Spain- Volume 1 :)

Before you read this post and think I am an imbacel...please know that all the words that corresponded to the pics WERE next to each other. Blogger is so......I have no words. So, do your best to make sense of it and I am sorry. UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

We got to venture out to Spain from May 18-30. We traveled with Jason's brother,Billy, and his wife, Ali. It was a last minute trip...one last hurrah before baby number four takes over my sanity and dental school takes over Jason's. So, we took about 500 picutres. How do you summarize a vacation like that? In volumes I say. Just kidding. I will only give you the highlights! So, here goes:

This Mariachi band was awesome. Isn't that a Mexican thing though? Not sure. This was our first day in Spain. This was after we flew in, got our rental car, drove around for TWO hours "trying to get our bearings" and then all four of us passed out in a parking spot outside of a park for about three hours in the middle of the day. With our mouths open, drooling. Then we got our whits about ourselves, and actaully walked around Madrid. A little aimlessly, yes.


We just loved all the streets in Spain. We took a lot of pics of that. Boring to look at? Perhaps. Fun to remember.



Plaza de Mayor....one of the most famous plazas in Spain. There were goreous X rated murals painted all over the side. I am editing that for my posterity and you.




There were a lot of "weirdos" in the plaza trying to earn money for talents such as dressing as a fat spider man. Isn't he classy?


This sign was historic for us. A monument of sorts. I naiively assumed -upon loosely planning this trip- that finding hostals would be cheap and super easy. Wow. Was I humbled. We searched for two hours on our first night there for an available hostal and then another two finding a ridiculously priced and equally as evasive parking spot. This was just a foreshadowing of our trip in Spain. We (well, most of us...more details on this to come) spent a total of five nights in a hostal. I am so glad we had that experience and we all felt that it was an authentic "european" experience but boy was I wrong about them bing available anf affordable. So, four hours, a million dollars, and lots of sighs in frustration later, we finally collapsed (no exaggeration there) around 10 pm (4am our time) in "Hostal Luna". Only our room had a bathroom and was well-equipped for two weary travelors with two single beds. So much for romance!...as if anyone had any energy. And Billy's luxury suite (sarcastic there) was a smoking suite. Too bad the boys entirely relied upon mine and Ali's Spanish that we learned about 11 years ago for ALL communication. I am pretty confident that I butchered the Spanish language for 12 days. Thus...the smoking room. Sorry Billy and Ali!




Gotta love the open doors in the room overlooking the square. Although noisy, it was so fun to experience the open balconies everywhere. Its always something I envisioned when thinking about Europe. Bad thing about those doors: one thing that we thought was very interesting about Spain...people live to enjoy life. Period. They drink, socialize and eat all night (Seriously. Until like 3am) and then they wake up at like ten and work a few hours and then the shops and all humanity goes down for a siesta for about three hours. If you are Spanish- WHAT A LIFE! If you are traveling and looking for something to do or eat when they are "siesta-ing"...tough luck. So what's that bad thing about the doors I was talking about? The crazy city of Madrid was busteling until 3am (and we heard all the hustle and bustle) and then was dead silent until 10 am. Finding dinner at 6 or 7? You gotta be kidding. No way. They eat like at 8 or 9.


After one day in Madrid we had had enough of the city life and opted to head down to Cordoba for some rural charm. Cordoba- a city we were told we could not miss. I loved the flexibility during the vacation. And that was one really good thing about hostals...you really can fly by the seat of your pants and find something...eventually.


Our hero of a car.


The boys had WAY too much fun with this bull. Highlight of their trip for sure. Stay tuned for Volume two!