Ya es primavera!

Ya es primavera...well. Thats what all the El Corte Ingles signs say. But I'm starting to believe it now. Well actually it feels like summer. It is officially spring in Europe. After a rather crappy start (I blame Paul and London stealing the Spanish sun), the sun is starting to make its way back to Madrid. Today was gorgeous and sunny! It was about 30 degrees on Saturday! Insane! And the flowers are in full blossom! So pretty! Check out this picture I took near Sol!

So since I last blogged a lot has happened. Let's start where I left off:

Singing Lessons

So, I've already had 3 singing lessons since my last post. I absolutely love my lessons! My teacher is really fantastic, and its great to do Spanish early music. It's what I really truly love to sing! My lessons are in Spanish (of course). It's easy to understand what she is saying, which I am very happy about! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand a single world she said. Paloma is very helpful and encouraging. I'm excited to see how things develop with my voice.

The one thing is that I have to do a total or 6 hours travel for my lessons. Am I crazy. Yes. Its 3 hours each way. Madrid to Albacete and Albacete to Madrid. So it's an ALL day trip for just a one hour lesson. I actually don't mind. All I do is just travel. I can sit and read, or listen to music. I arrive in Albacete and take a taxi to my lesson, then when its over I catch the bus back to the station and wait to go back to Madrid. People ask me if there is a teacher much closer, so I can save myself the epic trip. I haven't really bothered looking, and I don't want to. I like my new teacher, so I reckon the trip is worth it. Plus, It's only until I return home to Australia.

Valencia: Las Fallas

On March 19th to 20th, I went to Las Fallas in Valencia with some friends. It was a last minute decision that I'm SO glad I made! Gisella and I managed to get tickets to leave on the Saturday morning at 8:30am and arriving in Valencia at around 3pm. EPIC trip on the train because it stopped at EVERY station. No wonder it was cheap! So we used that time to rest up as we were to leave Valencia at 3am the next morning as there was NOWHERE to stay that was under 300 euros a night. ha. So thus we began our 12 hours in Valencia.

We befriended some people on the train, as travelers do to pass the time. Gisella met someone who lives right around the corner from her back home which was amusing! Its always funny when you meet people from your city...After FINALLY arriving in Valencia, we made our way to the centre to meet up with Patty, Irene, Darline and her husband. We finally found them through the infinite crowd of people and decided that lunch was a good idea. Pretty much everywhere was full so we just got bocadillos or pizza and ate it standing up, then indulged in some churro style treats.

We spent the day just exploring and looking at the fallas. We watched the parade and walked around alot more while insanely annoying firecrackers went off every 3 seconds.

The main event was the burning on the Fallas! We went to the main square and waited for the EPIC fireworks and then the falla BURNING! It was alot of fun, but there was just SO MANY people it was insane.

Afterward we made our way back to the bus station for our 3am bus back to Madrid. We were SO exhausted! When I got back to Madrid, I went to bed at 8am and slept till 6:30pm. It was such a fun time and totally worth doing!

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My first REAL Real Madrid game!

So, on April 2nd I got the chance to go to my first REAL Real Madrid game. It was Real Madrid vs Sporting de Gijon (Asturias). I went with my friend Shannon, and we had a blast! We arrived at the stadium, and it was of course PACKED. We made our way to our AWESOME seats! We were in one of the corners, near the goals, so we got to actually see the game. I also got to see Casillas (yes yes) haha. It was a pretty good game, apart from the fact that Real lost (=() but I had so much fun. Near where we were sitting there were two Gijon fans sitting next to this HARDCORE Real Madrid fan. This guy must have been in his seventies, but he absolutely TORE into the couple. Oh man. He really didnt like them, although they kind of asked for it by sitting with all the Real Madrid fans. They eventually had to move seats because a physical fight would have totally broken out. Man I love soccer haha! During the second half we ate pipas (delicious). It was a fantastic game and I will hopefully be going again soon!

And the rest...Hopefully we are up to date!

So other than that not a lot has been going on really. Taelyr and I FINALLY went and had our milkshake which was AMAZING. Along with hot dogs, cheese fries and onion rings. We went back with Tetyana and we shared a milkshake AND a chocolate brownie. OH MY GOD! AMAZING!

On Saturday I went to Chinchon with my friend Marta, Rob and his friend Becca. It was such a lovely Saturday outing! Chinchon is a small place but its really quaint and lovely. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so it was perfect (I didnt get a sunburnt arm though. oops). We had lunch in the plaza and walked around and then sat outside enjoying the sunshine. Then when we got back to Madrid, Marta and I hung out in Retiro for a while.

On Sunday I went to El Rastro with Marta and some of her extended family. El Rastro is the biggest flea market in Europe. Its actually pretty massive. I didn't get to see it all, so I'll go back again after Semana Santa, but it was really cool, and I bought a scarf. nice nice. Then we walked to a bar and had a drink. I'm starting to get acustomed to beer (weird)...Then we went to VIPS for lunch and when Marts's family left we went and did some shopping, as I am very low on Spring/Summer clothes. I found some shorts and a top at Stradivarius (my fave store here). Then after some ice cream I came home and did some spring cleaning of my room.

After work today I went to Marta's place and she helped me with my Spanish, and then after, we went to Retiro to try rollerblading. There are SO many people rollerblading in the park. It was alot of fun, but now my arse hurts. Not from falling over. I didnt. It's just from actually moving and using my legs. jeez. I'm so unfit.

Anyway thats pretty much whats been going on. I'm going to Germany for some of my Semana Santa to see my friend Clara and also Winsome which will be awesome! Very much looking forward to a holiday. Then in a couple of weeks its OFF TO IBIZA with the girls! can't WAIT!

Besitos! xxxx