a wonderful week of visitors!

alright, here's a photographic look at the past week. it was pretty great! i had some wonderful visitors come and see me here in spain over the thanksgiving holiday. my mom, dad, and kevin arrived on sunday afternoon, and it was insanely difficult to keep from jumping out of my skin! i was so excited for the their visit! they arrived on sunday and hung out until early saturday morning, when they left again to head home. we explored sevilla (many of you will already recognize places that have showed up in this blog previously) and then made our way over to madrid for a little bit of exploration (again, you've already seen pics because we didn't go anywhere that i hadn't already been). it was absolutely wonderful! i have no complaints about celebrating thanksgiving in spain with people i love (except that there was no turkey)... either way, here are the pictures complete with captions and descriptions. hope you enjoy!

first stop after their arrival was the hotel alfonso XII, sevilla's beautiful and luxurious hotel built in 1929 for the world's fair. i've walked past the hotel every day and i was so excited to go inside--especially as a guest and not a trespasser! after freshening up and dropping of their stuff, we all headed out for a walk around the town. i showed them all the sights: the cathedral, plaza nueva, puerta jerez, calle sierpes... we even made it over to CCCS! here's a picture of kevin and i in front of the doors to the cathedral.

after wandering around for a while, we made our way to CCCS! here's kev and i, sitting in the main room on the first floor of the center.

after visiting the center, i had to keep everyone up and moving so that they wouldn't succumb to the jet-lag. in order to keep them going, we walked around the city at night. we walked across the puente de san telmo over into triana (a neighborhood across the river). we then wandered around calle betis before crossing back over the river (this time on the puente de isabella II). this is a picture of the torre de oro as we made our way to cross the river.

a look at the puente de isabella II from the puente de san telmo. so pretty!

on our way back towards the center of town, we stopped outside the plaza de toros. here's kevin and i. i'm the toro, just in case you couldn't tell.

kevin in his most masterful matador pose. all he needs is the cape!

after we spent the afternoon wandering around, we headed to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner and then back to the hotel for bed! i, of course, was totally awake, but everyone else was beat. the next day (monday) we woke up and had a fabulous breakfast at the hotel (photos to come) before heading out to the cathedral. here's kevin with the remains of christopher columbus.

my favorite picture of the whole trip (kevin and i did the cool effects on the train to madrid). here we are in the orange tree patio, waiting to climb up the giralda.

two of my favorite things: kevin and the cathedral's bell tower, the giralda!

mom and i, hanging out on top of the giralda. the view was great, but the wind was strong and cold!

kev and i at the top of the giralda.

after our morning at the cathedral, we made our way across town to my house to have lunch with rosario and chelsea. it was unbelievable how much food rosario made! we had a huge feast! everyone filled up on the appetizers, thinking that they were the main course. man, was everyone really surprised to see a HUGE pan of paella come out. it was all so good, and it was nice to have these two parts of my fall come together.

a look at some of the appetizers...

the whole crew with our feast! another one of my favorites from the trip.

after lunch at rosario's, i had to dash off to class. i made it there just in time. everyone else got to take a nap (totally unfair). after i woke everyone up, we decided to talk a walk around the center at night. here's a picture of kevin and i at the cathedral at night.

on tuesday, we walked over to the plaza de espana, which was so beautiful! we wandered around the plaza and the park for the entire morning (after eating breakfast with chelsea and rosario at the hotel--another fun dining experience).

mom and dad in front of the museum of arts and customs. it's one of my favorite buildings in sevilla because the architecture is just so cool!

that night, we headed over to the tablao arenal for a flamenco show! the show was really impressive, and i was glad we went. here's kevin and i at our table, waiting for the show to start...

after the show, we had a late italian dinner at pizzeria de san marco--another one of my favorites!

here's the promised breakfast picture: wednesday, kevin and i decided to try to caviar. obviously, it was not a huge hit. i have to agree with his face. my dad described it tasting like salty, fishy worms, and i have to agree.

kevin in the plaster patio at the real alcazar. we spent the wednesday morning wandering through the alcazar, listening to the audio guide and getting our fill of arab-inspired architecture.

the whole gang!

a look at the awesome structure.

me, playing the part of the prince in the prince's bedroom.

kevin looking royal and king-like inside the gothic palace in the alcazar.

hmm... which one is better-looking? you vote...

hanging out in the gardens at the really cool duck pond!

picture in the gardens...

wow... it's so beautiful.

look! we're on the balcony overlooking both halves of the garden!

kevin and the really awesome billboard made of tile circa the 1930s.

i tricked kevin into taking a picture with this street performer. we were shopping down calle sierpes, and i got picture taken first (only it didn't turn out), so this is the one in the blog!

the streets at night after a rain shower... i was in class.

thursday morning, we hopped a train to madrid in order to hang out and enjoy the sights there. here's kevin, sipping his orange juice in our first class cabin.

hanging out on the AVE!

a look at the city from kevin's hotel room. it was right in the heart of downtown with lots of action and good shopping!

kevin and i snuck out while my parents were napping for some chocolate con churros. here's kevin's reaction to the awesomeness...

i do like chocolate con churros!

kevin and the puerta de alcala!

after the chocolate con churros, we headed down to the parque de buen retiro to hang out for a while and enjoy the gardens. it was a beautiful picture of fall tranquility.

kevin in his best seated statue pose. i was highly impressed.

well, i think we're pretty cute.

kevin and the really big pond... i tried to talk him into rowing me around in one of their rented boats, but he wasn't having it...

kevin and the fountain we dubbed spain's ole faithful... another awesome duck pond!

we stumbled upon this really awesome glass building!

glass building from another angle--so cool! we did actually go inside... not quite sure why those pictures didn't make it on here!

friday morning, we all headed over to the royal palace together. it was a crisp morning, and i think we were all happy to be out of the cold and in the palace. here's the church right next door.

mom, dad, and i in front of the palace!

again, kevin and i snuck out that afternoon for a little wandering of our own. here's our pit-stop at a fine american institution!

it was sooo nice to have american food--even crappy american food!

after we wandered, mom, kevin, and i headed over to the prado museum. kevin was a real trooper, putting up with my art history explanations for a full two hours. he gets an award for that one!

after we got back, kevin and i wandered up to the rooftop terrace. it was beautiful and there was no one out there because of the cold! we had a whole view of the city that was magnificent!

the empty terrace...

view of the street below from the terrace--the have their christmas lights turned on! how great is that?!

hugging on the terrace thanks to a camera timer and a table...

for our last meal in spain, the four of us went out to dinner at this beautiful little italian restaurant called garbo. the food was awesome and we had a great time. the waiters even gave my mom and i a rose at the end of the meal!

we had just been making fun of each other when this picture was taken, that's why our smiles are so big!

a last group photo! it was such a good week and i couldn't have asked for a better time.

oops! somehow this pictures got out of order. here are a few more from the plaza de espana... sorry about the mix-up!

kevin and the tiled map of agricultural spain... i thought it fitting.

parents, me, and the great big fountain!

a really cool picture on the really awesome bridge! the whole bridge is covered in gorgeous tiles (as i'm sure you can see). it's really neat.

a look at the plaza de espana. i just learned the other day that they filmed a scene from one of the newer star wars films here... i'm going to have to investigate!