you cannot go to the beach with your suitcase. uh, yes we can.

Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, & Vigo

Though I should write more often, I'm not entirely displeased with my once a week post. I'll strive to get more caught up between here and my next trip- Valencia on Saturday. 

At last, summer has arrived in Madrid. It came with absolutely zero warning and didn't sneak into the season. I hardly feel I experienced a "spring," perhaps contributing to my inability to believe May is halfway over. Last week, I was still wearing BOOTS and long sleeves to work and yesterday, I was sweating in a cotton dress. It was 90 around 4 pm. With this heat has come a new thing to hate about Madrid- seating on a seat on the Metro thats still warm and sweating from the previous person's behind. ewwww...

I've also realized I am practically having to reteach myself how to walk in flip flops. I tripped on the escalator yesterday, effectively flashing at least 20 unlucky Spaniards. Embarassing. Who trips UP an escalator? This girl. I also have blisters from my most loyal shoes in my entire closet that allowed me to tromp all over the place for many summers. So bizarre.

That being said, I am thrilled for warm weather. Though usually I don't consider myself much of "a beach person" I was inexplicably craving the beach. This lovely girl that I met back in the fall (brush up here) and I headed north to the side of the country just above Portugal (opposite of the Basque Country). Santiago de Compostela was on my bucket list for Spain destinations I must see before leaving and I was delighted when she said she would join me. We got our train tickets and headed off on the night train, arriving at 7:55 am. After naps at our hostal (that's not a hotel, not a hostel) we headed out to see the city. What a precious, quaint and lovely little city. The main attraction is the cathedral that supposedly holds the bones of St. James and honors the unnamed man who stumbled upon them twelve hundred years ago. This is all crucial in the infamous "Camino de Santiago" where religious "pilgrims" elect to walk essentially from France to this church. Caitlin and I lucked out and got to the church just as mass was starting. We left to explore the surrounding streets and caught the end- where they burned incense in this huge flying contraption across the church, which apparently only happens a few times a year. This meant incredible people watching as emotional pilgrims (easily identified by their backpacks) cried in joy to witness a special mass and to celebrate the completion of their journey. There was one group having beers in the square in front of the cathedral. 

After two or three hours, we were bored to death in Santiago de Compostela so we decided to hop on a train and go even further north. This was a great decision. Our afternoon in A Coruña was incredibly intriguing because we had no idea what there was to do there and we stumbled upon these strange statues that resembled a mini-Stonehenge. I'll post pictures and I'm confident you will not argue with our judgement. Not quite warm enough to lay on the beach, and considering we weren't prepared, we just walked and chatted. Caitlin and I have so much in common and I really enjoyed traveling with her. It still blows my mind that I met someone from Roswell on a bus to the OUTSKIRTS of Madrid, who went to UGA and knows several people I do. Remarkable. 

After having dinner and an intense Spanish lesson with some Columbians we met, we crashed and woke up at 6 am to catch a train to the border town of Spain and Portugal, Vigo. We asked the first taxi we saw to take us to the beach and when it became apparent we were going straight to the sand with our suitcases, he said, "you cant go to the beach with your suitcases. find a hotel to store them, or I'll come pick you up later and keep them in my trunk.." I said, "uh yes, we can go with our suitcases and we will." Just picture walking by Caitlin and I propped up on our suitecases. Haha I spy with my little eye a tourist. Anyway,  armed with bathing suites and expired sun screen, we soaked in the sunlight the whole day. I was so happy. I got so sunburned. I am still so happy, even if I have leather skin syndrome. Sharon Brown would not be happy about my sunburn, but I have finished half a bottle of aloe and I am babying it big time. 

I had serious beach fever and at no point did it cross my mind that we should abandon the ocean and warm sand. To say it was perfect weather doesn't accurately describe just how beautiful of a day it was. It wasn't hot enough to sweat, but it was warm enough to take a dip in the ocean. For all the trips that have had terrible weather, it was about time karma granted me a good day. 

Since there were limited trains to Porto, Caitlin went on to spend the night there and fly back the next afternoon and I hopped on the night train back to Madrid. Imagine a 9 hour train ride with sand still in your hair. 

