Madrid. Golden.

I have just returned from an awesome week in Madrid...total bliss. You don't appreciate the sun until you live in england - and being able to kit up in some shorts and thongs was heaven. I travelled with 4 of the gappies im living with...from left to right its Zoe (aus), Kate (s.a.), Tom (zim) and Thabo(s.a.)...and me on the end.
we spent most of the week just checkin out the city, its an amazing place. Highlights were definitely the royal palace - totally swell - and the gardens surrounging it are just way too big, the centere of town, 'puerta de sol', also tended to get quite lively at night as well.. unfortunately i spent the week living below the poverty line, trying to survive on the equivalent of $A200... sounds like heaps, but trust me, it aint.
it is so much better to be female when ur travelling! i spent all my money trying to keep my stomach content, while the ladies just got to... 'galavant'. It was also a fairly challenging week in terms of the lack of english spoken. Being an ignorant tourist, i assumed that they would at least all be able to communicate in my language. wrong. people look at you strange when u speak english. so i resorted to trying to learn spanish phrases like 'i dont understand you' and 'a big mac meal with a sprite'. it tended to work, except when once i was telling a guy that 'i dont speak spanish' and i failed to add the word spanish on the end of the sentence. he was understandably confused when i told him that 'i dont speak.'

Although hostel was quite cramped, it was tops. The rooms with 14 beds, the oblivious Costa Rican who snored in her sleep and the people that turned up at 3am in the morning, grabbing ur leg in the dark as they search for their beds....all reminded me of good old camp. out of the 9 other people in our room, i ended up having mutual friends with 3 of them, way too small a world. crazy stuff! even better was the morning half way through our week when i was leaving the hostel and walked straight into Jules Naylor, chick from my school. she was stayin at my hostel! we had an awesome chat and she had been to the bull-fighting..i never knew they kill the bulls! its absolute carnage, they spear them about 6 times and then the gay dude with the red sheet pulls out a sword and stabs it! pretty graphic stuff (surely there are some animal brigades unhappy about this?!)

While the rest of my trip didnt exactly involve watching animal slaughter, i did go to the zoo. now dont underestimate the 'x-factor' and sheer class of the zoo, it dominates many other things you might do with your day. and it confirmed to me that the rhino is definitely the most fearsome creature. we spent a day in toledo as well, which is this old town, that has an awesome structure. kinda like a cross between jerusalem and ministireth. put em together, throw a cathedral at the top of the hill, and u have toledo. they also make sweet samurai's swords there, was about to buy one but then i realised i had to eat for the next 3 days. on our last day, tom and i went to the bernabeu. it was sweet as, and although the tickets had been sold out for the weekend match, we still got to see inside. rad.

arrived back at brighton at 2:30am. sleep was sensational.

---Spanish Snaps---

Don't tell me he's not farting.

Check the 'Mo'

'Bing Lee' Pose

Crystal Palace

Definitely the Harry Potter Portkey

Centre of Madrid - 'Puerta del Sol'