New memories in Madrid

Now a little about my weekend: The first day started out very early. We got up to catch one of the first trains that ran at 5:30 a.m. and, of course, we watched it pull out of our station without us on it, but we walked to the next one and a tram came right away. Our one hour flight went very smoothly and after navigating Madrid's metro (which I am now awesome at!), we made it to our hostel around 10:30. There was a free tour advertised meeting at 11 a.m. and after we unpacked, we ran the five minutes to meet up for the tour.

Well, there were protests about the free tour taking away from the professional ones or something like that and there were cops there to keep it from escalating. We asked some people what was going on with our tour and in the end, we all decided to go to the tourism place and pay the three euros for the 'real' tour since it seemed like ours was never going to go. It ended up being wonderful! They were some of the coolest people I've met so far. They were from all over (a snowboard instructor/inventor of 'Freestyle Max from Australia, a older couple from France, a business woman from the Caribbean then New York and now England, and a few other interesting people). They had just finished this volunteer program where they teach people English. Jenny, Karmon and I are looking into doing that a week while we're here if we have time.

After our tour, we went out for tapas and tried some amazing new things I would have never though to order. I got my favorite, croquetas then came a round of sangria with calamari rings, then some rice dish with egg and liver which wasn't bad, then some very interesting blood sausage with onion and tomato on a pastry with powdered sugar which also was surprisingly good. After that, we walked to and visited the Reina Sofia and saw some Picassos and others we learned about in our Spanish classes throughout the years. We split from our new friends after that because they were going to the Prado and we wanted to do that the next day. So, we went shopping! We found an amazing store with clothes for like three euros and stocked up, but were careful to not make our bags exceed the 10 kg limit for flying back. After that we went to another tapas bar and got mini bocadillos and I tried what they call a casserol with sausage barbecoa with onions (It was so funny, because it ended up being chopped up hot dogs in BBQ sauce!). After that, I felt like I spent a year smoking since that's basically what the air here is. We got invited to go out with some Spaniards but were so tired from walking and being up so early that we very sadly declined.

We woke up semi-early the next day to make sure we got our free breakfast from the hostel (and I'm sure you all know how important free food is to college students) and to go to the market! That, in itself, was an experience. They had everything and it was so crowded. We didn't buy much, but we had a great time looking around. While waiting for Jenny to meet us, we ran into three of the German girls we met while studying Spanish in Gandia...Small world! So, we told them to meet up with us later to go to the Prado. After shopping, we took a little siesta for our feet and then took a long route to the Prado so we could see City Hall. It was so beautiful! Finally, we made it to the Prado and found the line to get in....I'm sure it would have been closed before we ever would have made it in so we were disappointed and left. There was a church right behind it that we went to explore since it wasn't late enough to get the tapas all of our stomachs were begging for. It was nothing too impressive, but our tour guide from the day before warned us not to waste our time visiting churches since they were mostly built in a rush to impress no one, only to convert all the Moors to Catholicism. She was right. After that, we proceeded to our food and made sure to stop at one of the many candy shops. I have a new favorite. It is a gummy thing that looks like a watermelon and tastes so good! Jenny and Karmon had a 6 a.m. flight in the morning so they packed and I went to bed hoping my feet would forgive me so I could enjoy Toledo today.

Thankfully, my feet felt a little better and I was ready to go. I walked to the train station because the weather was nice, but then I was too late to get on my train, because it was full. I did want to go see the Ventas (Madrid's bullfighting arena) so I booked the next train to Toledo and hopped on the metro to Las Ventas! It was worth it! I felt like it was Busch Stadium, built by the Moors. I walked all the way around it, but unfortunately didn't have time to take a tour. I did sit and eat my snack while watching everyone walk around. Then it was back to the train station and off to Toledo. When we arrived, I didn't see anything impressive and was wondering what the hype was all about. So, I bought a map, but didn't see the train station anywhere on it. I decided to just wander one way and hope it was right. I quickly found a sign pointing to the center and then figured out why it was so wonderful. I visited the Alcazar, the cathedral and walked around to all the other big stuff there. The tour on Saturday explained that the cities of the Moors have crazy winding streets so that only they could navigate them...They succeeded. However, when I tried to find the places I wanted to go, I just tried to get up high enough and they were big enough that I could figure out the general direction to go. After I saw what I wanted to, I just go lost and had fun. I got a baguette and sat in the squares with good views and basked in the sun. After that, I had a couple hours to kill so I found a castle and walked up to it and then found some stairs that lead me under the bridges and to some abandoned very old buildings and then finally I wandered back to the very impressive train station (it's design, not size or anything like that) where I ran into a couple from California where the guy worked in the aerospace industry and tried to tell me where I should work. The wife told me a bit about her travels and where I should go and what I should do in certain places. The only thing I think I've forgotten to mention was how steep everything in Toledo was! I felt like I should have taken a mountain climbing course before I was allowed to enter the city. No matter where you wanted to go, you could be sure it was up and not down.

Well, that's my trip. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon so I have a little time to catch breakfast in some pretty plaza, but I can't buy anymore souvenirs because I'm sure my bag will be overweight.

Only things interesting that have happened at school is that I finally have a class schedule (after three weeks of classes...) and it's warming up a bit. I visited the IVAM in Valencia where I discovered I'm not really an art person because I can only understand the point behind one in every 20 pieces and the botanical gardens which I'm sure will be much more impressive in the summer. It does have a lot of cactus there and I guess it's just me, but they're so tempting to touch. I finally stopped after one bit me.