Madrid

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well, this is long overdue. Madrid was fun. It was great to see kappie. I think i had a glistening tear in my eye when i met her at the airport and when we embraced. we did lots of giddy twin catching up and making fun of each other. Sunday we sat at a café on comédie and got some food, then went to my friend genevieve's for dinner and a movie. We left for Madrid via Marseille, so we took the train to marseille and went to the awesome budget airline terminal at the airport where the five employees for RyanAir did everything from check in with baggage to getting us on the plane- they probably even turned into the flight attendants. I guess you do what you can when you are a budget airline. So, we got to madrid around 11 and found our way to the hostel on the very impressive well-lit and clean metro system. our hostel was really clean and nice despite the cramped room. it even had a vending machine for beer! so, the basic run down is as follows: walked around alot, saw the outside of the palace, saw a few nice plazas, ate some tapas at a local place where no one spoke english and we didn't know what we ordered because it was in spanish, saw some of the big well known streets, sat around at the retiro park, had a bird poop on me twice in two days, ate some food ioncluding mini tapas sandwiches including one with straight up melted chocolate on bread, saw the cutest puppies in the window of a pet store, saw an art museum, etc. We got back to france on a Thursday and stayed in a nice hotel by the airport before leaving the next friday morning. we may have gotten into the food at the mini bar a bit.....we also had an awesome french style continental breakfast. I sure am talking a lot about food right now, i guess i'm hungry. so, we came back to montpellier and shopped around a but, met my friends, went out, etc. kappie left early the next morning and about an hour after sending her off I went on a day trip to Aix en Provence with 4 girls. Aix is the most charming little town. we had a great relaxing day, ate a long lunch, saw the flower and veggie markets, window shopped, saw a carnival, ate churros, sat at a beautiful park in the grass, etc. It was a nice day. The following weekend UNC had a trip to Arles. We had a nice 3 hr tour of the city ( a bit long....) and saw lots of monuments including roman bath ruins and arenas, and the café that inspired Van Gogh's painting Café Terrace. There was a neat market with lots of food, spices, olive oil products, lavander soaps, etc. so charmingly provençal. I wish we had seen more of the actual town though. So, i'm all caught up. School is getting busier, but our 2 week spring break starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward seeing margaret and relaxing in Nice. I'll update again after that. Home in a month!

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Comments

[Margaret]

Birds poop on me a lot too! Can't wait to see you!

[Martha]

You saw Van Gogh's cafe!! Sounds like an awesome time. When you said provencal I thought of Beauty and the Beast. I sent you a text-- let me know if you got it. Love love.