Emily in Spain: Madrid-- Thurs. 22 to Sat. 24

The second half of Feria week, I went to Madrid with Megan and Kevin. It was the most relaxing trip I have taken this whole semester! No guided tours, no schedule to keep up with, just the three of us touring by ourselves at our own pace.


This is Megan and I at the Plaza Mayor. It was build for Felipe III in 1620. So, it's quite old! There were lots of cafes all around the perimeter, as well as flamenco dancers, mime people, and artists. We watched a soccer game in a bar there Thursday night.

Friday morning we woke up and went to the Museo del Prado. It was really awesome. They have so many masterpieces there! The most exciting were Velazquez, Goya, and El Greco. I had learned about them in lots of different Spanish classes. "Las Meninas," considered by some the best painting ever made, surely was impressive.

And after the Prado...

McDonald's! Haha. I rarely eat fast food at home, but once I saw that McDonalds really were everywhere around the world, I had to feed into the international business... literally. Plus, it was a cheap meal. We actually ate really cheap the whole trip. We all really, really loved being able to choose what we were going to eat and when. Don't get me wrong, having a woman cook every meal for you is awesome, but it get's redundant. We're all missing our American food variety and getting an input on what goes into our mouths. This trip satisfied our craving for a while.

After lunch we walked to the Palacio Real. It was so impressive. It really reminded me of the movie "Marie Antoinette" with Kirstin Dunst, even though that took place in France. The castle was just huge with marble floors, linen on the walls, velvet carpets, lush furniture, harps and pianos in the rooms. One of those castles with a room for changing clothes, a room for conversation, a room for lunch. King Carlos and Queen Sofia still use the palace, but only for special occasions.

The museums only cost 3.50 and 4 Euros with our student ID cards, which was a huge plus. They were only about 8 and 6 Euros otherwise, but half price helped our pockets.

At night we hung out in our hostel room. Kevin was in a room wiht 3 other guys. Megan and I were supposed to have 1 or 2 other girls in our room but luckily had the room to ourselves!

If you notice in the picture Kevin is looking at his "watch." This hostel has the most Inspector Gadget-like room keys ever. These "go-gos" as we referred to them as, magnetically unlocked both your bedroom door and your locker just by pressing the watch face to the door knob. It was awesome, and strange.

Saturday we just walked around for a little while before taking the metro back to the bus station. This street is "Gran Via," is kind of like the Times Square of Madrid I guess. It was very metropolitan.

Well, now I'm off to hang out by the river with Megan and Kevin now.

Fireworks at midnight end the Feria tonight! I can't believe in 3 weeks I will be home.

Week of school, weekend at the beach in Portugal, week of school, beach and sherry tasting in Jerez, then finals and home. Crazy crazy crazy!!

Thanks for reading, everyone. :)

Hasta la vista, bebes.