wow its been two months!

so after much begging from friends and family, the greatest blog in the world has returned. haha i can't believe i have been that lazy that i have not cronicled our madrid adventures in so long! it seems this is how i begin all blog posts with awe at how long it has been since the previous one...so why break tradition!

well lets see, lets see. the most exciting things in the past two months were probably our trip to innsbruck, austria to visit my cousins and my birthday, of course. innsbruck was amazing and beautiful and thats why blair and i have decided to go back to austria for our spring break (semana santa)...i'm also contemplating the idea of working for a ski season to put off my eventual entrance into the real world. the thought of what i will actually be doing with my life when i leave madrid (if i lave madrid) in the summer is quite daunting, and all together very stressful! but back to innsbruck! the trip was filled with ups and downs, literally! skiing was the quite the adventure, especially for a certain Miss Gilbert. not that i am a pro or anything, but i would like to think i can handle myself quite well on the slopes. blair can too, but with more caution and less ease haha. while waiting at the bottom of the slope, my cousin and i could see her coming, swerving down the mountain like a little red blob (her ski ensemble included her red winter coat and oversized red ski pants). many times she took a tumble in the mogles of fresh powdery snow. but even though she may have fallen over a dozen times, she kept getting back on that horse! i'm proud to call her my friend!

besides the skiing, there was a tremendous amount of partying and traveling considering the short time we were actually in innsbruck. but while we were exhausted from trains, planes and automobiles, we couldn't but celebrate the day of my birth when we arrived friday February 13 in Innsbruck! it snowed considerably while we were there which made for an enjoyable hike up the mountain that friday night to eat in this little traditional restaurant. even though i almost died during the ascent, the expereince was worth it! from their we went to a house party, but only after stopping in a local bar where old men and ladies with black eyes and dogs could all enjoy a nice beer. hence we only stayed for one beer. the house party itself was also quite the expereince. i have never been to a country where i don't understand the language, so to walk into a house party filled with boisterous germans and austrians was as first intimidating. but then they offered us vodka and all our woes were out to rest. it was at that house party that my cousin colly also invented the infamous "irish lederhosen"...a shot of lime and jager (a deadly combination). but the party didn't end there. oh no, we moved on to one of maybe two nightclub/bars actually in innsbruck. and prepare yourselves for the name: Titty Twisters. yes that was the name, but you have to take it in stride because english is not their first language. at that bar, new friends were met, new enemies were made, but everyone had a jolly old time. so obviously the fun couldn't end there. the party moved on to the second of the two nightclub/bars in innsbruck. and there the night ended with dancing on bars and more irish lederhosen, to the regret of all involved.

that was only the friday night. while we thought we could not possibly go out on saturday, we did indeed make a valiant effort, which included a party at a mexican bar and then ending the night wrapping my other cousin niall in medical tape at an irish bar where he hoped to get employment...i would say he made agood impression!

all in all it was a great weekend! a little too much traveling (on the way home blair and i took 4 trains from innsbruck to milan and then had to catch our flight from milan to madrid...a total of 16 hours travleing that day!), but well worth it in the end.

our next big trip will be to salzburg, munich and prague for easter. so we are very excited for that!!!! i hope that i will have the ganas to write again before that trip, especially since we have a long weekend coming up and a very special visit from my cousin kate afer that. but if not, i apologize for my lack of frequent updates! but please please post some comments or feedback because i really have no idea who is reading this...if its just me then hell i might as well give up! but im not a quitter, so i won't.

until next time...HAPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!