The weekend from heaven

Wow. Where do I begin? This weekend was really one of the best weekends I've had this year. I would almost go even further and say that it was one of the best weekends of my life! It was just a wonderful sequence of three days where everything seemed to go perfectly, and at the end of the weekend I finally thought to myself, "Wow, so this is why people hate Mondays so much!" I really didn't want the weekend to ever come to an end...and normally that only happens during barbershop conventions!

Jarritos!

Friday: I slept in. (Yes, I know, anticlimactic.) I ended up going to lunch with one of my very good friends who was on a mission to prove that it is indeed possible to have spicy Mexican food in Spain. I was, first of all, shocked that they even had Jarritos! They even had the mandarin flavor, which is so popular at Tacos Jalisco (in Truckee) that they seem to never have it when I go. In the end, my friend's mission was accomplished as I almost choked to death at how spicy the peppers were! It was absolutely wonderful!

Saturday: A friend and I went on a Medieval Train to Sigüenza, which is a small town northeast of Madrid. The town is absolutely enchanting, with medieval buildings, churches, and a castle. The trip was through RENFE (like Amtrak), and it included a guided tour of the town, skits by actors, some food, and a great opportunity to be a complete nerd!

The castle in Sigüenza

After arriving back in Madrid, I went to have dinner with some ladies from my barbershop chorus. It was wonderful to be around such lovely women. I only hope that some day I can grow to be like all of my barbershop aunts and mothers, because I really have a lot I can learn from all of them. No matter what country I'm in, my sisters in harmony are the best role-models and mentors I could ever ask for.

Sunday: Excursion to the sierra! Yet another barbershop friend invited me to come with him and his kids to the mountains north of Madrid to go for a hike. It was great to finally breathe some fresh mountain air, even if it did start raining and hailing while we were on top of a mountain! We spent the morning hiking and then had a nice picnic lunch in a park; later, we went to a nearby monastery and then to a town with a cool wall around it (so typically Spanish).

We made it to the top of the mountain!

Yep. This definitely was one of the most memorable weekends of my time here. I'm so incredibly blessed and thankful to have these sensational friends here in Spain. Because of them, I'm going to have a really hard time boarding that plane in three weeks...