Nerja

Yesterday we planned a trip with some friends to a city near Malaga called Nerja.  Nerja is known for it's caves and for the beaches.  We got bus tickets for yesterday morning at 9:15 to leave Malaga for Nerja and our tickets to get back were for 6:15 last night.  We got up yesterday morning and carmen made us bacon, eggs, and toast (Delicious) :)  Then we headed out for the day.  We went to the caves first which were really amazing.  Then we took a bus for 1 euro to the city of Nerja to go to the beach.

 My friend Hanna and I got sidetracked in a shop on the way to the beach with the group and ended up walking around the city for 2 hours trying to find the right beach because there are tons of little beaches in between the cliffs in the city.  It was a good way to see the city, but we were glad to find the beach that everyone was at and to relax a little after some intense walking.    The beaches were the most beautiful beaches that we have seen so far.  They are surrounded by cliffs and rocks and it was truly an amazing sight.

By the time we got home last night Lauren and I were both so tired that we went to bed as soon as we showered and ate dinner.  We got to sleep in this morning which was fantastic because it's the first day that we have slept in since we have been here! Carmen made us bacon, eggs, and toast again today.
Today I think we will relax a lot, do some homework, and maybe head to the Picasso museum later this afternoon.  Sounds like an awesome day to me.
Time has actually been going by really fast since we have been here, which is both good and bad.  I will be totally ready to be home by the end of these five and a half weeks, but I'm going to miss it here and I have already had some of the most incredible experiences of my life.

I forgot to mention a few really cool things that I got to see while in Madrid and Toledo.  At the Reina sofia museum in Madrid I got to see a work of art by Picasso that is one of his most famous and that I have studied in many of my art classes called "Guernica".  It is so cool to now be able to say that I have seen the real thing.  It was one of the largest pieces in the whole museum and spanned an entire wall.  I got to see another really famous piece of art that I have studied in Toledo.  It was a painting by El Grecoo called "The Burial of the Count Orgaz".  I was like a little kid in a candy shop when I got to see both of these.  It's just so amazing to have learned so much about these works of art and to see them first hand.  And it's also awesome because I had no idea that I would get to see either of them until we walked into the buildings.  Craziness.

Here are some pictures of Nerja (the caves and the beach):