Pamplona- San Fermin (Last weekend)

So Friday we headed out bright and early (7 am) after a night of going out to head to PAMPLONA for the fiesta of San Fermín. On the way there (it was a 6 hour bus ride), we stopped in the town of Burgos and looked around. Then, we were back off to Pamplona. The country side was beautiful! I very much enjoyed the ride. The "uniform" of the festival is white tops and bottoms, and a red scarf around your neck as well as a different type of scarf around your waist- and tennis shoes, for the streets are full of glass, a little bit of urine, a lot of alcohol, and a lot of dirt.

Friday night, we went to the city center to experience the chaos that was San Fermín. We stopped at Cafe Iruna, which is the cafe Ernest Hemingway often refers to in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Being an English major, I loved that. After eating, we joined the party.. The party, that is, consists of 200,000 + people all bar hopping and just enjoying life..and being SUPER super crazy. After 2 hours of sleep later that night, we woke up at 4 to get good spots to stand to see the running of the bulls... The encierro (or running) itself went by super fast- and we definitely saw many people get hurt.

After the encierro, we headed to our bus to go to the beaches of Biarritz, France for the day. WOW were they just gorgeous. I also had a DELICIOUS crepe but nothing like those of my Grandma's. I got tan as well :)

Saturday night, we joined the party again in our white and red garb. I won't go into details, but we had a great time. Its hard to explain thousands and thousands and thousands of people all raging, dressed in white and red, drinking on the streets and just being jolly and silly.

Sunday we headed home and stopped in a medival town on our way to Madrid, and when we got back to Madrid, went to the Plaza de Colon, and along with 30,000 other people, watched Spain win the WORLD CUP!!!!!! Madrid was absolutely CRAZY... people going wild in the streets, climbing on statues, splashing in fountains. I could not think of a more perfect way to end a more perfect trip :)

WORLD CUP WORLD CUP

SPAINS GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that's all)

AHHHH!!

Barcelonaaaa!!

So Friday morning bright and early, we jetted off to Barcelona for a nice long weekend. We get to Barcelona and check into our hostel. It was my very first hostel stay (all of ours in fact).. but it was a blast!! Definitely had a dorm atmosphere, and we rented a room with a private bathroom so we had absolutely no problems.

Friday, we went sightseeing.. We went to Parque Guell and La Sagrada Familia, two of Gaudí's works. La Sagrada Familia is still unfinished because Gaudí died while it was being constructed, and Barcelona has never hard the funds to fully finish it- plus there is the constant argument over how to finish it and what architect to use. We had an absolutely delicious dinner, but the sangria was disappointing. We hit up a discoteca later called Razzmatazz, but despite the name, did not enjoy it at all, and went for a night walk along the beach- very cool.

Saturday... we SLEPT IN (what a concept) and went to the beach!!! Great day. We had a very nice dinner and watched Spain win yet another World Cup game :)

Sunday we got up early, hit the beach for a few hours, and headed on our flight home. In the airport, we got in a heated debate over this issue: Do you tie your shoes with bunny ears or the other way? Apparently, bunny ears are NOT normal. Whatever. I proudly use the bunny ears.

One week left.... Don't want to think about it :( At least I am very tan now!

week in review!

So, crazy week that's of COURSE already flying by :( :(

Tuesday was the SOCCER game :-D ... Again, a mad house. I had a great time though.. As I've said in my previous posts, there's nothing better than thousands and thousands of people all together to cheer on their team and go crazy. The metro strike is still going on, so Jobie and I had to maneuver our way around the Madrid buses to get to the stadium. We also found a Spanish subway, but the food sucked.

Last night, we went to a club/cafe, I don't know what you'd call it, it had an open sangria bar, but other than that, it wasn't terribly fun, but when you're in good company, the less fun places still aren't awful!

Today, we had class (we have all this week) and then headed to the Prado again. The Prado awes me every time... For risk of repeating myself, that's all I'll say. All the stores sales started today as well, so Jobie and I did a lot of shopping, but I didn't get much at ALL because European fashion is vastly different. I tried to get my brother clothes from a Spanish store as a souvenir, but even if he did wore what I got him, he would look a little... metrosexual, to be politically correct.

We head off to Barcelona tomorrow!! AHHH!!! :-D... And when we return, we have one week left :(
There is nothing that makes me want to come home :( boo hoo. I wish we had even 2 more weeks- that would be perfect. All I miss are my fam :( A lot. I miss my friends too but even if I were in the states, I wouldn't be seeing a vast majority of them. Kevin and Hannah are visiting Andy and me when I get home, that's another exciting thing. And I miss Swenson's, and sleeping in. Surprising things I don't miss: my CELL PHONE and texting!! I don't miss driving, but when I'm at school, I don't miss it either. I'm going to miss things from Madrid like crazy. I've met the best people, stayed with the best host mom... :( Its been a great trip so far. And I still have time left!!! On to Barcelona! Everyone root for Spain in the soccer game this Saturday night!