Where Do Broken Hearts Spain

Look at that skyline!

So, our trip to London! At this point in the semester, we don't have a whole lot of time left, so we had to make the most of what we've got! For that reason, we scheduled a nine-hour layover in London before flying back to Madrid, so we got the day to explore!

Rubbing elbows with the rich and famous!

We flew into the London City Airport and took a surprisingly quick metro (tube?) ride into Central London, where we started our day at the Tate Modern on the banks of the Thames! Great museum, although I gotta say the plain, all-gray canvases are not really my thing. To each her own, I guess.

Gorgeous weather!

Famous dead people are buried here!

There was a Christmas market right outside the museum, so we checked that out, got a roasted potato/veggie thing from the market to eat on the go, and set off across the Millennium bridge past St Paul's Cathedral and towards the London Eye. Past that, we walked towards the Houses of Parliament, where we posed for a quick pic with Big Ben!

Were we allowed to take pics in here???

That's famous art!

We strolled past Westminster Abbey, got close to Buckingham Palace, but ended up going in the opposite direction towards the National Gallery, where we spent a very enjoyable half hour or so checking out the Monets, the Van Goghs, The Renoirs, and one of Gericault's sketches for The Raft of the Medusa, which we just saw in the Louvre last weekend! So that was pretty cool.

Classic tourist shot!

Christmastime at Fortnum and Mason!

After the National Gallery, we checked out Fortnum and Mason's, where we bought a pricey but INCREDIBLE fudgey brownie to eat as we walked to Harrods by way of Piccadilly Circus. The Christmas window displays are amazing, lots of weird puppets doing festive things.

Then we caught the train from Victoria to Gatwick for our 7pm flight back to Madrid and were back in our Salamanca apartment by 11!

Spain to Run

Misty day at the Cliffs of Moher! Brrr!!

Well kids, our days here in Espana are numbered, but we still have time for a couple more quick posts!

Last Friday, we hopped on a plane to Dublin!! For some reason, we had to go through passport control for the first time all semester. Still not really sure how the EU works, to be honest.

Abhainn na Gaillimhe, the River Corrib!

We got into Dublin around noon, stashed our stuff at a cute little hotel in Temple Bar, and spent a very enjoyable day wandering around vintage shops in Temple Bar and the fancier places on Grafton Street before picking up falafel takeout for dinner and resting up for our trip the next day!

Galway Winter Carnival! Merry Xmas!!!

Bright and early on Saturday, we set off with the Shamrockers bus tour from Dublin to Ennis by way of Blarney Castle! We had a great guide, and the countryside is absolutely beautiful, as always. We spent Saturday night in a hostel in Ennis and a fun night at a local pub with the rest of the tour group--mostly Australians, New Zealanders, a couple of Brits.

Sunday, we left Ennis, saw the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren before spending the afternoon in Galway and were back in Dublin by 6PM!

The Long Room at TCD--so scholarly!

We were in Dublin all of Monday, too, and were able to check out the Book of Kells at Trinity, where there was also a cool exhibit on illustration and myths in children's literature. We had to spend some time during the afternoon working on stuff for finals, but later that night we saw She Stoops to Conquer at the Abbey Theater, which was a fun eighteenth century Irish farce, but we had to go straight back to the hotel afterwards to get some sleep before our 8AM flight to London the next day!!

Steal My Spain

That thing is huge!

Hey kids! First off, we are so sorry to have been lagging in our blogging game. As our time here draws to a close, we're finding less and less time to blog. Partly we're busy wrapping up our classes are Charlie 3 (as we've been affectionately referring to the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), but mostly we've been trying to make the most of our remaining time abroad and squeezing everything out of it that we can!

Marie Antoinette's bedroom--Where's Kristen Dunst???

Taking in some Renoir at L'Orangerie!

The weekend after we got back from Galicia, we set off for Paris with Riva, taking the VERY long journey by train. Luckily we were able to get some work done on the way and so fully enjoy our time there, with the help of a former student of Mom's, the lovely amazing Jess, who is living in Paris and was kind enough to show us the town. We saw the Louvre, Notre Dame, St Chapelle, Montmarte, Sacre Coeur, the Jewish Quarter (great falafel), the Latin Quarter, the Arc de Triomphe, and much more! Plus a very cute little restaurant with some incredible escargot and beef tartar.

Classic tourist pose!

And all that was just Saturday! Or at least, a lot of it was. We did so much, it's all getting jumbled. Some of this might have also been Sunday evening. Plus I know Jess also showed us the Champs-Elysee, where we got macarons at La Duree (tres chic) and then walked around the Christmas market (that was definitely Sunday, now that I think about it. This is why we need to blog consistently!)

Checkin ourselves out in the Hall of Mirrors!

Sunday, we set off for Versailles with Riva, where we tried not to get ill over the sheer opulence of it all. The weather wasn't ideal, but that at least meant it wasn't crowded. At least, not outside. Inside it kind of felt like an international Black Friday. When we got back, we decided to relax with some wine and cheese, a la Parisien.

