Boring Mornings and Awesome Afternoons

Saturday - 9:40 AM/11:30 (finished)

Wow, what a night.  We got back about a quarter til 4... Sam and Kristin (who went out with their friend Allie who lives here) got back at 630.  Both of those times are AM, not PM.

The pub crawl was fun.  Three bars and a nightclub.  We stayed at each nearly an hour, except for the nightclub, where we stayed for 10 minutes.  The first bar was Embabia, then Sol y Sombra, then some Irish bar.  With our tour we got free drinks, but not very many and not particularly good.  We danced the whole night (James figured for over five hours) and my ears are still ringing.  Everyone's amazed, but I must have really sensitive hearing because I can't ever hear anything after going to a bar or club (or concert or dance or anything with loud music).  It was a ton of fun, but I think I'll limit it to just this one. 

This morning we all groggily got up and got breakfast.  The normal toast and cornflakes.  Then Kristen, James and I got our tickets to Barcelona - they were more expensive than we thought.  But we have them now and will be leaving tomorrow.  Now we're all sitting in the room writing and/or getting ready.  We're going to Toledo later, and before that, Jackie and I are going to the flea market.  I've already spent too much, but it will be fun to look.

I am so tired. And can't hear anything. But we'll have a good day, hopefully.  Tell you more later.

9:15 PM

Well, Jackie and I didn't go to the flea market.  We ran out of time.  Instead, we chilled for a while and left the hostel about 1, I guess, to go to the train station.  We planned to go at 1:50, but the train was full, so we got the one at 3:50.  Jackie, Kristen, Michele and Katie got Burger King and James and I had brought food.  We stopped at a grocery store on the way to the train station - a Carrefour like we have in Brussels.  Thing is, it has a huge difference in stock and, most notably, prices.  The coolest part is that I found different brands of specific products - like fruit-filled chocolates and mate - that I remembered and loved from Chile that I couldn't find anywhere else.  They had awesome types of German chocolate, too.  At less than a quarter of the price it is in Germany.  I don't know how they do it, but every single person that has traveled here has asked why we didn't just study in Spain because it's so much more awesome than Brussels... And there's sun here.

So we took the train and went to Toledo.  It was gorgeous.  We had a list, but no map, so we wandered for about three hours and managed to see everything on our list plus some great views and a parade.  Carnaval was cool because everyone was dressed up.  I saw some typical Halloween costumes, but I also saw some really cool/new ones. It was gorgeous, and the three hours that we were there were perfect.  We got views of the sunset, but all the sights before it got dark. 

We got back and went to the grocery store and everyone else is eating right now. 

Tomorrow we have a 7:30 train to Barcelona, so we'll get to spend the whole day there.  We're coming back Tuesday to fly out early on Wednesday.  It feels like we've been here forever, but we still have a couple days left.  I love it here, but Venice is still top.  I think I would say Venice -> Madrid -> Zurich -> Toledo -> Dusseldorf -> Amsterdam Airport -> Cologne, but we'll see what Barcelona holds in store.  I'm pretty sure the weather had a lot to do with the order, but that's been my experience so far.

Time for a shower and bed. 

Goodnight, world.