toledo (spain p. 2)

One day we took a day trip to Toledo, this old town not too far from Madrid. It was my first experience riding the high speed train and it was all I thought it would be.

Toledo had even more small, winding streets and even less cars than Madrid.

We visited this ancient (I don't know how you define "ancient", exactly, but it was pretty dang old) cathedral. All the signs said that you weren't allowed to take pictures, but everyone was and no one was getting reprimanded, sooo...

Wazzup homie

Yah, that was fun. And my cousin bought a knife at the store but sadly there is no picture of that.

america is gr8

The Fourth of July is probably my fourth favorite holiday. Maybe because it's in the summer and it evokes something wild and carefree or maybe because I am secretly patriotic and sentimental about this old country here. I really do love America. I mean, there are lots of things wrong with it, sure, but it's come a long way and, anyway, there's definitely no place like home. And America will always be home.

We went to the parade in the morning and the little girl I babysit gave me a box of Nerds and I got a free breakfast taco, so I'd say that was a success. Then I came home and made a raspberry cobbler and also watched 8 episodes of Parks & Rec because that is a pretty American show, right?

 My family and some of our neighbors drove to my dad's office building so we could watch the fireworks from the roof there. We weren't the only ones with that idea.

 I have to say, photographing fireworks -- the ones that are kinda far away -- was so frustrating. It's just so dark that the shutter speed has to be slow but then it's so shaky and ahhhh. I think I got better pictures with my point and shoot in Disneyland than last night. Whatever. They still look pretty, and I don't really care. 

Anyway, I'm leaving you again tomorrow for Florida. I'll be at camp until...the 14th, I think. But this time, I do have posts about Spain and something else scheduled. Adios! And Happy Belated Fourth of July!

madrid (spain p. 1)

I just got back yesterday from spending ten days in Spain with my family, my grandpa, and my cousin. It was a blast and I took a lot of pictures and did a lot of stuff, but I'm quite glad to be home. It's nice to have a computer again, not gonna lie.

I was up for more than 24 hours yesterday and spent much of it on an airplane. We flew from Barcelona to Zurich, Switzerland, which it is honestly the most beautiful place I've ever flown over. I watched Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, The Middle, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, and Ratatouille on the flight to Chicago. Praise the Lord for those on-flight TVs. And then by the time I got to Austin I was sitting on the ground at the airport, listening to Fleetwood Mac and crying. Traveling is not for the weak, y'all. (I am the weak.)

This was the view from one of our apartment's windows. A+

Anyway, let's rewind a week or two. We went to Madrid first, where we arrived about midday. I mostly spent that day walking around and getting used to my surroundings. It wasn't that much of a culture shock, but there were definitely differences. Namely, more motorcycles and Vespas, less cars, smaller cars, smaller streets, different stop signs (I love European stop signs), more smoking, etc. Also, strangely enough, everything was in Spanish. I was like, what is this?

We walked around Plaza Mayor. There was a statue of some relatively famous dead guy on a horse. IDK who it was, but I'm sure it was pretty historically significant.

Then we explored this market and I had a macaron for the first time. Yum.

The police were buying meat at la carniceria. 

The next day (I think, I don't remember exactly what days we did what now) we went to the wonderful Reina Sofia museum. I saw Picasso's Guernica and several of Miro and Dali, who just might be my favorite. I couldn't take pictures inside, but I did get some from the hallways and outside. 

Flower vendors! There are lots of people selling things on the streets and stuff.

Then we went to the Prado which is ANOTHER art museum. It's so big that we had to go on two separate occasions and we still didn't see everything. What we saw was neat, though. I love art museums, man.

That sky is unedited. I swear, it was never cloudy anywhere on the entire trip. (And then we get into Switzerland and it's raining and we go to Chicago and have to be rerouted for a while because the airport was closed due to storms...).

I'm getting pretty tired so I think I'm going to finish this up. I'll be back with more Spain posts later.

xo