The Exchange Rate is Low!

Meet my new excuse for everything. The pound is currently equal to 1.5 dollars (a relative low in the history of dollar-pound relations). What else to do but indulge?

I spent the weekend going out for meals with various friends (an unprecedented level of socialness here in London) and eating lots of bacon. After submitting a paper on Thursday, I was pretty much relieved of any school-related responsibilities/thoughts for the near future. The weather has been very temperamental, but there have been windows of sunshine and relative warmth which have made life much more pleasant.

Last night Miranda and I went to a Hot Chip concert! They were great live—we both enjoyed their newest music much more live than we did when we listened to it beforehand. While the concert was a lot of fun, it was also a testament to the fact that we are both highly irritable people, as we managed to get into quarrels with more than one fist pumper in our vicinity. The commute home from the venue (in Brixton) was nightmarish, but we saw many characters on the bus that night, and we met a very nice couple that recommended some places to go in east London.

Today is a lazy Sunday in every sense of the phrase. It's rainy and cold out and even my double-shot vanilla coffee couldn't wake me up. It's alright though, I feel I've had a pretty active weekend (with shamefully little sleep). I plan to spend 75% of this day in a horizontal position, and I won't feel the least bit guilty about it. Mmm.

Spain, in too many pictures.

Okay so... I tried to narrow my 800 photos down for the blog, after much struggling, I am at 59. Can't get better than that, sorry. I will probably keep the text short... for once.

For my reading week I took a 10 day trip to Spain which was great. I flew into Barcelona and stayed with Nate for a couple of days, then I took the train to Salamanca and hung out with Maeve, and finally I took the train to Madrid and stayed with Lauren Pyle! It was a nice 10 day vacation, but it feels good to get back into my routine.

One of the best things about Barcelona is obviously Gaudi's work... so be prepared for many pictures of that.

Barcelona

Fresh produce at a market

Gaudi's Casa Milá/La Pedrera

Nate on the roof

Looking up from the ground floor

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia

Gaudi's Park Guell!

Gingerbread house in Park Guell

The lovely grand entrance

Benches

One of the great things about Park Guell is that it is situated on a big hill, which allows for some amazing views!

I walked to what seemed like the highest point on earth (never mind Mount Everest), this was the final staircase i had to climb.

Views from the top

View of Barcelona

I passed a lot of beautiful countryside and mountains on my 6+ hour journey to Salamanca by train, also saw a lot of cows!

Salamanca

The plaza and the setting sun

The plaza

The lovely Maeve at breakfast/tapas

Old library at the University in Salamanca... like 1200s status.

Some of the intricate detail on a Church

Did I mention it snowed while I was in Barcelona and Salamanca?

A couple of photos of the train ride to Madrid.

Madrid

On the first day there I just wandered around for many hours by myself, getting a feel for the place.

One night we got Sangria at a special Sangria bar.

We tried to get Lauren to take a photo but she was quite resistant.

Afterwords we got churros con chocolate at a 24 hr churos place that is very reminiscent of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans... but cleaner.

We were initially very excited about the churros. 15 minutes later we were feeling nauseous and err, not so happy. But no fear, we devoured them all.

Close up. Churros are also basically longer, thinner, and crispier beignets with chocolate instead of powdered sugar.

On my last full day Lauren took me to this pastry shop for breakfast... mmm.

We walked el Prado and decided to do to the park first and el Prado afterwords because the weather was finally pleasant!

A church near el Prado.

Parque del Retiro

Beautiful building

Inside

A path in Retiro.

My Spain trip was full of new experiences. While I had been to Barcelona a few times before, Salamanca and Madrid were both new to me. Each city had it's own distinct vibe, and I enjoyed them all in different ways. Most importantly, this was the first time I've really traveled alone. Of course, I had people to stay with/spend time with everywhere I went so I wasn't truly on my own, but I had to figure out how around Spain by my lonesome. The trip definitely gave me a greater feeling of independence, it's good to know I can manage to get around a foreign country without getting horribly lost!