Hampstead Heath- London park #1

     In my final week, we are all trying to cram as many things in as we can. One thing I wish I did while here was to go to some of London's parks. Well, I am glad I am waiting to do that this week because the weather is not only cooperating, but it is extremely sunny and warm by London standards. I went to Hampstead Heath today, and will be going to Hyde park tomorrow along with walking around the park I live in, Regent's.
     I have discovered here that I absolutely love Weeping Willows. I have always loved them, but now I know they are my favorite tree, and luckily for me, England is full of them. The grass in England is like nothing I have ever experienced. It is thick and pure, perfect green. I walked barefoot in the long grass on a hill and wanted to roll around in it.

Final Week

     Found out last night that I am in London until the fifth, not the fourth like I thought. Dont ask me how I screwed it up. I was extremely upset at first because I wanted to travel home with my friends and say goodbye to them, but now I am looking at it in my normal outlook. Everything happens for a reason.

     I am feeling anxiety like I have never felt before. I am nervous and depressed to leave, but part of me just wants to be home already so I can release all of these feelings. I need to stop telling myself that it is my last week in London; it is only my last week in London in 2013. I will be back in the future, I know this. So I prepare myself for goodbyes, for the packing that is ahead of me, and the best week I can have!

Late night thoughts

     I guess I am excited to come home. Or at least I need to keep telling myself I am so as to convince myself. It is getting more and more painful by the day to think about not living here.
     I had a dream last night. I woke up in my dream and didnt know where I was for a moment, until I suddenly realized I was in my bed in America, and I just balled my eyes out. Cried because I was home, cried because I left England, cried because I didn't have my friends by my side anymore. I thought it would be harder being here in the beginning, but it is proving to be infinitely harder to go back.
     I formulate plans in my head of possible ways to move abroad, how I would do it, how I would cope with leaving my family. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, I want to move away, but on the other, I think about leaving my family and regretting not spending time with them. I have this fear, this nightmare, that when my parents are old and grey, I am going to regret not spending time with them if I moved away. The lost days, months, years, that I cant get back. But is that fear inevitable? Even if I stayed in NJ, or the United States for that matter, would I still have those feelings? Life steps in when you graduate, move out, start your own family. Time spent with family dwindles because of the events that take precedent and eat away your time. Can I live my life this way? Sacrifice my happiness living in a foreign country for the possibility of guilt later in life? I would not be sacrificing happiness, really. I would be happy with my family, wherever we are, but I would sacrifice a dream and a goal. Ever since I went to Hawaii in 2007, I have had this ideal image of living in an exotic place, and now after living in England, this feeling has grown stronger. I need to do an intense self reflection over the summer. I need to think about internships abroad, or just moving out into an apartment in New Jersey.
     Studying abroad has had the most profound effect on my psyche. I have learned more about myself in these last few months than I have in my entire life. I am coming out of my shell and realizing who I am, and more importantly, who I want to be. This is a very expensive way to learn such life lessons, but it was worth every single penny and every hour of hard work for the valuable information I have gained here.

Hello again, Spain

     I am in love with Spain, and always will be. It was my first European country I traveled to and will hold a special place in my heart. I emailed my mom after the first night and said this: "I am moving to Madrid, finding myself a cute Spanish husband, and raising my kids in the perfect Spanish weather". That is my new life goal, and I am sticking to it. The finding a cute husband part shouldnt be too difficult, seeing as every man in Spain is good looking, but the moving there part might be easier said than done. Maybe I need to find a husband first, then move there. I'll be bicontinental and live in Spain in the winter and America in the summer. Actually, I told Lauren I am living in London and getting a winter house in Spain. That is the perfect plan.

I digress...

