Travels

eng blog

Here is a photo album with some pictures from my travels. The first ones are mostly from Toledo. The next weekend I went to Madrid and Valencia. Madrid is an amazingly cool city because it is a perfect blend of old and new Spain. Valencia was definitely more “modern” though it still had some of the most beautiful old churches I have ever seen. The beach in Valencia was definitely worth the trip. The next weekend I went to the Southern region of Spain, Andalucia. First we went to the Mezquita in Cordoba and then to Granada where we went to the Alhambra which is probably the most popular tourist attraction in Spain, for good reason. It was unbelievably huge, the tour lasted for three hours. We also went to a flamenco show in a gypsy cave at night which was awesome. If I figure out how I’ll post a video on the blog but we were so close to the dancers that we were literally getting drops of their sweat on us. Last weekend I went to Pamplona for the festival of San Fermin. I am having trouble describing how crazy Pamplona was to people. There were thousands of people everywhere you went, all dressed in the same red and white outfits, drinking all day and all night. In the span of a block you would hear about four different languages at once. I went to a bull fight the first day I got there which I can’t say I enjoyed, but was definitely an experience. It actually felt a lot like the atmosphere at a Notre Dame football game (the few games we have actually won), but way wilder. There was wine beeing poured, impromptu bands in every sections, and people literally brought their own personal coolers of food and drinks and then desperately wanted to share with the two American girls that didn’t know bull fights lasted over three hours. The encierro, or the running of the bulls, was at 8 in the morning the next morning and sleeping is not an option so by the time that finally started I was exhausted but it was really cool. I wish I had run although it probably would have been a bad idea since two people died the weekend I was there. It was still an experience though. Anyways I am getting ready to go to Barcelona this weekend and then my last weekend I am going to Sevilla and Cadiz and then spending my last night in Spain in Madrid.