With my friend ready to fly home form Madrid this weekend it seemed obvious that our last sightseeing should be in Madrid. After a week of hard work for me, and hard sightseeing for him (He's been to Paris and back, I've been to school and back) we wearily wound our way to Lleida again and took the AVE train to Madrid. Reaching Madrid we began the difficult task of locating the hostel. We reached the correct metro stop and from there were rather lost. A helpful stranger gave us directions, then chased after us to give us further directions, then walked part way and gave us more directions while his wife tutted and sighed and moaned to us that 'he ALWAYS does this - why can't he just leave people to solve their own problems ... read more

We left Granada today and started the long trip back to Balaguer. There was no time for a final walk around Granada or time to stop for breakfast. We set off, taking what we hope would be a shorter route back and made good time. We stopped in Guadalajara for lunch and as my friend laughed over being in a place bearing the same name as somewhere so familiar I had to admit I never saw anything more than the bus station and airport in Mexico. We walked briefly through a park and visited a small church before finding a suitable place for lunch, then it was back on the road again. Four hours later we arrived in Zaragoza where we were hoping to eat and possibly stay the night so we could explore the city ... read more

Over a month after arriving in Spain I am finally getting to do some sightseeing and take my camera out for a bit of exercise. The past month has been incredibly tiring and I have been looking forward to this long weekend for ages. Even more so because a friend and ex-student is coming all the way from Mexico to spend his holidays in Spain and we have planned a visit to Granada! We've discussed the trip over the last week and when I asked which places he wanted to visit he listed Barcelona, Madrid and Granada. I told him to get out a map of Spain and see how far apart the cities are! Still with a long weekend the distance doesn't seem impossible and I have long wanted to see the Alhambra! I took ... read more

Today marked my first real weekend in Balaguer. I have made it through the first week and despite the late hours I actually started to enjoy it by the end of the week. It is very different from Mexico. The easy camaraderie between teachers is missing due to a timetable that sees one class walking into the room before the previous has left and each teacher working to a different schedule so all I ever see of the other classes is a closed door. There is also the fact that I only see students once or maybe twice a week and I am struggling to even put names to faces let alone remember anything about them. Despite all this by Friday I started to feel much more comfortable with the school. It is a relief to ... read more

Our poor aching feet carried us to the nearest tourist attraction to the hostel - the National Museum. While we hobbled up the stairs I noticed a woman sitting in a wheelchair at the bottom looking confused as to how she was supposed to enter. I told her I'd find out and managed to send someone to the wheelchair accessible door around the corner whilst I ran up the main steps again to begin my own visit. The National Museum is the largest and oldest museum in the Czech Republic. The neo-renaissance building was designed by Josef Schultz and built between 1818-1891. We walked up the main staircase through the grand entrance hall and began a very fast visit. We raced through displays of natural history, paleontology, and much more. The entire museum is a work ... read more