Lady In Spain

I said I was going to post a haul, but rather than show you boring clothes, I'm going to show you pictures of my actual trip. Whether these are architectural, historical or legitimate buildings/statues/etc varies. I took quite a few...odd pictures because it was an odd place, among other adjectives such as: awesome, perfect, bizarre, aplaceiwanttoliveinallthetime, etc.

First, I'll start off in Madrid, the capital of this beautiful country. This city reminded me so much of New York City just with a lot more Spanish speakers. Everyone was extremely well dressed in this city and I felt like a shlump walking around in comfortable shoes and leggings every day. I so wish I would have at least brought a pair of riding boots.

Puerta Del Sol, specifically highlighting the bell tower.

A common statue that we saw quite often in Spain. This was in Puerta Del Sol as well.

This particular building was cute and I would kill for those balconies.

Plaza Mayor is just like a big, open patio.

This picture doesn't do this triangular mirrored wall any justice. It was GORGEOUS.

 I was really excited to be in Spain. Also, it was sunny out and we had spent three hours in an art museum. It was awesome.

Sunset in El Parque de Retiro (Retiro Park).

Same statue, just a lot bigger.

Gorgeous columns near the water.

A small "pond" that you could rent boats on. You can see the big columns and statue in the background.

 The Prado art museum at night.

The stadium where Real Madrid plays. This thing was MASSIVE. I've never seen a stadium so huge before.

 

Cervantes monument (the man who wrote Don Quixote) 

 The temple (Temple of Debod) that the Egyptians gifted Spain in 1968. Egypt gifted four countries "items" from their country as a sign of gratitude for helping them save the temples of Abu Simbel. New York City has Cleopatra's Needle, an obelisk that is in Central Park, I believe.

A foggy overview of the city in the background.

A line of trees outside of the palace.

 The front of the Royal Palace of Madrid.

 A general overview of a section of the palace. This thing was MASSIVE.

 Another section of the interior of the palace.

 The last portion. I cannot even begin to describe the size of this place.

I  love the idea of black pieces with gold detailing. It's so baroque and the contrast is fab. When Dolce & Gabbana does it, I almost faint at its beauty.

 My orange sherbet at lunch. I was that person who took a picture of my food because it was delicious and I loved the color.

 My teacher was telling us how sometimes Spanish people buy shirts and clothing that has silly little sayings on them in Englsih that make no sense, kind of like how sometimes us Americans buy shirts with sayings in other languages without knowing what they mean. There was this sign in a restaurant that said "more flowers" and I thought it was hilarious.

 THE BEST CARROT CAKE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Chocolate and churros at dinner. Holy crap, I went into a food coma after trying to indulge in this after dinner.

The second city we went to was Córdoba, which was considerably smaller than Madrid and kind of a culture shock. This city felt like a little old town. The old stone and buildings were absolutely stunning. The city streets felt like a movie. We were only here for a day, so we didn't get to have the free time like we did in the other cities. We did go exploring at night with our guide, some teachers and a few students, which was fun, though it started pouring in the middle of our adventure so we went to a jazz bar.

Starting off the five hour bus ride on a happy note. I probably wasn't actually happy because it was early and crowded.

One of the many varying ceilings in the Mezquita. By the looks of the rest of my pictures from this trip, I love intricate ceilings.

And the ceiling obsession strikes again!

These arches were made with three different types of stone and they're gorgeous.

A massive organ in the Mezquita.

Some more detailed ceilings.

La calle de las flores or The Flower Street/Alley of the Flowers. Basically, it was this little alleyway lined with these pots of flowers. It's pretty self explanatory.

A view of Córdoba from the opposite side of the bridge.

I conquered my fear of heights and leaned over this bridge to snap a picture of this.

My virgin caipirinha from the deserted jazz bar. 

A fountain in the square lit up at night. This was about the time it started downpouring.

The last city we went to was Seville and was, by far, my favorite city of the entire trip. It wasn't overwhelmingly massive, but it was the perfect amount of historic and urban. Plus, it was the nicest weather as it was the furthest south. There was a day I wore a three-quarter sleeved dress with no tights and was warm. We spent two consecutive days here. The first we just stayed near the hotel and walked around and shopped a little (A LOT). The second day is when we did the historical stuff.

I hate rain.

The bullfighting ring in Seville.

The funniest painting you will ever see.

Appropriately captioned in my email to my family as "The heads of Joe Jonas's ex-girlfriends."

A banister in the Plaza de España.

The inside wall detail, also in the Plaza.

Plaza, again.

Are you seeing the trend?

If you guessed that I was still in the Plaza, you are right.

We literally only spent 10 minutes here so I'm not sure why I have so many pictures.

The fountain in the center of the Plaza, thus concluding my pictures from it.

The ceiling in the Alcázar of Seville.

Some more ceiling detail in the Alcázar.

A stray peacock roaming around.

The outside of the Cathedral.

Look at that damn archway, oh my God.

Stained glass window inside of the Cathedral.

A view of Seville from the top of the Seville Cathedral.We climbed thirty something stories to get up here and let me just say that it was so worth it.

I tested my fear of heights once again trying to lean out these "windows". Are they considered windows if there's no glass? It's more like leaning off the barred off edge hoping you don't die.

THIS VIEW IS GIVING ME POST TRIP DEPRESSION.

:'(((((((

This picture should be enough of a reason to visit Spain.

My last (normal and appropriate) photo of the trip. 

The final day in Spain was spent back in Madrid, though most of the day was spent traveling. It was a seven hour bus ride from Seville back to our hotel. We had about two hours of free time, in which my friends and I spent the rest of our euros in TopShop. We had dinner for the last time in our school group and with the group from Boston and from the LA area. We then had our last "party" in our room. We were the greatest hosts, I swear. We always had snacks. Then I fell asleep under the bed and once again in my suitcase. It was a rough night/next morning.

When I was on my way home from the airport, I started sobbing when I was trying to tell my mom about Spain. It was absolutely pathetic, but I do plan on going back some day. After this trip, I highly recommend traveling out of country to anyone. It is a great learning experience as well as just a fantastic life experience. Get a passport, save your money and pick your country.