
Mixed Emotions
So, here I am on the brink of leaving Madrid, of leaving a semester behind that was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Although in the heat of the moment, it doesn’t feel so dramatic, but I know when I leave this country I will be closing one chapter of my life and opening another. This was an experience that certainly taught me a lot about the world but more importantly about myself. And on top of all this philosophical nonsense about feelings, I had some of the most fun times I can remember.. to recount stories of nights out in Madrid, getting lost in foreign countries, or just laughing at the dinner table with my new Spanish family does none of this justice. Suffice it to say, I will miss you terribly Madrid, along with all of the friends, family and memories I have made here. While I’m looking forward to being at home again with all of its luxuries (aka air conditioning) I know that nothing will ever be even remotely equivalent to the time I’ve spent in Spain and all over Europe on this ridiculous journey that was the past four months.
For now, I am off to enjoy the last two full days in Madrid and soak it all in. Thank you to everyone who has followed my life & travels! See you on the other side of the pond.
Besitos
-
Where has all my time gone??!
Hello friends.. Lo siento for the serious lack of postings lately. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind and now I’m finally in Madrid for the final days before my departure for the US.
From the 9-19th I had a lovely visit from my parents and Ev. We managed to keep ourselves busy between Madrid, Granada and Barcelona! It was great to see the fam but then I realized how soon this semester will be over! The following weekend was Morocco..
Marrakech was one of my favorite trips so far but also one of the most unique. Things I can now check off my to do before I die list:
- Ride in a taxi in a third world country. An experience in itself. Our first cab ride from the airport took a whole hour longer than it needed to and consisted of an 80 year old cab driver screaming at the top of his lungs in Arabic, swerving in and out of cars, stopping abruptly in the middle of the road, and using 30 euros collectively off of our phones trying to call people to find the right directions. Welcome to Morocco
- Ride a camel. Slightly uncomfortable and a little unsanitary. Still really cute and exciting!
- Hold a monkey and a snake in a street market. Then get hassled for more and more cash until you get the chutzpa to tell the street vendors off
Lots more stories that may not be blog appropriate.
Today I took a small day trip to Segovia, a small town about an hour north of Madrid. It is famous for its Aqueduct, which is one of the best preserved monuments left by the Romans on the Iberian peninsula. It only took about 3 hours to see all of the main attractions of the town, after we which we relaxed for a nice menu del dia and a jar of sangria.
Seeing as tomorrow marks two weeks until going home, I need to step my game up and finish up all the little things I would like to do in Madrid. I cannot even begin to think about this semester being over.. I think I’ll take another week before I mentally prepare myself. This week Caroline and I are watching the kids on and off for a few days while Cecilia gets her work schedule straightened out.. needless to say I will be exhausted!
My arrival back in America is fast approaching. Get excited people
-
I’m back Tumblr world!
Since I last posted I’ve had a whirlwind of trips and exciting this going on! An abbreviated version..
The weekend after Paris we jetted off again for Lisbon, Portugal. The start to the trip was a bit rough- our flight was at 7 am and I was suffering from exhaustion/sinus infection. Once we arrived it was too early to check into our hostel room so we made do by sleeping sprawled out across the common room couches for a few hours. Later in the afternoon we took yet another free walking tour where we met tons of interesting people, ate the traditional Portuguese codfish, went to a “porto” wine tasting among many other things. After leaving the tour we took the train to Belem, a neighborhood on the other side of town to see the Monastery and to visit a very famous pastry shop that sells custard filled Portuguese pastries. Yum yum.
The Lisbon hostel was the hostel equivalent to the Ritz so we spent the evening having a three course dinner there with other guests, made a failed attempt to go out and instead decided just to pass out early.
We made the most of Saturday, finding our way to a local flea market for some retail therapy, then caught a train all the way out to Caiscais, where the beaches are. We had heard through the grapevine it was a good idea to rent free bikes and bike along the coast to less crowded, more beautiful beaches. So off we went, a little scared after not riding bikes in probably ten years. The said beaches were nowhere to be found, possibly the tide was too high, but we had a great time biking and a not so great time afterwards when the soreness set in. On the way we also got to see the westernmost tip of Europe which was beautiful.
The next week was spent finishing up my AU classes, celebrating Cinco de Mayo like Americans should (not popular in Spain!!) and awaiting the arrival of the family..
The family business/ Marrakesh will have to wait until after my return from Morocco since I am currently recovering from an exhausting 4 weeks! Ciao
P.s. I’ve decided to hold off on posting pictures and videos for awhile, the internet just does not want to comply. Maybe I’ll do a post-abroad entry with some of the pictures I’ve left out for the past few months!
-
-
Paris
Spring break is now feeling like a very distant memory and I realized I only have a short 47 days left in Madrid! However my time was incredibly well spent this past weekend in Paris. We finally arrived after what seemed like forever due to lots of delays, cancellations and WAITING a whole extra week, but it was a beautiful trip from the start.. I will again let my pictures tell the story for a lack of words to describe such a vibrant place, but it is definitely one I will be returning to sometime throughout my life!
The first place we saw after checking into the hostel, Sacré-Coeur, is a Basilica in the Montmarte district of the city. It is the highest point in the city and has views that rival those of the Eiffel Tour. According to our tour guide from the following day, Montmarte is where Parisians “live, eat, work and breathe” and also at one time housed “more artists per capita than anywhere in the world.” Not exactly sure how much truth there is to those statements but either way it was a really cool area which we walked around in for awhile and went to some yummy looking markets. In the evening we went up the Eiffel Tour while the sun was setting and it was actually amazing.
Saturday we took a free walking tour which took up the majority of the day, then walked to a cute little neighborhood recommended by Tekla’s dad and bought lots of fruits, cheese and bread and made ourselves a picnic. We also bought 8 euro drinks because Tekla was craving a bloody mary, which apparently in France means only vodka with tomato juice so this was a bit of a letdown. Saturday night we went out to a bar recommended by a lot of American kids we’ve known who have gone there throughout past semesters. It was called L’urgence and all the drinks are served in baby bottles with sexual themed names. The bar played a combo of 80s and techno and had lots of pictures of naked people and fake pill bottles all over the place. Very strange concept and we never really understood the connection with the baby bottles so overall a weird night.
Sunday we went to the Louvre which was awesome but very overwhelming. We only saw two of the halls, one of which was of course the Mona Lisa which was very excited to see but I must say slightly overrated (very small). We also went to some other museums, back through the Tuileries gardens which we saw the day before on the tour as well which were soo beautiful. In the afternoon we made a very necessary stop at Ladurée, a famous bakery off the Champs-Élysées that is famous for their double-decker macaroon and sell 15,000 every day. Yet another food I could die eating.
There may be a few things I’ve missed although hopefully the pictures can make up for it! I’m spending this week tanning and running a lot in parks! As Cecilia described it, Madrid went from “nice spring to hell” in just one day. Not sure how I will be handling the heat in the middle of June ugh. I have some actual work I need to get a handle on in the next two weeks before the family visits and am also slipping in another trip to Lisbon, Portugal this Friday.
Au Revoir!
-
Feeling kinda bummed right now.. a little bit lonely and worried about my Paris flights AGAIN for this weekend. At least I have a little birdie from the US who sent me the DVD of my all time favorite show, Summer Heights High :)
Theme: Linear by Peter Vidani
