Murcia, España: 4-5

This weekend was my 22nd birthday. And what a birthday it was! I had originally planned to go to Granada with the rest of my classmates, but I had a nasty cold, so I decided to remain in Murcia. Laure and I went out exploring on Saturday afternoon, as I wanted to find an art store that I had seen in previous walks. However, we never did find it...(later, I discovered that we didn't find it on purpose)...but we did find Sirvent. I had strawberries in whipped cream and she had fruit with whipped cream. Both were amazing. We found many new streets and discovered that we liked Murcia even more. It's such a quaint place. We collected Iva later that afternoon and went out to dinner at Gran Mundo, a Chinese place downt the street. Good stuff! We went out after dinner for a stroll. We went to the plaza by the cathedral and they sang me happy bday when I was actually born. That was cool. We decided to get a warm drink, and were deciding where to sit when a sweet music drifted to our ears from some unknown location. Iva discovered the accordian player on a sidestreet. We gave him a few coins, and he played me happy bday, followed by "Love Song". It was a beautiful, rather poignant tune. We returned to the plaza and had drinks in the rain. What a perfect night! My hot chocolate came with a chocolate sandwich. Mmm! Good stuff. We stopped by Lancelot on the way back for a malibu with pineapple juice and then returned home for a pj/tea/movie party. We watched part of Flash Dance while drinking tea. The disc was damaged, so it didn't finish, but we were so tired we just went to bed about 4:30 AM.
They woke me up the next morning at eleven. They were lovely and let me sleep. They came into my room singing and videotaping me. Oi. I followed them groggily to the salon where I discovered that they had been up since the crack of dawn decorating. It was beautiful! They had used tons of my favorite colors and had water balloon on the floor and table. Different versions from around the world of "Happy Bday" were playing on Iva's puter. Breakfast was comprised of chocolate croissants and other pastries, along with a bit of fruit. Mmm! Way to start out another year of life! If I had to label this bday, it would be the "Chocolate Birthday". We watched a few episodes of "Desperate Housewives" for a bit and then got all pretty to go out once more. We had some ice cream at Hägen-Dazs. I actually had a fruity milkshake for a change. No chocolate. We walked near the river and on the other side for a change. We saw a rat running along the bank. I have decided that I really love Montana. We don't have cockroaches the size of mice and rats the size of dogs. We have more mosquitoes, but I think it's not a bad trade-off. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Donatello. Efi and her boyfriend Apostolos were there as well. They left early, and Laure, Iva, and I hung out for a bit. I thought, since we were all exhausted, that my bday fun had finally finished and it was time for bed. However, when I walked into my flat, there were Galo, Erin, Efi, Apostolos...with a chocolate cake...mama mia! Erin had brought me a fan from Granada, and they all chipped in to get me a sketchbook and colored pencils...the reason I didn't "find" the art store on Saturday. We ate cake, chatted, and FINALLY dropped to sleep early in the morning. What a day!

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