Catching up

Sorry!! I have seriously been slacking on this blog. But I have been very happily busy the past month and a half :) April was filled with school and lots of traveling, including weekends in Amsterdam, Galicia, Bilbao, and San Sebastian. Here are some quick recaps:

Amsterdam was a lot of fun. Highlights included the beautiful canals and biker-friendly streets, the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house, legal marijuana, and a free boat ride with a friendly Dutch man and his friends.

With our new Dutch friends on their boat!

The following weekend, my program took an overnight train to Galicia, a region on the northwest coast of Spain. It was great to all be together for a weekend and Galicia is beautiful. We hiked part of the Camino de Santiago, which is a Catholic pilgrimage trail that starts in the south of France and ends in Santiago de Compostela, the city where we stayed in Galicia. We also spent a day in a little fisherman's town on the coast of the Atlantic and had fresh and delicious seafood.

The Atlantic coast of Galicia

Pulpo, anyone?

Playing in the gardens

After Galicia, mom and dad came to visit! We had the best time. We spent 3 days in Madrid, then flew north to visit Bilbao and San Sebastian. They are awesome travel buddies. We loved the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and had fun going pintxo hopping in San Sebastian for dinner. I'm not sure if I've ever seen my dad happier than when we found a pintxos (similar to tapas) bar in San Sebastian that specialized in anchovies. Here are some pics from our week:

Dinner in Madrid

Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid

Me and a big dog made of grass

So April was a crazy month. The last week in April I had a couple final exams and finished up with classes. Then the first two weekends in May I traveled to Barcelona and Sevilla and will post about those trips soon! Thanks for reading and sorry this is so late!