Northern Spain-Alcalá-Prague

OOPS sorry it's been so long, followers. It's not because I'm lazy, it's actually because I'm busy. And time is flying here, which is getting sad! Last time I wrote about our trip to Morocco, which I already miss and want to go back. If any of you ever get the chance to go, do it. Since then..

- In Alcalá. School has been pretty easy since midterms, but it's about to kick up again with presentations and papers due. Nothing too noteworthy has been going on except I'm really loving the group and new amigos we got at school in Instituto B! Got some cool places in the US to visit after all this is over. I've never been to the Grand Canyon..

- Northern Spain. Last weekend Jane and I went to Northern Spain. They call it "Green SPain". It's so beautiful!! I feel bad admitting this but I didn't really think Spain had any pretty landscape like that. I always thought, leave it to Ireland or Scotland or somewhere like that. But I'm tellin you this place looked like the Sound of Music plus a beach. We stayed at a place called Posada de las Mananitas. The owners were like the host family we never had! haha shh dont tell pilar. but really, they were SO sweet. They made us the best breakfast and real american like coffee that weak but never ending. They even drove us to the Picos de Europa, a mountain range about an hour and a half from there. We stayed in Cantabria, but the mountains are in a region called Asturias (google image it, my pictures don't do it justice). ALl of northern spain is known for it's dairy products. HANDS DOWN best cheese I've ever had, got it straight from the monk who made it. Or did whatever to the cows to get it. Going to the north really made me appreciate Spain in a whole new way! I love Spain, it's got a little something for everyone! Really, though. I miss the Posada people.

- PRAGUE. I can't believe I went to the Czech Republic! I never really thought I'd make it to eastern europe for some reason, and all I ever thought of when I heard of it was the Bourne Identity movies or weird stuff like that. So I really wasn't sure what to expect. I went with three other girls from the Auburn group-- Amy, Jane, and Kristina. My favorite thing about Prague has to be the architecture. The buildings are SO old and the cobblestone streets are so neat. The old town square really feels like fairytale buildings or something. Charles Bridge is famous, too, and so beautiful. It links the Old Town with the Prague Castle. There's statues of a lot of influential people along the sides of the bridge, sorry I don't know who they are. We also walked to the Lennon wall. This is a wall full of graffiti inspired by John Lennon, and the other beatles too, that was created in 1980 or 90 something going against communism. Anyone and everyone can write on the wall, I think you could go one day and back another and it look completely different. We met some great hippies at the wall (had to be in their 50s at least) who insisted we write a Haiku about peace. Haha very interesting. A little history lesson- the Czech Republic was a communist country until 1989- pretty recent! Some people we talked to reassured us that that could be the reason Czechs weren't all too friendly. They were pretty rude honestly, which made me spain-sick. I was ready to get back to Spain! When I first came to Spain, I thought the people were a little cold. But I tell you what, compared to the Czechs they seem way more open and approachable. Don't get me wrong, I did love Praga though. We tried goulash, almost like a stew with beef, potatoes, and onion. I liked it a lot! But our friend Nikki claims that HUngary takes the cake as far as goulash goes in eastern europe. We also got Thai massages- they are really cheap and all over Prague! Next stop-Thailand. Who's with me? Overall, Prague was great! I consider myself lucky for being the only one out of us 4 who didn't get sick... Was it the water? a germ? there must be something in that goulash..