Mar 24th - Apr 6th

I want to start this post off by saying sorry to my loyal blog following for missing a week in posting. These last two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye and have been absolutely action packed. I told myself multiple times that I would post last week, and as you clearly can see it never happened...my apologies!

This is going to be a big one!

Well, where to start off. The last week of class before spring break was relatively uneventful, I think I left you off after my financial management midterm, and before my world economics midterm. The first, respectively, did not go to well, it was 12 questions and I answered 9 of them. For every one that you get wrong he takes points away so it is kind of screwed if you have no idea. I was not too confident going in and the test was basically demoralizing. The latter did not go so poorly...well I have not received the grade back but I left the exam feeling confident. Thursday night I think I caught about 2.5 hours of sleep before getting up at the crack of dawn to go pick Tommy up from the airport, he came to visit during our spring break which was awesome. I had been feeling a bit homesick for some reason in the past week, and a good friend is the way to solve this issue apparently!

From the minute Tommy got here until when he left yesterday evening, it has been non-stop action, always doing something. We wen to breakfast when we got to my neighborhood, then dropped off his bags and it was out on the town to see the sights. We must have spent a good two and a half or three hours touring all the sights and seeing Madrid. Needless to say after we went to the store and got home, a nap sounded better than lunch so we both crashed for a little bit. I had to get up after about 30 minutes to get to class in the afternoon, but Tommy caught a good 3 or 4 hour nap that I am sure was much needed. My financial management teacher went on to tell us that we were not supposed to do well on the exam he gave earlier in the week, and that the class average was somewhere between a 3 or 4 out of 10. I guess that 3.33 that I got was in the ball park of the average, non the less, hard to swallow. After getting home from class Tommy and I went to La Llama, probably my favorite restaurant in Madrid for some tapas and Canas (beers). We were home relatively early and kind of kicked back until meeting up with Ismael, Javier, Pitu, Vicky, and a couple others for a night out on the town. Although neither of us had slept much the night before, I had to give Tommy a taste of what a night out at the disco was all about. We cut it up at a discotecha called Paddock, and ended up coming home around 6:30 or so in the morning.

Saturday we got up around 13:00 and it was back out to check out a few more sights: Templo Debod, Palacio Royal, Plaza Mayor and so on. We went to another bar for Calamari sandwiches for lunch, and I think I scared Tommy a little bit, not sure he was to into it, but he was a good sport all the same! As we made our way home we stopped by the store and grabbed a few beers to have on our overnight train to Barcelona! When in Europe...take the train? We caught the train at Chamartin around 23:00 and were on our way to see Lorena (Tommy's sister) in Barcelona. We stayed up playing cards fro quite a while and then dozed in and out of sleep the rest of the way there. I am pretty sure I slept a bit more than Tommy, seeing as I was sound asleep when we rolled into Barcelona Sants, our stop, and he had to shake me to wake me up and rush off the train! We caught the Metro to Plaza de Espana, where Lorena lives, made some breakfast, and once again it was right off to go check out the sights. We walked all over Montjuic and checked out the 1992 Olympic stadium and parks around the area. I had never been to this part of town and was quite impressed with the architecture and green areas. In the afternoon we walked around Las Ramblas and then went home to grab a much needed nap! That night we, well I don't really remember what we did for dinner, but then Lorena took us out for a couple os beers at La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep). It was a really cool little bar, and it was nice to take it easy and enjoy each others company.

