so i understand it’s slightly pathetic to take a month to write a post about my vacation in spain, but for some reason, it’s taken that long. we shall not speak of it again.

it has been about 3 years since i’ve really needed to speak spanish. this time around in spain, my language skills may have been worse, but at least i had more money than i did in college! from my last arrival to spain:

to my most current arrival to spain (view from barcelona hotel):

just as i remember it, barcelona is still my favorite city in the world (so far at least). it’s got the beach, the art, the architecture, and the food. and i got to re-do some of my favorite things (note - in pictures from college i have long hair and somewhat questionable clothing choices. pictures from this year my hair is short and the photo is most likely hipsterized):

1. kiwi drinks in the mercado (as good as last time)

2. guadi art (as good as last time)

3. food (major upgrade). we used to buy food from grocery stores and eat it in a park - a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable technique. it was interesting, this time around, to realize how few restaurants i had been to in spain before:

so this time, we did it up. delicious ink squid paella and other delicious treats every day. sean loves this picture:

after barcelona, we flew to granada. just as it used to be, flights in between spanish cities usually cost around $50. granada is the city on our agenda that i knew the least, so i often disgraced jason and sean by referencing forbidden maps:

other highlights - sean and i pulled up on ‘stage’ during a flamenco show. jason was not. he is also the least spanish looking, so it makes sense.

and then of course, we climbed to the top of la alhambra:

and just in general taking some awkward photos (we had a total of 1000 between the 3 of us, so some of them were bound to be stupid looking):

our last destination, and the one i was most eager about, was madrid. it was interesting that the city was somewhat different than i remembered it - it was so much bigger than it seemed when i lived here. the distance between el tigre and my apartment was also significantly longer than i expected - did we seriously walk all that way for free tapas numerous times a week? (yes, yes we did, because it was worth it).

as expected, the first thing we did after arriving in madrid was go to el tigre, i just couldn’t resist, and we were hungry. i don’t know if the prices have changed, but the guys behind the counter have not (santiago and carlos are still there, i didn’t check to see if they remembered me). in addition to el tigre, there are two other staples of my life in madrid that i had to revisit - el templo and the retrio boats. almost everything was where i left it:

1. el tigre (whitney will kill me for this photo):

el tigre, the hipster version:

2. el templo in awful skinny jeans:

a little better now:

3. the boats! this truly is one of the most amazing parts of the city. 

i am clearly working harder than jason:

next time to spain: 2032, when the sagrada familia is projected to be completed.