La Llegada!

After a long and exhausting day, we arrived in Pamplona on Monday!  I travelled with Brooke and Kelsey, two students who are also studying in Leon this year. We flew together from Boston to Madrid and arrived very early on Monday morning.  Out of the three of us, Brooke is the only one who has been to Spain before and she stayed with a host family in Madrid for six weeks. She had arranged for them to meet us at the airport and they were a HUGE help with our luggage, talking to us about the city, and helping us get to the train station. Because we each had two big suitcases (I attempted to pack lightly), it would have been really difficult on our own. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without them.  From the airport, we took the metro to get to the train station. While waiting for our train, we stopped to get an authentic Spanish breakfast: tortilla Espanola. ¡Muy deliciosa! We also had time to take a quick tour of Madrid by car. The city was very pretty and drove by the Royal Palace, museums, older historical buildings, and beautiful parks. I would definitely love to spend some more time in Madrid later on but I was very anxious to get to Pamplona.

From Madrid, we took a train to Pamplona, and later a taxi to our hotel. The hotel is very nice and it’s about a 10 minute walk to the university from there. We’ll be staying here for the next three weeks (altogether there are 22 Holy Cross students here who are studying abroad in Spain). The city itself is somewhat small, but very beautiful and surrounded by mountains. We explored the older district of the city, including the cathedral, the main plaza, and some of the shops in the city. This was exactly what I had pictured in my head of a typical Spanish city and I LOVED walking around. We also learned a lot about the history as we toured the city, including the festival of San Fermin, which is what most people associate with Pamplona. This festival that is held annually in July is deeply rooted in tradition and includes religious celebrations, and the infamous running of the bulls, also known as the “encierro”.

In the past couple of days, we have been busy with classes, exploring the city, and settling into our hotel. Each morning we have class from 9:30am to 1:30pm in Spanish culture and grammar. It’s definitely been helpful to brush up on some grammar and learn more about the culture here.  After classes and lunch, we have time for a siesta (DEFINITELY one of my favorite parts about the culture), and we either have free time or activities planned in the evenings. Even though I’ve only been here a couple of days, it feels like I’ve been here A LOT longer and I’m definitely beginning to enjoy my time in Spain.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “La Llegada!”

1. Ron and Michelene Stewart says:

   August 18, 2011 at 8:55 pm

   We enjoyed reading your blog. Our grandson, Kevin Gallagher is in your group. Please tell him we said Hi!
   Good luck in your year of Study Abroad.

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