Finally made it up north

After three straight weeks of travelling, I finally spent one back in Madrid. And man, was I glad I did. The city is just getting nice and warm, and it was great to see it in the springtime. Also, my roommate told me on Friday the 28^th of May that she was moving out on Saturday and not paying her part of the rent for June. It really caught me off guard, and I spent all Friday and part of Saturday upset about this. This meant I was out 390 euros, which is definitely something that I don’t have to spend with expensive graduate school coming up next year. But I can’t dwell on the fact that I had a bad roommate. She has pretty much isolated herself from all her friends here in Madrid, was not re-hired back next year at her school here in Spain like she wants to be, and will be in community college next year while living at home. So Karma has already started to catch up for her.

But after that nasty weekend, I was able to take a 4-day weekend up in León, with Vicki, Becca, and Miguel. Vicki and I went up on Wednesday night, Becca on Thursday morning, and Miguel on Friday. Vicki’s half Spanish, and her mom’s parents live in León. Also, Vicki’s family has an apartment in the city. So we were able to stay at their apartment and explore many different cities.

The first full day we were there, Vicki showed me all around León. It has an amazing castle, some cool other cathedrals and plazas, and a house designed by the architect Gaudí (who designed some really cool buildings in Barcelona). After Becca got there, we went and met Vicki’s grandparents. It was really fun to sit with them and hear their stories. Also, we were able to spend some time with Vicki’s aunt while we were in town. It was really nice.

Gaudi's house in León.

On Friday, the three of us already in town took a day trip to the town of Burgos. It was a little far of a bus trip, but the city had a great riverfront, an enormous cathedral, and a nice lookout point to see both the city and the countryside. We spent the day there, then went back to León to meet up with Miguel and enjoy some typical food from the area.

Me in front of the Burgos cathedral.

Eating some great Spanish tapas and enjoying the León nightlife.

On Saturday, we got a little of a crazy start. The night before, we bought bus tickets to head up to Gijón, a beach city in Asturias for the day. It was a late night the night before, and I thought that the bus left 15 minutes later than it really did. So I woke Miguel and the rest of them up, but only Miguel was ready in time. We ran the whole way to the bus station and luckily were able to make the bus. Becca ended up joining us later in the day, and Vicki stayed in León to visit more with her family. Gijón is apparently a really pretty beach city. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy and cold the whole day. We took a long nap before Miguel got there, then wandered around the city and braved the beach, Miguel and Becca were two of the few who actually went in the water that day. I put my feet in, but immediately went back and put my sweatshirt back on. It was too cold for the water. We made it back late to León, but it was still a nice day.

The view on the way home from Gijón. It was pretty amazing.

And of course the trip had to end with a little more fun. The bus ride, which was supposed to take 3 and a half hours, ended up taking 5 and a half after we broke down on the side of the road and had to wait an hour for a new bus. Luckily, the weather was nice and we got to see a great sunset.

After the drama of the weekend before, it was a great way to spend my long weekend out of Madrid. Now I have less than 5 weeks left, and predict even more crazy adventures to come!