¡Oye Madre!

It's been awhile! I have quickly learnt that Studying Abroad isn't just about the traveling - there is schoolwork involved as well, A LOT of schoolwork. ¡Pero, es la vida! I have lots to update ya'll on!

The weekend after we went to Sevilla, we all stayed in Toledo because we had a lot of excursions to go on with ESTO, the program we are studying with. We first visited the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. This was built by Phillip II and used as a summer home. It has beautiful gardens, a boathouse (because it was built on the Tagus river), along with an enormous palace. You aren't permitted to take photo's inside the palace, so here a few I managed to get in the gardens.

We then took a bus from Aranjuez to El Escorial. El Escorial is located in the mountains outside of Madrid and was said to be the largest building in the world at the time it was constructed in the 16th century - I'd still consider it to be large by todays standards as well!

http://www.cs.utah.edu/~bigler/pictures/europe2002/spain/el%20escorial.jpg

 It is an enormous square building that is sectioned into four parts - the king's living quarters, a monastery, a school and the Cathedral. Also, one of the most important Royal Libraries is located in the building as well. That was all very neat to see but I would have to say that the highlight of the building is the mausoleum located under the building (known as the Pantheon of Kings)- when we were walking down to them, if I hadn't known any better, I would have sworn we were heading into the "Chamber of Secrets" (for all you Harry Potter fans out there!) The tombs took up the entire underground section of El Escorial. Practically every member of the royal families of Borbón and Asturía is buried there. It was extremely impressive, and also a little creepy. I have never been around so much royalty in my life! Too bad they were all dead...

Nevertheless, I had to borrow some photos from the official website to show you since, as usual, I wasn't allowed to take photos inside:

http://leiter.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/el-escorial-panteon-reyes.jpg

http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00F/00FL6y-28321884.jpg

Outside the building are beautiful gardens, as usual....

And last weekend I went with some friends to Barcelona. It is officially my favorite city in España so far. Three days there was definitely not enough! I would recommend at least four if you want to see all the main sights. Here are some of the highlights of the weekend:

Christopher Columbus pointing out the "New World." This dude sailed out of the Port of Barcelona to go find India - Good thing he was bad with directions and found us!

To the right is Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Goudi that has been being built since 1909 and isn't expected to be finished until around 2026! The inside is insane.

The view of Barcelona from Grüell Park - i could have stayed here forever!

And finally, me hanging out in the Mediterranean. Barcelona was such a good time, two days was definitely not enough time to do/see everything!!!