My Parisian Adventure

Bonjour! (That's French for "hello")...

I have returned from my weekend trip to France, and it was an absolute blast!!! Here's the play by play:

Hannah and I woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the 6:00 AM bus to Madrid from Toledo. Once we completed that leg of the journey, we were on the metro for about an hour, getting from the train station to the airport. Finally, we arrived at the airport, made it through security, and found our gate. The flight was not very noteworthy, mostly because Hannah and I were both in deep comas before the plane even pulled away from the jetway. We landed in Paris refreshed and ready to take on the French capital city.

However, we didn't really take into account the huge language barrier, since neither of us know any French with the exceptions of please, thank you, hello, and good-bye. Therefore, navigating the airport was a bit confusing, and we spent probably a solid hour before orienting ourselves. We finally figured out that we had to take a combination of a train and a metro in order to reach our hotel. Once we figured that out, we assumed it would be an easy journey, but we had a little trouble finding the appropriate metro line after we had arrived at the correct station. I decided to take it upon myself to ask a cashier at a newsstand, but I didn't want to be a presumptuous traveler, simply assuming that everyone speaks English. Also, I ruled Spanish out (for whatever reason, I guess because we were in France), and instead resorted to the international language of charades. I pointed to the metro station on our map and then put up 4 fingers to signify the 4 line of the metro. I was a little nervous as to how he would choose to respond, but surprisingly, he returned a message via charades, by pointing left, down, and then right, and putting up 4 fingers. Once we completed that caveman-like interaction with signals and grunts, Hannah teased me immensely, but we managed to find the metro and arrived at our hotel with no additional problems.

After checking into our hotel (which consisted of the man behind the desk asking if I was German, based on my last name, and then asking which candidate I voted for after finding out I am from the US), we decided to forage for lunch. We found a little cafe but could not communicate what we wanted, so we again resorted to charades, pointing and grunting until we had Diet Cokes and sandwiches. Thankfully, shortly after lunch, my friend Kate, who is studying abroad in Paris for the semester, met us and rescued us from our world of confusion. She took the lead and was an immense help, since she could speak to people while we looked confused. We went to the Eiffel Tower, which was amazing, of course, and rode the elevator all the way to the top to see the beautiful panoramic views of Paris. We then took the stairs back down, pausing for some sweet jumping pictures. Like 99% of French people take jumping pictures on the Eiffel Tower, so I am essentially sure that we did not stand out as tourists while snapping idiotic pictures of ourselves on a historic monument. Trust me.




After the Tower, we enjoyed the traditional French treat of crepes. So so so yummy. We then headed over to the Louvre to become cultured and other stuff like that. We saw the Mona Lisa, talked about the Da Vinci Code, and everything else that people are supposed to do while spending time in the Louvre. Oh, and we also took more jumping pictures outside the famous pyramid. I think there is a slight chance that this time we looked like tourists, but a big part of me still says no.




Once we finished with the Louvre, we met one of Kate's friends for some Mexican. Surprisingly, Mexican food in France after spending a long time in Spain is very delicious! After stuffing ourselves on the most multi-cultural burrito ever, we called it a night, since Hannah and I were pretty much zombies by this point in time, and we had a long Saturday ahead of us.

We woke up on Saturday with the intention of meeting Hannah's Parisian friend Chloe. We encountered a bit of a snafu at the metro stop, since we needed to buy tickets and the line was full, of course populated largely by people who had never attempted to operate an automatic ticket machine before. After spending an excruciatingly frustrating 40 minutes in line, we finally got the tickets and hopped onto the metro. Chloe, like Kate, was pretty much a godsend, since she knew her way around the city, and we just had to follow behind her. We started our day having croissants in the Luxembourg Gardens, watching cute little European children in their cute little European clothes do cute little European things, like play with sailboats in fountains. After the gardens, we headed over to the Pantheon, where Napoleon is buried. We then walked all the way over to Notre Dame, and of course Hannah and I had thought ahead to bring Notre Dame t-shirts to wear while taking dorky pictures in front of Notre Dame. They were pretty much the highlight of the day, no lie.

Chloe then took us through a part of Paris with a ton of modern art, before we hopped on the train to ride back into the center of the city, so we could see the Arc de Triomphe and walk down the Champs-Elysses, gawking at all of the ridiculous stores. For lunch, we headed to one of Chloe's favorite cafes and had fruit smoothies. I obviously couldn't read a single word on the menu, so I told Chloe some basic food items that I like, and she took it from there. I ended up having a mixed plate of turkey pitas, chicken and goat cheese pitas, curry chicken, and french fries. Overall, I was pretty impressed with myself for being that adventurous, and relieved that I liked what turned up on my plate!

