A Trip to Madrid!

I am going to start off by saying that I am so glad that I sucked it up and paid the 160 euros and rode in a train for 12 (on the way there) and 15 (on the way back) hours in a train to go to Madrid.   I had an awesome time and it was amazing to spend time with a friend.  There is nothing like spending time with friends who actually know and understand you.  I wish I had a friend like that here.  When I am at home I really take all of my friends for granted.  I have friends here, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of the time that level of trust is not there.  It’s like starting over and it’s hard and definitely uncomfortable at times.  So with all that said, I am very thankful for my friends at home.  Each and every one of you.  And I truly mean it even if I didn’t always make you a priority.

Ok, so now actually about Madrid.  It felt really good to be in a big city.  Granted I am not a city girl, but vacationing for a few days in a city is nice.  I saw all of the major touristy things in Madrid.  I forgot the names of the places I went to but I went to Madrid’s equivalent of central park where Carly and I rented a row boat.  That was fun but was also hard work!  We went to some temple that was cool looking, I saw some palace where Spanish kings and queens used to live.  I also did some shopping and bought a couple scarves, a pair of earrings, a watch (that already broke, cheap thing!  It just needs a new battery) and treated myself to delicious American food.  AKA McDonalds, KFC (twice-it was that good), and Starbucks.  I also ate some traditional Spanish food as well chorizo, tortilla, some special ham, and of course sangria!   YUM YUM!

I also explored Madrid’s night life a little bit and went to a discoteca!  It was fun and crowded and there were tons on tourists.  Apparently more than usual because it was a holiday weekend for Spain and I know that all the kids in France had two weeks off as well.  An interesting face about Spain is that things don’t get going until 1:30AM for clubs or bars and they party until 5 or 6 in the morning! They are absolutely crazy!  I, the grandma that I am, only lasted until about 3.  I also went to another bar/club on Halloween.  It just so happened to be in a gay district as well making it super interesting.  I had fun nonetheless.  Another thing that I noticed is that Spanish men who dance is much different than American men dancing.  For example, most men in American stay “inside their box” and only do slight movements.  Spanish men are a lot more active, aren’t afraid to shake their hips, and dancing is more than just grinding.  It was very interesting to watch and analyze the differences between our two cultures. 

When we weren’t site seeing, we usually were relaxing around the house and watching movies on my laptop and drinking wine from a carton!  .56 centimes for a liter…how can you go wrong?  Or 1 euro for sangria.  It’s so cheap!  For example, the one night I went to the disco I spent 1 euro to go out.  I had a few glasses of carton wine before I left for the club, there was no cover at the club, and I didn’t buy any drinks.  Perfect!  That is my kind of night.

In general, Madrid was a hopping place.  When you were in the city center there were tourists everywhere making walking around quite frustrating because no one knew where they were going.  Lucky for me, I had a great guide who knew her way around the city and the metro system!

I also saw a really cool Mariachi (Mexican street band) band who had dancers on top of a drummer, some guitarists, a flutist, and a saxophone player!  It was quite entertaining even though I had no idea what they were saying unless Carly translated for me.  I will try and upload a short video I took during their concert! 

I guess that is about all.  All in all I had a great trip and am really glad that I decided to travel.  I am so lucky to be in France even though I do get homesick (primarily my boyfriend, family, and friend sick).  This is an experience I will never forget.  Who can say that they traveled to Spain for a week vacation!  AND even better, I got paid for it!  I finally got paid and now I can stop worrying about money so much, my American account was getting semi-low!  Woohoo!

Ok I think that is all I have to say about Madrid.  It was fun, I had a blast, and it was cool to work on my Spanish.  I primarily listened and didn’t speak much but I did understand quite a bit of what people were saying.  More than I expected at least.  Too bad I didn’t go to Spain 2 years ago when I actually was taking Spanish classes.  I forgot so much of it! “ If you don’t use it you lose it”…this is so true with languages!

Apparently this is some famous statue thing in Madrid...I've never seen or heard or it before who knows.  I figured I should be like the rest of the tourists!

I believe this is overlooking the Royal Palace's (where kings and queens used to live) garden

Pictures from the boat we rented in Retiro Park.  It was so hard to row so a lot of the time we just sat and enjoyed the sunny 70 degrees day!

There was also a very pretty flower garden in Retiro Park.  There were tons of roses and it smelled delicious!

Enjoying the night life of Madrid and I also got to meet Carly's Peruvian boyfriend who was very nice and had the cheesiest jokes.  Example- he asked me "Do you believe in God" and I said "Yes" and then he proceeded to try and walk on water in a park that we were in.  What a goof.  AND the awesome part was that I understood what he said and didn't need Carly to translate.  Woohoo for me!Oh ya-he doesn't speak English at all FYI! 

 

Off to getting my life back in order and I probably should pick up my room a little bit. I have one day of work tomorrow and then it’s the weekend for me. What a life. Haha. It’s ok, you can be jealous! Hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing picutres of Madrid!