Madrid y Toledo

First off, thank you Lisa and Aaron for Rick Steve's! It was a "sorpresa con la cena", como dijo mi madre antes de cenar. The guide was very very useful for my trip to Madrid and Toledo. I went with my friend Jackie, as no one else wanted to go because we have midterms this week, but we studied on the bus to and from Madrid. We left very early on Friday morning and got to Madrid around 11, checked into our hostal and then set off! On friday we went to El Prado, said to be one of the best museums in Europe. There we saw the famous Goya, who painted for the courts of Spain and later in his life went crazy and painted some of the best art Spain has seen. This is an example...

It's called Saturn...and he's eating his son Mars. Fun and crazy.
We took a break from art and walked around a beautiful park.

Next we went to El museo nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. It's a modern art museum, containing Picasso's most famous work, La Guernica, which depicts Hitler's bombing of the city Guernica, which the dictator Franco allowed. This is me outside the ultra-modern looking museum.

The next day we decided to go to Toledo, a city south of Madrid which used to be the capital of Spain, and is almost perfectly preserved in it's medieval state. To get there we took a high speed train, which cut the trip in half, only 30 minutes away. Here is the beautiful train station we left Madrid out of.

In Toledo, we went to the Cathedral, which is one of the most beautiful in Europe, and has this interesting hole in the ceiling cut to let in light.

Later we took a tourist train through and around the city for some beautiful views(thanks for the recommendation Lisa, it was awesome!). Here is a panoramic shot of Toledo, a classical medieval hilltop town.

This is Jackie and I the next day back in Madrid, in front of "Don Quijote." There are many many people like this on the street, but this one was too fun to pass up.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Madrid, an incredibly beautiful and fun city, and then headed on a late bus back to Valencia. Here are some pictures of walking around in Madrid, of the royal palace and the Plaza Mayor(with Rick Steve's). It was a great trip!

Esquiar por los Pirineos

Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to get this post up, but here it is! This past weekend around 30 of us went skiing at Port Ainé, in the Pyrenees, in the province of Lérida. The bus ride took about 7 hours, but the views of the mountains from the bus were more than enough to keep us occupied.


The town we stayed in was very small, so we just stayed in our hotel most of the time and rested up for skiing. On the slopes, my friend Nicole and I were helping a guy who had wiped out, and we learned that he was an American studying near Madrid. We told him we were studying in Valencia, and he said he had a friend studying there, and it turned out to be none other than my roommate, Zach! What a coincidence. Here is the guy, Carl, and Nicole on the lift.


That's Nicole and I on the lift.

My madre here let me use her son's old ski pants, which were really big and poofy and were a nice bright teal color, so needless to say I was very stylish on the slopes.

The weather was not the best. It snowed and was very windy in the mornings, and was cloudy all day. I was hoping it would be clear so that I could see all the mountains around (they say you can see France from the top of the mountain). Luckily it cleared up a little bit in the afternoons and I was able to get a few good shots of the mountains.


My friend Jackie had never been skiing before, so on Sunday I gave her a quick lesson. She got a lot better and we had lots of fun.

I'll leave you all with a nice shot of a mountain with snow on the top. The trip was overall a great time, I'm glad I got to ski some this year(especially in the Pyrenees).

Tonight I'm finally meeting up with my intercambio, a spanish girl that I'll speak Spanish and English with, so we can both improve our speaking. Hasta luego!

No Bailamos

Yes, unfortunately, Flamenco lessons were cancelled last night due to the professor not showing up. How not fun. Anyway, the staff here is trying to find another place for us to take lessons, so hopefully that will happen soon. So, sorry I don't have any pictures, but this weekend some of the group is going skiing at a place north of Barcelona (far away), so I'll definitely bring back pictures from that trip. In other news, I got my haircut, which was a little scary at first because I wasn't sure if I had given the right instructions, but it turned out to be more than ok. Until next time, Hasta Luego!

El Oceanográfico

La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias in Valencia (City of Arts and Sciences) is one of its most famous landmarks, and we went to its Oceanográfico on Saturday, which is the 3rd largerst aquarium in the world. It was the first time I had ever seen a walrus! The architecture there is very forward thinking, they say, and I say it's pretty cool. After that we went to the beach and hung out, but by then it was getting late and the wind here has been really terrible the last few days. On Sunday it was cloudy, but nevertheless I went to the beach to lie around with a friend for a little while. Here are some pictures!







Tomorrow I start Flamenco lessons, for those who don't know it's a traditional Spanish dance. I'll be sure to post pictures. Until then, I hope everyone is doing well! Hasta luego!

Roma, otra vez

I just got back from a wonderful trip to Rome, Italy, and it was a great second time in Rome! I knew I wanted to go back at some point during my stay here in Valencia, so it was great that the opportunity came up so quickly. I got there on Friday afternoon and we trekked around the city trying to find where our bed and breakfast was, then went touring around. Since this was my second time to the city, I saw everything again, but also got to explore more of the city I had never seen. Really you can never see all of Rome, it has so much to offer! I enjoyed eating great pasta again and having gelato, and of course fun with friends. I stupidly forgot my camera, but here are some pictures that a friend of mine, Suzie, took and is graciously letting me post.
This is of me and Nicole in Vatican City in St. Peter's Square. It has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.

This is of me and Allison drinking some Italian coffee I had made. They thought it was great that you drink out of these little cups.

This is of me at the Coliseum and someone someone remarked that I looked bored because I had already been there, but believe me that was not the case!

So this weekend I plan to chill in Valencia, but the weekend after that is the ski trip. Also, more weekly activities are starting up soon so I should be able to post about those. Hasta luego!