After lunch, we then took the metro to Monmarte, the artists' district of Paris, and took in the views of the city from Sacre Coeur, a famous church in Paris. We decided to have crepes...again, and rested for a bit, since we had basically walked our poor little feet off. After our break, we headed over to see Moulin Rouge, which is in a neighborhood in which about 90% of the businesses are related to sex in some way, shape, or form. Finally, we headed back into the center of the city to see the Opera, and then went into the Galeria Lafayette, which is like a mall on absolute wealth steroids. The stores in this mall were totally unreal, with one floor having Prada, Dior, Chanel, and Armani next to each other. Needless to say, we suffered from a bit of sticker shock! For dinner, we met Kate and another of her friends for crepes, then headed back to the hotel to rest. Hannah and I went back into the city to see the Eiffel Tower at night, which was so pretty and a great way to end the day. We spent some time in Kate's apartment, which was GIGANTIC, especially compared to the housing sizes in Spain. After a few hours, Hannah and I took the metro back to our hotel, and were able to enjoy the spectacle of a drunken French man standing on his seat, yelling French phrases until another French guy, with a joint in hand, walked over and started making out with him. It was quite the experience, to say the least...

On Sunday, we woke up and headed back over to Notre Dame to go to mass. Technically, you're not supposed to bring luggage into the Cathedral for security purposes, but we had no other option, so we smuggled ours in. We were on edge the entire mass that we would be kicked out, but that never happened. Instead, the ushers scolded Hannah for taking a picture before the mass began and for having her shoe resting on the chair in front of her. In case you were wondering, I was the picture of perfect behavior, minus the luggage smuggling, so no ushers reprimanded me. Jill: 1, Hannah: 0.

After mass, which we didn't understand, as it was in French, we met with Kate for lunch and had a super yummy and super satisfying meal, topped off with a deliciously rich chocolate mousse. Once we finished lunch, we hopped onto the train, got to the airport, had our flight, rode the Madrid metro, and made it to the bus station with about 4 minutes to spare to catch our bus back to Toledo. It was quite the whirlwind weekend overall, with a lot of time traveling from point A to point B, but it was so so so worth it. It was great to see another country, since I felt that I needed a bit of a break from Spain. However, upon my return, I definitely felt a sense of returning home, and I am confident that now I appreciate Spain even more, since I know its ways, its customs, and most importantly, its language!

Love from Spain,
Jill

The Longest Post in the History of Mankind

Hi, Everyone!

I realize that I have been a bit lazy and not keeping this blog up to date, so now that midterms are over, I have decided to hunker down and fill you in on each and every detail that I can remember about the past few weeks. I was forward-thinking enough to write down all of the major things that happened, so that's pretty awesome on my part. So let's get started!

October 10-12: Sevilla (AKA Seville)

On this weekend, I had my second trip to the Prado Museum in Madrid with my art class. After our brief stay in the museum, Christie, Sierra, and I had some time to kill before our bus left. To be precise, we had about 8 hours to kill in Madrid, since we had decided to take a bus that left at 1:00 AM and arrived in Sevilla at 7:00, since our other option was to arrive in the dead of the night, which wasn't exactly ideal. Thus, we planned to carry our stuff with us the whole time, trekking through Madrid and killing time like it was our job. Fortunately, Hannah's parents were in Spain at this point in time, and were in Madrid that evening. They let us drop our stuff off in their hotel room, and then treated us to dinner! We were all elated since we found this restaurant that had American-esque food, including something pretty similar to chicken fingers, and a burger that probably would have passed American standards. We decided to forage out into the big, bad city of Madrid to find dessert, since when we are casually walking the streets of any city, there always happens to be about a dozen dessert stands. However, when we set out with the intent of finding a delicious dessert, we had absolutely no success. None! We finally settled for buying pints of Ben and Jerry's from a little corner shop and then sharing them in the lobby of the hotel. We felt pretty American, but we then encountered a man who was intent on finding his own Ben and Jerry's, and excitedly asked us where on earth we had found them. It was a pretty humorous exchange, mostly because we never expected to encounter someone who treated us like we had the holy grail of desserts in Chunky Monkey form.

