Thursday Chris came to visit me from Barcelona so after school Molly, Laura, Chris and I went to Segovia! (Chris barely made it onto the train, I had to beg the conductor guy to wait a couple minutes and open the doors again when I saw him booking it down the platform!)
(photo: Chris and I with the Roman Aqueduct!) 
Segovia is the homeplace of the Alcazar that they built Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland to imitate. Let me tell you, the real thing is FAR SUPERIOR! We walked the cobblestone streets, saw the impressive Roman Aqueduct (still standing ever since 190 AD!!), visited the Cathedral, toured the Alcazar and climbed the 152 spiral stairs to the top of the main tower. (photo: me and Molly with the wishing well)
SO beautiful! We only needed about 4 hours for the whole city, so we went back to Madrid for dinner then out to Joy for dancing.
Friday Chris, Molly and I saw the Temple Debod, the only Egyptian temple in all of Europe (apparently Spain had a birthday and Egypt didn't know what to get them... guess they had too many of 'em lying around). It rained/thundered a bit but we explored on foot all the way to the river, then went back to Sol to visit the Mercado San Miguel. It's basically like a market for tapas, so you buy from one of the stands then settle down at a cafe around it or inside and enjoy. After that stop, took a break for home. Then the three of us met up for dinner at a Meson, a fun and slightly fancy terrace type restaurant and had verrry good food and my first taste of Cava.
Saturday was quite the Madrid day! I took Chris to see the Museo del Prado, a world-class museum known for it's impressive and HUGE collection of European art (Las Meninas was amazing!). We saw El Greco, we saw Velazquez, we saw Goya (before and after the dark period), we saw SO much... and we did it all in 3 hours! We enjoyed the impressive works but also made it a fun time with our own commentary on everything. After that monstrosity, we went to Retiro park to see the main sights and then headed home for a bit.
We met up with a group of friends to have Paella, actual Spanish cuisine that was created in Valencia. The huge table-sized pans fed all 8 of us to bursting! I liked the seafood fidea (but couldn't bring myself to eat one of the prawns, it was looking at me with those black eyes!) and the chicken paella was superb! All in all, quite a good experience.
Today's a sleeping and studying day, not as much fun, but necessary. It's been a draining few days, but still enjoyed myself nonetheless. Chris leaves tomorrow, but I'll be seeing him in 4 days when I go to Barcelona on Thursday!
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