Monday was another busy day, we were off in the morning to go to a little bar, restaurant called La Champagneria. The place is known for its sandwiches and Cava (the Spanish equivalent of Champagne). We enjoyed a bottle of Cava and some sandwiches and then armed ourselves with another bottle and went down to the beach to take in a bit of sun and relax. After a quick nap it was off to Park Guell for a picnic later in the day and more sight seeing. Lorena took us to a really cool market called La Boqueria later in the day and we wandered around to see the different things that the vendors were selling, mostly fruits, vegetables, meats...things you would expect to see at the market. We also went to a cafe where Picasso used to hang out to have a coffee and Churros con Chocolate, fun to go to the historical places like that even though it is a bit touristy. That evening we decided to make a Mexican themed dinner at home and one of Lorena's friends, David, joined us. We made tacos which turned out really well, and then went for margaritas, which were less than par a a bar around the corner from her house. Right after dinner, I got a surprising call from Tia Nicha telling me that we were flying to Lisbon on Tuesday morning, and not Wednesday, as I believed and had been telling everybody! I guess it is a good thing that I have made a habit of sending her my itineraries to let her know when we r arriving, and as usual she was looking after me and saved us from missing our plane! I was really bummed out that I had botched the tickets and bought our trip to Lisbon a day early, and felt bad that we were not able to spend more time seeing Barcelona. To end our stay in Barcelona we went back up to the top of Montjuic had a little Botellon (a couple beers in the streets), the views of the city were spectacular from up there, and we just listened to some music and took in the sights.

Tuesday Morning, it was up at the crack of dawn and to the airport....Oh wait, how could I forget, at some point during the day on Monday, we made our way into an H&M store and I picked up a pair of Salmon color pants! Before you pass judgment, please see the pictures in my web albums, they are AWESOME! We arrived in Lisbon at 9:00 in the morning, and Avo was waiting for us at the airport. We dropped our bags off at home and then went to Roca, the coffee shop up the street for some breakfast. This was Tommy and Lorena's first glimpse at Portuguese cuisine, and the pastry is not a bad spot to start, we ordered a few different things, but the hit seemed to be the empada's (mini chicken pot pie type things). Tia Nicha ended up meeting us at Avo's house, we gathered our stuff and were off to stay at her house. After cleaning up we went for a walk along the river to see the Torre de Belem, statue of Christopher Colombus...which I can not think the name of right now (something dos discovermentos) probably butchered that, to Jeronimos monastery, and finally to have some world famous Pasteis de Belem (little custard pastries). After all of that we were pretty worn down, met up with Francisco for a beer, and headed home for dinner. That night we ended up going out to one of the Miradores (overlooks of the city) to have a beer with Francisco, Domingos, and Pedro, and called it an early night.

Wednesday was action packed, well I think it was at least! In the morning, we did not do much but around 13:30 or so we went to Avo's house to pick her up and take her out to lunch. We went to A Bota Velha, one of the restaurants that we frequent in Lisbon, and enjoyed a nice lunch of different typical Portuguese dishes: Fried squid, Acorda de Camaroes (Shrimp bread pudding), Risois de Leitao (suckling pig pastries), I think Tommy a pork chop, and that is all that I remember. Later in the day we went to go do this awesome thing called GoCars, which are little three wheel cars that are converted scooters that give you a tour of the city. You might have seen these in San Francisco or some other place before. It was an awesome way to see the small little streets of Lisbon and the down town area. After that we had croissants from Careca, the coffee shop near Tia Nicha's house, and then went to go visit Felicia with Avo, Tommy, and Lorena. She was doing pretty well, and it is always nice to see her. Wednesday night was another mellow night, we went to Barro Alto, to have a drink with Domingos and Francisco again and ended up running into Pedro also.

