Hello! So, this is the first official blog entry, here goes!

Madrid, Spain: 

I just finished up a 4 day stretch in Madrid, where I saw all these amazing sights! The first day we arrived we took a walking tour of the historic area of Madrid, to get acquainted with our area, where we saw lots of great back alleys with delicious restaurants, beautiful artwork, and incredible architecture. 

The second day after class (yes, I said class...) we headed off to tour the Prado, Reina Sofia, and the Palacio Real. The Palacio Real was by far my favorite, because it was so interesting to be able to tour the inside of such an ornate palace. The Prado was a great visit as well because we all got to physically look at the works of art we had been studying in class, so it added something extra.  

The next day we walked through the Jardin Botanico (Botanical Gardens), which was so peaceful and lush! I took way too many pictures of flowers...After that we travelled one hour south of Madrid to Toledo. It's this beautiful Spanish town that dates back hundreds of years (with the architecture still intact!) that's set on these cliffs surrounding a river. The views were absolutely breathtaking. A group of us had lunch in this little outdoor cafe then just wandered the narrow streets for a couple of hours. That night for dinner back in Madrid we found this great little restaurant back in an alley...10 of us split 3 huge, I mean HUGE, platters full of paella and washed it down with a couple of pitchers of sangria. I must say we all felt very Spanish :)

Barcelona, Spain:

So, after riding in a bus all day we finally arrived in Barcelona about 7:45 pm. We did have a lunch stop earlier in the day in Zaragoza where we were supposed to see the Aljaferia, but it was closed...bummer. I haven't really seen much of Barcelona yet, but I can already tell it's very different from Madrid. Since it's set on the Mediterranian a group of us want to try to get to the beach tomorrow afternoon after our scheduled walking tour. Maybe we'll get some good seafood for dinner...ok, bedtime!