Madrid

So I just had my second day of classes for the new session and they are going pretty well. I really like my advanced teacher, she is really animated and helpful and doesn't make us feel stupid when we make a mistake. So Madrid this weekend was really fun, but definitely more of a learning experience. I for one did not realize how HUGE Madrid is. I just thought it was going to be like San Francisco or Los Angeles, but NO it was bigger than both of those cities combined! I definitely was not prepared to conquer this big of a city in only 3 days. BUT we did the best that we could and I think we did pretty damn good job! On Friday, traveling kind of got the best of us so we were all really tired. We left the dorms at like 7 am and didn't get to the hostel until like 2 pm so it was a long day. But we still did some touristy things! We went to the plaza mayor and the puerta del sol (which are famous plazas with pretty buildings, sculptures, and TONS of shopping!) Don't worry I didn't really buy anything for myself but I did by gifts for others!! On Friday we went to dinner at Burger King because that was the only place that we could find and could agree on. I regretted my decision to eat there later on that night because it did not settle well with my stomach...ay ay ay. After dinner we got ready to go out and left the hostel at like 12 am (early for Spain). We didn't really know much about the night life here so this was the most difficult thing to conquer in Madrid, and sadly to day we did not conquer it haha. On Friday we did go to a gay bar which was really fun but we were so tired that we went back to the hostel at about 2 ish and went to bed. It is a good thing we went to bed kind of early because we had a big day ahead of us at the Museo del Prado! Saturday we went to the Museo del Prado which I was really really excited about. I am not huge on art or anything but I knew of some really famous paintings that I had learned about in my spanish art classes at Oregon that I was really excited to see. My favorite painting at the Prado was Las Meninas by Velazquez. I have learned so much about this painting through all my years of school that it was amazing to see it in a museum and stand in front of it. It was a pretty big painting and I felt really lucky to have seen it in person. We saw a lot of Velazquez, Greco, Goya, Rembrandt, Breughal (sp?) and some other famous people that have slipped my mind at the moment....(i have them all written down somewhere!) After the Prado we went to the Parque del Buen Retiro to see El Palacio del Cristol (which we later found out was an exhibit from La Sofia Reina). The park was REALLY REALLY big (as is everything in Madrid it seems) and we had a hard time finding the palace. The park was beautiful though so it was nice to look at everything. After the palacio del cristol we stumbled upon a strange museum in la casa de velazquez. I am still not sure what it was...but we think it was something about the digestive system??? I have no idea lol. After the park we went back to our hostel and napped which we did a lot of this weekend. For dinner we had a nice long dinner at this italian restaurant..it was sooo good! It was such a comfort to see food that I love to eat at home! Since the night before we went out too early, we decided to go out way later. We left our hostel at about 2 ish and went to a pub that we stumbled upon that ended up being really cool! We hung there for awhile until we tried to go find a club. We got really confused because we didn't know that the bars closed at 3 am so that everyone would go to the clubs which didn't open until 3 am. So we tried to find clubs or bars that were open and we did not have any success. We even met some people from Brazil who are living in Madrid and went to find clubs with them but they couldn't find any that were open. Needless to say we felt a little defeated and went back to bed. Sunday we woke up and got ready to go El Palacio Real (the royal palace) I was VERY excited about this because as we all know I would kill to be a princess of any country haha. The palace was breathtaking on the outside. I had never seen something so huge and beautiful at the same time. When we went in I was in heaven...i finally found somewhere that I could permanently fit in! ( :) hahaha ) There were big gorgeous chandeliers everywhere and luxurious curtains, furniture, and decorations. Every ceiling in every room had these really elaborate paintings on them and sculptures...it was really phenomenal. The tour didn't take very long so after the palace we just went back to the hostel and slept yet again haha. We went to a buffet place for a late lunch/early dinner after we napped and then dilly dallied until we were going to go out. All of us were determined to get this night life down the last night we were there...and surprise surprise we did not! We even talked for like 20 minutes with the guy who worked at the hostel about which clubs to go to and what time to leave etc etc. We ended up in a sketch part of town where nothing was open...we were pretty done with Madrid night life after sunday..we were all kinda bummed that we never ended up going to a club in madrid...but esta bien haha. Monday morning we had to be out of our hostel at 11 am and our flight was not until 9:25 at night so luckily we were able to leave our bags at the hostel. We kinda just did some shopping for souvenirs and gifts for people, then had lunch and hung out in starbucks (the first one we saw in Spain!! so exciting!) unitl we left for the airport. When we got to the airport (5 hours early haha) we said goodbye to our friend Eden which was sad but we will see her in 3 weeks when we go visit her in Barcelona!! When we were at the airport we all talked about how we were excited to go back to Oviedo because it is what feels comfortable to us...this was really exciting because it reminded us that we were having such a great time in Oviedo that we wanted to go back!! :) We didn't get to the dorms until around midnight so we were pretty tired for the first day of new classes but it all worked out! Over all I am really happy that I went to Madrid because I saw things I have always wanted to see. It was a huge learning experience for me and I am excited for my next traveling adventure do Barcelona :)