Last night I bought a ticket to Bavaria for Semana Santa in March. Look out, Germany, here I come!!! I fully intend to visit the castle pictured above. If I'm not mistaken, it's called Neuschwanstein Castle and was built by the Mad King Ludwig.

Have spent the past four days resting up, trying to get back on Spain time, and catching up with friends. Also experienced the Día de los Reyes Magos parade the night of the 5th and an authentic Spanish lunch yesterday afternoon.

For those who don't know, El Día de los Reyes Magos, loosely translated as Three Wise Men's Day, is the day of gift giving in Spain. Traditionally, Spaniards don't exchange gifts on Christmas but wait instead until the day the three wise men visited Jesus with their gold, frankincense and myrrh. The three wise men ride camels around town and letting themselves into people's houses and apartments and leaving presents on children's shoes. January 6 is the official day, so the parade is held the night before to welcome the three wise men into town. The parade itself was cool--bright an almost cirque du soleil-esque in the quality of costumes--but would have been cooler if we could have seen more of it (it was too crowded to see much). But the fireworks after the parade were absolutely fantastic. This from someone who thought she was over fireworks. At about 8:30pm the speakers around the Plaza de Cibeles suddenly began blaring "Hallelujah" and the fireworks danced across the sky more or less in time with the music. Gorgeous, glittery, booming fireworks.

Then yesterday afternoon I went with my friend Ishmael to his mom's house, where we ate pizza for a starter, spaghetti in a lovely tomato cream sauce with mushrooms for a first course, roast chicken with potatoes and vegetables for a second course, and roscón and sparkling white wine for dessert. I was absolutely stuffed after the pizza but forced myself to eat at least half of everything else in order not to offend. The roscón is the traditional treat for the Día de los Reyes Magos...it's a kind of large, sweet round bread with candied fruit pressed into the top and a layer of whipped cream in the middle. There are two hidden surprises in the roscón, a bean and a figurine. If you get the bean you have to pay for the roscón; if you get the figurine it means you'll have good luck all year long.