While in Madrid we decided to take a day trip out to a couple of super old and super amazing towns that are within only a couple hours drive from the city, part of the Castille y Leon region. First up was Avila, a Romanesque “city” that is surrounded by Medieval walls. It dates all the way back to the 5th century! Crazzzyyy!!! Driving up you see the walls immediately and once inside you feel like you have stepped into a 16th century village. From the old cathedral to the Convento de Santa Teresa, this old walled fortress charms your pants off! We were fortunate enough to have visited on market day where local farmers gather to sell their freshest produce; my favourite was the olives that get scooped out of buckets Another highlight was seeing original artifacts that belonged to Saint Teresa! Mind blowing! I wish we had spent a bit more time here to get lost amongst the windy alleys, that people actually drive through! Well onwards we went to Segovia!!! It’s hard to pick between these two cities as they are both sooo incredible!!! The Gothic architecture is stunning and it’s no surprise that this old city along with it’s Roman aqueduct was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. The cathedral is beautiful with it’s individually decorated chapels that were once upon a time privately owned by the richest families. And then there is the Alcazar! A royal palace dating back to at least the 12th century, is built upon Roman ruins and unfortunately the inside of the castle was destroyed by a devastating fire. All what remains in original condition is an intricate wood ceiling. Don’t get me wrong, they did recover just fine rebuilding and redecorating it much inspired by the Alhambra. However the most spectacular part would be the view of all the land that surrounds it, not to mention being situated on top of a hill, it has one of the most intimidating moats! Visiting these two cities should not be missed as they are both sooo enchanting!

We took a high speed train from Barcelona to Madrid and it was pretty exciting. I fell in LOVE with this city! It’s so full of vibrant life that fills the streets every hour of the day. By far this city has the BEST shopping I’ve ever experienced in Europe. Madrid is such a magnificent place… we even extended our stay! Our last night was La Noche en Blanco… OMG it was insane!

While in Madrid I had my BIRTHDAY and spent the day at the Palacio Real! One of the most incredible palaces I’ve ever experienced! Thank goodness for my sneaky iPhone!

We were on a very STRICT diet for our whole 3 weeks which consisted of meat, cheese, olives and vino. I mos def attempted to maintain this diet once home, but just couldn’t hold up. Especially with the prices here in Vancouver, it’s ridonculous! While we were chilling on the grass in between the Palacio and the Opera House (while there was beautiful Spanish opera being played out loud) we happened to make a couple new friends! Ha! Well this was a true story for majority of the places we were, but one of these guys was extra special! His name is Pinocho! And when you push his nose he says several different Spanish phrases! We adopted him from one of the bums in the park that decided to hang out with us. Through a lot of hand language and my poor Spanish, this bum kept trying to convince us to come over to his house to watch football and drink more vino! And he also complimented Tessa’s grande pechos ! Anyways this one little guy carried on with us, although he didn’t get along very well with Pikachu.

We had a glorious time in the Parque de El Retiro one lovely afternoon after spending hours in the Museo de Prado which is a MUST SEE for the beautiful extensive collection of Velázquez’ !!! There was a temporary exhibit in the Palacio de Velázquez that was probably the most amazing display of modern art I have EVER seen! A little further a stroll through the lovely gardens was the Palacio de Cristal! OMG it was absolutely stunning and it would be a fairytale dream come true to get married in there! SAP!

I would without any hesitation recommend a Spanish adventure based out of Madrid. I would go back in a heartbeat! Here are some randoms for your viewing pleasure…

Oh hi there! It’s been a really long time… I know this is a notorious blog statement but c’mon this working girl deserves a break every once in awhile.

I’ve been crammed with work over the last little while… I’ll blog about those adventures later. But for now I’d like to share with you some of my favourite highlights from my grand European vacation. Well ok it wasn’t that grand as I only travelled through Spain and Portugal for 3 weeks, but it was an absolutely amazing experience and I really didn’t want to come home.

One of my best friends, Tessa, decided to accompany me on what I was planning to be a solo trip. I’m sooo glad she did! We had so many crazy fun times and made endless amounts of unforgettable memories! Can you believe in the 14 years that we have been friends, that this was our first trip EVER together? Well we weren’t alone as we brought along our mascot and alter ego, Pikachu. Haha don’t ask, it’s a long story that’s been long forgotten but we still carry on the inside joke.

Well the adventure started right away… I lost one of my favourite hoodies on our first flight. I also got stuck sitting in the very LAST row of the plane which was hell as the seat didn’t even recline. Not to mention that I am a window seat traveller and when deciding to book the cheapest airfare, well seat selection is not included. Anyways we finally made it to Barcelona.

As soon as we dropped our backpacks off the gallivanting began. What a night… 3 bottles of wine later I ended up with a huge, deep gash in my leg (from climbing a tree, we think) and we found ourselves sitting in a washed down Plaza with some drunk Italian guy at 5:30am. This is what everybody does, sit and drink in a Plaza or park as there are several cerveza merchants roaming around.

We were only there a couple nights and then we carried forth on to Madrid. We both weren’t really impressed with Barcelona so I’m glad we ended our trip there for another couple nights to give it another chance. I guess I just had way too high expectations of Barcelona, as it’s a city I’ve always dreamt of visiting. One day I’ll give it a third chance. But in the meantime I’m not rushing back there.

Well when I started blogging I told ya’all I’m a visual person and it would mostly be a photo blog, so I hope you enjoyed this rant and now it’s time for the visual stimulation… ENJOY