El Día de San Patrick

On Sunday after I got home from Barcelona, I of course, had to go out for a drink... or two or three for St. Patrick's day.  I didn't have practically any homework, so I had no excuses.  We all dressed in green and wore the hats we got at the club the previous week.  We started at the bar, Dragos, that is two feet away from the fund.  We were there about 2 hours taking some free green shots and drinking some other drinks and eating tapas.  Then we decided to head to the Irish bar in town.

The ladies

Along the way, we stopped to take a picture with everything that was green--naturally, my idea.  It was hilarious and so much fun and amazing how many green things there were on our way.  We had some fun taking pictures with people that didn't know we were taking a picture of them.

When we were in the Plaza, waiting for others to get money out of the ATM, this Irish couple approached us who were traveling in Toledo.  They were ADORABLE! We talked to them for about 15 minutes and made some conversation.  Afterwards we headed to the Irish pub, O'Brien's.

Cute Irish couple.

I got a cider at O'Brien's and we went upstairs to hang out.  About 5 minutes later, two American couples in their 60s show up and make friends with us. Safe to say, we made a lot of older friends that day. They had been traveling in Spain for 18 days and it was their last day.  There was a brother and sister from each couple and they had an Irish grandmother that we toasted to every 10 minutes.  We learned about their lives and grandchildren as they drank their wine and beer.  And they asked us about our journey abroad.  They loved hanging out with us so much that they ended up buying us a round of green beers.  It was so nice of them and we enjoyed their company as I'm sure they enjoyed drunk college kids on St. Patrick's day.  But clearly it brought them back to the good old days that they hung around.

Our new friends.

We went back for dinner, then headed back to the pub for the Irish music. I was exhausted at this point from an early morning, a day of traveling, and an eventful afternoon.  So I just went for the music and atmosphere.  We had some more good laughs and called it a night.  One of my favorite days in Toledo to say the least!

Tomorrow (Thursday), I leave for my spring break! After a night of sleeping in the airport... I will be off to Krakow, Poland to see Auschwitz, and then Prague and Amsterdam.  I am very excited but it will be a cold week! The metro is currently on strike in Madrid so it will be interesting getting to the airport. And when I get home Mom, Aunt Linda, and Sarah will be here!! So excited!

Barcelona!

Well I had a fantastic week with the family.  We went out to dinner a couple nights in Toledo and I saw them in between my classes.  I took Catherine and her friend, Cayla, out to the bars and discoteca (club) on Wednesday night.  It was a great night and a ton of my girlfriends were all going out, which has been rare in the past month or so.  We got these great Guinness St. Patrick Day hats at the club for free so they were fun to wear around.

On Thursday, after my classes, we took a train to Madrid and then Barcelona.  It was my first experience riding the train in Spain and I loved it!! Buses are long and uncomfortable and getting to the airport is expensive and annoying.  So this was a treat! I slept for most of the train ride because I didn't get much sleep the night before.

We got to Barcelona and checked into our hotel, got situated and did some walking around before dinner.  We went to see the outside of two buildings that were designed by Guadi. They were very interesting and cool.  It reminded me of the buildings from the Spy Kids movies.  Barcelona was not what I expected.  It was very much a city.  It wasn't bad, but every other Spanish city has had more of an old town feel.  It wasn't bad, but just different.  We went to a tapas bar for dinner which was delicious and had some great sangria there!  Apparently, Dad didn't care for the "tapas" kind of meal, which I enjoy very much.

Friday we woke up and went to do all of the touristy things.  We walked into the gothic district and looked at the old churches and buildings.  We got a little lost on the way to see the Picasso Museum.  The entire trip, it was very entertaining to watch my Dad attempt to speak Spanish in a very confident way... I enjoyed it.  I am anxious to see how Mom will do with her past Mexico experiences with Spanish...Good luck Sarah.  The Picasso Museum was very cool.  The building was probably my favorite part.  It was an old building that had a modern renovation done to it, but kept the old school vibe to it.  My favorite part of the museum was the painting I recreated in 6th grade by Picasso.  It was so incredible and cool to see the real one in real life.  I wish I could have taken a picture of it.

After that we grabbed lunch down by the water and walked down by the beach for a little bit.  It was beautiful.  The water was so blue. I only wish it was warm enough to stay there all day and tan.  Afterwards we went to the Sagrada Familia.  This is a church that is still in the process of being built some 100 years later.  It was designed by Guadi and is still a working progress.  They have a couple towers to build still and only about half of the stain glass is done.  It was very very cool and probably my favorite thing in Barcelona.

