boyfriend found. his name is Madrid :)

I. Love. Madrid.

We were there for the weekend with CIEE, so it was our entire group plus the other two programs they have in Alicante (about 100 kids).We stayed at a really nice hotel in the middle of everything and I could have mistaken it for heaven.. A shower that has hot water for the whole thing, a room with heat!, and the best omelette bar for breakfast I've ever had. Plus churros with chocolate. yummm. Even better than Dobbs at Mizzou.. and that's saying a lot :) We saw the Prado, one of the biggest art museums in the world, full of paintings from people I studied in an art appreciation class I never thought would come in handy. #thankyoumizzou. 

the hotel :) 

Madrid street

It was kind of like a Spanish version of London I thought.. Cool old buildings lining the streets with parks in the middle and great plazas (fountains in the middle of a roundabout). And people actually spoke English there. That's "Best Thing About Madrid" number seventy-five for that place. I'm liking the language a lot more now that I'm able to speak a lot better and understand finally. We would speak Spanish in restaurants and to cab drivers and everyone and they would respond in English. Haha we tried at least! 

sight seeing day 1, not sure what that is in the background..? oops

And once again, I got the "rubia!" comment about fifty times.. That means "blonde!". Apparently there aren't blonde people in the biggest city in Spain either.. Cool. My hair did get us into a sweet private party at the craziest club in Madrid though. It's called Kapital, and has 7 stories of crazy music, dancing, (and dancers..), and people from all over the world. We wandered around like kids in a candy store just looking at the wild place and people. 

Allison, Kim, and me at Kapital

Getting ready for the evening, night #1

view from the 2nd or 3rd story

After staying out until the wee hours of the morning, we were up and at 'em for day 2 of sight seeing and it was a wonderful morning...

One of the foods that Madrid is known for is fried calamari sandwiches, so naturally Abby and I thought we needed a carb-o-load of one of those. It was pretty good I have to say..

We also got to tour the Real Madrid fútbol stadium! It was really cool to see all of the trophy rooms, locker rooms, press room, and presidents box and be on the field.

Amanda and me next to one of the important cups

Allison, me, and Amanda

Christiano Ronaldo, I'm still looking for you :)

We walked around a beautiful park that reminded me on Central Park in New York. There was also a huge lake where you can rent a little row boat and ride around. It was cute :)

And I found another anchor! That makes number 2 for Spain. woo hoo

miss you DG!

Another huge sculpture just chillin in the middle of this park..

This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention one of the foods I've missed the most since I've been here.. Mexican. As much as you may think Spanish food and Mexican food are the same, they are most definitely not.. "Salsa" means "sauce" here.. So asking for any kind of chunky Old El Paso Salsa is unheard of.. Until you find the 24 hour store across from the hotel with Doritos brand Salsa. Abby and I definitely snatched that up at 6 am with our Nacho Doritos before heading back to the hotel. We have been wanting it for so long, and when they said how much it was we almost put it back.. 5 euro. That's like $8.00.... ya really expensive salsa but our craving was met so we're much better now :)

yep, there it is..

Sunday morning brought us to another tour of a castle/palace one of the Kings of Spain lived in during the summer. It's a huge huge structure but he only lived in about 3 rooms! It was beautiful but obviously, with no heat, FREEZING. Story of my life.. We couldn't take pictures inside, but the woodwork was so pretty. They didn't use any paint, glue, nails, or screws to keep it together and decorate the doorways and they were masterpieces. I wish I could've taken a picture.. Spaniards are talented.

the outdoor gardens

sarah and me inside

We also saw the crypts where the kings and queens of spain for many years were buried. That was incredible but semi-creepy.. Lots of gold leafed coffins and carvings with statues and all. Oh, about that no picture thing, we snuck a few in the hallway :)

Abby and Sarah

Finally, we ended up at this temple, called the Templo. It was really small and outside, (once again, freezing), but cool with carvings in the rock inside. We could take pictures here, so.. here's a few.

Note the frozen pond..

Abby and I outside

no comment..

Well that about sums up our great weekend in Madrid! It was so nice to take a break from Alicante and all be together. We had a lot of free time to explore, CIEE staff really trusts us a lot I thought. Oh, and there was also STARBUCKS! We don't have one here, so everyone was going crazy over it. They didn't have any of the specialty drinks though, like white chocolate mochas or those salted caramel things (abby was bummed about that..) but still, a little taste of home :)

Big week of another grammar test and Carnaval in Alicante this weekend! One of their biggest festivals of the year, everyone dresses up in costumes like halloween so I need to put one together..

-k