Calle de Sagasta

First off, some absolutely huge news. I saw Rafael Nadal at the Barcelona airport!!!!! I was going up the escalator and he was coming down and we made eye contact and it was amazing. I love Europe.

And now to my time in Madrid! It was great and I had a wonderful time exploring the city and catching up with Meagan, a friend from BU. My home base was a hostel on the Calle de Sagasta. On my last night Meagan and I and Yuta, a japanese kid I met at the hostel, went out for tapas and sangria and had the best night pretending to be Madrileños.

Puerta del Sol, the main square downtown. 

I like to make sure I have at least three tourists in every picture I take. 

A little bit of home in Spain :)

A lot of the streets in Madrid go underground to keep the congestion hidden. 

Spanish pastries and a Spanish guy checking them out. 

Part of the Retiro parc in Madrid, it was huge and absolutely breathtaking. When Meagan and I were walking around we even saw a mini regatta in the lake there!

Typical Museo de Jambon in Madrid - casual legs of ham hanging from the ceiling. 

Meagan, the ever capable tour guide!

The metro closest to my hostel. 

Madrid at night.

I rode that bike throughout Madrid. Who needs the metro?

Typical tapas place around downtown. They all had these beautiful mosaic decorations.

Plaza Mayor.

Churros dipped in hot chocolate is a Madrid/Spanish must. 

Cafés in Plaza Mayor. 

I stumbled upon a candy shop! They offered me a sample of a delicious biscuit with melted chocolate inside. It was delicious. 

Chocolate covered olives? Interesting. 

Mmmmm...

More Spanish pastries!

I like sweets. 

Beautiful building near Plaza Mayor.

A famous tapas bar in Plaza Mayor. Hemingway used to come here and those are real bull torsos on the walls!

The outside. 

More jambon.

Lamppost in Plaza Mayor.

Turron - a special Spanish sweet. 

A beautiful old building.

View from Meagan's host family's apartment! Her host mom invited me over for lunch and it was absolutely asombroso!

Small plates of salami and chorizo and these fried potato things.

Homemade paella!

Meagan and her host mom, Cheilo. Notice the mountain of food on our plates which we had to finish or hurt Cheilo's feelings. I, of course, as the perfect guest scarfed it all down. 

Museo del Prado, absolutely stunning and so huge. They wouldn't let me take pictures inside or I would have - I got yelled at in Spanish so I just pretended I only spoke French and kind of drifted away.

The royal church. Meagan and I accidentally walked in on a wedding there. Woops. 

One sneaky picture before they yelled at me. 

Leg of jambon. We went to this tapas place which is very popular with students and locals in general because:

6 Euros get you this giant glass of sangria with...

...all this food!!! Amazing.

Meagan and I! She is the best. 

Nantes Part II

Ok, part two about my weekend in Nantes. It seems like such a long time ago now as I am currently writing this post in my hostel in Madrid, but I'll do my best and try to remember what I wanted to say. Basically, I had the best time ever in Nantes. It was so interesting to see a different part of France, and it really was quite different. Maybe it was because I was staying with a host family or maybe it was just Nantes, but the entire city felt so much more familial and less painfully chic than Paris. The first morning I got there we had a delicious breakfast of croissants and tea with Alyssa's host family and had a wonderful conversation with her host mom. She told us about how Nantes is still very Catholic (I even went with them to Mass on Sunday morning!) and how Paris is really very separate from the rest of France. The rest of France is much more conservative (although by American standards they're practically socialists) and rural. It's almost like two different countries. It felt especially surreal when we went apple picking in the backyard of Alyssa's host family's house by the sea. The apples were delicious and the entire experience made me realize how much I miss my own mom and family time. It's quite common for French kids in university to continue living with their families (if they're in the same city) and now I have this crazy idea that I want to do that with my mom next year. So far, she's not so into it...I'll do my best to convince her it's the European and chic thing to do.

Macaroons!

That's right, chocolate shoes.

I want to live here forever...

Still more chocolate hehe

A beautiful passage in Nantes

She's looking casual.

The main plaza in Nantes. To the side is the cathedral, it was gorgeous.

A enclosed garden in Nantes with the typical French square shaped trees.

People actually live there too! It only costs like a trillion dollahs.

We rode a mechanical elephant in Nantes and this is the view of the city from the top. 

The elephant!

 The best Salon de The in Nantes! The had these delicious spreads which we could spread on our cakes and it was HEAVEN. Especially the speculoos. And the creme de marron. And the jams. Ahh and everything!!

The Salon's house bread with banana and chocolate. Miammiam!

Too adorable. 

Us! x