     Before coming to London, when I was planning everywhere I wanted go, I was hellbent on not traveling to Spain again. I wanted to explore new places, not somewhere I have already seen. Once Julie and I found cheap flights; however, I changed my mind. I began growing more and more excited to go back to Madrid and see the familiar sights, go back to the Prado, and bask in the sun. I justified the trip by saying that last time I was there, I was with my family, and this time, I was with friends, and the best of friends at that.
      It was a small group, only five of us. It was the first and only trip with one of my favorite girls here, my roommate, Courtney. It was odd at first to travel with her because we normally miss each other while away, but this time, there was no need to say "I can't wait to see Courtney". I liked having her there. We laughed a lot and decided that we should travel together more when we graduate.
     We had a late flight on Wednesday night and went straight to the hostel. The next day we woke up to the most perfect weather. Sunshine, heat, a slight breeze. It was heaven on Earth, especially compared to London. We explored the city. This was more of a relaxing trip than our previous ones. We walked around all day Thursday, went to lunch, then went to the Prado. I was having flashbacks every time I say a familiar building or place. The whole trip, I kept seeing my dad. Even people that did not look like him at all, I would just see him and need to do a double take. And I don't know why I was only seeing him either. It made me extremely sad, but also happy. It was the epitome of bittersweet. I was so grateful for having the opportunity to go there three years ago and again this weekend, but I was upset because that place has such strong memories of my family. I remember places we sat, ate, walked, and I can't help but miss them. When in Segovia, I walked up a street and immediately was hit with a flashback to an exact picture I took of a restaurant on the corner on our way to the square. This is the first time I was genuinely homesick, but it wasn't a I need to go home right now type of homesick. It was more of a peacefulness. I knew I missed them, and I just focused on the happy memories we had and the new ones I was creating with my friends.

View from our hostel balcony.

Balcony view

Palacio

This is the third time Madrid is trying

for the Olympics. 2012,16, and 20.

Those crazies.

Puerta del Sol

I remembered this building from when 

I went with my family. It was so strange to see 

it again. 

Love that roommate.

Lauren

I have a really amazing picture of this

arch from three years ago, but last

time it had red flowers in front. 

Puerta de Alcalá

This is the one I took three years ago. 

Its so strange to have two from two different

times. 

Kelly and Courtney

Courtney, Lauren, Kelly, Julie

We did this thing where we would

grab each others butts in pictures

throughout the whole trip.

This one was fun because there

was a group of guys taking this picture

for us. 

I look like I'm choking, but thats typical Kelly, 

choking me. 

     I was looking forward to the Prado the most. I went there three years ago with my parents and Marcus, but I wanted to go again to see my favorite painting, Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. I studied Spanish for seven years, including half a year of Spanish art in senior year of high school. We learned about El Greco, Goya, Murrillo, and Velazquez. I remember sitting in class when Mrs. Tirso put a painting up called Las Meninas. At first, I looked at it as another painting. It was beautiful, but it looked like everything else. Then she began to explain the painting. It was painted by Diego Velazquez who painted for King Phillip IV. He painted this painting of the Infanta Margarita Terese, the King's daughter, in the center in the white dress and all of her "ladies in waiting" or las meninas. There is a large canvas on the left with Diego Velzaquez himself standing in front of it, looking at his subject, where we are standing. In the background, you can see a mirror with two figures reflected in it. These two people are the King and Queen. Velazquez is looking at them and painting them on the large canvas, but the painting is of what is going on behind the scenes. We are taking the place of the King and Queen, looking at the scene of their daughter and her friends watching this portrait being done. The whole story is what drew me in like a moth to a flame. It became my favorite painting I have ever seen, and that is saying a lot considering I have been to the major galleries in London, New York, Spain. I love Las Meninas. I have been wanting to have a print framed in my room, and I thought what better place than from the Prado, no? So I bought myself a poster and transported it all the way back to London. Hopefully it isn't too damaged when I finally get it back to the states. I joked around and said I traveled all the way to Spain for that.

I stole this picture from Google.

I snuck this picture of the real thing. 

In real like the canvas is huge. Its over 10 ft 

tall. This is part of the reason I love it so. It not like 

Mona Lisa where you get there and are 

disappointed by the size. 

My man.

     We went to a Flamenco show that night. We paid €26 for a show and tapas dinner that included Sangria, Spanish omelette or tortilla de patatas, patatas bravas, which is a plate of potatoes covered in tomato sauce and garlic mayo, sausages, and croquetas. The sangria. Oh my. It was so delicious that I just wanted to put a straw in a pitcher of it. I fell in love with it. I ordered another at the Flamenco place and had such a great night. It was so relaxing, and I felt like we were actually enjoying the city, rather than rushing through to see all of the sights.