Thursday, we were up at a reasonable hour and it was off to Sintra, and town up on a hill 30 minutes or so outside of Lisbon. we got there, parked the car and started walking around. We wandered through some gardens, along the hillside, and back into town. It is a really nice town, with a different pace and just beautiful. We were really lucky in catching a sunny day, and were really able to enjoy our time there. A little old lady feeding some chickens in a park recommended a restaurant to us and it turned out to be a real winner. Maria and I shared Bacalao a Brash (Dried salt cured cod fish wish eggs and potatoes...MMMM), Tommy had Portuguese style pork (cooked with a dried red bell pepper sauce), and Lorna had roasted chicken with the same red pepper sauce...apart from the meal of this wild roasted chicken, that looked more like a turkey, that we had at Tia Nicha's house this was probably the best meal we ate. After a lovely lunch we drive to the very top of the hill to see the castle and Moorish palace before heading back down the other side, and home. Whoops, this was actually the day we went on saw Felicia...so much happened I got mixed up! That night Tio Quim arrived home from the Azores, and David came home from the mission trip he was on, so we were finally all together! We ate dinner and then all the kids went out for a night on the town. We picked up Domingos and Francisco and met up with their other cousins in Barro Alto for a few drinks before going to the Urban Beach (Disco) for the night. The other cousins that were there were: Bruschy, Sebastian, and Martin...always have fun with those guys, and getting us all in a group can be trouble cause so much fun is had. Being I was the designated drive I took it easy, but don't think that kept me from having a blast! We danced the night away, and I ended up running into my roommate and a few other friends from Madrid at the club!

On Friday, our last day in Lisbon, we enjoyed beautiful weather and took advantage of it by going to lunch across the river with Tio Quim, Tia Nicha, Teresa, David, Maria, Tommy, Lorena and I. It was a great time, we took the ferry across the river which I had never done before, and then Tia Nicha and Tio Quim treated us to a fabulous lunch: Clams as an appetizer, Sopa de Piexe (fish soup) for Maria and Teresa, rooster fish for Tia Nicha, Red Mullet for Tio Quim, Octopus for me, Pork chop for Tommy, and Piexe Espada for Lorena and Davis (direct translation is sword fish, but it is not the sword fish we eat in the U.S.). It was actually probably the best meal we had, ok I have to stop saying that, we ate WONDERFULLY the whole time we were in Portugal. Friday afternoon I went with Tia Nicha and Teresa to see Felicia one last time before I left. Friday night after dinner at home, Tommy, Lorena and I hit the bus station and caught the overnight bus back to Madrid.

Saturday was a lazyish day, we got home to rain so we ended up sleeping a few hours before getting up to find everything closed for lunch, we wandered around the city for a while, bought some groceries, bought tickets for the bull fight on Sunday and then headed home. We enjoyed a couple of bottles of Cava, and stayed in for the night watching Cool Runnings, yes you heard me correctly, that Disney movie from the mid 90's! Sunday we got up and made our way towards the Plaza Ventas (the bull arena) for some lunch, we met up with Amy (a friend I met here that is from Arizona) and her mother and enjoyed the sun, pleasant change from the day before, and the bull fight. Unfortunately, the bull fighter did not do a very good job, but it was the first time that any of them had been to a bull fight, so I was the only was who was disappointed I suspect! After the bull fight Tommy, Lorena and I found a bar to watch part of the Atletico de Madrid game that we were going to go too, and then dropped Lorena at the bus station for her trip back to Barcelona.

On the last day Tommy and I caught up on some rest, slept in, and then went out to find some food, get some souvenir shopping taken care of, and soak in the sun and beautiful Monday that it was! We walked all over town again, reminisced on an awesome 11 days, and then got stuff ready for his trip home. He was nice enough to take a suitcase with my winter clothing with him. We made one last trip to the store to get sandwich fixings to make him snacks, cause he is ALWAYS hungry, grabbed a roasted chicken and a loaf of fresh read for the airport and then were on our way. We had an awesome picnic in the terminal, and he was armed with 4 sandwiches and some snacks for his 12 hour lay over in Amsterdam! Just saw the flight tracker and it looks like he got home safely!

Well that is all for now, I do not have any big new from today at school and was able to catch up on some more sleep last night. I am sadly glad more or less to be back at school and to the rhythm of normal, or as normal as you would call it, of being a student here in Madrid. I hope you all enjoyed this MEGA post, and are doing well.

Love as Always from Madrid,

Phil

P.S. please look for photos to be up before tomorrow morning for you all to enjoy, and admire the SALMON pants!!!