It has been such a crazy busy week! Last week flew by and I don't even know why! Classes are boring, same old, same old. The only new and exciting fact was that my friend and I were planning our first trip without our program. What that translates to is a lot of researching and planning in order to find the most efficient way to get there, the best place to stay for the cheapest price, what little food we can buy, etc. Our first destination was...MADRID, the capital of Spain. Taking the bus proved to be the most cost-efficient mode of transportation, so my friend and I boarded the bus bright and early on Friday morning, 8 am to be exact, for a LONG bus ride to Madrid. Six hours later we arrive in Madrid with our bags and guidebooks in hand. Our first stop was to check in at the Hostel. My friend had done some research beforehand, so we knew we needed to take the Metro from the bus station. Well, let me tell you, that I am a little overwhelmed by big public transportation systems. I have only rode the metro like 1 time in Chicago, so I had no idea what I was doing! We tried to follow the signs to figure out which metro we needed to take, and with a lot of luck, one wrong metro, and 2 correct metro lines later, we arrived near our hostel. Finding our hostel was another issue, and once we found it, we couldn't get in, but that's a whole other story :-) I was a little apprehensive about hostels at first just because I have never stayed in one before, but ours was really nice! My friend and I had a triple room, so we shared with another older lady, which worked out fine. Hostel #1: a winner.
The rest of Friday we spent walking around, taking lots of pictures, basically anything else that screams tourist. For example, we saw Plaza Mayor, the biggest Plaza in Madrid and Puerta del Sol which is in the center of the city. Also, we walked around in a market there that sold all sorts of cool and interesting food. Saturday we hit the ground running with more sightseeing. Our first destination of the day was Palacio Real, which is the Royal Palace of the King and Queen of Spain. We stood in a really long line to tour the palace, but it was definitely worth the wait.
Also, we totally lucked out because the weather was really nice (warm, sunny, etc.). Thank goodness for student discounts, because we were able to tour the palace for about half the price of regular admission. Not bad! After, we sat out in the gardens there to eat lunch, which consisted of a small baguette of bread and an apple. What can I say? We are college kids who don't want to spend a lot of money on food :-) After lunch, we walked over and saw some awesome art at the Reina Sofia, one of the most well-known art museums there. In this museum we were able to see the Guernica by Picasso, which was cool. I'm not huge on art, but it was really cool to see the art there. Plus, it makes me feel so cultured! Hahaha! That night, we found this really cute place to eat dinner. Sunday, we woke up early to go to el Rastro, which is this big market in Madrid that happens every Sunday. It was so huge! And people were selling the most random things! Anything from camo pants, to packs of socks, to jewelry, to pet cages. Whatever you wanted/needed, you could probably find it at the market. Unfortunately though, it was raining and quite chilly, so we didn't stay too long. We spent the rest of the day touring the Prado Museum (Madrid's most famous art museum featuring works by Velasquez, El Greco, and Goya).
We didn't stay there for too long, but there is so much art there that we could have walked around the museum the entire day. One metro ride later and we were back at the bus station, ready to go back to Seville.
In general, I really enjoyed my time in Madrid. It was good to experience a bigger city, but 2 days was really all I needed there. I don't think that I would want to live there. The city is just so big, that public transportation is kind of a must, unless you want to walk 30 or more minutes to get to things. Also, it has more of a big city feel, so it reminds me a lot of the cities here, even though the buildings look a lot prettier. Overall, it was a great trip!
Lesson 12: I have been (slowly) learning how to master the art of public transportation. I have never really used it before in the States, so it's all new to me. So far, I have mastered the taxi, the metro, and I'm working on the bus. My first experience with the bus was kind of a disaster (due to the fact that I got on 2 wrong buses before I found the correct one), but I'm learning!
Lesson 13: Most of the time, and I'm generalizing here, people walking on the sidewalks do NOT move over so you can pass! Normally, people move over so that other people can get by/through, but here, people make you wait to pass or they will just run into you. No joke!
Lesson 14: It's crazy to see how American culture/music is present here. For example, many times in stores, in restaurants, and in commercials, the songs are American...in English. I think that is weird because most of the people here can't even understand it. Also, in Madrid, there were a ton of stores from the U.S. To name a few, there was: Wrangler, TGI Friday's, Dunkin' Donuts, and Game Stop.
Lesson 15: Remember how last time I said that I didn't think that I would ever eat a shrimp here because it still has eyes? Well, I lied, because I tried one the other night. My "uncle" showed me how you eat it. I won't go into significant detail, but let's just say that I only ate 1.
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