Despite the fact that my time in Europe is winding down, I am doing quite the opposite! Now that I have passed in all of my final papers, I have ample time to explore new parts of Europe that I have forever dreamed about. My friends have the same mindset as I do, so that is why we jetted off to Madrid, Spain!
Like my trip to Portugal, the weather in Madrid was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It hit 80 degrees when I was there and I am eternally grateful for being able to feel the sunshine on my face. I did get quite an atrocious sunburn, but that is not something to focus on. Because the weather was so glorious, we spent as much time as we could outside. We ate every meal outside and even ate one meal in the Plaza Mayor. I remember learning about this in my high school Spanish classes, so it felt pretty surreal to see it in person! My favorite meal we had was brunch at this place called Amazonia. The fruit was extremely fresh and we finally stumbled upon iced coffee! Unfortunately “cafe frio” is not as common in Spain as in the United States, so when I saw an iced latte on the menu I jumped at the opportunity to order one.
In keeping with staying outside for as much as we could, my favorite thing that I saw in Madrid were the Botanical Gardens. I was so impressed with how green all of the plants were and I completely understand how one could get lost in there for hours! There were so many beautiful sights to take in and I am so happy I got to witness them.
On my last day in Spain, my friends and I took the train down to Valencia, another popular city in Spain. We had one thing on our itinerary for this day and that was to lay on the beach! We had the perfect beach day and it was definitely the highlight of the trip. This is where I experienced my painful sunburn, but being able to stick my toes in the Mediterranean Sea and take in all of the warmth that the Valencia beach had to offer made it entirely worth it. It was so hard to leave Spain, especially once I checked the weather to see rain in Galway, but this was another trip with my friends that truly is unforgettable!
