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!

I LOVE SWITZERLAND!!!

I am absolutely obsessed with the country of Switzerland!! It was the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life!! It was the first time that I have seen a mountain range in person (and not from a plane) in my life, and I am so grateful to have that be the Swiss Alps.  This trip was especially cool for my because my mom's side of the family's heritage is Swiss.

We (my two girlfriends and I) went to Interlaken, Switzerland for the weekend.  We took a flight that brought us to Geneva, and then took a train to Interlaken.  Normally, the transportation part of our trips are usually pretty easy.  Unfortunately, we had some major road bumps this time.  Our flight landed at about 11-11:30 in Geneva.  We were planning on taking the 12:30am train to Interlaken.  We knew that we would have some layovers, and transfers along the way.  When we got to our huge 4 hour layover, we did not realize that the entire train station was outside.... So it was 1:30 in the morning and we had no where to go.  Luckily, before we had left the airport, we had met a guy named Jack who was also going to Interlaken, and he traveled with us during this whole mess.  So since we didn't want to sit outside, we walked around this Swiss city to try to find something open...  But it was 1:30 in the morning and nothing was....

We found an alcove between a Starbucks and some other stores that blocked some of the wind and proceeded to wait until it was time to catch the next train.  It was miserable, but all 3 of us felt much safer knowing there was a male with us instead of just 3 lost females.  Eventually we made our way to a bar/club to warm up before we found our train at 5:45 am.  It was one of the longest nights of my life to say the least.  But once we finally got back on the train, we were excited to make it to Interlaken.

Check in wasn't until 2pm so when we arrived at 8am we had to keep ourselves busy.  We went and got omelets (which were amazing!) and did some shopping around town.  I am proud to say that I bought 11 chocolate bars while there! The chocolate was amazing and the town of Interlaken is adorable.

After we checked in, we took a quick nap, freshened up, and went to a chocolate show! They showed us how they make chocolate at a chocolate shop and all the steps that goes into creating the cocoa to receiving the ingredients in Switzerland.  It was really cool, and we got a voucher to pick out our own chocolate!

The chocolate show.

 

After going to bed at 8:30pm, we awoke the next morning to our thrilling activity.  We have been recommended by most people to try the canyon swing in Grindelwald, Switzerland, a little ski town just 20 minutes from Interlaken.  Of course, we decide it's a must.  After climbing/walking up to the top of the canyon, you jump from the 85 meter ledge into the canyon while just having a rope attached to you.  The free fall lasted 4 seconds long, which was long enough in my book!  I have never experienced such a strange feeling in my life.  It is very indescribable.  I am very proud of myself for doing this because I was very hesitant to agree to it, but it was totally worth it!  Here is the link to the video before I jumped: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw8OpnSaQ6U

The canyon

Pre-jump

After our thrilling experience, we went back to Interlaken, did some more walking around, and went to a pizzeria that night for dinner.  We woke up the next morning and made our 11 hour journey back to Toledo.  Overall this trip was one of the best I have ever experienced, and it will definitely not be the last time I will go to Switzerland in my lifetime.

This week we have a normal week except for tomorrow is my birthday!!  On Thursday, I am off to Granada, Spain for the weekend!

A week of stress....

This weekend was pretty uneventful for the most part.  I went on a couple hikes, which was nice to get outside and exercise.  But the majority of the weekend I spent studying.... Not very fun at all.  I found it hard to want to study because I don't have the same stress level with classes here, as I do at the U.  So my motivation level was very low... But exams are this week and it is crucial that I do well.

After this dreadful week is over, I will be off to Interlaken, Switzerland for the weekend.  I am beyond excited!! This is the number one place on my list of places to go!  Tune in next week to hear the adventures of Switzerland!

Weekend of Studying...

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's day and got to spend it with the people you love.  Yesterday, I went on about a 5 mile walk with one of my friends.  It goes around the city and has great views.  Valentine's day night, the fund put on a special dinner for everyone.  We had some great food, a king and queen of the night were crowned, there was candy, and chocolate fondu for dessert.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with friends and listen to music.  We jammed out to our favorite spanish hits as well as some Adele and the Macarena.

In Spain, they celebrate Valentine's day very differently.  Usually, only people who have significant others celebrate the day.  Unlike in the United States, whether or not you have a significant other, its a day to cherish and appreciate the people you love and the people that love you.  One of the program coordinators gave a speech about it, acknowledging that today may be a more difficult day for some students because we are away from home.

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and we all enjoyed ourselves.  That night, we went to a going away party at a bar because one of the bartenders is moving back to Brazil.  The bar is called Dragos, and is usually a 10 minute walk from the fund.  But they are opening up a second one that is literally a 30 second walk from the fund.  It is not technically open yet, but thats where the party was held.  It will be dangerously close when it does open.  But it was a blast and felt like a high school basement party.  

Next week we have exams.... So this weekend will be focused on studying and relaxing, and preparing for next week.  After exams are over I will be off to Switzerland!

Ten un buen fin de semana!