Sorry for the incredibly delayed posting... Not a whole lot has happened these past few weeks of school. I completed my semester abroad with two long days of finals and 5/5 A's. Too bad my GPA doesn't transfer back to UNL, just the credits for the classes that I've taken. No matter. All day Friday I said goodbye to various friends from my group as they boarded their buses. It was a very sad day because of that, and some tears were definitely shed, but I'm happy that I had such an amazing semester with some really great people.
On Saturday morning I said goodbye to Mama Cristina, and Sarah saw me off at the bus station before I headed out to Madrid to pick up Bryan. The ride was fairly uneventful and I spent the majority of the time in a dull stupor thinking about nothing in general. Once I arrived in Madrid I walked around the city for about 2 hours until Bryan's flight arrived and then I caught the Metro over to the airport to pick him up! Of course it was a wonderful reunion and I was very very glad to see him again after so much time! We headed to our hotel to check in and drop of our insanely heavy bags and then spent the evening walking around Madrid and enjoying a nice play in the Plaza Mayor and a delightful calamari bocadillo with wine and gelato to top it off. It was a very good evening. :)
On Sunday we walked around a great deal of Madrid, toured el Museo de la Reina Sofia (modern art, think Picasso), el Parque del Buen Retiro, and el Museo del Prado. We were incredibly lucky in that both museums were free on Sundays, so we only had to pay for lunch that day!
On Monday we didn't have much time to kill before our train to Toledo, so we walked to el Palacio Real intending to take a tour of the interior but it was closed for a state function but we were able to get into an exhibition of Carlos IV for free which was interesting and gave Bryan an idea of the palace and its splendor (I'd already taken a tour of it before). Then we grabbed some coffee and expensive orange juice (to make up for all of the free museums and tours we'd snagged so far) and headed to the train station. OF COURSE we arrived JUST too late for our train. The gate closes 2 minutes prior to departure and we arrived just as the train was leaving. But it was alright because we ran into my friend Kasey and her mom and sister on the way! Also, we were able to change our tickets to the next available train (2 hours later) for a tiny fee and all was worked out just fine in the end.
Monday afternoon we arrived in Toledo and essentially spent the afternoon and evening walking around the tiny medieval city after wolfing down and entire pan of paella because we were so hungry from not eating all day. We took some nice pictures and shopped at bit as well.
Okay, now you're all updated!
