Why can't the week before finals be like this in Minneapolis??

(this post was written a few days ago, but you still get the idea!)


Naturally, I should be studying for my two finals that I have tomorrow (its about 11 PM) but I have no motivation whatsoever. I think it might be because its summer, and finals in summer is a HUGE oxymoron...or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself of that :) Instead, I'm blogging to you all about my fantastic weekend!


So this weekend to get away from it all we went to Valencia, a Mediterranean coastal city :) It was a nice relaxing weekend before this stressful week of finals, but getting there was an adventure in itself!


On Friday we took the group excursion to Segovia and went to see the Alcazar, the famous castle that was some of the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella Castle, and the Roman Aqueducts. After a 3 hour ride, the castle tour was a refreshing way to stretch our legs, and it was so neat! We were in the room where Cristopher Columbus was granted the money to find India (ok, so we know how that all worked out) and the rest of the tour was just fun. It helped that we had a great tour guide! (Although at this point, I'm a little tired of guided tours, good thing when we're in Rome and Paris we're all doing it on our own!)  The aqueducts were very cool as well, they're 2000 years old, and were built WITHOUT mortar! So basically, you hope that these massive stone bricks can withstand storms, earthquakes, etc...yeah, its pretty amazing that they're still there...


Comida we delicious, we had this great vegetable soup with croutons in it - one of my faves! Definitely bringing that recipe back to the States!


When we got back to Toledo my friend John and I just chilled out, we had dinner at the Fund and then headed off to the bus station to get to Madrid, so we could fly to Valencia! To preface this, we bought our tickets for 6:00AM on Saturday - when we left Toledo it was 10:00 on Friday night...how did we spend the time in between getting to the airport at midnight and the flight at 6? Yeah, we slept in the airport. I was fine with it, I've done it plenty of times before, but I was COLD. I never thought I'd say that in Spain, but the floor was hard and cold! We weren't allowed through security because Ryanair didn't verify our passports until 4, but hey, it was an adventure! When we finally took off at 6, I wanted to about pass out on the plane - too bad our window didn't close! We sat in the exit row (on Ryanair you pick your seats when you board) because we wanted more leg room, but there was that little trade-off. The flight was only about 35 minutes long, which was really refreshing...until the pilot came on and told us we had to circle because there wasn't anybody in Air Traffic Control! So there we were, about 7 AM in the morning after not sleeping much that night, and we were circling the beach that I wanted to relax on. Not fair! He told us that we'd be circling until another worker was able to get to the airport, estimating that it would take around 30 minutes, which in Spain time, is an hour at least...great. Luckily we were able to land around 8, and we were there! We made it to our hostel around 10 to leave our stuff and get changed, and then we headed to la playa!! (the beach).


OH MY GOSH. Thats all I can say. I've been to the ocean before, but NEVER one that is this sandy and with water that feels so good! Granted, I've also never been to a beach with so many topless women, but hey I guess in Europe thats the thing. Definitely not a trend I tried though. The beach was so nice! We were there all day, we met up with other friends that were in Valencia when we got there and just hung out, getting in the water when we got too hot, and relaxing on the beach - I even snuck a nap in! Glorious.


That night we got back to our hostel, got ready, and met up with our friends again to have dinner. They were originally in our hostel but got an upgrade to an apartment hotel because of an electricity problem in their original room, so we made dinner! Ok, my friend Erika made dinner, but it was DELICIOUS. Italian pasta sauce with pasta, bread, veggies, we went all out. It was nice to just hang with friends and enjoy everyone's company!


The next morning we got up early and headed to the science/museum district of Valencia, because it was rumored to be amazing, which it was. It reminded me of Milwaukee and its art museum - all the buildings were very contemporary and flowed together so creatively! At first we weren't going to go to the aquarium, but we decided the ticket was worth it, and I'm glad we did! We saw a dolphin show (my first) which was amazing! Very cool, especially with the spanish commentary. We wandered around, seeing beluga whales, sharks, fish, sea horses, just a TON of cool stuff.


After the aquarium, it was back to the airport for our flight (a short 20 hours in Valencia) and we were headed back to Madrid. Luckily, we landed on time this time! Not that we had to rush back to Toledo, some of our friends were meeting up with us in Madrid and we were venturing to a BULLFIGHT! Now, I was very nervous about this bullfight. Not that bulls scare me, but the fact that they die. I'm a huge fan of meat and all, but I've never actually seen an animal die like that, so I was prepping myself for animal cruelty and the whole bit. But I wanted to go see it because its such a Spanish tradition, and the bull is revered here - its kind of crazy actually.  I actually ended up liking the bullfight, and its something I'd definitely consider doing again. Not that I like the killing part, but its a graceful art, between tiring the bull, and the dance between el torero (the matador) and el toro (the bull). I think I enjoyed it because I knew what was going on, I had written a paper about bullfighting and could follow the progression the entire time. Overall, we watched 5 individual fights, but the last one was a little bit more difficult to watch because they couldn't sever the spinal cord. After that, I was a little glad to leave, but overall it was a good thing to do.


Well, that pretty much sums up that weekend. Now its back to arte de las tres culturas...studying about the different architecture here in Toledo - grand.


¡Hasta!