Madrid!

Last weekend, I went on an adventure to Madrid.  And what an adventure it was.  Kelsey, Jesika, Christine and I flew into Madrid Thursday night after classes.  Side story:  Jesika keeps her passport on a sort of necklace that keeps it under her shirt to keep it safe.  When we arrived in Madrid, this man in the metro saw us with our maps and starting talking to Jesika, and wouldn't leave her alone.  Then he noticed the passport, and motioned towards it.  Jesika wasn't sure what he was saying, so she smiled and nodded.  He gave her the thumbs up and said "Felicidades!" (congratulations) and then walked off.  He thought she was pregnant!  We laughed so hard.  We went and found our hostel and went to look for food.  This group of people was in this little cafe/bar, and one guy literally pulled us inside.  Within minutes they had poured us free drinks and we had ordered food.  We ended up going with them to a karaoke bar, where the four of us danced and sang Michael Jackson.  It was a great night, and besides the food, I didn't pay a cent! =)

The next morning, Jesika and Christine flew to Morocco, and Kelsey and I were left to navigate the city.  I paid for the fun the night before and wasn't able to do much Friday, but we found our next hostel (we stayed at a different one each night.  It was an adventure finding each one.) and that night, we went to El Museo del Prado, which had some really amazing artwork.  Unfortunately, it was prohibited to take pictures in that museum.

Saturday morning, we woke up to rain.  Tons of rain.  Regardless, we had a city to conquer, and we strapped our backpacks on to go tour the city.  Poor Kelsey had to choose between her Toms shoes and sandals, neither of which is very water friendly.  We wandered to the Royal Palace and saw a line forming, and jumped in.  We ended up talking with a nice couple in front of us in line the whole hour-and-a-half wait to get into the palace.  There is a section of the palace that is open for visitors, and once we got in, we were glad we'd waited.  The palace is AMAZING.  Every wall is covered with ornate tapestries, the ceilings are more artwork than ceiling with statues and huge murals covering the whole ceiling, and the floors are marble or covered with beautiful rugs.  Each room is decorated to the max.  We saw the Throne Room, the Dining Room with its table that holds over 100 people easily, and tons of other rooms.  Soooooo cool.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in there either, but I snuck a few without putting flash.  Not many turned out.

Next, we walked around to this park that has a few palaces, including the Palacio de Cristal, which is very picturesque.  Next, we went to El Museo de Reina Sofia, which is an enormous museum that holds artwork or all different times and styles.  We were really tired at this point, so we sniffed out some famous artwork, including The Guernica by Pablo Picasso, and then headed back to our hostel for a nap.  The nap commenced at about 9:30pm and ended at 10:45pm.  We freshened up and met up with our new friends Jen and Tess from Canada that we'd met in the cafeteria, and decided to join the Pub Crawl offered with our hostel.  For 10 Euro, we got free entrance into three bars and one discoteca (dance club) and a drink at each bar.  We had a hell of a time that night, meeting people from all over the world, including a group of guys from Italy, a guy from Australia, a couple of girls from Britain, and more.

Sunday, we checked out of the hostel, and started wandering the city.  We found a cool little bazaar, and I bought a little bracelet to remind me of Spain.  At one point we were pulled aside by this lady who was trying to get donations for a children's hospital, and upon reaching for a Euro, my camera fell and bent the shutter.  Joder!  We tried finding a place to fix it, but no one was in because it was a Sunday, and a holiday weekend as well.  So we checked into our next hostel (which was sweet, it was like a hotel, as in we had our own room with a bathroom and everything) and then headed to the plaza de toros to watch a bullfight.

