Los Geerts a Madrid

Last Friday Mick and his parents arrived at Madrid. They took me to "Con Dos Fogones", a nice restaurant near to Plaza de España. The food was really great and the ambiance even better! Later on I went to Yambala with people from school, we had some sweet cocktails and later we moved to an afterclub... the katmandu! Fun fun fun, we were in bed when we saw the sun!

Saturday Papa and mama Mick, Mick, Sandy and I went for a walk through the city... the weather was great so it was super! We looked for tickets for the game Real Madrid-Valencia but it was a bit to expensive... Later on we went to a restaurant, "El Viajero".. first we had a drink on the roof! 'Heaven', Later we had dinner in the restaurant! I started to get the feeling of being on vacation with all this restaurants...

Sunday we went for a walk through the park, a tortilla at Calle Alcala, a Sangria at Plaza Mayor and a belgian beer at 't cafeeke!

It was an interesting weekend, visiting some new parts of Madrid, eating in different restaurants, etc. Thanks Mama and Papa Mick for inviting me the whole weekend, it was really nice!

Segovía

This morning Sandrine and I decided to go visit another city than Madrid, Segovía. This city is located on 90 km of Madrid near to the mountains. When we arrived there, we first looked for a restaurant because we were starving! Our need to eat made us chose the worst restaurant of the city, the food looked and tasted like it had been served to 20 other tourists already.

After this poor experience we started our visit to the old centre. The history of Segovía goes back to 80. before Christ when it was ruled by the Romans. After the Romans, the Moors took over the city until 1085, the moment that the Christians (on their turn) took over this beautiful city.

Te most important monuments of Segovía are: The Roman Aquaduct ( 1st and 2nd century), the 16th century Cathedral and the 14th century Alcázar (a citadel from which you have a great view over the valley).

Caroline, Steve y Nicolas... Tranquilo!

In the weekend we went to Reina Sofía, again... but now we did the temporal exhibitions which were very interesting! Also the bar in the museum was more than OK! After this visit we went to a nice winebar to take a second apero... Very nice! In the evening we had dinner in a trendy restaurant 'ENE'. It's kind of of a loungebar actually... first time in weeks I had to eat with knife and fork! It was supernice, also Steve gave me some funny background about Sandrine what made it a LOL night!

Thanks Steve and Caroline for inviting this pennyless student!

El 5. de Abril con Stefanie y Nathalie

Last thursday Sandrine, Nathalie, Stefanie and I went for a walk through the city, later on we had tapas and wine in a small restaurant near Plaza Santa Ana. We stayed there a long time while we were talking about Hermes, the studentclub we're all in. Around 1AM we went to our favorite bar 'La Hora Bruja' to show them the real erasmus feeling. There wasn't a lot of people because most students went home or on vacation (Semana Santa), still we had a great night! We were obliged to stay out very late because the sisters had to take their plane back to Belgium at 6 in the morning!

Michel @ Madrid

Saturday Michel arrived. After dropping off his luggage we went to a tapasbar where we had a small lunch on the terrace. After that we found it necessary to do a museum, we planned the Prado, but the line was so long we got got tired just looking at it. No problem we thaught, we just went to another museum, actually my favorite one in Madrid, The Reina Sofía!

After this visit we did a long walk through the city, we passed Plaza del Sol, Opera, Palacío Real, Plaza Mayor, etc. Next to Plaza Mayor there's a belgian bar and finally, after almost 3 months, I could convince someone to join me for a pint overthere (without doubt that person was Michel). A little later also Marret decided to join us in 't cafeeke! I must admit, I don't know too much about beer, but for what I saw, they had every belgian beer I know!

Pieter, I noticed that when you're abroad, you really like to go to belgian pubs (Bxl in NY). So, at the end of April I'll make it my most important point to show you 't cafeeke, after breakfast...

Later on we went to Quentin's place for a final party... he left for France on sunday. It was a calm party, at least calmer than last time! However, it was a great party... later that evening we went to Huertas and found ourself a nice bar to end Quentin's Madridlife in the real Madridstyle!

Sunday we woke up quite late, and still I was tired ( the earcaps didn't work, my Ipod tried... no way you can ignore 110 decibels...). After that we did a walk through another part of the city, we passes Plaza de Ventas and booked ourselfs seats for a bullfight.

At 6PM we met Loes, Marissa and Katie at the Plaza de Toros. We bought some drinks and chips and went to our places to witness the 'Corrida de Toros'. At first the bull is really wild and agressive and the toreros just try to make him tired. After that the toreros throw a pair of special arrows into the bulls neck. One torero finishes the job with some sort of a sword... not a nice view (I think it was the torero's first time, he didn't prick the bull once but more like 10 times).

It was interesting for one time, but I wasn't convinced! Let's just say my 6 months visit to Spain makes it obligatory to taste also this cultural heritage...

After the bullfight we went to a nice restaurant, Il Pizzaiolo... Italian, Me gusta mucho! We went to bed early because I had school and Michel had to leave Madrid at 9 o'clock the next morning.