Long overdue travel update!

Becky and I in front of the Cathedral-Santiago

I am not sure if anyone has been checking my blog, but if so, I am so sorry that I have not written for 2 months! I can´t believe how fast time is going by, it seems like I was just about to start my 2 month travel spree..! It will take a few posts to get caught up, I think-but I will give a recap of all the traveling I have done over the last couple months before I write on! I was only home for one weekend between the 20th of November and the 20th of January, and I feel very lucky to have been able to travel so much. That said, I was very happy to rest a little this weekend and stay in Santiago...unfortunately I was sick...guess my body did really need to rest up! So here is what I have been up to...

November 25th-to Madrid for the weekend
December 1st: Becky arrived in Santiago to visit!
December 4-12: Becky and I traveled to Porto, Portugal, London, England and Aberystyth, Wales!
December 22-To Sweden for the Christmas holiday!
Jan 6-10th-Northern Germany to visit Sabine on the way home
Jan 13-20- Anne visits me in Porto and Santiago!

MADRID: I visited Madrid over Thanksgiving weekend, and was pleasantly surprised by the city-for some reason I had an image in my head of Madrid as an overcrowded city that didn´t have many points of interest, but I sure was wrong. A friend of mine, Johanna, lives in Madrid and I had a great time visiting her and seeing the sights---the museums were fabulous and the parks were, too. (I have to admit, I was rather excited by Starbucks, too...I know, how terrible of me. But....there is just something about walking around with a hot coffee in your hand that I miss...especially when it is cold outside, as it was in Madrid!) Johanna is studying at St. Louis University´s Madrid campus, and has been here for 3 years, so she was able to show my her favorite places to eat and explore in the city. She is a friend from the Swedish summer camp, so we speak a strange mixture of Spanish-English-Swedish...it must be quite interesting for outsiders to hear us talk!

beautiful riverfront in Porto, Portugal

BECKY´S VISIT: Just a few days after returning from Madrid, Becky arrived here in Santiago! Her flights were late and her suitcase didn´t make it on the plane with her, but she made it here in one piece, anyway! She came with me to school on Thursday, which was my last day at work for 10 days...I got very lucky with the timing of the constitution days and Becky´s visit, and we sure took advantage of the time we had to travel! We first headed to Porto, Portugal, where we spent 2 days visiting the beautiful(ly rainy) city and tasting Port Wine at its origin. What a treat! We even ran into some English guys who are living here in Santiago, and believe it or not, we had met one of them just two nights before in Santiago. Becky had a very enjoyable first hostel experience, and claims that we stayed at the best hostel in the world...I have to agree that it was a very nice place. So nice, in fact, that I returned to the same hostel when I was stuck in Porto...(a little foreshadowing into the later part of this travel saga...).

Aberystwyth, Wales

From Porto, we headed by plane to London´s Stansted airport, which lies about an hour outside the city. We arrived late, and took 3 busses to get to my friend Susie´s apartment, where we found the key she had hidden for us and let ourselves in about 3:30am. We didn´t stay in London long, as the next morning we hopped on the first of two trains to get across Great Britian to the western coast--destination: Aberystwyth, Wales. This quaint little town was of particular interest to us because our friend, Jordan Degayner, was studying abroad there. He met us at the train station and we didn´t waste much time, as we grabbed some grub and ran to a comedy show at the university. It was quite cold in Wales, but very enjoyable nonetheless...we saw some amazing views from a beach hike, as well as the remains of a castle that sits on the ocean shore. We also managed to squeeze in a rather eventful night at the pubs with Jordan´s swim team (or drinking team, as he explained), which required us to dress as some part of the nativity scene. Without hesitation, we decided to head to the Pound store (and this was the best pound or dollar store I have ever seen in my life!) to gather materials to transform ourselves into the three cutest little sheep that Aber has probably ever seen. Many of the events of the night will not be found in this post...in my mom´s words, we might have been baaaaaaaaaaaad sheep.

As to not have a never ending post, I am going to end this one here. London and beyond will come shortly in the next post, as will pictures to accompany the aforementioned stories. If you are still reading, thanks for keeping me in your thoughts, I promise to be better about updating this thing!