Worth every minute.

To get to Madrid this past weekend we took the most economic (i.e. longest) mode of transportation: a six hour bus ride each way, but it was worth every minute.  My two friends and I arrived in the capital city around 5 o'clock in the evening, once we settled into our hostal we went out to explore.


We went to Plaza Mayor for some sangria and to unwind from the long bus ride. Our timing was perfect because we got to catch a beautiful sunset.











Our Saturday started bright and early with a trip to Starbucks for breakfast (!!!) and then a tour inside the Palacio Royal.  This is the only thing I didn't get to do on my last trip here and it was very cool to see. 









After the palace we walked around and stumbled upon/into the parade for the Chinese New Year.  There were eight or ten different groups walking, some were doing karate (or however you call the version from China) and some were carrying the dragon you'd expect to see in a Chinese New Year parade.

The whole weekend was really low-key and relaxing.  We spent most of the time just walking around, but just being in a new city was a great change of scenery.  I think it had a lot to do with the fact that the city (and all of Spain for that matter) is still in the winter lull, so things are barely busy and the weather is comfortable, only slightly leaning towards being too cold.

My favorite two parts of the trip were left to last: I got to go back to el Museo del Prado and then we wondered around el Parque del Buen Retiro for hours on Sunday morning while waiting for our bus back home to Málaga.

28 hours later.

Considering that I am getting ready for my next weekend adventure (to Madrid, by the way) I figured I need to write about what I have been up to the last few months.

19 November was one of the coolest and definitely the longest day I have had in Spain so far.  It was the day I went to Barcelona! (!!!!!!!!!!)  Why the excessive amount of exclamation points, you ask?  Honestly, it's not because of the city itself, but because it is the home of my most favorite football team, FC Barcelona. I was lucky enough to be able to watch a match and I'll have more on that later, but first things first.

My trip to Barcelona started very early, I was on the train headed to the airport Saturday morning at 6:30 in the morning, to catch my flight at 8:40.  We (my American friends Barrett, Emma, Sara, Meredith, and Michael; and our Spanish friends Alvaro, Cristobal, and Modran) went on the hour and ten minute-ish flight without any problems.  We quickly made our way to Las Ramblas which is the main street in the center of the city and then to La Boquiería market, the largest in the whole region of Cataluña.  Here we wandered around for a while and stopped to get brunch as it was now almost 11 am.  I got my favorite, which I usually get at any restuarant that offers it because I know I'll miss it when I come back home: jamón serrano con queso manchego.  I know I've already gone on a rant about its deliciousness before, so I won't bore you again, but it was amazing.

The picture on the top is just an example of one of the stalls in the market and it just shows all the variety and how big the place is.  According to Wikipedia (so therefore completely accurate) that are over 300 stalls in the market.  The bottom picture is from one of my favorite because it is nothing but fresh, yummy fruit drinks.  As you can see there are so many different colors and flavors: I got the strawberry and mango if my memory serves me correctly.


Next, we headed to La Sagrada Familia, a breathtakingly-detailed behemoth of a cathedral that has been underconstruction since 1882!  I could see the top of la Sagrada Familia from blocks away, peeking over buildings but we finally turned a corner and BAM! there she was.

Because of time and our budgets we did not make it inside, but trust me, there was enough to see just wandering around the outside that I was okay with that. 

do you see any creatures?

Next we made the mile and a half trek to Parc Güell. The park was designed by Antoni Gaudí, just like la Sagrada Familia, so there were a lot of similarities. It was an annoying uphill climb, but it was worth it at the end because of the amazing view of the entire city of Barcelona.

here is the top of la Sagrada Familia

The park was so colorful and practically everything was covered with glass mosaics.  If it wasn't an overcast day I am sure the place would have been sparkling.

you might remember this picture
and the one underneath from the final catwalk of
America's Next Top Model Season 6!

these two remind me of gingerbread houses.

this is a pretty iconic part of the park.

yours truly!

Now the highlight of the evening: the football game at the Camp Nou!!!  Looking back, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked but I was too preoccupied with the game (plus my camera's zoom didn't do it much justice).   We won the game 4-0, by the way!

After the game we all met up at a bar near the stadium because only four of us actually went to see the game live.  Then we did some bar hopping until it was time to head to the airport for our 6 am flight back to Málaga.  By the time I had gotten the train from the airport to my house, had a quick snack and showered it was 9:15 Sunday morning.  It was an exhausting day: I fell asleep before the plane even took off, woke up about 20 minutes before landing; and was tired for the next two days, but it was absolutely worth it.