Mallorca!

As I said previously, on Friday after chocolate and churros I hopped on the metro and headed to the airport for my last weekend trip of the semester: Malloca (the small island off the coast of Spain). I met Katie at the airport and we checked in, went through security, and sat by our gate waiting for our flight to board.  We got to the airport fairly early so we just waited and chatted for a while.  Finally we got on the plane and ended up sleeping the entire 50 minute puddle jump flight.







When we got into the airport we got a map from the tourist information desk then went to the bus stop to wait for the bus to take us to our hotel.  We had to wait 22 minutes since it only came once every half and hour but we used the time to eat the lunches our senoras had packed us.  Finally we got on the bus and went to the hotel.  We checked in, went up to our room, and less than ten minutes later Mikaela and Iman were knocking on our door.  We decided since it wasn't too bad out that we'd all go to the beach.  Lying down was too cold so we decided to go for a walk.  We didn't walk very far, but we got some awesome views of the sunset.

On Saturday we all woke up for breakfast at 9:30.  After we finished eating everyone else wanted to sleep some more, but I can't go back to sleep after I wake up and eat so I decided to go for a walk on the beach.  It was a little chilly but nonetheless I wore my shorts and a sweatshirt.  The first thing that happened was the ocean got my sneaker before I had a chance to take them off, but don't worry they dried quickly.  I walked for a really long time which was difficult because there was a big slope down to the water and the sand was really squishy.

When I got back everyone was still sleeping so I decided to take a shower.  After I was dressed and such Katie finally woke up.  I decided to go out on our balcony and write an essay.  When I was done Katie had showered and I went to make sure the other girls were awake and finally getting ready.  We didn't end up leaving the hotel until 3 pm which annoyed me a little bit because I had really wanted to see some things in Palma and by the time we got there they were all closed because it was too late.




We did go to the Arab baths which were somewhat interesting.  We ended up just walking around Plama for a while.  We stumbled on the Christmas market and each of us ended up buying something sweet to eat!  After walking around for a while we split some small tapas at a restaurant in Plaza España.  Because we didn't want to miss the last bus back to Pan Castilla.  When we got back Iman and I went out to try to find some bread to eat with the meat we had for dinner.  All the stores were closed though and we ended up bringing back a pizza from this restaurant close by.  When we told the girls the restaurant had some pretty great cocktails we all went back and each had a cocktail.  It was a nice way to end the day.


On Sunday we went to breakfast at the same time.  Then Katie and I decided to brave the weather and go to the beach for a bit while Mikaela and Iman made their way to the airport to go back to Madrid.  It was nice and sunny but quite windy and after napping on the beach for a while I was too chilly and we went back to the hotel to sit by the pool in the sun.  We sat out for a long time relaxing and doing homework until we decided it was time to eat lunch.  We went to this restaurant that lured us in with the promise of 4.99 pizzas.  We didn't even eat pizza! Katie had lasagna, and I had a hamburger and a hot dog.  We split both dishes between the two of us.


After lunch we went back to the hotel and tried to make a game plan.  It was too late to go into Plama again so we decided just to walk around Pan Castilla a little bit.  After walking for a while the tourist train came by so we jumped on that and rode it in a big loop for a little over an hour.  When we got back to the hotel it was time to get ready to go to the airport so we grabbed our luggage from the storage room and walked to the bus stop.  We had to wait a little while, but eventually it came and we made it to the airport.  Our flight was delayed by half an hour for some inexplicable reason so we took advantage of the wifi at the airport and did some homework.  Finally we got to board the GIGANTIC plane not even half full that went back to Madrid.  We got in pretty late to Madrid, but it was a good trip overall.

Last week in November?! Ho...

The last full week of November arrived like a normal week.  However, it was our last week of grammar classes! Despite this fact, we still learned new material. Oye vey. Just more that I'm going to have to study for my final!

On Tuesday night Mikaela and I decided to go to the cultural activity, something we hadn't done in a while.  We went to a restaurant (whose name I can't remember at the moment) with Julio to eat zapatillas which are GIANT sandwiches.  They are literally more than a foot long and at least 5 inches wide filled with ham and melted cheese. Soo delicious.  We ate one of those, and the biggest croquets I've ever seen, and some empanadas that I wasn't a big fan of. It was nice to get to eat something other than soup!


Thursday was Thanksgiving... but not in Spain.  I was kind of sad I was going to miss it since I've never missed a Thanksgiving with the family before.  After class I went  home and had a nice lunch with my family.  Then after loading all my Christmas music on my ipod I decided I go for a nice long walk.  I walked for almost in hour in one direction, then decided to visit the Temple Debod since its one of the only things I haven't seen yet.  It wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be but it was something interesting to do.  I skyped with my family for a little bit that night, but it wasn't the same as being there with them.


