MADRID

We finally made it to Madrid!

View from my balcony! WHATUP???

Retiro Park

Crystal Palace!

Looks like Luxembourg, no?

Vamos a la Playa!

Today we went to the beach. It was a really nice break from all the scheduled visits and such. Also, I had Italian food, so that was cool. Spanish food really confuses me. I'm pretty sure that Spanish people eat more bread and more fried things than most people I know, but they are also about 10 times thinner. By fried things I mean fried potatoes (like patatas bravas), fried calamari, and fried peppers. Basically, bar food. We have had copious amounts of bread with just about every meal, tons of potatoes, and not that many vegetables. I think I have eaten a bocadillo, a kind of sandwhich, everyday for the past two weeks. The kind of bocadillos don't really change either-ham, cheese, chorizo, and tortilla espanola. That last one really gets me. I can't imagine wanting an incredibly large omelette of potatoes and peppers on my sandwich. Basically, I have never wanted fruits and vegetables more in my entire life.

I really really like this landscape. This is exactly the kind of place I dream of going when I'm stuck on the East Coast in the spring months. It just looks so Mediterranean.

Gorgeous. I think this is close to Malaga.

Incredible.

A really pretty shell that I later sat on and broke. Pretty typical.

Granada

Stop number 4, my personal favorite. Granada is up in the mountains and it kind of reminds me of Aspen. The word granada, in Spanish, means pomegranate, and there are pomegranate trees all over the place. Our hotel was on the top of one of the mountains, near the Alhambra, the fortress/castle that belonged to the Muslims, and then the Spanish.

The Alhambra is hands-down one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. First of all, the view is incredible because you have the Sierra Nevadas on one side, and the town on the other. It's also cool because it has so many different types of architecture. When the kings of Spain took over Alhambra, they built this impressive Roman-style palace, but I think that my favorite part was the Muslim palaces. There's this one particular courtyard that has a large pool in it so that the palace is reflected in the pool.

Also, Granada is supposed to have a crazy night life, so one night , some friend and I got a cab and told the guy to take us to a club. He took us to this place called Mae West, which he said was the most popular club. We got there at 2am, maybe 2:30, and there was no one there. At first we were a little disappointed, but we stayed, and by 4 am the place was packed. It was crazy. The people on my program are all about partying, it's actually really gross. I'll tell you guys more about that later, in a more private forum, but it ended up being a pretty fun night.

The view

The Sierra Nevadas.

The Spanish Palace

Down in the town of Granada. You can see the Alhambra up on the top of the hill.

The park

Pomegranate tree!

Sevilla

Stop number 3.

The Cathedral of Sevilla. The bell tower used to be the minaret of the old mosque, but the mosque was destroyed in an earthquake.

The Giraldillo-basically an enormous weathervane that sits atop the bell tower.

The view from half-way up the bell tower.

Sevilla from the top.

The courtyard. Jamie, doesn't it kind of look like POP?

The old Jewish ghetto.