Blogs from Aragon, Spain, Europe - page 11

We´re currently in Zaragoza Spain and, like much of the region, it is pouring down rain. We arrived via the high speed train (so nice) from Madrid yesterday afternoon and it was seriously gorgeous. The air was nice and cool and the sun was out and it was beautiful. So we went out to explore the town once we found a hostel and set down our bags. we saw about 700 bridal shops, one of which is the designer that I really like (yes, mom, I plan to go in and check it out) and about 700 religious trinket shops and some staples like Zara (a clothing chain that is also in the us now.) We visited a huge church that was built where, just after the death of Jesus, St. James the Apostle saw the ... read more

first post to test the new blog..... will be back next week when we fly out to sydney...... ... read more

Ok Zaragora Zaragora is my 3rd pit stop. I met Raquel and Santi during my MSc. I took a train from Barcelona to Zaragora which took me a good 5 hours. It was hot and the A/C wasn't cold enough. I think the train is from the 80s. Raquel picked me up from the train station. They live in the low density residence. They have a 3 bedroom apartment and right next to the river. It is a walking distance to the bars, shops, city central, and the swimming pool. They showed me what is a daily spanish life when I was there. Let me talk about their daily schedule. They work 7 hours during the summer and 9 in the winter. They go to work from 8 to 12 and then head to the swimming ... read more

Hola Chicos! Who'd have thought that everyday life here would just be so er...much, or actually, that i would have got so lazy...sorry. I apologise lots for the extreme tardiness of these blogs, and the fact that reporting in retrospect is slightly frazzling my brain. Ermmmmmm...what's been happening? Well, nothing and everything i suppose, if that's not so trite as to have you reaching for the sick bags. We had our first 'flat birthday', anticipated by a 2-day cookathon, proving ourselves to be the hostesses with the mostestes (sp?), or at least the most homemade tortilla, for Anna's 23rd. And the end of the fiestas left us all playing the walking dead for about a week long. Becky put it best i think when she wrote, and i quote, " God Ali, you're like a toddler. ... read more

WOOOOAAHHHHHHHHH!!! I knew that my time in Spain had really started when Adrianna (my spanish flatmate) came into my room last night and choking on her own laughter awarded me a eurovision-stylee "ten points" for finding me passed out fully-clothed in our bathroom at 5.30am that morning (i think the 12 points must have gone to the bloke from Lichtenstein). The 'fiestas del pilar" are the highlight of the unfathomably overlooked Zaragoza's social calender. Basically it is a series of week long festivities (religous and otherwise) built around the 'pillar' (geddit??) of the city, the virgin del Pilar, and peaking today, la Dia de Nuestra Senora del Pilar. We get the week off uni in order to fully er...'appreciate' events, which range from tapas feasts to concerts (anyone remember Bonny Tyler?) and the incredible procession of ... read more