The time came for the overnight bus group to head over to the station and hop onto the bus. Surprisingly, the overnight journey was about as comfortable as any overnight bus in Europe should be. We survived, and that's all that matters. We pulled into Sevilla before sunrise and decided to kill some time (notice a theme) in the bus station before heading out into the city. Thankfully, that was the right decision, since we were able to watch a horrendous storm blow into the city from the warmth and dryness of our bus station table. Once we finally decided to explore the city, we went to the cathedral, which is one of the biggest in all of Europe. It was ridiculous and gilded and domed ceiling-ed and everything else that exists in all of the cathedrals I have seen thus far. The cool and unique parts consisted of Christopher Columbus's tomb being in the cathedral, and climbing to the top of the bell tower to see the entire city of Sevilla from above. After our time in the cathedral, we grabbed some much needed lunch and then an even much more needed nap at the hostel. For our evening entertainment, we made arrangements to go see a Flamenco show, which is what Sevilla is known for. The "theatre" (or whatever the place that has a flamenco show is called) was really small, and we were able to sit in the 2nd row. The show lasted for 2 hours, and every 15 minutes or so, they changed performers. This kept the show really interesting, since everyone had their own specialty in the world of Flamenco dancing. It was such a fascinating show, and it is DEFINITELY one of my favorite things I have done in Spain!

After Flamenco, we grabbed some tapas and called it a night. On Sunday, we went back to the cathedral for mass and then hopped on the bus home. The only bad part of the weekend was that it poured the majority of the time, but that's certainly not the end of the world. A note about the bus ride home: I somehow managed to screw up ordering our tickets, so we ended up sitting in the seats right behind the bus driver. These seats allowed us to see through the windshield, as opposed to just seeing the seats in front of us. LET ME TELL YOU: the driving here is INSANE. The bus was changing lanes and tailgaiting so much, I was fake-braking every time I looked up. Yeesh!

Language School
The Monday after Sevilla, Hannah and I began our volunteer work at a local school for adults who want to learn English. It was so amusing! The class we work with consists of students between the ages of 18 and 50, and they were all so sheepish to speak in front of us! Moreover, when I spoke, I felt like I was speaking unbelievably slowly and using very simple words. When I asked the students I was working with if they understood, I was met with wide eyes and nervous nods. It was pretty clear when they would encounter a word they knew, since their eyes would light up, but at the same time, you could still see the nervousness, since understanding one word out of entire sentence doesn't take you too far...trust me! I could not get over how reminiscent it was of my first day/week/month in Spain. I know that it was evident when I understood and when I didn't, even though I tried to hide it. I was explaining the similarities between the students and my own experiences to my host mom, and she said that it was 100% obvious when I understood and when I didn't, and she could see right through my lies when I claimed to be following the conversation but was actually off in English la-la land. I guess it's reassuring that I have to lie less now (I said less...). One of the most amusing aspects of this language class was the technique used to teach the language. Our first day, they were studying and discussing whether the private lives of celebrities are actually private, along with the historical significance of ABBA...as in ABBA, the most famous product from Sweden, minus Swedish Fish. The students had to complete an exercise, formulating English phrases, and then they had to listen to an ABBA song and put the phrases into the blanks in the song's lyrics. For whatever reason, the song of the day was "The Winner Takes it All", and Hannah, Tommy (another ND student helping out), and I had the hardest time keeping a straight face. It was definitely an interesting experience through and through!

New Bus Experience
At the end of last week, Hannah and I had bought ice cream about 20 seconds before our bus came to take us back to our apartments, so we weren't allowed on. There is another bus line that runs near our neighborhood that other students have used, so we decided to try that out. We knew exactly where we were when we hopped off the bus, but it was after sunset, so it was the slightest bit eerie because of the darkness. We were walking back, and I saw a large blob on the ground, about the size of a silver dollar. It looked sort of like a spider, but I decided that no way could a spider ever be that big. I stepped down next to the blob, AND IT MOVED. WITH EIGHT LEGS. BECAUSE IT WAS A SPIDER. THE BIGGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN. I had a bit of a freak-out and scurried forward a few steps. Like I said, it was a bit eerie, so Hannah was already on edge, and decided that my reaction was prompted by a creepy person, so she decided to take off running. I saw that she was running, so I had to run, too! I am sure we looked like complete fools, breaking into a full-speed run in the middle of our normal walk. Once we collected ourselves and figured out the chain of events, it was pretty funny how easily spooked we were. Our hearts were still beating a bit fast as we continued our walk home. We passed near a dumpster that opened and closed when we neared it. As we turned the corner, I assumed that someone would have had to be behind the dumpster, opening it and closing it. Therefore, I was keeping my eye out for that mystery person, just so I wouldn't be caught off guard. I kept looking and looking and looking while we rounded the corner, and then I saw a female body laying in a heap on the ground. Her back was to me, so I couldn't tell how old she was, or what sort of condition she was in. I stopped dead in my tracks and kind of stared, trying desperately to recall the necessary Spanish to ask her if she was ok. After what seemed like an eternity, it came to me. When I asked her, she rolled over toward us, and it turned out to be a preteen girl who was just taking a rest on the sidewalk....how could I have not figured that out myself? Needless to say, between the spider and the discovery of the body in a heap, we booked it home...at least we came away with some good stories!