Monday, we went to the Musee L'Orangerie (the D'Orsay was closed), and the Eiffel Tower, and then got dinner with a friend of Riva's who's studying abroad in Paris (we had some truly excellent pig's feet, believe it or not. They paired well with a nice Cote du Rhone.) before taking the night train back to Madrid! Phew!

Can we move in??

It's almost 2AM here now, but I'll try to do a quick update tomorrow on our latest trip, which we just got back from a few hours ago, to Ireland and London!

Half a Spain

Or rather, half a post! A few more pics from Galicia that we missed the first time around:

The "Versailles" of Spain (is it....)

Some pretty views, though!

"Queso de tetilla" = "Nipple Cheese" aka boob-shaped

Smells a little ripe in here!!

Rooftop Views of Santiago! Don't fall!!

Standing on top of a cathedral! Wow!

Alive (in Spain)

Getting a tan!

Oof, well, we had a HUGE blast in Galicia, and it was so beautiful, we couldn't help posing with just about everything we saw! So this'll be a photo-heavy post.

Follow the shells on the Camino!

We left Madrid Thursday night, after Ramiro's class and hopped on our short flight (under an hour) to Santiago de Compostela, the destination for people (pilgrims?) walking the Camino de Santiago. It's apparently the third most important holy site for the Catholic Church, but a lot of people do it for more secular/spiritual/tourist reasons, too.

Views on the Camino!

The weekend was mostly vacation; there was very little actual programming. We went to an old castle that is apparently knows as the Versailles of Spain (We'll let you know how it compares to the real deal...), walked a couple of hours worth of the Camino, and some pretty spectacular seaside cliffs. Plus we ate a lot of seafood.

Ocean Breezes!

The wind in our hair!

The nightlife in Santiago is, unsurprisingly, a little lackluster, but we also didn't give it much of a try. We all went straight to bed upon arrival Thursday night, and then Friday and Saturday we stayed in with the gals to introduce Hannah and Alexandra to Reign, the CW's current masterpiece. Not very wild, but a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, Paris!

Does Spain Know?

Don't get pickpocketed!

So we've been away for awhile, but I promise it's just because we've been so busy doing fun stuff! But we'll do our best to get you all caught up with our latest goings-on.

Last Sunday (the day after our last update), Riva and I did end up going to El Rastro, a big open-air market that sells mostly crap that looks like it was made in poorly-funded sweatshops trying to imitate something they saw on an American infomercial, but there was also some cool handmade jewelry and cheap leather goods, so we both ended up finding a few things--mostly Christmas presents!

The rest of last week was pretty much the usual until Friday, when we set off to Cologne! Or, as it's apparently called in Germany, Koln. Who knew? Coline met us at the airport and we were off for a weekend of festivities!

Apertif, anyone??

It was great to see her after all that time--we figured out we hadn't seen each other since 2010--and she gave us a great look at the city, which sits right on the Rhine River. Coline lives in this surprisingly spacious student apartment with one other girl, who happened to be out of town that weekend, so we didn't get to meet her, but we did get her room, which was bigger than our living room here in Madrid.

Cologne is beautiful, and the Christmas markets were just starting to open up, so we got to check out all the crafts and food and decorations, and it was all so festive and fun that we are REALLY ready for Christmas now. We had bratwurst and marzipan and good German beer (Cologne is part of the Kolsch region) all weekend, and I only wish we could've had more time. But we were lucky to be there as long as we were.

Later today, we leave for Santiago de Compostela, and we'll be touring Galicia all weekend, but we'll try to update whenever possible!

Why Don't We Spain There?

Warm coffee on a cold day!

This week was pretty much business as usual, class, tutoring, etc. We did go back to Zumba for the first time in weeks, though! Then, on Thursday, we had to write our midterm essays for Ramiro's class, which was kind of a pain, but we found a nice little cafe to set up camp in, so it went as painlessly as possible.


Yesterday, Riva and the two of us finally got around to checking out Mercado de San Miguel, a huge indoor marketplace full of different booths selling all kinds of snack-sized portions of food and drink for the ultimate tapas-hopping experience. We got there around 3PM and pretty much stuck around the rest of the day sampling just about everything we could find, from cranberry mozzarella roll-ups to rose cava.

Tapas at San Miguel!

Later, we met up with Andrew to go back to the pizza place in Sol we went to last week after the Opera for a little snack and a bottle of 6-euro cava. Then we went out to Fontana de Oro where we ran into Kate and Prentiss (both from Vassar) and their respective gentleman callers. We were home by 2AM, so all in all a successful night.

We didn't do too much today, just watched some TV and popped out to Corte Ingles to pick up a couple of canvases. Then, of course, we were able to come home and do some painting. A quiet day, but overall very enjoyable.

Tomorrow we're planning on going to El Rastro, Madrid's largest outdoor market, and then we'll probably have to do some work in preparation for the end of the semester.