The Beaches of Santander: Viewer discretion advised.

You know what they say about European beaches…

Okay, so this is about as much of a nude beach as I got.  What is it about naked babies and why are they so dang cute???

Our adventures in Santander began with a glorious afternoon at the beach with beyond-salty, rip-curling waves and ended with an hour-long trek from downtown back to our hotel at 1:30am with 2 older couples from Madrid (who taught me dirty words in Spanish) and a few rather gorgeous Santanderian guys as our guides...because don’t you know the buses stop working after 22:00???

…Fill those bookends with a breathtakingly gorgeous hike to the semi-famous lighthouse for sunset, a hilarious bus ride with a group of 13 and 14-year old chicas who agreed to show us our way to the downtown, a mildly intimidating rendevouz with 5 of the most beautiful drunk Germans I have ever seen, tasty tapas at a jam-packed bar, and the best Dulce de Leche ice cream of my life, and you have a shelf full of my epic Santanderian adventures.   With an epilogue of skinny-dipping in the Atlantic later that night and a fabulous ocean sunrise from my hotel window, I literally could not have dreamed it better. 

And luckily for you, it was well-documented:

This awesome wall that, despite being almost completely submerged in water every night with the high tide, somehow manages to exist.  Hence my triumphant, life-embracing pose.  

Beautiful discovery numero dos.  Random, perfectly landscaped  parque. 

Michelle and Jessie walking, unawares of my stalker photography tendencies.

Yup, this was once my reality. I'm jealous of my past self right now.  You should be too.

Just chilling at the top of a mountain with a lighthouse, watching a sunset that we hadn't really planned to see.

In Santander, Spain.

NBD.

Hungry faces awaiting their fantastic tapas. 

Me, after the first bite of the best helado I've ever had in my entire life.  The Flave:  Dulce de Leche.  As you can see, it was entirely unexpected.

Ocean sunrise from my hotel window.  Aka:  God really REALLY loves me, and He knows this is all He's gotta do to remind me. 

You should be sighing right about now. 

And telling yourself you WILL travel to Spain someday, if only to eat an ice cream cone and stare at a perfectly divine sunset.

Go ahead, buy your ticket now:  http://www.expedia.es/?rfrr=Redirect.From.www.expedia.com%2FHome.htm.  

But maybe you should check this one first:  https://www.wellsfargo.com/

Anywho, life here is lovely.  Thanks for checking in, mom. 

Sincerely, 

Abbs

P.S.  I was just kidding about the skinny-dipping thing.  But regardless, Freedom is Nudity.  (Please note the caps.)

Segovia: Aqua, Ducks, and Sleeping Beauty Castles.

I know what you're thinking. But here, I'll save you the trouble:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhrYis509A&ob=av2e

Please note that, as exhibited in the above picture, I have finally learned how to create both a caption and a link to another internet site.

So, we went on a little day trip to Segovia a few weeks ago and as you can imagine, this beautiful hunk of stones was the star of the show.  Sin cement, it's one of the oldest standing Roman structures in the world and they just stopped using it a few years ago.  Incredible, no?  If you really want to learn more about the Roman Aqueduct, you should click on this fancy link that I just learned how to make.

Yes, we all know Belle is better, but only the blondes get the castles.  

Except me. Ha.

                                             

And this is the Alcázar of Segovia or in other words, Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  Every Spanish tourist and their dog has this exact same picture. I apologize for my unoriginality.

And this is our uber European tour guide in Segovia.  He didn't like us very much.  

This is el Palacio Cristal in El Parque Retiro en Madrid and me with my home girl, Jessie. It's beautiful and it changed my life...both the palace and the home girl.

These are some of my cute SA friends posing by some columns in the park.

And this is the cool protest we saw one day when we were in Madrid.  We couldn't get close enough to tell if they were for or against the recent change in the Spanish Constitution.


Anyway, sorry for the scatter-brained post.  It only took me like a month to write.  But I promise there's more to come soon!  I'm trying to do a quick catch-up so I can get back on track.

Love you all mucho,

Abbs

Spanish Firsts

I am reviving this old thing once and for all. My reasoning: My life is actually worth reading about now. To the point of what I'm sure will be disbelief from all of my readers (aka my parents and the 3 of my friends who actually follow these sorts of things). 'Cause you see, I'm in Spain now. Which somehow makes me 20x cooler than I once was...but still 20x less cool than e

veryone else here. Which is okay. Europeans are entitled.

Anyway, we'll see how this blog renovation actually goes down; because, determined as I am in this moment, I have never been very good at this life-documenting thing outside of the intimate, you-don't-wanna-hear-about-it details that I record in m

y journal. And I'm even worse with technology. But who knows? I am 20x cooler now, after all. Just don't 'spect too much out of poor little me, a'ight?

Alright, my ever-present disclaimer has ended. Now:

I am here! After fumbling through three different airports with two norm-ginous suitcases and all of my obese Americaness, I am here. En EspaNa. Un poca enferma, but alive and happy to be in this fabulous city of mine. En serio, Alcalá is exactly as pictured in all of my Spanish fantasies...though slightly bigger and more complicated to navigate. I anxiously await the day in which I glide through these streets with ease, wearing a fedora and smoking one of those long Cruella deVille cigarettes. But seeing as we found ourselves walking in a circle 2 or 3 different times on our way home from the train station the other night, somethi

ng tells me we have a while before the word of wisdom-breaking can begin. We have to break up with our huge, ugly tourist maps first.

First day in Madrid. Love my group already.

Annika Huish es mi beautiful, stylish, talented, very fluent and therefore incredibly helpful roommate. She's probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. Ever-patient with her terribly American roommate and quick as a fox with this whole Spanish thing. And she's just great w

ith people in general, you know? Love her. I have a ton to learn from esta chica. Other fun facts: She served a mini-mission in Argentina this summer. Also, those of you from Mesa may recognize her as she gradumadated from Mountain View (gag) in 2010. She turned out alright though.

And sitting at the table with her in this picture is my host family. They're fantastic. Juana es our mama and Guillerno es one of our brothers (age 22), who was kind enough to show us around the city our first day. Funny, funny boy.

This is our room and all of our American stuff. Except my cute sunglasses that I bought at H&M. Why this store has not moved to Utah yet I cannot say, 'cause we girls go a little crazy in that place. Correction: Annika goes a little crazy in that place. I managed to escape with just a pair of cheap sunglasses, and I only bought them because my friend Alli told me I would get wrinkles from squinting if I didn't buy some immediately.

And somewhere in this picture is my straightener that was destroyed in the great Abby and Annika vs. European Electricity War. (Christmas list, mama?)

Our first day of school. I understood nothing in my Iberian Civilization class. Might I say that it's one thing to have a Spanish class taught in Spanish, but it's algo muy diferente to have a history class taught to you in Spanish. Pray for me, yes?

Anyway, aside from being sick (which is rather disgusting) and not knowing the language well enough (which is rather discouraging), I can feel myself stretching in all sorts of directions and with this satisfying sort of pain, I am incredibly happy to be in this beautiful place.

Love you all more than ever. And as always, you're in my prayers.

Querida,

Abby

My first Spanish sunrise (and all that it entails).