Hi everyone!  I'm finally back home after an amazing time in Europe.  It was a trip of a lifetime, and one that I will never forget.  We saw so much, met a lot of great people, and had some great times together.  Now i just have to hope that I'll be back sometime real soon...

We spent a couple nights in Madrid where we tried to soak up as much as we could of our last few days in Spain.  Madrid definitely lives up to its metropolitan reputation.  We did get the chance to see some of the city in our short days there.  We were all a bit tired when we first got there, after taking the AVE high speed train from Seville...which only took us 2.5 hours with one stop (top speed of 270kmh/167mph.  Some of us stayed in that night, while Decker and Jake went out for a while.  The next morning, Sean and I got up to go see the Royal Palace of Madrid and got the chance to tour the inside of the palace.  The inside was really nice, and each room we visited was a chance to marvel at the gold, silk, marble, etc.

Afterwards, we all met up to go get some tapas for lunch.  We walked through the plaza del sol, the epicenter of Spain...literally km zero where all distances are measured from.  Then we walked to plaza mayor where the movie vantage point was filmed.  We then made our way through a market, and eventually found our way to a couple of roads where there are a lot of restaurants and we eventually found a place that was full of locals...it had to be good.  We got a free tapa for every beer we ordered, and everything else was reasonably priced.  We had the seafood paella, ham croquetas, beef skewers, jam bread, and our mouths watered looking at what else there was to eat. 

That night we went to the biggest club I've ever been to.  Kapital in Madrid is the place to be on Saturday night, as we definitely experienced.  The music was awesome...in all 8 levels of the old theater, and the drinks were equally as good.  The next day we took our flight to Frankfurt on LAN Chile, and then spent the rest of our time in Europe relaxing and enjoying the city of Frankfurt.  We visited the observation deck of a downtown skyscraper, enjoyed some starbucks in a plaza, visited the modern mall, and found a nice restaurant where we tried some schweineschnitzel...delicious.  We were all ready to go home...

It was a long day of travel...long check-in in Frankfurt, a longer overseas flight than getting to Europe, a rougher-than-usual landing in O'hare, then the drive to Lafayette.  We did make a pit stop for some good old american cuisine in Portillo's....I had a chili cheese hot dog, fries, and a ice cold coke.  So good.  It is great to be back, and look forward to relive our Eurotrip.

CHECK THE FOTOS!!!!!!