Alcala de Henares
This past Friday, our school sponsored a trip to Alcala de Henares, a small town a little bit outside of Madrid. Since it was already paid for, we all decided to go. We toured the university, considered to be the 2nd most prestigious university in Spain, behind Salamanca, and also toured a theater where Cervantes had put on some of his plays while he was still alive. Alcala is where Cervantes was born, so we walked past his house, and took silly tourist pictures on the bench that has a statue of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza talking to each other. This trip was short and relatively non-descript, so that's actually all I have to say about that!

Real Madrid Game
This past Saturday, Hannah and I went to our much-awaited Real Madrid game. We got into Madrid at 6:00 for the 8:00 start time, so I figured we would have no problem getting to the stadium. I quickly realized how wrong I was...the metro was absolutely packed, the streets were absolutely packed, the sidewalks were absolutely packed. It was just a sea of people as far as you could see. Coincidentally, the game we bought tickets to happened to be the Real Madrid game against their cross-town rivals, Atletico Madrid (think Yankees-Mets times A BAJILLION). The game was actually at Atletico's stadium, so as we were nearing the neighborhood with the stadium, it was red and white stripes, Atletico's colors, EVERYWHERE. Hannah had boldly decided to wear her Real Madrid jersey, but quickly decided to leave her jacket zipped up to avoid any sort of drunken European confrontation. By the time we waded through the sea of people and got to our seats, it was about 7:40. The opening ceremonies were really cool. We sat behind one goal, and behind the opposite goal, they unfurled three gigantic banners, 2 Atletico flags, and 1 banner that showed a soccer player entering a church...I guess it was sort of like Atletico is the promised land in the world of soccer. Anyways...it was such an electric environment that I was half-expecting some veelas or leprechauns to start out before the game actually started (bonus points for catching that reference!). We noticed that the next section over from ours was filled with Real Madrid fans, and it was also completely barricaded by a wall of police. Not rent-a-cops, like at homecoming dances in high school, but riot control cops, with giant shields, helmets, and night sticks. That was pretty intimidating. Once the game got started, though, it was clear why there was such a strong police presence. Every time something relatively noteworthy happened, one group of fans would start yelling at the other, making obscene gestures. Thankfully it didn't go any farther than that! Real Madrid scored within the first minute, and fortunately the man in front of me was standing, so I didn't actually see the goal happen. It was a really even game, and very physical. What surprised me was that every time there needed to be a re-start, the team without possession would throw or kick the ball away...pretty juvenile, but no one else seemed to mind. There was a red card handed out right before halftime, so Atletico Madrid played the entire 2nd half with a 1-man advantage. They still weren't able to score until there were about 10 minutes left, and Real Madrid answered with a goal off a PK in the final few minutes. Overall, it was just a crazy environment, without a doubt the most dynamic and unified sports environment I have EVER been a part of. It absolutely puts Notre Dame to shame, I hate to admit...

