Madrid, Madrid, Madrid!

Ah i have just returned from a long weekend in Madrid!
My roommate Caroline, friends Cameron, Kaleigh and I all headed to Madrid for the weekend leaving on Friday after class.

We headed to class Friday with all our bags ready to head off to Madrid later that afternoon. We completed class at 1pm and ate lunch at one of our favorite spots-Doner Kabobs. After that we made our way to the bus station. Not looking like an American, I toted my little zebra duffle bag all the way there! Sorry for not travelling discretely girls!
At the bus station we boarded our "Socibus" and lucked out with front row seats. Little did we know you are assigned seats on your tickets, no one bothered us this time because we were 4 of about 15 people on the 55 passenger bus. This was no ordinary bus! It was definitely a top of the line charter bus with movies and a ton of space in the seats. It was a six hour drive from Sevilla to Madrid but time passed relatively quickly as we watched two spanish movies and enjoying scenery nearly the entire way there.
Once to Madrid, we had our first experience with an advanced Metro system, seeing as the metro in Sevilla is new and has only about 6 stops. We were so proud of ourselves for making the jumps and getting all the way to our hostel with no problems. Lucky for us, our hostel happened to be on yards from a Metro stop.
I was a little nervous finding our way to our first hostel, hoping that my booking was going to be a success we finally made it! The hostel ended up being very nice. The four of us girls shared a private room-which was great and had a bathroom right across the hall. There was a common room upstairs with a tv and several computers (generally packed!) as well as a common eating area with a full kitchen. The staff was very helpful! Once we got comfortable in our room, we ventured out into Madrid to find something to eat. After wandering the streets (a little lost) we found ourselves in a restuarant that appeared to have a good menu and cute spanish atmosphere. Little did we know it was a Peruvian restuarant! Still had great food and atmosphere :) After that we were off to find some yummy churros. Madrid is apparently the best place for Churros. By 1 am we were ready to head home! Madrid may have just been getting started at this point but we were exhausted from a long day of travel.
Saturday morning, we woke up with a big day ahead of us! Our first stop was The Prado-this is the big art museum in Madrid and known to be one of the best in the world. It is home to several famous pieces and works by artists such as Goya, Ribero, Velazquez and Rembrandt. Absolutely stunning! After spending a few hours in this huge museum we were ready for lunch. We ate at an American restuarant! I know so sad that we went to an American resturant...but we were just craving it! After a great lunch we made our way back toward the Prado and to a huge park called El Retiro. We spent alot of time just strolling through this pretty park and gardens. There were fountains and statues galore-great place for pictures! The park was full of families getting out on this Sunny Satuday. Right in the middle there is a lake where you can rent little row boats. It was a little chilly for us but there were plenty of boats out. It made for a great picture. After venturing through the park we headed to the other side of Madrid (via metro!) to see El Palacio Real- The Royal Palace. It was in a really neat part of town and had a great view of a park outside of Madrid and the mountains. We went inside and took a tour for only a few euros. The Palace was so beautiful and elaborate. The dinning room table was one of my favorite parts! It was huge!!! I would guess that it seats easily 80 guests and stretches several yards. After touring through the palace we walked back to our hostel through a popular part of town called "Puerta del Sol" this is basically a big shopping area and plaza that was full of people on Saturday. We made it back to our hostel and of course--it was time for a siesta :) After our nice siesta it was time for dinner. We were out to find an Italian restaurant to continue in our cultural experience. We found a GREAT little place on a side street....dont remember the name but the food was awesome!! We had huge portions that definitely suited our appetites :) After a filling meal and some yummy tinto de verano we walked down Gran Via, a main street in Madrid. This street really reminded me of NY. There were tall buildings, traffic, and alot of people! It was time for desert and we were on the search for a good little ice cream spot. After our ice cream trip we were ready for bed. We had walked who knows how many miles that day and our feet were definitely feeling it!
Day two of our Madrid adventure started at the Market. The open air market in Madrid known as El Rastro is apparently one of, if not the largest open air market in Europe. Streets upon streets of vendors were lined up bright and early to face a large crowd. Lucky for us, El Rastro was on the street right behind our hostel so we only had a short walk to it! It was neat to venture through the streets but after a while some of the stuff got a little repetative. We were ready to go after about an hour of on looking and the crowds began to grow thick. El Rastro is a GREAT place for pick pockets due to the thick crowd and the fact that people carry cash on them to pay the vendors. We held our purses close and got out when the crowd began to grow massive. From El Rastro we headed across town via metro to a park. This park was the home to "El Teleferico," which is a skilift/gondola type ride that takes you high in the air above part of Madrid. It beings in one park and drops you off in another. Or for us, we were just there for the ride so we just stayed in our little gondola as we passed through the station at the park. This ride offered us a great view of madrid as well as the Palace and the mountains. Definitely worth it!
After our Sunday adventures, we had time to grab a quick lunch and head back to the hostel to pack for our bus ride home. We left Madrid at 6pm and made it home at midnight. We were not as lucky as we were on the way to Madrid and had to ride in the back of the bus..bummer!
Overall our experience in Madrid was great! The bus ride went very smoothly and our experience with the hostel was great. We feel as though we "conquered" the metro system as well! After visiting such a big city in Spain it felt so good to come back to Sevilla, it was a sense of "coming home." I have a greater appreciation for the cleanliness and this city and definitely is astounding beauty! I have learned that I absolutely love the culture and architecture of southern Spain. Madrid was a great experience but I am so glad to call Sevilla home :)

