Stories and Sagas from Seville: Adventures around Spain: Madrid and Pamplona

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, the season of travel is in its height for me so I've been busy getting ready for all my travels.

Two weekends ago, I decided to hop on a bus and head to Madrid for the weekend to visit Jessie! We saw the royal palace and the royal cathedral. I was almost overwhelmed at the big city feel of Madrid - I guess I really have started to get used to Seville. We went out just the two of us for dinner. It was so nice to catch up, even though it had only been a few weeks since I had seen Jessie in Portugal. That night we went out to a cave bar. It was so cool! There were stalactites hanging all over the place!

The Royal Palace

Royal Cathedral

The next day we woke up and went to Retiro Park. It was a beautiful fall day with leaves changing and a nice breeze, a nice change from the warm weather and green leaves in Seville. It's just weird that it is the end of October and it is still 75 degrees in Seville. We saw the Crystal Palace in Retiro Park. Always so fun to see things in real life that you have pinned on pinterest so many times.

Crystal Palace on a fall day

Retiro Park

That afternoon we were going to go to the top of city center and get a beautiful view of the city but there was a major cleaning strike going on. People were throwing trash everywhere and there were unattended fires in the street and in random trashcans! So instead I showed Jessie the vertical garden because she had not seen it yet! We took a little siesta then went to a bar to watch the Madrid vs. Barcelona futbol game! Barcelona won 2-1. Since we were at an Irish bar, there were fans for both sides, not just Madrid.

Cleaning strike

Woke up Sunday morning and went to a huge market - so many people and stands everywhere! I found some pretty scarfs though! Then we went to a famous churros place and ate some delicious churros. There were pictures of all the famous people that had been there. It kind of reminded me of the cheesesteak places in Philly.

Last weekend I went to Pamplona to visit Lucia!!!! I hadn't seen her in over 2 years! It was so nice to see her and meet her family and all her friends! I arrived Thursday morning and we met Claudia, who came to visit PA for a week, before she left for Paris for the weekend! We saw some old Roman walls in the city. We went back to her house for one of many typical Spanish meals--green beans, potatoes and fish. That evening we walked around a different part of the city. I saw the start of the running of the bulls. Then we met her friends out for drinks and pinchos (it's what they call tapas in the north of Spain). We were on the street that is the end of the running of the bulls. I got to practice my Spanish with her friends because some of them didn't really know English. It was freezing though! 5 degrees celcius - that's about 40! And when you are used to 75, it's freezing!

Lucia, Claudia and I outside the Roman walls of the city

Who knew Hemingway made the Running of the Bulls famous worldwide in "The Sun Also Rises"?

The next day we woke up and took a quick bus ride to San Sebastian. It was such a pretty city! We watched the waves crash onto the rocks and spray 6 feet into the air. It was so cool! We reminisced about high school over lunch. So funny to think all the way back to high school, junior year seems so far away now. Man, how time flies. I had a burger with pickles for lunch! My madre has made me burgers numerous times, but they are only ok and they never have pickles, the pickles today were a real treat!

And I thought this was the pretty part of the city...

Waves crashing against the wall

Beautiful beach in San Sebastian

I got to experience a typical Saturday in the Beloqui household. We woke up later and went for a walk. I walked part of the Camino de Santiago (even if only was a few meters)! and I walked part of the path of the running of the bulls! After touring the Cathedral in Pamplona we had an aperitivo with her mom. Basically you just get a few drinks and a few tapas before lunch and hang out. Lucia's mom knew everyone! It kind of reminded me of my own mom. We would walk through the streets and she was always saying hello and talking to people. That night Lucia had all of her friends over for pizza. That was a night completely of Spanish. When the first friend came who didn't speak English, Lucia looked at me and said, ok no more English, only Spanish. It was hard but I got to experience what she had gone through the first few months when she was in the states and barely understood what we were saying. I have a whole new perspective on that now.