Madrid, Edinburgh, and more London

My passport has been getting A LOT of action these past few weeks...

Two weekends ago, I spent a few days in Madrid, Spain, visiting my roommate Yoli. She is studying in Espania this semester and invited me down to stay with her and her 70 year old host parents. It was a great trip, SO beautiful and different from anywhere I had ever been. Spain has been at the top of my traveling list for a while now, so I am very happy that I got to experience it. 

Yoli's host family was so friendly and accommodating despite the language barrier (they don't speak any English and I don't speak any Spanish... it was interesting). The Senora made us lunch and dinner everyday, it was so interesting (and delicious) to have real spanish cuisine. It seems like Yoli is having a blast in Spain. I can't wait for her to come up and visit London in November!

Last weekend, two of my girlfriends and I traveled up to Edinburgh, Scotland for a little girls trip. What a weekend. Edinburgh is so different from London. Everything is extremely old (or at least old looking) and green! It was a very managable size so I feel like I really got to experience the whole city. I flew up late friday night, and saturday we did a walking tour of the city, went to Holyrood Palace (which is where the Queen stays when she visits), and went on a ghost tour at night. Then on Sunday we toured Edinburgh Castle and went on the Scottish Whiskey Experience before we flew back to London. We even tried Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish of Sheeps liver, heart, and lungs mixed together and boiled in the Sheeps stomach.... needless to say, we didn't finish it. But hey, we tried! It was a great, but very busy, vacation.

Despite my love of traveling, it is great to be spending a weekend in London. I can't get enough of this city, there is just SO much to see. On Wednesday's and Thursday's I have only one class which is over before 11, so I've taken to exploring on those days during the week. Usually I have some sights to go visit for my Architecture of London course so I will go see those then explore the area around them. Yesterday I found this great vintage shop next to a church I was supposed to visit. They are selling real fur rabbit coats for 69 pounds.... I might be making a return visit (mom?).... haha. 

I miss everyone bunches and can't wait to share the city with you when you come to visit. I have a few things lined up that I want to do (ice skating at the tower of london anyone?). I also really want to look into getting tickets to a show (Im thinking Wicked) sometime soon. I think it would make for a nice evening. Hope everyone is doing great up in Boston and down in Florida!

xoxo, mel.