Dos chicas en Ávila

I know--it's been two weeks since I wrote my last blog. The only excuse I can give is that I've recently become obsessed with watching ER reruns. I'm sorry, I can't help myself. George Clooney and Noah Wyle in scrubs is too much to handle, and with about 16 seasons (I'm only on the third one ah!), it's going to be quite the journey. No need to freak out completely, though, I've limited myself to two episodes a day max. I do have some self control.

GIANT WALL (this is NOT a Hollywood set)

Anyway, as you can see...Helen and I went to Ávila two Saturdays ago. If you're in the Madrid area (and I realize now that the majority of my readers unfortunately are not...) I highly recommend making the approximately hour and 45 minute trip to this city north of Madrid. It's small and quaint, like many Spanish cities, but if you haven't noticed already, there's something a bit unusual about this one...that's right a GIANT WALL!!!! And guess what?! You can walk around part of the wall so awesome!

Adorable Spanish child in motorized toy car. Boy do I miss my Barbie car...those were the days no stoplights no paying for gas. I should have never grown up...

The great thing, well besides the wall, was the weather. It's so true that sometimes the weather can make all the difference. We were going to go the week before, but Helen had a midterm (yea, on a Saturday. No joke. The professor e-mailed them the midterm at 10 AM and they had to e-mail it back to her back to her by 1pm. Still haven't decided what I think of that idea, yet). Nevertheless, having to go the following Saturday was the best thing that could have happened because the weather was great!

Helen + lion outside of the cathedral + "gafas de mosca" = fly sunglasses 

I should also mention there's a beautiful cathedral. Maybe I shouldn't mention, however, that Helen and I were too cheap to actually go all of the way inside it. Jaded from seeing so many churches while being in Europe. No...

Spain I never want to let you go :(

I suppose what I learned about this fun little trip to Ávila is that having a good time traveling goes not mean you have to go far from home, and does not mean you have to pay loads of money. The roundtrip bus ticket was only about 11 euro.

Beauuutttiffuulll!

Oh, and something that I've also learned in general from traveling these past two semesters. Less is more. I mean when it comes to people. I'm not trying to be anti-social here, really. But it is much easier to travel in smaller groups than with a whole bunch of people. Just think. Hey guys, where should we go for lunch. If there's ten of you you might hear: I hate fish. I'm a vegetarian. I don't mind spending a bit more. I can't spend more than X amount of euros....AH! But, if you go with tops four MAYBE 5 people you are less likely to run into that problem and less likely to have problems when it comes to what everyone wants to do. Words of wisdom from your friendly traveler, Meggy-Lou/Megs (depending on whether you're talking to my mom or goofy brother.)

Me + giant wall + Alice from the Brady Bunch hairstyle AH