It was a great weekend and an ideal escape from the city. I will be heading again to the beach this weekend with Melania and I can't wait. Since she is doing her Masters and working, I rarely ever get to see her pretty face so I am thrilled to have her to myself for a weekend! 

As far as everything else goes, I'm just reading a lot, trying to relax and take advantage of all this free time by going running in the park, spending time with friends when they're available and stocking to my strict aloe-regimen. 

Pictures to come!

There is a first time for everything

Barcelona

To say the Barcelona weekend got off to a rough start is an inaccurate description of just how rough the start was. This was a conference through Biolase, where Dad and many of our favorites from the Biolase family plus my friend who also teaches English in Madrid but is actually an American (Jeff) and my roommate from last year (Cathryn) would be joining me on the trip. Long story short, we (all three of us) missed our flight. That's correct, ladies and gentleman, I, Stephanie, who has taken upwards of 1000 flights missed my first one. At 9:30 pm. I will tell you the full story sometime.
After an absolutely absurd ordeal, we left the airport defeated, upset and headed to the train station. We climbed aboard a night train with five minutes to spare before departure, and had a little cabin to ourselves. Jeff and Cathryn had never been on a train before and this provided an excellent opportunity for the two of them to bond (Cathryn had just landed that morning from Alabama) as well as Cathryn and I to fill in the gaps of our life updates that Viber, emails and Facebook hadn't covered. In the end, I can honestly say I am really happy that we missed the flight and it all worked out beautifully.

Friday, the three of us got to the convention to say hello to everyone, have lunch and then do some minor exploring of the city before it was time to get all dolled up for an incredible 45 person dinner at the Opera House. After an amazing meal with great conversations in one of the most extravagant places I have ever been, Dad gave an incredibly inspirational speech. I was glowing with pride for him and I truly believe that he is happy. He's great at what he does and I know that under his direction, these next few months are going to be awesome for the company. It was a really cool moment. After dinner, we headed to hear some live music and party until my heels wouldn't allow it anymore.

Saturday, I had drawn up quite a schedule for seeing most of the big Barcelona sites in just a few hours. We hit it hard. Though we hadn't anticipated the lengthly lines of tourists with our same itinerary, we covered a lot of ground with our day. Before we knew it, we were racing back to the hotel to throw on cocktail dresses (Jeff) and a suit (Cathryn and I) and have a glass of champagne in Dad's suite with breathtaking views overlooking the whole city. I must admit this may go down as one of my favorite days of 2012.

 Jeff is hilarious and had Cathryn and I both cracking up all day. The company and banter between us was entertaining and it just made me so happy to have a best friend in my country, sharing great memories together. All too soon, day bled into night and it was time for the big gala dinner. There were so many familiar faces, it was just such a good time.
Dad played with the band once the party heated up and the crowd went crazy. Maybe it was my imagination, but I think this is the best I have ever heard him sound without his "crew" behind him. Seriously, he really was on fire. There was dancing and more dancing until we decided to go dance somewhere else. We got to the next place and danced and danced until eventually I was drug back to the hotel. I did not want such a great day to end.

Sunday, moving a little slowly as you can imagine, we had a few final "Barcelona Musts" to knock off the list. We headed to the beach and were graced with the best weather of Cathryn's entire trip. I actually wore sunglasses for a few hours. We met up with Dad to go to the Picasso Museum, where we were all incredibly fascinated by how Picasso painted with such accuracy in his youth and then transformed into the infamous Picasso-style after the tragedy of his best friend committing suicide. This museum and the hours I was able to spend letting his art speak to me was certainly a highlight of the weekend.

 After the four of us ate lunch, we hugged and headed to different airports. Thankfully, we made the flight home with hardly any problems (especially by comparison) and crashed successfully in our beds that night in Madrid.
The weekend flew by and it was a great trip!
Everyone in Spain says that you are either a Madrid-person or a Barcelona-person. I didn't believe this until after this weekend. I had high expectations for the city of Barcelona and for the weekend itself. The weekend exceeded my wildest dreams and the city, I must admit, let me down a little bit. Certainly glad I went but it doesn't rank in my top 10 or top 20 cities where I have been. This realization surprised me a good deal. I am definitely a madrileña.

At the end of the day, traveling is an adventure. And you just NEVER know what you are going to get.