El Escorial

Yesterday was mostly uneventful. I took my time in the morning lounging around the house before i did some more exploring of downtown Madrid. After class I came home for a cat nap before heading out for unlimited Sangria at Casa de Cerveza. A perfectly mellow day- which will be much needed as the craziness of this week progresses.
This past morning I finally made it out to El Escorial- an incredible monastery an hour outside of Madrid where all the Spanish kings are buried. While I was able to take pictures of the outside of the monastery, I was not allowed to take pictures in the most impressive part. Housed inside the monastery is an incredible basilica cathedral. They were playing coral music while I was in the church and I got to listen to the Hallelujah Chorus as I sat in the pews and took it all in. After I got back into the city, I was exhausted and so happy to come home and find my homestay mom had made Spanish comfort food for dinner: PAELLA!
This weekend is shaping up to be very exciting! The gay festival is this weekend in Chueca which means tons of people will be in the city. However, I will only get to enjoy it Friday night because I am heading to Costa Blanca (aka the beach!) for an overnight stay before I leave Madrid. With all the hecticness of the city, I am throughly looking forward to twenty four hours of white sand beaches & tropical cocktails. I can not believe my time in Madrid is almost over! Luckily I have Pamplona and all the festivities of San Fermin to look forward to!
xoxo,
Kacy
p.s. here are some pictures of 2 things I LOVE in Spain: stumbling upon fun kitschy shops like the one with these vintage lamps & the amazing pastelerias