Rainy Days

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This week is Semana Santa, or Holy Week, here in Spain. The week before Easter all the schools are out for holidays and most business people take holidays from Wednesday or Thursday on. Which means that my classes for the rest of the week are cancelled. A lot of people take advantage of this time off to travel out of Spain, but I'll be spending it here in Madrid. Unfortunately it's been raining! Not as bad of rain as I had to put up with in Sacramento, but I have to walk everywhere here so it's a bit more inconvenient. I shouldn't complain too much, Madrid needs the rain, and I can't wait to see how this rain helps with the blooming of all the flowers, but having all this free time and not being able to enjoy it outdoors is a bit of a bummer. I've been spending most of this week inside reading and catching up on TV shows. Hopefully I'll get around to putting up my pictures from Amsterdam!

The City of Lights continued...

love bridge

the Louvre

park

After leaving Notre Dame we strolled down to the Louvre (we didn't go in, just saw the outside) and then continued down through the park. We walked across the "love bridge" where hundreds of people have locked up their love and threw the key into the Seine. I know a lot of cities have bridges like this, but I just love them. After the park, the sun was beginning to go down and we had an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower just as it was beginning to be lit up.

In my opinion, it really is worth the hype. At night when the tower is all lit up it's beautiful.

We didn't get to go over to Montmarte, so I definitely want to go back to Paris and spend a few more days there. Our time was just so limited, but nonetheless, I feel so thankful that I got to be there at all. We left Paris at about 6pm at night on a high-speed train bound for Amsterdam! More to come...

Man's Best Friend

I came across this video the other day and it brought tears to my eyes... I recommend getting a tissue before you watch it if you're a sap like me. 

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It's so amazing to me what animals can be trained to do. Right now, one of my flatmates is thinking about fostering greyhounds that are no longer wanted for hunting or racing by their owners. We would have the dogs for 3-4 months before they are ready to be adopted by families. I think it'd be great and I'd have a cute little doggy to take for walks! 


This video also made me miss my sweet Lizzy dog.

such a sweet face

Paris

Ahh Paris... it's one of those cities that I've always wanted to visit and it didn't disappoint. The weather wasn't ideal, it was foggy and overcast, and we didn't have enough time (we only stayed one night), but it was beautiful none the less. We flew in from Barcelona about 11am, and set out right away to see the sights. We strolled down the Seine towards Notre Dame first.

Notre Dame was beautiful. It's free to go inside and walk around, but you can also pay to go to the very top and see the bell tower and get an amazing panoramic view of Paris. Which was definitely worth the price. And walking up 1,000,000 stairs. 

We also may or may not have watched Disney's version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame...

...to be continued

Barcelona - Day 3

This is more of a wrap-up, not really all the things I did on day 3. My favorite thing about Barcelona was the market (surprise surprise). It's similar to the one I love in Madrid, but bigger. And possibly better. It's huge and also has more tapas counters and little restaurants.

We ate the most amazing food...

marinated anchovies

mussels

the best squid i've ever eaten

We also went on a walking tour of the old part of the city, and I highly highly recommend it. It's great to have a guide book and have the freedom of seeing things on your own schedule, but our tour guide was really funny and energetic and knew so much history about the city.

Overall, Barcelona was alright. I've heard from everyone else that it's amazing, and I think I may have had a different opinion because we weren't staying in the center and we didn't experience the nightlife. But, the beach was amazing and I could shop at the market every day. I did soak up every second of the sun because I knew our next two destinations would be freezing.

Up next - Paris!!