The bullfight was quite the experience.  We sat next to a couple from Canada, and all of us were amazed by the whole thing.  I didn't realize that the bullfight starts out with all of the toreros distracting the bull, to tire it down.  There was a pattern to the way each one went, and there were six bulls in all, and three matadors, so each one fought two bulls.  The matadors were incredible, with their magnificent outfits and extremely macho mannerisms.  It was like they each had conquered the bulls.  Jesika gave me a hard time afterwards because I found the matadors very attractive. =)

After the bullfight, the Canadian couple asked us if we wanted to find dinner together, so we found a nice-looking local place, and grabbed a table.  The waiter was extremely unfriendly at first; I think he was annoyed we weren't able to communicate with him.  I had a dinner of grilled vegetables as the first course, lamb as a second course, and a cafe con leche for dessert.  Delicious.  And the meal came with wine.  Marlon and Tara (the Canadian couple) and I pretty much finished off two bottles of red wine, which was delicious.  It's incredible how cheap wine is here, and how much better it is than what we have in the states.

Monday morning, we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which is a collection of artwork that the Spanish government bought from the Thyssen-Bornemisza family.  It has a collection of paintings from the 1300s to present-day.  Some of my favorite artwork was work of Salvador Dali.  When we left the museum, we visited about 15 souvenir shops, and we each found what we wanted to buy in Madrid, including t-shirts, magnets, etc.  That night, we stayed the night in the airport in Madrid, because our flight left early Tuesday morning.

In the airport in Santander.  We realized that yum=nam.

Our new friend Pablo, who pulled us into the restaurant our first night in Madrid.

**Food! PS - they gave us the pizza for free!  Such nice people.  And yes, my hamburger has an egg on it.  Which is standard, I believe.  The Spaniards really love their eggs.

So much Kenny Rogers in the karaoke book!

Kelsey and Jesika getting their dance on with our new Spanish friends.

There was a chain of "Museo del Jamon" restaurants in Madrid.  They are meat shops that also sell food and drinks.  At night, there would be people socializing and drinking at the counter.  Incredible.

El Museo del Prado

We turned our heads, and there was a huge cathedral!

Jamon is everywhereeeee!

This is baby eels.  A fairly common food in Spain.  I have yet to be served it, and I'm not holding my breath.

The change here is crazy.  The Euro has change in the value of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, one Euro and two Euro.  This was Kelsey's and my attempt to get rid of some change in paying for dinner.

Tons of Burger Kings and McDonalds in Madrid!

Typical bocadillos in Spain.

And notice that a beer comes with the meal?  The idea of alcohol is much different here in Spain for sure.

Helado!  (Ice Cream)

Kelsey and I waiting in line for the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace

Kelsey decided it was actually a good idea to roll up her pants in the rain... people were looking at her like she was crazy!

Royal Palace

Royal Palace

The one picture that turned out in the Royal Palace.  This is the ceiling, and one of the less impressive ones.

There's nothing special about the street names, it's just that the street signs in Madrid all looked like this.  So cute!

A cute little plaza

Lunch.  We bought a loaf of bread, a package of sliced chicken, and mozzarella cheese.  For about 3 Euro each, it wasn't bad!

Our room in one of the hostels.  It was a five-person dorm-style room.  We had to share the group bathrooms, as opposed to having our own bathroom in our room, but it wasn't bad.  The lockers came with the hostel, which were super awesome, because you knew your stuff was secure while you went out and explored the city.

I was loving these trees. =)  I think all your horticulturalists can join my appreciation for the unique-ness.

A pretty park.

El Palacio de Cristal

1) This picture is awesome because we were in this rose garden that had trellises everywhere. 2) Kelsey thought that by squatting she'd avoid the picture.  Instead I got a picture of her squatting.  =D

Salvador Dali

The Guernica, Pablo Picasso.  You were only allowed to take pictures from the side rooms.  The security guy closest to us was in the process of yelling at someone who took a picture from inside the room.  Haha.

Pablo Picasso

Kelsey and I on the Pub Crawl.

Kelsey and I with the group of Italian men.

**Note:  My dear dad asked me yesterday via Skype if I've gained weight because of all of the pictures I post of food.  To set things straight, I have not gained wait in Spain... yet.  I post pictures of food because I think that the gastronomy in Spain is one of the most tangible ways to show the cultural differences, and I think it's interesting for you all to see!  So no, Dad, I have not yet gained weight.  Thank you. =)