Brownies
Last but not least, is the tale of my brownies. Before coming to Spain, we received the suggestion to bring our families some sort of thank-you gift, and the ideal gift would be something that promoted an activity, like a brownie mix. I followed that suggestion exactly, bringing a box to Spain. The box has been sitting in our kitchen cupboard, completely untouched, mostly because both my host mom and I have to be present to make them, since I don't know where she keeps things, and she can't read the English instructions. Finally, this past weekend, my host mom declared that she would make the brownies if I would translate the directions into English. I did as I was told, but somehow managed to forget that ounces, like cups, is an English form of measurement. I put all of the liquid ingredients into ounces, which was a bit confusing for my host mom, and totally my fault. She thought I meant 1.5 liters of water, when I meant 3 tablespoons...yikes! After talking through a bit of the confusion, I thought she asked me that if she had 1 spoon that held 1.5 ounces, how many spoonfuls would she need, and I responded with saying she would only need one. Then, I left to go study at school for the remainder of the day, and returned to find what appeared to be the brownies, already made. They looked a bit different, but I was willing to give it a try. My host mom said she was nervous that something had gone awry, but I insisted everything was fine. After dinner, she excitedly suggested I cut myself one, and I was excited to finally have something chocolatey from home. I took my knife to the brownies, only to discover that it was like trying to cut a cinderblock. Once I finally managed to cut myself one, I tried it, and found that the taste was correct, but the texture was a bit off. Then came the all-important discovery...my host mom asked me to tell her again how many spoonfuls she was supposed to use, but this time I actually understood her question. She had asked how many tablespoons to use, since she had a set of measuring spoons from a former student. The correct answer was three, as opposed to the one I told her...that explains the hardness of the brownies! My host mom decided to try one, and it was pretty clear she wasn't a fan, and so she pushed them off on my host brother and dad. They didn't appear to be to crazy about them, but they were all afraid of hurting my feelings, so they ate them and commented on how "interesting" they were. Meanwhile, I was afraid of hurting my mom's feelings, so it was the most polite conversation filled with fibs I have ever had. I kept insisting that they turned out exactly how they do at home, and I am sure that my insistence led the rest of my family to think something along the lines of "if this is American food...it's TERRIBLE!" Oh well. All in all, I had most of the pan to myself, and my host mom was continually encouraging me to eat them, almost as if the sooner they were gone, the better!

(phew!) That, in a relatively large and wordy nutshell, has been my life over the past few weeks. I am confident that I will return to my somewhat regular frequency of posts starting now that midterms are over. I am off to Paris in about 4 hours, so I best be heading to bed! Love and miss you all!

Sorry from Spain!

Hello...

Sorry my posts have been nonexistent lately, but with midterms and a research paper looming, blogging kind of gets knocked down a few pegs on the to-do list.

However, to make it up to you, I plan to do the following:

a) write a super long post in the next week

b) eat a chocolate croissant for each and every one of you I have disappointed by not posting more frequently. I swear, I will do it....that's how dedicated I am to my readers.

Avila + Salamanca = One Fun Weekend!

Hey hey hey!

OK, so I realize that it has been a while since I posted anything substantial, and all of you loyal readers out there are probably crying yourselves to sleep over this fact each and every day. Cry no more! Here is a full rundown of my past weekend!

We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our 7:30 bus out of Toledo. As you would probably expect, as soon as the bus doors closed, about 95% of the bus fell into a deep deep comatose-like sleep. After 2 hours of driving, complete with watching "Los Otros" (the spanish-dubbed version of "The Others"), we arrived in Avila. Fun fact: Avila is the city with the highest altitude in all of Spain. Another fun fact: this altitude obviously affects the climate in Avila, making it much windier and colder than in Toledo. A third fun fact: no one felt it necessary to tell us that until the bus pulled into the tourism center at Avila. Hooray! So, we hopped off the bus and were met by a beautiful city and a 40 degree air temperature. Fortunately, I had a jacket, but others were not as fortunate:


We started the day in Avila with a tour of the church of St. Vincent. In all honesty, all I really got out of this part of the tour were some interesting pictures and a chance to warm up. The church, very much like all of the other churches in Europe I have toured thus far, was completely decked out from ceiling to floor in carvings, paintings, gilded surfaces, and candles. We were able to see many tombs, including those of St. Vincent and his sisters. On some of the tombs, there were carvings of intricate torture scenes, which surprised most of us. The detail and gore in these scenes are definitely not something that I want to be associated with my resting place, but oh well, maybe it's a European thing.

After the church, we had to trek back into the frigid outdoors, where we had the opportunity to tour the city's walls.

Similar to Toledo, Avila is surrounded by a huge wall that served as a defense against invaders. In addition to keep out enemies, it also allowed town officials to prohibit sickly-looking people from entering the town during the plague epidemic. Another interesting tidbit I picked up from this tour is that European staircases, in no way shape or form, have a uniform stair height. Some of the staircases had steps that were at least 18 inches tall, which required us to use ropes to climb these poorly maintained areas. Others had steps that were only about 2 inches tall, making the descent consist of awkward little skips. After walking around the walls for about an hour, we had some free time, we consisted of Hannah frantically seeking out some pants to fend of her impending case of hypothermia. Once we had overcome that obstacle, we were ready for lunch!