    There was a pub crawl included in our price, so of course we went. I wanted to see what this Spanish nightlife was about. We went to a disco type place first, then a bar, then a hookah lounge that we ended up leaving. It was fascinating to see what the culture is like in another country, especially somewhere so different. When we arrived at our hostel at midnight the night before, we were surprised to see that the streets were packed and the man at the hostel said that people were just beginning to go out now. I've heard this, I just never thought it was as big of a deal as it was made out to be. People really do go out around 1 am and do not come home till 5 or 6 in the morning, then wake up and go to work the next day. I think part of it has to do with the fact that it is still light out at 9:30 pm. When you eat dinner at 9, you tend to want to go out hours later. We went on the pub crawl and didn't come back to the hostel till about 2 am. It did not feel like that late, though. We are all so used to London where 2 am would be an extremely late night because bars close around midnight. It felt like it was only 11 or 12. The streets were filled with people just beginning to make their way to the clubs. I regret not staying out all night, at least once. It would have been an experience to just see what the nightlife is like. Spain is famous for its nightlife, and I wish we all were awake enough to go out till 5. We did the pub crawl long enough though. The guy who runs the crawl got on the bar and stripped down to a speedo and we all decided that was our queue to leave. It was a good time though.
     Friday was another relaxing day. We went for a boat ride on the pool in El Parque Retiro. It was so sunny out, and it was so peaceful. Courtney and I took one boat, Kelly, Lauren and Julie took the other. I played Justin Timberlake for the two of us and we rowed around the pool for an hour. It was so different from my trip with my parents, and I loved that.

We found a botanical garden.

Beautiful.

Love these girls.

Everyone thought this was just

another statue street performer,

but it looked so real. So we dared

Courtney to go touch it, and she went

up and kicked it and realized it was

a real statue. We were convinced it was 

a performer and kelp saying, "thats 

a good one!!"

     We explored and shopped all day and decided to take a few of Courtney and Julie's friends' advice and went to a place called El Tigre for dinner. The way El Tigre works is that you go and order a drink, and they bring you as many tapas as you can eat. Plates and plates of tapas. Tortilla de patatas on top of bread, paella, chorizo, croquetas, patatas bravas, ham. It was all so good and we scarfed it down. The sangria was good too, not as good as the Flamenco or tapas places, but it was only €5 for a mug of sangria and a full dinner. We ended up buying another sangria because we wanted them to keep bringing us different tapas to try. We probably had about 8 plates of food brought to us. We decided to go there the next night too, but we tried one down the street. There are four El Tigres with a few blocks. I think its because they get so packed, but couldn't buy the spot next to them so they had to expand a block or two down the street. If anyone is going to Madrid in the future, GO TO EL TIGRE!

     We all wanted to go on a day trip the next day, and I suggested we go to either Segovia or Toledo. Eventually, I decided that Segovia would probably be better for us because theres more shopping and restaurants and of course, the AQUEDUCTS! We spent €14.22 on a roundtrip ticket and boarded the bus. We drove through the beautiful Spanish countryside on our way, and I was having serious deja vu.

     When we arrived, we went straight to the aqueducts then walked around and saw the sights of the beautiful historic town including: the Plaza Mayor, the cathedral, and the Alcazar or castle where Isabel and Ferdinand lived. The views were breathtaking.

We got a little sidetracked on our way to the

bus station.

THERE THEY ARE.

The Aqueducts were one of my favorite

sights when I went three years ago, and I wasn't

able to take pictures back then

because my camera died. I only had

one picture of them. So this time, I took plenty. 

Chillin.

I look so tiny.

Larn

In her natural state.

If that guy with the bags wasn't there

this would have been the most adorable

picture.

Kelly Mac.

This is who I live with. 

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

I don't know what I would do without her.

     We arrived back to Madrid and got dressed for round two at El Tigre. It was just as good as the night before and it was a wonderful way to end an amazing trip.

I hope to see you again Spain. I didn't think I would three years ago, but its funny how life works. Until next time....