Mediterranean Sea

Sagrada Familia

That night we went to have a sea food dinner.  I had some shrimp scampi and lemon sorbet for dessert.

On Saturday morning, we all slept in a little bit accidentally.  Dad, Catherine, and Cayla went on a run, and Abby and I went to the store to get some food for breakfast and traveling.  Afterwards, we went to the Barcelona Campnou stadium where the soccer team plays.  It was so cool!! And they had some other interesting artifacts from their sports world including one of the torches from the 1992 Olympics that Barcelona hosted.

We walked around that day and did some window shopping and relaxed until we went for a Chinese dinner. Boy have I missed Chinese food!!

The next morning we all had to get up early to catch our flights and my train.  It was a good week and I was glad to see my family.

Family Time

This week Dad, Abby, Catherine, and Cayla are in town!!! I am so excited for them to be here and to show them the beautiful city and country I have been living in.  I didn't realize how much I missed them until I spent the day with them on Sunday.


I met them at their hotel in Madrid on Sunday at 10am.  It was a very early morning for me to say the least.  We walked around the Calle Mayor in Madrid exploring the Plaza Mayor.  Dad enjoyed looking at the old coins in Plaza Mayor.  Along with TRYING to show off his "Spanish".  We walked around and made it to the Prado.  The Prado is a very famous museum in Spain.  It was quite boring because I don't really enjoy going to museums where there are just old painting of nude people.  Although they are incredible, and the history behind some of the pieces and artists are amazing.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch at VIPS, which we decided is the Applebees of Spain.  They had a bunch of American food and I enjoyed a club sandwich that tasted like heaven on earth!  We quickly found out the difficulties of trying to describe what "gluten-free" meant.  When they brought out a salad without croutons for Catherine, it had crispy chicken on it.  Although that was probably a mistake on our part not reading the menu close enough, someone I described that she needed a new one.  I was pretty proud of myself.

They were all feeling pretty tired and jet-legged after lunch, so we went back to the hotel to take a nap. That is when I received the best gift ever, my peanut butter!!!!! Boy have I missed eating that! It was like being reunited with a long lost love.  I have enjoyed dipping my finger in the past couple of days.

I went back to Toledo after we ate dinner for the week because I have class.  Tomorrow (Wednesday) they will come to Toledo, and we leave on Thursday afternoon for Barcelona.  I am excited to spend more time with them.  And I'm not going to lie, it's been nice having someone around who will buy my food and transportation! ;)

After this weekend, it will already be the week that I leave for spring break and then March is over! Where has time gone??

Un abrazo,
Anna

A-Team in Granada, Spain

This past weekend I traveled to Granada, Spain.  The reason that the title of this post is called the "A-Team" is because all 7 of us who traveled together have names that start with the letter A; Anna, Allie, Amanda, Abby, Alisa, Alex, and Alec.  We thought it was pretty funny.

Granada is a beautiful city.  On our bus ride down, believe it or not, there was a huge snow storm that went through central Spain!! It was incredible! There were cars spinning out everywhere, and traffic was moving very slow.  But our bus driver kept plowing through, which made me nervous, but clearly the bus was heavy enough to handle the snow.  We all felt like we were in the middle of a Minnesota winter.  And boy am I glad not to have to deal with that everyday! But apparently, it is the first time in 10 years that Granada or more of southern Spain has seen snow.

We arrived Thursday night and surprisingly found our hostel fairly easily.  Knowing how confusing Spanish streets can be, we were proud of ourselves and had great directions.  Friday morning we woke up and went to the Alhambra, which is a famous castle in Spain.  It is what Granada is known for and was in the running to be one of the 7 wonders of the world.  It was beautiful to say the least and the architecture was amazing!

After we spent 4 hours there, we went to get tapas, and then the girls left the boys to go shopping and to get lunch.  We went to this street called Alcaicería which is full of Arab shops.  I finally found my pair of earrings that I had lost that were from Spain, so it was safe to say it was a successful shopping spree! That night we just hung out, and made some pasta.

Friday half the group when on this day excursion of hiking, rock climbing, and puenting (bungee jumping off a bridge).  I didn't go on this because I didn't want to spend the money, and I had already done my thrilling adventure in Switzerland.  Instead, I joined up with other people from out program and we went on our own hike.

It was quite the workout but the views were incredible in the Sierra Nevadas.  That lasted all day, and we went for ice cream afterwards as our reward.

All of us came home Sunday with a lot of homework to do... So that was a good way to end the weekend.  But I am so excited to have Dad, Abby, Catherine, and Cayla come visit me in just under a week!! It will be nice to relax at the end of the week, and then spend the next week with the family!