List of events in Spain:
>watching a french movie with spanish subtitles on board the bus-way to test our spanish skills!
>clear shower doors at the hostel--good thing we had friends to hold towels up and lock the bathroom door
>hostel in the "Chinatown" of Madrid? - Definitely a great location but all the shops and resturants around us were Chinese
>when we asked the front desk at the hostel if it was a safe area she recommended us "not to go right out of the hostel, definitely stay to the left"--sorry i ask so many questions guys! good things i did our we would have been venturing down to the right.
>running into a girl from NCSU in the hostel in Madrid, as well as ANOTHER person that Caroline knows. (she runs into people she knows everywhere!)
>immediately after proclaiming that we have conquered the metro system, Caroline jumps off the Metro at the wrong stop.......Cameron followed suit demanding Kaleigh to "Jump" as if it were a life or death situations----we definitely dont look like americans....
>waiting in line for the teleferico we offered to take a picture of the family in front of us, after this the dad continued to ask us where we were from, after telling them we were from the US he told us that his daughter thought we were Japanese because she could not understand what we were saying....wow thats a first!
>Cameron continually referred to our Metro stop at tiramisu even after countless times of correcting her that our stop was Tirso de Molino
>Cameron always going with the flow--
Caroline: So Cameron you are sleeping on the floor tonight right?
Cameron: Yeah okay sounds good!
>Right after telling the girls my two biggest pet peeves in an airplane--people that smell and people with gross hair that gets in the way--of course on the bus I would be the one to sit behind a STINKY man and woman with nasty hair that was in the way of the movie the entire time.
>Cameron is a pro at sneeking pictures in museums that do not allow cameras--way to go!
>We went into a restuarant and thought it had the cutest spanish atmosphere-what we assumed was a diamond in the rough, as we were getting excited and sitting at our table we realized that there was a huge map of Peru on the wall----definitely not a spanish restaurant


There are a million more memories from this trip! We had a blast!

Today was Caroline and I's first day with our SEVIci bikes. We were both a little nervous at first because neither of us could remember the last time we rode a bike....so far I have been okay! It has been great because the people actually respect the bike lane here so it is pretty much a straight away to school. No major problems...YET. With my luck I am sure I will fall over soon. Caroline was stuck in the middle of a major road at one point because her bike was in 1st gear and she could not pedal fast enough to get out. She only ran into a few people---too bad they don't understand "sorry! sorry!"