Friday, March 19, 2010

Taken with Toledo

On a whim and a quick google search, Shayla and I decided to take a quick day trip to Toledo on the second day. Boy am I glad we did because it was magical! We had to stall a bit since we were too late for the earlier train by going to the Thyssen museum and seeing the Monet exhibit. That was great though. The weather was perfect and so sunny. We walked around everywhere and sat down at every plaza we saw.
Walking into the city from the bus station--
Top of the hill next to the castle---
Plaza we stayed in while eating chocolate pastries---
Sign I had to take a picture with! YAY home I miss y'all---
Great views at the bridge we stopped at----















That place was my favorite! I loved the view and thought  it looked like a fairytale where I could be the princess living in that castle (haha but really Shayla had to drag me away).

After the trip fortified by pastries and soda, we took the train back to Madrid and walked back to the hostel. We went back out soon after and grabbed some dinner at a bread place, both of us only having a vague idea of what we ate since there were no translations.Then we picked up some chocolate almonds and bottled water to brush our teeth and to distract us from the semi-disastrous dinner and called it a night by going back to the hostel early.

You know you love me. 
XOXO, Gaelic Girl

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Mad for Madrid, part 1

Bus to Dublin for the airport for the last time woohoo!! So-so night at the Starbucks terminal again. Arrive to a perfect hostel, little did we know how wonderful it was in comparision to the second one. Highly recommend the WAY hostel even though we had a eight person female dorm. Shayla awkwardly got caught by the maid checking for bed bugs though haha. We were told that our beds wouldn't be ready until 12:30 so we wandered around the market and the plazas surrounding the palace. 

Loved them, they were so great that we ended up hanging around in them a lot basking in the sun.
Once we got settled into the hostel and met some new friends on Spring Break, we walked to the Parque Del Retiro (soon to be one of my favorite places in Madrid). It was so relaxing to walk around and watch the people in their boats on the Estanque.
After walking around most of the city for the day, Shayla and I took a quick nap before we went to the Prado museum during their free hours at 6-8. It was so cool to see all the paintings of Goya and others. Then we had an early night at the hostel in order to get ready for our day trip to Toledo the next day since we were so exhausted with all the walking.

You know you love me.
XOXO, Gaelic Girl

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Stories of Spain and today sure to come soon!! 
 You know you love me. 
XOXO, Gaelic Girl