Busy busy busy

Hello friends!

I apologize for the long delay in updating my blog.  It’s been a crazy week, and I haven’t had much down time.  I don’t think these next two weeks are going to be any slower, but that’s okay—I’m trying to live in the moment!

The rest of the week with Steve was a lot of fun.  He enjoyed his birthday dinner at Botin on Tuesday, and then he did a little exploring on his own on Wednesday and Thursday.  He visited the Prado and walked around Madrid on Wednesday, and then we had dinner at the apartment again—Maria was so sweet to make dinner twice for us.  She said that she wanted Steve to know that people take care of each other well in Spain.  :)  On Thursday, Steve enjoyed the nice weather (finally!) at Retiro Park, and then we went to Hard Rock Café for dinner.  I also got my Hard Rock Madrid shirt!

Friday morning, my friend Katie, who is studying in Rome this semester, flew into Madrid with one of her friends from school.  We met up at 11 AM at Sol, and then the three of us Carmel grads (Steve, Katie, and I) took the speed train to Toledo for the day.  The weather was awesome—in the 70s with gorgeous sunshine!  We explored the city leisurely, and I told them what I remembered from my tour of Toledo back in January.  Mostly we just enjoyed the landscape, the winding roads, and each other’s company.  Victoria and her parents were also in Toledo for the day, so we met up with them for a few minutes to say hi.

beautiful Toledo!

Katie and Steve

Steve and me--note the Hard Rock Café Madrid t-shirt! :)

Las chicas

When we got back to Madrid, we went to Mercado de San Miguel, which is the indoor market with all sorts of foods and drinks.  We had some wine and croquettas, and then went to a tapas bar that I’ve been to several times called Cien Montaditos.  The deal with this place is that they have 100 (cien) types of little sandwiches (montaditos) that you can order.  We figured out what we wanted to eat, each got 4-5 sandwiches, and a pint of sangria.  It was really good and a perfect way to try different kinds of Spanish foods without filling up too quickly.

Saturday morning, Steve flew back home.  I spent the day with Katie being tourists in Madrid.  First, we got breakfast and chatted for a while, then walked to Prado and saw everything in the museum.  The weather was beautiful again, so we wandered around and got lunch at James Joyce’s Irish pub.  We sat outside, had a lovely meal, and enjoyed people watching.  Then we continued wandering around (it was a common theme of the day—“let’s just wander!”) and explored.  My sense of direction is actually pretty good here, at least when I’m walking around.  When I first step out of the metro exits, I have no clue what direction I’m facing, but when I’m actually walking everywhere, I can usually figure out the directions!

The receptionist at Katie’s hostel recommended a good place for us to get paella, so we went there for dinner.  It was my first time having paella here, and I really liked it!  After dinner, we went on a pub-crawl that was arranged by the hostel.  Not necessarily my scene, but it was fun and great to hang out with Katie.

Today is my “catch-up” (or ketchup, haha) day.  I have A LOT of work to do—homework for SLU Madrid classes, applications and class stuff for Creighton, and just random tasks I need to accomplish (e.g. updating my blog…).  Hopefully I manage to get it all done.  I know this has been a brief update, but that’s really all I can do at this point.  I wish everyone a wonderful week!

Love always,  

Elizabeth