Navidad

Christmas is a time for religion, love, family, vacation and PRESENTS! My biggest and most important Christmas gift was being able to see my parents and my brother! They came to Spain for a week and half. I had to work for the first couple of days so I [somewhat forcefully] invited them to come to school with me for a day. I knew my kiddos would like to meet them and that the fam would like to see what exactly I do for a living here in Madrid.



Our first post-Madrid destination was Toledo. I would highly recommend not trying to drive a rented stick shift in an ancient walled city that sits atop a hill. It is very nearly impossible and you will become wedged between two building with no hope of escape. Seriously. And when the tension is heightened, family battles will ensue. Well, it was nice... We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant for Christmas because it was the only place open. On the menu were things like "shark fin soup", "frog hindquarters" and "real crab". I stuck with chicken.

Right, next we went to Sevilla, which is a beautiful city. Being as it was the holiday season, we treated ourselves to a horse drawn carriage ride through the main part of the city. The streets are lined with trees overflowing with oranges this time of year. That's not something I'm used to
seeing so I was constantly surprised again and again by the sharp contrast of the oranges against the deep green leaves. I was also able to meet up with a friend of mine who is from there. We met in London a few years back and have been able to see each other two more
times since. Man, hostels really give you the opportunity to meet some cool people! And no, I have never had anything stolen, been murdered in my sleep, etc...so don't be freaked out by them!

One of the days we drove down to Gibraltar and back. That is a crazy place. They are technically owned by Britain so the town celebrates different holidays than those down the street. The people speak British English, a funky Spanish dialect and I believe an African based language as well, although I'm not sure which. Coolest thing about it though was the monkeys! Yeah, tailless monkeys all over! I had a couple jump on me! Soooo cool! 

Lastly, we stopped in Cordoba for a night on the way home. Their most famous tourist destination is a Mosque turned Cathedral. It's was really interesting to see the huge contrasts in architecture and decoration. I really liked it, probably because it was so different than all of the other Cathedrals I've been touring lately.


The last night we all stayed in a hotel by the Madrid airport so we could get to our flights in the morning. My family to Seattle and me to Dresden, Germany. Saying goodbye was kind of hard for me. I'm really beginning to miss a lot of things about the U.S. and Seattle in particular. For example, I miss the following very much:

• Bagels
• Green trees
• Animals that do not fly (we only have mosquitos and birds)
• Foods containing peanut butter
• Listening to Megan Larson sing
• Carey French's creativity
• Visiting Megan Vogel's classroom
• Hugs
• Massages
• Food that does not contain any pork or pork flavoring
• Walking quickly
• Bodies of water
• My family
• Happy hour with my cohort
• Banks that are at least somewhat functional
• Understanding most of what people say to me
• Flavored coffee drinks
• Dishwashers and clothes dryers
• A DVD player for my TV
• etc...

 Alright, now that I've got that out of the way, on to Dresden! It was cold. Like, really, really cold. The city is really cool though. There's some really awesome graffiti and artsy looking buildings so just wandering the streets made for an interesting adventure.
The whole city was essentially flattened in WWII so the architecture is really varied. You can find very old buildings, buildings meant to look old, and very modern ones all in the same street. It's got a lot of character. One of the days I spent wandering with two Australian blokes, Adam and Ben. They were cool guys and I was glad for some company!

Next I went to Prague.

If I thought Dresden was cold, I had been mistaken. My first couple days in Prague seemed much colder! I figured I would treat myself to a single room for the end of my travels but, as it turns out, that wasn't the best idea I had ever had. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's really great to have your own space but this was a bit too much space. The hostel was about a 20 min walk or 10 min metro ride from the center of town, breakfast was served in my room by someone who doesn't speak English, and there was no common area. In fact, there were only outdoor entrances so I never really saw anyone else that was staying there. These factors combined led to a rather lonely 5 night stay. Yeah, 5! What the heck was I thinking?! Lucky for me, Prague is a rather touristy city with plenty of things to do. Plus, I had lots of books that were just dying to be read. No seriously, about the 3rd day they started talking and told me so! Wilson much?

What did I do with 5 nights in Prague you ask? Well, I saw a black light show which was intriguing. It's advertised for the black light effects with the costumes, but it also includes a play and cool dancing by those wearing the cool costumes. I couldn't really decide which was most important, the dancing, the costumes or the acting. Weird! Mind blower, that one. I also went to a marionette opera performed in Italian (Mozart's Don Giovanni). No, I didn't really understand it and don't really even know what it was about, but watching puppets is fun?

Let's see, I went to the zoo which had a rad Giraffe enclosure...well, mostly because it was snowy and cold and they were in their winter enclosure (a.k.a. much closer than when they're playing in the savanna). You could look down through the roof of the building onto the tops of the giraffes and then go down to ground level and see them face-to-face. So close! So cool! And sooo making out with the glass right in front of me! Nice! Other than that, I did a lot of wandering the city, eating delicious food, stopping at a museum here and there. I also really like the cathedral inside of the Old Prague Castle so I was happy to have a looksy in there again. I think it's my fave cathedral, at least of the ones I've been to.
The stained glass is so vibrant, I just love it! Most importantly, I found a place that sells real bagels with legit cream cheese. Yeah, their cheesecake also tasted like real cheesecake! As an added bonus, they also had tea made from fresh sliced ginger or fresh mint leaves. Dang, wish I could find somewhere like that in Madrid!

OOOOOMMMMMGGGG!!! I just checked the google! There is a bagel place in Madrid! So, it's on the opposite side of the city (hence why I'd never heard of it) and probably takes a good half hour or so to get there on the metro, but no matter. Heck there's promise of bagels AND reese's peanut butter cups! This is serious...must go! "Oooh baby, do you know what that's worth? Oooh heaven is a place on Earth!"...and it's a bagel shop!

Anyway, moving on. I'm back in Madrid now. Work started again on Monday. Woo hoo? Blah. Blah. Blah. Well, that's what you've missing on the last episode of "Rachel's Life"!