First off, we would like to apologize for the lack of posts since "The China Scare" back in... January?! Is it April already? Wow, what slackers! I can assure you that we have been busy working (thankfully), moving, traveling and running Hostel Babb.
Chloe and Dmytryk, former students of mine, came for a 2 week stay-cation. They explored what they wanted of Madrid while Brian and I worked and in the evenings we showed them around.
One of the weekends they were here, we went to Barcelona! Definitely one of our favorite cities thus far! We rented bicycles and of course 5 minutes into the ride, it began to rain, pour actually. We had no choice but to make the most of it since we only had 1 & ½ days there. We were cold and soaked but when we turned the corner and saw La Sagrada Familia, the ride was well worth it! La Sagrada Familia is the work of the late Antoni Gaudi. Construction began in 1882 and continues to this day! It truly is an amazing piece of work! WE loved walking Las Ramblas and being at the beach! If you ever get the chance to travel in Europe, Barcelona is a must!
Chloe and Dmytryk left on Thursday Feb 2nd and on Fri Feb 3 our next guests arrived! Our great friends Matt and Sara came for a week and Brian’s mom (mi suegra) came for 2 & ½ weeks!
And boy did we do a lot...
We spent the weekend showing them Madrid. We also went to Segovia (a quaint, walled-city just outside of Madrid with a Roman aqueduct made of 25,000 granite blocks and no mortar, that stands about 100 feet tall and 2,683 feet long).
Monday evening we left for Romania (we didn't arrive until 4am) to visit our friends Cristian & Bella and their adorable son Avi. Brian, Matt & Cristian were roommates while going to Fuller Seminary. They love each other a lot and it was beautiful to see the boys back together. We had a great time freezing our butts off (it was way below zero!), seeing Timisoara and the towns where Cristian and Bella grew up, eating, laughing, reminiscing, praying together and adoring little Avi. Time well spent and treasured.
On our journey home, we had a little layover in Rome. Matt, Sara and Sue had never been before, so we did what anyone would do and hire a taxi for the 2 hours we had to drive us around to every monument he could. This guy was no joke! He got us to the Colosseum, Pantheon, the best gelato place in the world, and to Vatican City where Brian and Matt w/only minutes left before we had to head to the airport, ran up 300+ steps to the top of St. Peter's Cathedral. Phew! I'm tired just typing all of that! It was exhilarating and an incredible way to see a city!
After Matt and Sara went back to the States, we spent about a week recovering. It was so nice to have Brian's mom here for what seemed like normal life! We played cards, Ticket to Ride and she even did our laundry while we were at work! The next weekend we went to Granada, Spain. Granada is home to the Alhambra, a city of royal palaces, churches, gardens and mosques. We had a great time exploring the Alhambra and walking through the Albayzin (known as the city in white pictured below).
We were sad to say good-bye to Sue and so thankful for our time with her as it felt like we were home for a couple weeks.
Our next guests weren't arriving for another month, so why not move into a new apartment?! We moved into our new and final destination (ironically enough at Avenida de America) the 1st week of March. We now have 2 bedrooms (which makes for a more comfortable stay for our guests) and 76 steps to walk up and down multiple times a day. Ya, really.... 76! The only thing that makes the long hike up the mountain to our apartment worth it, is the sweet terrace we get to enjoy (and of course the fact that my butt is gonna look gooooood in a few months!).
Brian's birthday was the next weekend (March 12th) and we went to his number 1 on our Europe Bucket list - The Matterhorn, in Zermatt, Switzerland! I'll let Brian share in a separate blog post about that trip, but I will say that it was incredibly beautiful and we almost fainted....
No comments:
Post a Comment