Finally settling back into the swing of things after coming home and figured after a three month hiatus I should begin blogging once again, more for myself than anyone else. While away from 'blog world' I was lucky enough to visit my boyfriend in Spain and do some traveling around Europe. I was lucky enough to fit so much in that I'm going to split it up into multiple posts so as not to bore the few people who love me enough to humor me with their reading ;-)
I left July 4th, kind of funny
leaving the USA on Independence Day, and at 9am started my long day of traveling from a two hour drive to Boston, a flight from Boston to JFK, New York to Madrid, and Madrid to Bilbao. FINALLY in Bilbao I waited to be picked me up from the airport but my boyfriend was *cough cough* like twenty minutes late. We did stop in Laredo so I could see the port he did his senior engineering project on. We laid on the beach and ate sandwiches his oh-so-adorable mom made for us, before we continued to Santander.
I didn't have too much time to rest because the next day we head off to Pamplona for sanfermines, the Spanish fiesta famous for the running of the bulls (which we did
not run in). We went in a group and all stayed in the apartment of one of their friends, who quite possibly was one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. It was
such a good weekend. The first night we went out around 8pm and drank in the park, watched fireworks, and enjoyed the fiesta until around dawn the next day.
That Saturday night was even more special for me because it was the eve of my birthday, everyone so sweetly celebrated by giving me a delicious cake of probably the best tasting cheese wheel I've eaten in my life--complete with candles and singing Happy Birthday in English and Spanish. On top of the delicious cheese we had jamón and fresh bread to complete my birthday dinner of some of my favorite Spanish foods. As we ate and drank in the park there were some 'birthday' fireworks and then like the night before we 'explored' Pamplona until about 7 in the morning. With my 'cheese' cake, my birthday was complete with dancing in the street.
At this point some of us decided to go to the bull plaza to watch the ending of that morning's running with the bulls. Everyone runs in with the bulls and then some young bulls, less dangerous bulls, are released against the participants. I did not really care for it because the participants were very disrespectful to the bulls, grabbing their horns and pushing them, and the crowd felt the same way and would yell quite a few
not very nice words in Spanish whenever a participant did something disrespectful. Despite my personal opinion though, it was very cool to watch the running on the screens in the plaza and to see the end of it in person. Such a once and a lifetime experience! And we didn't even get home until 9ish in the morning, over 12 hours out! Overall, it was a great birthday weekend and a great experience. Later that day after some sleep and telepizza, we made the two-ish hour drive back to Santander and my boyfriend took me out to a restaurant near his house called Británica for my birthday dinner. Later that week all of our friends even surprised me with a birthday party with delicious food, a delicious cake, and great company. It was my very first surprise party!
After our Pamplona weekend we rested for the next week. We spent most of the time with our friends or walking around Santander. It was the third time I've visited him there and I really like the local parks and beaches so we made sure to visit all of them. In the Magdalena park there are different animals and I love seeing the seals and sea lions so we always visit them when go to see the Palace. We also went to the beach
Mataleñas quite often, which is one of my favorite of the Santander beaches. The water is just so clear and it's really secluded, although the Sardinero beaches are equally as beautiful. Other than that we all visited some local caves famous for their geology and cave paintings, and celebrated his grandfather's birthday. It was a nice week of resting because we were about to go on our
big summer trip, a whole week in Paris!
I left July 4th, kind of funny leaving the USA on Independence Day, and at 9am started my long day of traveling from a two hour drive to Boston, a flight from Boston to JFK, New York to Madrid, and Madrid to Bilbao. FINALLY in Bilbao I waited to be picked me up from the airport but my boyfriend was *cough cough* like twenty minutes late. We did stop in Laredo so I could see the port he did his senior engineering project on. We laid on the beach and ate sandwiches his oh-so-adorable mom made for us, before we continued to Santander. 
I didn't have too much time to rest because the next day we head off to Pamplona for sanfermines, the Spanish fiesta famous for the running of the bulls (which we did not run in). We went in a group and all stayed in the apartment of one of their friends, who quite possibly was one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. It was such a good weekend. The first night we went out around 8pm and drank in the park, watched fireworks, and enjoyed the fiesta until around dawn the next day. 
That Saturday night was even more special for me because it was the eve of my birthday, everyone so sweetly celebrated by giving me a delicious cake of probably the best tasting cheese wheel I've eaten in my life--complete with candles and singing Happy Birthday in English and Spanish. On top of the delicious cheese we had jamón and fresh bread to complete my birthday dinner of some of my favorite Spanish foods. As we ate and drank in the park there were some 'birthday' fireworks and then like the night before we 'explored' Pamplona until about 7 in the morning. With my 'cheese' cake, my birthday was complete with dancing in the street. 
At this point some of us decided to go to the bull plaza to watch the ending of that morning's running with the bulls. Everyone runs in with the bulls and then some young bulls, less dangerous bulls, are released against the participants. I did not really care for it because the participants were very disrespectful to the bulls, grabbing their horns and pushing them, and the crowd felt the same way and would yell quite a few not very nice words in Spanish whenever a participant did something disrespectful. Despite my personal opinion though, it was very cool to watch the running on the screens in the plaza and to see the end of it in person. Such a once and a lifetime experience! And we didn't even get home until 9ish in the morning, over 12 hours out! Overall, it was a great birthday weekend and a great experience. Later that day after some sleep and telepizza, we made the two-ish hour drive back to Santander and my boyfriend took me out to a restaurant near his house called Británica for my birthday dinner. Later that week all of our friends even surprised me with a birthday party with delicious food, a delicious cake, and great company. It was my very first surprise party!
After our Pamplona weekend we rested for the next week. We spent most of the time with our friends or walking around Santander. It was the third time I've visited him there and I really like the local parks and beaches so we made sure to visit all of them. In the Magdalena park there are different animals and I love seeing the seals and sea lions so we always visit them when go to see the Palace. We also went to the beach Mataleñas quite often, which is one of my favorite of the Santander beaches. The water is just so clear and it's really secluded, although the Sardinero beaches are equally as beautiful. Other than that we all visited some local caves famous for their geology and cave paintings, and celebrated his grandfather's birthday. It was a nice week of resting because we were about to go on our big summer trip, a whole week in Paris!
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