As part of the trip, we were provided lunch in a former palace. Needless to say, it was relatively ritzy, which is a big difference from the normal sandwich and soda places we've been frequenting. We all basically gorged ourselves, happy to have warm food in a warm environment. We then hopped back on the bus, fell back into our comas, and drove 2 more hours before reaching Salamanca.

Upon arrival, we checked into our 4-star hotel (oo la la!), and headed to our room. Our room number was 122, so we were excited about being on the first floor...apparently, in Spain, the first floor is the level that you encounter after ascending about 4 flights of stairs. Once we finally found our room, we opened the door to find a nice big room with absolutely no electricity. We tried absolutely every switch and outlet in the entire place and were about 30 seconds away from sending someone down to the front desk to sort this matter out when we noticed a little slot underneath the main light switch. Someone had the ingenious idea to try the room key and that slot, and wouldn't you know, that was exactly what we needed to do. Apparently putting the key into that slot completed some circuit, or other important-looking science-y term, that allowed us to turn on our lights. Hooray for confusing European technology!

Once we got all of that straightened around, we took a siesta, as if we had not slept enough on the bus, and then headed out to explore the city. Our hotel was pretty centrally located, so we were able to kill some time shopping before heading back to the hotel for dinner. Again, we gorged ourselves on most of the meal before all turning away our flan. Don't get me wrong, I tried it, but it was kind of like egg flavored jello coated in coffee. Barf.

After digesting a bit, we headed out for the night, choosing a little cafe/bar we had encountered previously in the day. When we got there, it was essentially deserted, so that was a bit odd, but we still managed to have a good time, and we appeared to entertain the bartender, so I guess it's fair to say that fun was had by all.

On Saturday, we had to rise early again to take a walking tour of Salamanca. Again, it was freezing, but we had no other choice but to tough it out. Our first stop was the Plaza Mayor, in the heart of Toledo. We were surrounded by the town call of Salamanca and many cafes and apartments. Someone in our tour group noticed a burly Spanish man on a balcony outside one of the apartments, clearly watching our tour group. He happened to be wearing only the tiniest pair of boxers I have ever seen. He waved at us, and then his friend, also in boxers, appeared on the balcony. Every one, including the tour guide, seemed to get a kick out of this, but shortly thereafter, we were ushered away from the Plaza and onto the other stops on our tour.

On the tour, the biggest sites were Salamanca's university and cathedral. The university is the oldest in Spain, and used to be considered one of the top universities in all of Europe. All of the classrooms looked more like churches, with long pews, lecterns, and giant murals. Scattered around the walls, there are symbols painted in red blood, along with names underneath them. The tour guide said that these symbols and names are put on the walls when a student earns his or her doctorate. After the university, we headed over the cathedral, which, of course, was ornate to the max. We had a complete tour of all of the building, including the side chapels and tombs, the main area, and the choir loft.

A picture of the outside of the university:

The Cathedral:

After the tour, which lasted for 5 long hours, we headed to the hotel for our group lunch. We had yet another meal of chicken and potatoes, so that was unbelieveably exciting, as you can probably imagine. Following lunch, we took a siesta and then prepared to head back out for another tour of a church in Salamanca. After seeing all of that, we headed to the shopping to pick up our requisite "Universidad de Salamanca" paraphernalia, and stumbled upon a delicious little chocolate cafe. After talking to someone who knows Salamanca relatively well, it turns out that we found THE place for chocolate in Salamanca, which of course, made me one happy girl. We all consumed many many calories, but I figure that it's kind of like dollars and euros, in that the conversion rate alters the numbers. Right? Right. Afterwards, we grabbed a sandwich for dinner and then the group split up, with my half calling it an early night after spending most of the day shivering and walking.

On Sunday, we woke up for mass in the Cathedral, which was scheduled to begin at 12:00, so naturally, the priest sauntered in at 12:15. After mass, we had a quick lunch and then decided to make a return to the beloved chocolate cafe before having to leave Salamanca. We hopped onto the bus, fell asleep, and concluded our weekend in Avila and Salamanca!

Un abrazo,
Jill

Fotos for my Friends!

Hola!

I promise I will post again in the next few days, detailing my weekend trip to Avila and Salamanca, but unfortunately, now's not the time. However, to soothe your aching souls, I have posted a new photo album on my Picasa site, with all 125 of my pictures from my Madrid weekend. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JillSchroeder10


Adios!