Madrid

This past weekend I traveled to Madrid with Kristina and Christine. It was a really fun and exhausting trip! Our bus left the station at 6am. So that means I was up at 5:15 to get there in time. I paid for a taxi because had I tried to walk I would have had to leave my house by no later than 4:45 and that just seemed to early! The bus ride was 4 hours long and we stopped once at a rest stop about half way through. I was glad we had an early bus because that meant that it was much easier to sleep on the bus!

When we arrived in Madrid the 1st order of business was to secure a place to stay the night. My first time staying in a Hostel this was going to be exciting! We checked out the first hostel that we though looked nice but it was full, luckily the person Christine sat next to on the bus had recently visited Madrid and stayed in a great hostel that she recommended to Christine. So we searched for that one well guess what it was full too. After that we just started walking up and down the street stopping at just about any hostel we could find asking for 3 beds. All said they were full! I wasn't panicked yet but we were getting slightly worried. Did you know Spain is the 2nd most toured country in the world? Well I didn't but after trying to find a bed I think I would agree. Finally after we had walked almost all the way back to the metro station where we started we found a hostel that had room for 3! We went up and found out that we would all be sharing a room that we could lock and we would all have our own beds. It was clean, we had our own bathroom and was really reasonably priced. We got lucky but I made a mental note to self... book hostels in advance if traveling on weekends.

After finding a room we headed to the park where we planned on eating out lunch. We didn't quite make it to the park, we stopped and sat on a bench outside the botanical garden really close to the Prado museum. After eating lunch we went into the botanical garden which was absolutely beautiful! So many different plants from all over the world. I took a really great picture of a rose and then disaster struck! My camera battery died. Not to worry I had a spare... back at the hostel. We continued walking through the garden and I decided I would just take pictures from Kristina and Christine. It really was a beautiful place, and I never knew there were so many different kinds of Cacti.

After we wrapped up in the garden we returned to the hostel so I could grab my spare battery and Christine could grab her student ID for discounts at places. We decided to head toward the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). On the way we walked past or through some plazas with wonderful statues and fountains. Cities really can be cool places if you don't mind living close to tons of people. Spain also really puts effort into keeping their cities clean everyplace we visited had people picking up trash all over and there were numerous garbage cans to prevent littering. (Just thought that was kinda cool and noteworthy)

Anyway, back to the Palace. I believe it is the 2nd biggest palace in all of Europe and it really is hard to describe. It was ornate, old and beautiful. We walked through the same rooms where royalty once lived (sometimes they still do, like when Hugo Chavez visited last week he stayed there) and it was AWESOME. The decorations, artwork, carpets and floors, ceilings everything was really amazing. Worst part was that we couldn't take pictures of the inside at all-and my words really don't do it justice. Sorry

After we completed our palace tour we went next door to the Catedral de la Almudena. I know I sound like a broken record but it too was extremely beautiful. Here at least we could take pictures! Everything about it was ornate and beautiful. Painted ceilings, a huge organ, stained glass windows, statues etc... Really really cool! I took some time to just sit, admire, and say a short prayer.

We then went to visit the Palace Gardens which were cool but not quite as cool as the botanical gardens before heading back to our hostel. On the way back we walked through more plazas and such doing touristy things like going into shops and we may have taken the long way (one wrong turn) but that was fine cause we saw more of the city!

By the time we got back we all kinda wanted a siesta, but I took the time to do my homework. After our hour break we left to find a good place to eat dinner which we found quickly but still took forever. We tried some really great authentic food. Paella (which I already had tried) and pollo con papas y chicaros (chicken with potatoes and peas) they both were excellent. Kristina and I also ordered Sangria (a punch with wine and fruit juices) for our beverage. It also was really good but after we had sat there for nearly 2 hours (they were huge) we decided we should drink the rest quickly, pay and leave. Kristina and I were in spectacular moods for our walk back! On the walk back we tried to find my friends Sarah who is studying about in Madrid to no avail because my phone ran out of minutes :(

Sunday we woke up at 10 and prepared to leave. We visited the Prado Museum (probably the best art museum in Spain) and saw tons of famous artwork by tons of people! The building was huge! We spent 3 hours there and I didn't even get to see everything! It was cool but I can only look at art for so long so we decided to leave. We then visited the Parque del buen retirado which is home to the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace) which was cool. Saw some huge Spanish ducks and then watched 100 or so paddle boats trying not to hit each other in the "lake" there (it was more like a pond).

After that we found some lunch and walked to the bus station to head back to Valencia. Which was not the most fun ride ever. We were in the back where it was extremely warm (or at least to me= motion sickness?) and we got stuck in a traffic jam because there was a 4 car pile up on the highway. By the time we got back to Valencia it was 10:10 and the city buses stop at 10:30 so I had to hustle to my bus stop to catch it. Then since it was my first time on the buses I didn't realize you have to press the cool red button to get off so I took the bus 2 stops past where I wanted to and didn't get back to my house until almost 11pm.

Overall a great weekend!!!