Madrid

About a week ago, my friends Caitlin and Selin and I decided to take a trip to Madrid for a few days. We left around 3:45 am in the morning to take our taxi to the airport and catch our 6 am flight. We arrived in Madrid fairly early (April 22) and it was kinda rough because none of us really got very good sleep the night before. I had gone to bed at 1 am but I never fell asleep (probably anxious about the trip or nervous I would forget something as usual) so I was dead. When we checked into our hostel, we went exploring and walked by Puerta del Sol (the main plaza), the theater, and the palace along the east side of town. We decided to find a place to eat lunch later on and had bocadillos (sandwiches) at a cheap little restaurant right by our hostel. Later, we decided it was extremely necessary to take naps before going back out. We all had different rooms in the hostel so we just met up in the main lobby when we were ready to leave. We walked over to the metro (which was conveniently right by our hostel) and took it to the Real Madrid stadium. It was HUGE! We were gonna take a look inside since they offer 16euro tours but unfortunately the line was wayy too long and we would just come back the next day or so to visit and get there earlier. After that, we made our way over to the Reina Sofia (a famous art museum). Of course when we needed to stand in line for a long time (a bunch of people were outside waiting to get free admission which had certain hours), it started to rain. Ughh.. So Caitlin told us to wait under the roof of some restaurant while she "roughed" it and stood in the rain under an umbrella. Once we finally got in, we saw a lot of famous paintings that I had only seen in books before and when we had to study them in Spanish class in high school so it was pretty cool to see them in person. We saw paintings like Guernica (which was much larger than I thought) and had lots of people guarding it. Crazy. I didn't realize this until recently, but museums are really exhausting. I mean you're walking around for hours and even though a lot of it is pretty interesting, its a lot of standing up. So when we couldn't walk anymore, we left and started searching for a place to eat dinner. We ended up eating Kebap (Turkish) and it was delicious as always. (They have a ton of Kebap restaurants in Alicante so we're used to it). It was nice because we were sitting outside and were able to people watch but then the bill came. And it turns out he had charged us each 2euro extra because he to "bring our beers outside". Never told us this beforehand and when we protested, he was playing dumb and saying that he didn't speak much English and we tried explaining in Spanish that he had never told us it was more expensive (otherwise we would have sat inside). But  luckily Selin put him in his place and he ended up giving it to us for the normal price because we were causing a scene. Embarassing because everyone was looking at us but it was still ridiculous. Anyways, we finally left and made our way back to the hostel because we were all still really tired. However, my room turned out the be the party room around 1 am in the morning. I was just going to lay in my bed and skype Koen but of course, everyone was being rowdy and drinking. I felt like such an old lady because everyone was in their going-out clothes and I was sitting in my sweats. But there was no way anyone could pressure me into going out when I didnt sleep the night before. So finally everyone left and then when it is 3 am in the morning, its apparently okay for a bunch of girls to come back and turn the over head lights on (which are extremely bright if you never been in a hostel) and start talking to each other really loudly in some other language. Needless to say, I still didn't get much sleep. Blahhh...

Day 2 (April 23)
Because the line was so long the day before to go to the palace, we decided to get up early today and go. When we got in, we got to tour all of the rooms pretty much and they were beautiful. Each room had its own theme and decor. It was definitely a good day to go because the weather was bad again and it was too cold to walk around outside. The tour took about 1.5 hours because we also viewed the armory and the back yard (aka this huge landscape of the city--very pretty).  When we were finished, we weren't sure what to do next because of the weather, so we went into a Starbuck's to kinda wake ourselves up and get warm. (We went to Starbuck's about 3 or 4 times while we were here because they don't have it in Alicante). We sat there for a while, while I tried to get in touch with my cousin, Emily, who was in Madrid on a school trip at about the same time. Unfortunately, I couldn't get up with her for a while so Selin and I decided to go ahead and go back the stadium to see if we could get in for the tour. (Caitlin walked around this huge park over by the Prado museum instead). We thought the tour only consisted of going to the nosebleed section and taking pictures of the field but the lady redirected us when we tried leaving and we got to go to the actual field, the locker room, a museum, and the press room. It was very cool. Especially the locker room..The thought of all the players showering and sitting in the jacuzzi amused me and Selin! hahaha Overall, it was well worth the 16 euros to see! Later, we met up with Caitlin and went to the Prado. Our friend was on his way back to the States but was staying in Madrid for the night so he came out to the museum with us as well. We didn't have much time to tour since we got there about an hour before it was closing so me and Selin just walked thru the rooms very quickly to see the most famous paintings (The Holy Trinity and Las Meninas). Once we left the museum, we met back up with Caitlin and Devin and made our way to the Chocolateria San Gines to get some churros con chocolate BEFORE dinner. :) They were delicious but filling. Then we figured we'd get something to eat with Devin still there and went to an Italian restaurant which was also delicious. (I will probably be 30 lbs heavier when I get back to the States ughh). But then we said our goodbyes to Devin and took off for the metro to find the cave bar that may sister has recommended several times. It was called El Chapandaz (she said its not the one she went to) and it was awesome. The inside literally looked like a cave so I'm glad I took my sister's advice on that one. They had this one thing by the bar that would shoot out steamed milk from one of the stalagmites or stalagtites (which one?) and it was cool because it would light up. Unfortunately, we didn't stay long because Caitlin and I had to get our stuff packed and head to the airport once again to catch yes, another early flight to London. Selin stayed back because she was just going back to Alicante in the morning.

Differences from Alicante:
--A lot more people, not as small town as Ali
--Starbucks duh
--More historic sites and sightseeing opportunities
--the metro is convenient
--Played more Spanish music rather than US pop hits like the bars in Ali
--much more European feel to it
--cleaner
--a lot easier to get lost!

Similarities:
--Has the same guys walking around selling flowers/random useless stuff
--Kebaps everywhere
--Spanish people! haha