PART II

And so after my little adventure in Salamanca it was time to head down to the town where my family live for easter week. I was looking forward to a week of sun, sea and sand but unfortunately it happened to be the rainiest, wettest easter week in 50 years. Why does it always happen to me?? sigh. My family were very pleased to see me to say the least and I spent the whole time eating - no lie - i don't think I even went an hour without being fed something and I never ate in the same house twice so that just shows how many people I was made to visit.

I also went and saw some of the easter processions when it wasn't raining, some had to be called off because of the rain and my oh my did the people bawl their eyes out..! I have to admit I was a little concerned when I first saw the processions as the people are all dressed up in Klu Klux KLan type outfits.. slightly worrying .. and they parade around followed by Christ on a huge box thing that people PAY money to carry around on the back of their necks for about 6 hours - this thing weighs about 3 tons. Was there ever a better example of how crazy this nation is?

Anyway following Jesus is the Virgin Mary on another huge box thing also weighing 3 or 4 tons. Each procession belongs to a different church and each one has its own Jesus and Mary. I went to one procession with the son of one of my auntie's friends who was about my age. He was explaining everything to me and also telling me about how he was going to take part in a procession. When we got back to his house he wanted to show me the outfit he would be wearing (another Klu Klux Klan affair in a nice shade of purple) and then he showed me his room, on the wall instead of posters of semi naked women and cars he had a picture of his Virgin Mary and his Jesus.. oh dear.

I was only originally planning to stay there Monday to Friday but in the end my grandma went on at me so much about spending so little time their that I changed my train ticket to an 8 hour bus journey just so I could stay a couple more nights, aren't I just the sweetest grandchild in the world.

It was the worst bus journey of my life. 8 hours with a screaming baby is not my idea of fun, but anyway, got back to Madrid and I thought that it would be nice to go out. I wasn't planning a late one as auntie was flying in at 10am the next day, but you guessed it, I was out until 6 .. oh well.. as it turned out auntie called me to say I didn't have to meet her at the airport and I could meet her at the hotel.. which was only the Ritz

She booked it for a birthday surprise/treat - I have to say it was pure class... every time we left the room something would appear as if by magic.. flowers in the bathroom, fresh fruit, chocolates on the pillows... very luxurious.. Unfortunately my ladylike grand entrance did not go quite as planned. When my taxi pulled up and the doorman opened the door for me I managed to get out of the taxi and fall straight into a bush.. hmmmmm classy as ever.
I then got my foot trapped in the revolving door which was being pushed open for me, it was quite shameful. It didn't help that the concierge was sex on a stick and witnessed the whole unfortunate incident.. oh foolish me..

The rest of my stay did run like clockwork though and I lived it up big style.. shopping, champagne, lunch, coffee, haircut (also at the Ritz, how convenient to have a hairdresser on site don´t you think) cocktails, all highly sophisticated, and when we checked out I even managed to restrain from stealing a coat hanger even though they were very cool. I was very proud of myself i have to say.

Plus the doorman was also nice enough to open the door to my room when I strolled in at 5.30am keyless and pissed ..how nice of him!..
All in all i had a really good 21st .. thanks for all cards, messages, calls etc

Crazy Times - Part 1

Have had a pretty hectic last few weeks and at last its rest time so I shall update you all on my activities.

Where do i start? Oh yes, well .. a couple of weeks ago it was quite hot so my house mate and I decided to go and sunbathe in one of Madrid's many plazas. Even this you can't do in peace- what with typical Spanish and Italian men wandering by making leery comments. One in particular giving us cause for concern as he wandered by backwards and forwards about 5 times! In the end we needn't have worried as played for the US rugby team (no, i didn't know they had a team either!) and he just wanted to give us some free tickets for a world cup qualifying match against Spain the next day, cool! - even though it was on the condition we cheered for them! ha! as if!
We went to the match and cheered for the Spanish team along with everyone else even though they lost dismally to the bloody yanks.

Anyway that night we made an impulsive decision to visit Salamanca, a city thats about 2 and a half hours east of Madrid. So, off we trot at 8pm to the coach station and hop on a bus. On the way we became slightly concerned when all the hostels we called turned out to be full, but like the true adventurer that i am i took in all in my stride and after arriving at 10.30 with no accomodation to speak of we came to the decision that my flatmate would pull a random so that we could all sleep on their floor - a plan and a half if ever their was one..but luckily for her in the end we managed to find a couple of rooms ..

Having dumped our stuff and got changed we thought a quiet little drink and a meal were called for so that we could have a good nights sleep in order to do some sightseeing the next day...

8am the next morning we were still drinking, so much for the quiet one. The atmosphere in Salamanca was really good though and we had such a good laugh. We must've visited every bar in the whole of the city. I'd definately reccommend a visit, the men are really gullible as well.. I managed to get away with some unbelievably ludicrous tales!! The next day after 4 hours sleep I wasnt feeling so chirpy, but my adventurer's spirit shone through and we set out on a quest to find the legendary frog of Salamanca (amongst the intricate carving's on the university wall there is somewhere carved a frog the story goes if you can find the frog without any help you'll be married within a year.. dun dun duh)

I began to get the feeling that I am never destined to be married when we couldnt even find the wall. You'd think it would be easy being on the facade of the uni.. but no.. 3 hours later and after having spent a long time staring at a totally different wall which didn't even have any carvings on it, we still hadnt found it. You'd think they'd put up signs.. ´The wall with the frog´ or something, eventually after asking loads of people we got there, turns out we had walked right by the street and been about 10 metres away from it not once but at least 10 times, anyway, I began to look for the frog but some annoying guy kept trying to point it out and therby ruin my chances of marriage, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep concentrating on the search when I had my fingers in my ears singing la lalalaa. In the end, I am ashamed to say, I gave up and looked in the guide book..
The frog didnt even look like a frog , it just looked like a bit of stone.. I was highly disappointed..

hmm I seem to have gone on a fair bit, and I need to get going so I will continue soon

in part 2 - S visits her crazy family in Andalucia and Bday stay at the Ritz... I bet you can't wait.. I can just see the excitement on all your faces!