Semana 6

Week 6 is here! And I am currently counting the days till my return to the Netherlands. It's remarkable how fast these 5 months have passed.

Christmas holidays
During the Christmas holidays I did not travel back to the Netherlands. Instead, I made use of the fact that I was off for two weeks and went to Madrid and Toledo! Together with Stefan, a very good friend and old classmate from the Netherlands, we spent a few days in Zaragoza so I could show him the city. Next, we took the bus to Madrid.

The first day was a standard 'see-everything' day on which we pretty much walked and metro-ed through the entire city, quickly snapping pictures till it was dark. The next few days we thoroughly discovered every aspect of Madrid; from the Palace to the Gardens, the shopping streets to the casino. We were, unfortunately, 5 minutes too late to buy ourselves something to cook for Christmas eve. However, there were two girls from the United States that had bought a bottle of wine, but no tools to open the bottle. I remembered watching a show on the Discovery Channel where a wine bottle was opened with a shoe, and so I did. As a thank you, the girls invited us to have Christmas dinner with them: they had prepared a chicken in the oven, including stuffing, mashed potatoes and a chocolate brownie dessert. It was a great dinner and I was glad that I could finally put my innovative wine-opener method to use. The hostel, Mad4You, is a great place if you want to stay in Madrid .The staff is very helpful and there kitchen/dining area is pretty big and constantly kept clean. Unless you use the stove right after Stefan tried to prepare something.

During our stay in Madrid we were not yet sure where to go. After some research and help from Spanish friends, we decided to visit Toledo, a little village south of Madrid. It's a very nice place, with old castle walls around the entire village. In Toledo, we stayed at a hostel called 'Boxes'. And a box it was. Unfortunately we had some problems with the WIFI and were put in a room where smoking was allowed. Not only did we sometimes get a smoke scent in our system, we also had to deal with a Breezer Vanilla Scent system that automatically sprayed the hallway with poisonous gasses.

New years
After three days of knight fights, horseback-riding and failed tapas sessions, I returned to Zaragoza to celebrate new years eve with an anonymous German girl and some friends from the University. It was great to experience the Spanish way of celebrating new years eve: all the boys were wearing suits and ties, except for one Dutch guy that didn't have a clue this was a custom; 12 grapes are eaten to ensure good luck for the next 12 months. Yet again, I did not bring 12 grapes and neither did the German girl, but we still had a great evening/night/morning.

All good things come to an end, and so does this blog entry. Again, my apologies for not updating this blog more often. I will definitely provide you, my dear reader, with an overview of subjects and a do's/dont's list for prospective students who want to go to Zaragoza to study.

The hostel in Madrid, Mad4You

Improvised hot chocolate. Don't mind the spill

Improvised drying rack in Toledo. The hostel did not have a laundry room. There was, however, a bathtub which I could use as washing machine. We set our heater on 30 degrees and went for a walk.

Church got shot

Bye.