ctgrundm

I woke up around 10 and waited for the Ozzie that I met yesterday to meet me in the hostel lobby. I read some, napped, and then read some more. Reading really has made homesickness less noticeable. I met him downstairs at 1 and we actually ran into another Ozzie that I met the night before and the three of us went to Alhambra together. What was really cool was that we got to the Alhambra at around 2:00 pm and that is when the afternoon session started. There are 500 tickets in every session but we were there at the very beginning when most of the tickets were still available. Our time to enter the Nasrid Palace Grounds was perfect too. It was spaced so that we did not have to do much waiting anywhere. ... read more

It was sad saying good-bye. I knew it was coming but I regretted it anyway. As I said this was an amazing group and I had fun here. As I have been reminded, there are some things that you just have to let go. I understand doing that to a point, but I will not do it completely. It is harder to keep holding on to it, but I can deal. We all traveled to the airport and some of us traveling after to various places stayed behind and went to the city together. As we went on our way in the metro, two of the guys and one girl had to go their ways and I was left with a couple friends for the day. We went to the train station and got our tickets, ... read more

Today we went around the city again. Our first stop was the Cathedral, which is absolutely breathtaking. There was a room dedicated to the clothing of the bishops of Toledo. There were robes in-laid with gold, sapphires, and pearls. I mean countless man-hours spent on every piece. There was a gigantic atrium with ornate marble and carved stone. The stained-glass windows were decorated perfectly depicting various biblical scenes. It is the fist gothic-style cathedral that we saw and I have to say it was another place that I cannot forget. After walking out the Cathedral a guy approached us on the street and offered to take us to an art workshop. We said sure, knowing that we would not buy anything. He took us to a Damascene art co-op, a place where artists come make their ... read more

After Madrid I had a fantastic final week. On Wednesday we decided o go for a hike. There are many mountains in the area if you couldn’t guess from the pictures. The bus ride was about 20 minutes out of the city (it was 2.50 both ways too) and we found the trail up to the mountain by walking toward the mountain and getting help from a random stranger. I’m glad they knew enough Spanish because I could not understand what was going. All in all we went up the mountain for two and a half hours and ended up finding a place to relax and enjoy Nutella-Peanut Butter Sandwiches. The view was incredible because we could see all the way out into the city and to various places we have visited in the area, like ... read more

On Sunday, our day consisted of getting up a little later and heading over to the Olympic park. It is a shame that the park in shambles and that that is what happens to most Olympic parks. It was not that bad to look at but it defiantly was not the place it was 12 years ago. All of the fields and events places were closed but I am not sure whether because of the fact that it was a Sunday or because there is on money for upkeep. Anyway, it was really cool to see and it was in decent enough condition for us. After leaving the park we went to a big shopping street and walked down it toward the pier. We met our professor at the first part of the street, said hi ... read more