Friday instead of having class in the school we had it at chocolateria San Gines.  It was the last day for most of the people in my class so it was nice way to celebrate the end of class.  After our chocolate and churros session I said goodbye to my classmates and hopped on the metro to go to their airport to go to Mallorca.

Edinburgh, Scotland Nov 19-21

Friday after class I went home and ate a quick lunch so I could hop on the metro and head to the airport so I could get on my plane to Edinburgh!! I had been looking forward to this trip for a while because I was finally going to get to see my best friend Julia who is studying abroad in London.  After sitting next to the most fidgety 15 year old girl on the plane there I finally arrived. I went through customs (I was the only one with a non EU passport), then made my way over to domestic arrivals where Julia would be coming in. I waited there for about an hour and 20 minutes until I saw her plane had landed, at which point I could no longer concentrate, so I paced around the terminal waiting for her.

Finally I saw her come through the gate and I assaulted her with hugs.  It was teary, on my behalf, because I was so happy to see her.  She had bought some chocolate in the airport so we nommed on that while we took a bus into the center of town. We chatted the whole way, something I'm sure the other people on the bus didn't really appreciate as much as we did.  We had to pick up a city bus to get to our hostel, but finally we arrived.  We checked in, dropped our stuff off and went out to search for dinner.  We ended up doing Chinese takeout from the restaurant across the street from the hostel and eating it in the kitchen.  As we stuffed our faces we started to catch up on everything we had missed during the semester. With our tummies content we headed off to bed.


The next morning we got up, got ready and left the hostel by a reasonable hour.  Our first stop: The Elephant House, the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books.  We had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and tea.  They even had a toilet seat dedicated to Harry Potter.  It was pretty awesome. After we finished that, we made our way to the castle where we picked up a guided tour.  After the tour was finished we walked around the castle by ourselves.  We went into the dungeons, saw the royal jewels, tasted some whiskey, and bought some souvenirs in the gift shop.  After we had finished in the castle we walked along the Royal Mile and went in all the touristy type shops, listening to some bagpipe music, and dreaming about haggis.








Finally we decided we'd go to the hostel a bit and chill.  While we were on our way back I saw a place that said PIE, and thinking it was going to be things like apple, pumpkin, etc I made Julia go there.  Well, they weren't sweet pies, they were meat pies.  Nonetheless, we had to try one, so we split the cottage pie (beef and mashed potatoes).  It was quite yummy.  Then we finally walked back to the hostel.  On the way back we stopped at the grocery store to buy snacks for later.  When we finally arrived back at the hostel my poor boots were soaked, so I left them next to the fire in the living room to dry while Julia and I watched the Scotland vs. South Africa rugby game.  Scotland won! Meanwhile, it continues to rain rain rain outside.  Eventually we knew we were going to have to leave the warm confines of the hostel to go out into the rainy abyss.  We drank some cider together and eventually decided it was time to brace the weather.

Bundled up (and with plastic bags on my feet), we left the hostel and went to dinner at a restaurant Julia's guidebook had recommended called Monster Mash.  Julia had haggis (which was actually good!) and I had shepherd's pie and we split come french fries (or chips if you want to be a UK-ish).  We were so full of potatoes and meat we had no room in our tummies for dessert!

After dinner we walked to the meeting spot for our ghost tour... ooo scary, except not really!  The stories were more gruesome rather than scary.  It was really cold and still rainy during the tour however, so although it was interesting, I couldn't wait for it to finish! When it was finally done we went to a pub and got a pint! Neither of us finished our drinks because we were so tired.  Finally we made our way back to the hostel and packed up our bags since we were leaving fairly early the next morning.





The next morning we got dressed, finished packing our bags and took the bus back to the airport.  We ate breakfast there and chatted for a while.  We visited the souvenir shop where Julia bought a sheep named Nessie and I bought some awesome plaid tights. We chatted for a little while longer until Julia had to board her plane.  We said our sad goodbyes, our promises for an amazing spring semester together, and parted ways.  I went to my gate and read a book while waiting for my plane to arrive.  Finally I boarded, and who sat next to me but the same crazy family from the first flight.  Needless to say I wasn't a very happy camper, but finally I made it back to Madrid and took the metro back home.


I absolutely loved Scotland, not just because I got to go with my best friend, but I felt like I had some connection with the country.  Edinburgh was like a medieval story book.  I can't wait till I have the opportunity to go back and see more.