Madrid

So Madrid was really cool! Our flight left at 6:30 am on Sat. so we were a bit tired all weekend (it had already been a crazy week) but we had a good bit of coffee and it was still really fun. We went to Palacio Real (Royal Palace) on Saturday and it was absolutely beautiful and amazing because it was a real palace, like with a throne room and everything! After that we met up with Pilar, my cousins friend who we stayed with. She is really nice and she speaks English so she was able to help us a lot with phrases we didnt know how to say in spanish and spanish words we didn't understand. I learned a lot this weekend! We ate lunch with her and then she took us to the historical part of Madrid and we got to see Plaza Mayor and some other places. Then we ate at a little bocadillo place for dinner and then went to a pastry place for dessert. Both were very good.

The next day we went to the PRADO!!! It's this amazing museum with Goya, Greco, and Velaquez (and about a million more people of course). I got to see basically all the paintings I studied in my high school spanish class, including Las Meninas, which was incredible! We were sooo excited lol.

We ate at a kinda nice (but not too expensive) restaurant near there with like 3 courses (normal for a spanish lunch) and it was really good. After that we walked around Retiro Park, which was pretty, it's aparently were the royals used to stroll. Then we headed towards the Reina Sofia to hopefully see Picasso's Guernica. Somehow we had gotten the times mixed up though and it was closed already....not gonna lie...it was pretty devastating... But Pilar said we could stay with her again anytime so hopefully we will get to go back :) So at that point she picked us up and showed us around some more, so we got to see a little more which was good. Before we left we visited an Egyptian temple which was really cool, random, but cool. At that point it was like 9:30 and had just started to rain. Thank you Mom for praying that it didnt rain because it only started sprinkling that night! It was supposed to rain that day, which would have been horrible during the hour wait in line for the Prado.

So then we got on our flight at 11:30 and got home by like 1:00 am. I am exhausted but it was worth it! Joanne and I realized that although we like Madrid, we definitely like Sevilla better. It is more personal, historical, and pretty. Not quite as big and urban. It kinda quinched my thrist to travel like crazy and helped me appreciate "home" even more.

Well, that was not as in depth maybe as I would like (and I have no idea if i will ever get around to the pictures...) but i have to run because I have an exam, a presentation, a composicion, and then a final at the end of this week for my grammar class so it's gonna be a little crazy. ¡Hasta luego!