Wow, it has been a long time since I last blogged! These past couple of weeks have gone by so quickly dear readers. Two weekends ago, I went to Madrid with CIEE. We left early Saturday morning (4/21/15) and came home on Monday (4/23/15) late afternoon. Unfortunately it rained all weekend. But we didn't let the rain bring us down. We all still had a really nice time seeing and experiencing all of the culture that is present in Madrid.
I will just talk about some of the highlights of our trip. We saw a ton of different things and Antonia (the resident director here) taught us a lot about the city. You can visit my Facebook profile in order to see some of the sites that I saw. I have also included descriptions for as much of them as I could. On Saturday, Antonia gave us a walking tour of the city. I would say my favorite thing that I saw on this day was the statue of a bear and a madroño tree. The bear and tree can be seen on many different things and can be considered symbolic to the city of Madrid. We also went to Templo de Debod. This is an ancient Egyptian temple that was dismantled and rebuilt in Madrid, Spain. I really enjoyed visiting this site. I have always enjoyed Egyptian culture, so it was very interesting seeing ruins all the way in Madrid. Another highlight of Saturday was going to Chocolatería de San Ginés. Here we ordered churros with hot chocolate. Sunday, the group visited two different museums, Sofia de Reina and Museo del Prado. I could have stayed a little longer in both, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time as we had a pretty packed schedule for the weekend. That night, we had some time to explore on our own. My friends and I went to a creperia that Emily had went to the last time that she was in Madrid. This place was so cute and had absolutely amazing crepes. Later that night we made reservations for a restaurant that is known for making really good paella. The presentation was so pretty. The waitress brought out the paella in the pans that they were cooked in so we could see them before they were plated. On Monday, we went to Parque del Retiro. This was a huge park. We spent pretty much the entire day there before we bought bocadillos for lunch and had to head to the airport for our flight. Needless to say that night I was super exhausted.
Last week went pretty quickly as well due to coming back on Monday. Tuesday I had my internship (I now come in earlier on Tuesdays at 10 instead of noon. There is a lot more work to be done at this time. So I am very happy that I asked to change my time when I come in.), Wednesday we had an excursion to the Arab Baths and Santa Clara Cloister, on Thursday we had a wine tasting at a hotel here in Palma, and on Friday I participated in an English Day at a local private school and went to a photo marathon for my Spanish class. I just want to talk about the Santa Clara Cloister quickly. Here we ordered cookies that the nuns make in order to earn some money for the cloister. It was really wild at how the process goes to order. The nuns are not allowed to show their faces at all at this cloister. So we rang a bell and after a couple of minutes an opening in the wall turned so it displayed shelves. The nun talked through this opening to ask what we wanted. After ordering, we then placed the money on the shelf and it turned to display on the other side another shelf with our order. We all were so in awe at how the process went.
This past weekend was the first free one we had where no events with CIEE were scheduled. So of course I slept in on both days. On Saturday (4/28/15) I went to an outlet mall called Festival Park here in Palma. On Sunday (4/29/15, so yesterday) I went with my friend Emily to a beach. It was super warm over the weekend so a ton of people flocked to the beaches to get some sun. We went to a beach in the Ses Illetes area. It was definitely not warm enough to wear swimsuits, but we saw many people that were wearing them and even swimming in the water! (The water was absolutely freezing. We stuck our toes in before we left. We also concluded that the people in swimsuits were tourists. Haha.)
I can officially count down on one hand the amount of days until I see my family! They are coming this Saturday. I'm very excited to see them and to be able to visit Dublin and Paris with them. So from my side of the world and until next time, Hasta luego!
I will just talk about some of the highlights of our trip. We saw a ton of different things and Antonia (the resident director here) taught us a lot about the city. You can visit my Facebook profile in order to see some of the sites that I saw. I have also included descriptions for as much of them as I could. On Saturday, Antonia gave us a walking tour of the city. I would say my favorite thing that I saw on this day was the statue of a bear and a madroño tree. The bear and tree can be seen on many different things and can be considered symbolic to the city of Madrid. We also went to Templo de Debod. This is an ancient Egyptian temple that was dismantled and rebuilt in Madrid, Spain. I really enjoyed visiting this site. I have always enjoyed Egyptian culture, so it was very interesting seeing ruins all the way in Madrid. Another highlight of Saturday was going to Chocolatería de San Ginés. Here we ordered churros with hot chocolate. Sunday, the group visited two different museums, Sofia de Reina and Museo del Prado. I could have stayed a little longer in both, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time as we had a pretty packed schedule for the weekend. That night, we had some time to explore on our own. My friends and I went to a creperia that Emily had went to the last time that she was in Madrid. This place was so cute and had absolutely amazing crepes. Later that night we made reservations for a restaurant that is known for making really good paella. The presentation was so pretty. The waitress brought out the paella in the pans that they were cooked in so we could see them before they were plated. On Monday, we went to Parque del Retiro. This was a huge park. We spent pretty much the entire day there before we bought bocadillos for lunch and had to head to the airport for our flight. Needless to say that night I was super exhausted.
Last week went pretty quickly as well due to coming back on Monday. Tuesday I had my internship (I now come in earlier on Tuesdays at 10 instead of noon. There is a lot more work to be done at this time. So I am very happy that I asked to change my time when I come in.), Wednesday we had an excursion to the Arab Baths and Santa Clara Cloister, on Thursday we had a wine tasting at a hotel here in Palma, and on Friday I participated in an English Day at a local private school and went to a photo marathon for my Spanish class. I just want to talk about the Santa Clara Cloister quickly. Here we ordered cookies that the nuns make in order to earn some money for the cloister. It was really wild at how the process goes to order. The nuns are not allowed to show their faces at all at this cloister. So we rang a bell and after a couple of minutes an opening in the wall turned so it displayed shelves. The nun talked through this opening to ask what we wanted. After ordering, we then placed the money on the shelf and it turned to display on the other side another shelf with our order. We all were so in awe at how the process went.
This past weekend was the first free one we had where no events with CIEE were scheduled. So of course I slept in on both days. On Saturday (4/28/15) I went to an outlet mall called Festival Park here in Palma. On Sunday (4/29/15, so yesterday) I went with my friend Emily to a beach. It was super warm over the weekend so a ton of people flocked to the beaches to get some sun. We went to a beach in the Ses Illetes area. It was definitely not warm enough to wear swimsuits, but we saw many people that were wearing them and even swimming in the water! (The water was absolutely freezing. We stuck our toes in before we left. We also concluded that the people in swimsuits were tourists. Haha.)
I can officially count down on one hand the amount of days until I see my family! They are coming this Saturday. I'm very excited to see them and to be able to visit Dublin and Paris with them. So from my side of the world and until next time, Hasta luego!