Belg-YUM

First weekend trip sola was a success! Although travelling alone you're never really alone, and you meet more cool people than if travelling with a friend. I also realized that it was my first time on a plane since I arrived from the USA. Wow. It seemed that I travelled a lot this year, but all within Spain apparently.

I flew out of O Porto early Friday, which required me to spend the night there. Luckily one of my Gallego classmates lives there now so I was able to stay with her. After arriving in Brussels, I met a Portuguese girl and we grabbed lunch together and then parted ways-- I was headed to Brugge via train. In the train station I met two Mexican guys who were also trying to go to Brugge. Travellers stick together! It was double fun hanging out with them because it allowed me to practice my Spanish, even if I found their accents pretty hard to understand. But they said my accent is notably from Spain, hoho!

Brugge is certainly a beautiful little city. Because of this reputation, however, it is loaded with tourists. Seriously, the tourist population outnumbers the actual residents. I don't know how they stand it! The language of Brugge is Flemish (like Dutch), which I know nothing of. I wrote down some key phrases, pero igual all the hospitality workers spoke English. Sometimes it seems unfair to me that people (such as myself) have English as a native tongue when it's used as an international language. We have such an advantage over others who have to study it as a second or third language. But I digress. Friday we took in the charming buildings on foot, and tried some Belgian beers. My new chums had to leave that night for Brussels, how sad. Belgians eat dinner at an earlier time than Spaniards, so when I was hungry around 9 I opted to get fries smothered in ketchup at a little fry stand (indeed on this trip I tried all the typical Belgian foods apart from mussels). I enjoyed my fries outside to the music of the belfry. I don't think they do it every night, but there happened to be a sort of concert of bells, after which the tiny man (because he was so high off the ground) waved to his adoring audience. 

Saturday I explored Brugge a bit more with some Americans from my hostel. Not as entertaining as the Mexicans! For breakfast we had a waffle with 'the works' --chocolate syrup, strawberries, and whipped cream. It was almost too sweet! I also spent my last hours there perusing chocolate shops. So many to choose from! Unfortunately most of my purchases melted. In one place I bought 3 truffles for 5 euros! That could've gotten me 5 Milka bars! I also watched lollipops (I assume) being made. 

Back to Madrid

Labor Day weekend (first of May), a few of us went to Madrid to celebrate my best chum Lauren's birthday. For some reason (perhaps the company kept or the sites visited) I enjoyed Madrid much more this time around, compared with my trip three years ago. Mola visitar.

The first day we saw sights such as the ayuntamiento city hall and

Parque del Retiro. Unfortunately the line to rent a boat was ridiculously long, so we just soaked up the sun.

The second day we saw some more parks, the palacio, and probably other stuff. At night we went to a flamenco show. The place was really out of the way, so we assumed it would be "authentic" but in reality the audience was all obvious tourists--including a group that would not shut up during the performance. At the beginning we had to control ourselves not to laugh, because it just seemed so ridiculous. During the show there were some intense moments, the dancers were certainly expressive. Anyways, I think I'll save future flamenco for when I'm in Andalucía (autonomous community known for flamenco).

The third day we took a little trip to Alcalá de Henares.  It's a pretty and small city a short train ride from Madrid. Our friend lived there a few years ago, so she was able to show us around. We saw Cervantes' rebuilt house. Miguel Cervantes is perhaps the most well-known Spanish writer, notably author of Don Quijote.

The next afternoon was our bus back, but before that we went to El Rastro, a great big market held every Sunday. They had so many cool things, it's probably for the best that we were short on money and time. Next time I will be more prepared to shop...