Super Fun Last Few Days!!!

So, the last time I posted, it was Thursday evening. That started off a barage of events that are still going on as I speak:

Thursday night: MIGUEL BOSÉ CONCERT!!! This was so fabulous, and he´s still so hot at 51. He sang his Morenamía song (which many of you should know from my wedding), and he also encored with my personal favorite song Amante bandido. Did you know that his latest CD is full of duets with famous Hispanic singers such as Ricky Martin, Juanes, Shakira, and (of all people) Michael Stipe? Go to ITunes to listen to him, or you can just wait until I come home and I can burn you some of his music.

Friday: So I didn´t get home from the concert until 1:30 (I heard my good friend, the garbage man, picking up the dumpsters right on schedule). I probably didn´t go to bed until around 2:30, and lucky me, I got to get up at 4:45 to catch an early train to Madrid to pick up Andy. Yeah, he´s here with me!!! We did so much in the afternoon, including visiting the Royal Palace, El Prado, and La Reina Sofia museums. Andy´s going back to Madrid on Friday morning so he can do more, and I´ll meet him Friday early evening since I can´t miss anymore class. Then, he leaves Saturday morning, but I´ll stay in Madrid and do whatever I want for the afternoon.

Saturday: We took the bullet train (aka: high speed) to Seville, the city I used to live in. I was SO excited to be back there, and it was just as beautiful (and a heck of a lot more modern) than I remember it. Yes, it was HOT (about 100ºF), but I was so happy to be back. Once again, we did as much as possible: La Torre de Oro (the old Muslim fortress on the river), La Catedral (the largest Gothic cathedral in the world; the third largest Catholic cathedral in Europe) the Giralda bell tower (one of the oldest and tallest standing Moorish towers in the world, built in the 1200s), El Real Alcazar (the Moorish built, Catholic occupied royal residence that the King and Queen of Spain still use today, built in the 1200s), La Plaza de Toros (the bullring, one of the oldest and most famous rings in Spain), and we ate dinner at my favorite old Italain restaraunt, San Marcos. We just walked around everywhere, and it was just so wonderful to be back. I tried visiting my old family, but unfortunately they weren´t home. I did leave them a note, and my Spanish brother just emailed me saying that they remembered me and were sorry that they all missed me. (Oh yeah, Andy and I got locked into their apartment building for about 5 minutes. That was interesting...) Seville, as I stated earlier, has gotten so much more modern. In fact, they´re building 3 metro lines and an electric trolley car system, and they´ve really cleaned up the city a lot. I wish we had more than 1 day to spend there, but it was just so fabulous to be back. Oh, and Andy was impressed that I remembered exactly where the Pizza Hut, Hagan Daas, McDonalds, and Pans & Company were all located!

Sunday: Okay, this started off a bit on the "adventurous" side because due to a silly mistake on my part, we missed our 7:00 am train to Granada. Oops. Well, the next train didn´t leave until 11:45 am, but we had to be at La Alhambra (one of the world´s most AMAZING attractions) at 3:00 because that´s when our tickets were for. If we tok the 11:45 train, we wouldn´t have made it. Luckily, I thought of taking the bus, and the bus station wasn´t too far. We were able to catch the 9:00 am bus that got us iinto Granada by noon. It is just as hot in Granda as it is in Seville, but there were water fountains everywhere. Unlike in Mexico, the water is perfectly safe to drink here. Anyway, we did get to La Alhambra; which was built in the twelth century as a Moorish city and palace. Oh wow, it is SUPER impressive and gorgeous and full of history. We took so many pictures and spent over four hours there The last time I was there, seven years ago, I was so hung over and didn´t enjoy or appreciate it at all. This time, however, I LOVED it! Andy did too. There are so many different parts to it, from the gardens to the palaces to the old baths to the soldiers quarters to the military fortress. It was up for consideration as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Afterwards, we had time to briefly visit the remains of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of the Spanish Inquisition (and the ones who gave permission to Columbus to go to America), and we got to see their crowns, septors, tapestries, etc. This was from 1492!!! Lastly, we visited the Cathedral which was beautiful and impressive. Andy is upset, however, that he can´t find the Patron Saint of Cleaning (yes, there really is one), like he found in Peru.

Today: We got up early and took a 4.5 hour train to Madrid, switched stations and ate lunch at Pans & Company (Spain´s answer to Subway), and then took another 2.5 hour train ride to Salamanca. We´re now here, and Andy enjoyed his very first chocolate with churros. Yummmm! Our hotel is very nice, and it´s about a 3 minute walk to my classes. That´s awesome!!!

We´ll be posting pictures from our weekend soon!