MADRID!

This past weekend we went with our program to Madrid!! It was me and my roommates, minus Katie because she went to Paris with her parents. It started off on a horrible note though. We were meeting the group at the train station, and took the metro to get there, and it was 7:30am, aka the metro was packedddd with people all going to work and what not. We were literally sardines on the metro, it was awful. We had to walk a while through the metro once we got there to get to the train, and as we were going up the final escalator I noticed that Grace's bag had ripped. When I told her and we looked at it, it was a huge straight slit down her Longchamp, and we immediately knew she had been pick-pocketed. She cried and fell to the floor, it was literally the scariest and worst moment of this entire trip. Her purse was inside the bag and was gone- it had her wallet, ipod, and passport. It was so insane, that she was so unlucky and how scarey it is that these people do this, coming that close to her with a knife to cut the bag and none of us or she didnt even notice. Luckily she called her parents right away to cancel the cards, and we were meeting the cea group so the staff helped us and told her to go to the main office. Sam stayed back with her which was sooo nice, and they went to the police station and cea campus to deal with the passport. I have always been sooo careful with my bags whenevr im walking or on the metro, but now I am even more paranoid about it, which kinda sucks I never feel completely safe when Im walking around. But this was a major wake up call for all of us to be really careful, and she handled it really well. Her and Sam got on a train later that day and met up with us in Madrid. After the initial disaster, we ended up having a great time in Madrid. The train was fun, we had a little table at our seats. When we got there we walked to our hotel and it was gorgeous weather out. After putting our bags down we walked, with a random other group of girls, to find somewhere to eat. We went to the Plaza Mayor, the big and famous square in the middle of the city. There were all these street performers there, and restaurants line the whole square. We ate at a place in the square, and I got a Spanish Tortilla which is an egg and potato thing on a sandwitch. Then we went back to check into the hotel, and our room was sooo nice. Huge bed and cute little sitting area with a great view of the beautiful buildings on the street. I roomed with Coley and it was soooo much fun. The main group of us was Me, Coley, Maggie-coleys friend from wisco who lives on our street and weve all become really close with her, Alyssa-another wisco girl whos nice and from chicago and same sorority as Ali Pollan, and her roommate Kristin, whos this ginger who goes to Cornell, and literally my new favorite person shes sooo funny. So the five of us went to this huge park. Katie had gone to madrid a couple weekends ago and told us to go to the park and rent boats and to BYOB and drink on the boat, so we did. We all got champagne, and sat in the park in the sun and drank and hung out. It was such beautiful weather. The park was hugeeeee, and it was really cool. So many people were out. Then we rented the boats that rent around a little lake thing in the park in front of a really cool monument. Me, Alyssa and Kristin were on one and Coley and Maggie on the other. We drank more on the boats, and Coley ended up beeing in a bag in the boat because she had to pee so bad. It was literally the funniest thing everr!! Cause she doesnt  go out that much, it was so fun to see her hammered hahahaha. Then I wanted to go to the Prado, because it was right there, but no one else wanted to and we ended up at McDonalds hahaha. I didnt eat though! for once. Then we walked around our area a little more then went back to nap. We went to dinner with the girls and Grace and Sam, and met up with Maggie and Coleys guy friend from wisco who is studying in Madrid. Out hotel was in a great location, we could walk to all the cool, tourist areas. We met him in the Placa del Sol which is the HUGEEE square/area, said to be the actual center off all of spain. We walked aroun the area called Sol, which was packed with bars and restaurants and sooooo many people. We ate at a random place that had italian, spanish and argentinian food. Everyone ordered pizza, and I got a caprese salad and a chicken empanada and everyone was really jealous cause mine was sooo good. After din half the group went home, but I stayed out with Maggie, Kristin, Coley, and their friend. We got beers at this bar/sandwitch chain of spain called Cien Montaditos that were really cheap. Then Coley and Kristin bailed so it was only me and Maggie left as the troopers who wanted to experience Madrid. So the 3 of us went to another random bar near Plaza Mayor. We made friends with the bar tenders and it was really fun. We were the only americans, definitely a local spot, which I love. Then he took us to a club, not any of the famous ones we have heard of, but it was also mostly locals and we danced and had a lot of fun. The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel which was SOO bomb. Literally such good eggs, fruit, everything, and best croissant ive ever had. Then we went on the tour that our program provided for us. WE got on buses and had tour guides tell us about sites and things we were passing. Not gunna lie I fell asleep for most of it, oops. We got off the bus at the Palace Real- the Royal Palace of Madrid. It was huge and all white and really immaculate. It had 1800 rooms inside. I actually remember some of the history of it that the tour guide told us but am too lazy to write it in my blog. After we walked through the old town, saw this really cool market that looked like it had a lot of good food, and then ended in Placa Del Sol. There was a protest going on, people are mad that the president of Madrid, who is a woman and the airlines companies are making them private instead of public, and were dresses in mostly red and had signs and whistles in the square. It was cool to see. There are soooo many people in Madrid, that wAs one thing I didnt like was how crowded it was. Then the girls went to lunch at a cute sandwhich shop with the mini sandwhiches. I got a ham one, chicken one and turkey one and the turkey was the best. Then we walked to the main shopping street called Gran Via. Off of the main street was a really cool little street that our tour guide said is the trendy area of the city, and a big gay population. The stores were soo cute, but mostly really expensive. Then Kristin and I wanted to go to the Prado when everyone wanted to go back and nap, so the two of us went. We got there at 7 and i thought it closed at 9 but closed at 8, so we got rushed out and didnt really get to see everything. But we did see a lot of the christian art, and a lot of spanish art. We saw the famous painting the Annunciation by Fra Angelico, that I had to write a paper about in my class at cal, so that was cool. Then we saw some Goya, and Velasquez just before getting kicked out. Went back to the hotel to shower and get ready and talk to the group. We were told to go this bar called El Tigre that gives you free tapas with the drinks, so we were going to eat there for dinner, but it was packeddd so we went to a trend chinese restaurant near by to eat. It was really good, I know not very Spanish, but were kind of sick of spanish food. After we went back to the bar and fought our way in to order drinks. We got these hugeeee mojitos. The free tapas were soo good! we got this good cheese, chicken wings, sausage, and patatas bravas. It was a cool local place and the bar tenders were really nice, they kept calling us Rubios, which means blonde. Walking home Grace sam and maggie bought these sparkly top hats from a vender and I go these huge star glasses, it was soo funny and the walk home through madrid at night was really fun because it was so lively around. We went back to the hotel to get ready and meet up with more people from our program. We hung out with Lucy and Colleen and some of their friends. Then we went to the world famous club Kapital. I think Kim, Steph and Brett have all been. It is 7 stories! Each floor was different. Our group got separated, and it was impossible to ever meet up, but we still all had fun. On Sunday we went to a flea market near by. It was HUGE and there were probably a million people there. Madrid is also very hilly, so we walked around this one street with vendors and then got to many more streets. There were some cute things but it was too overwhellming to even shop. I ended up buying a green case for my blackberry for 3 euros but thats it. Then our group wanted to do differenet things, like nap, eat, or just sit, so i decided to go off on my own. It was the best decision ever. It was sooo nice to finally just do what I wanted and not have to deal with a group and everyones opinion. I walked around the flea market more and took some cool pictures. Then I went to another famous museum called Reina Sofia. It was a lot of contemporary art which was really cool. The building itself was amazing and clear elevators that take you to the top with cool views. It was so nice just going throught it at my own pace. I saw works by Miro and Dali, and it is famous for having a lot of Picasso and his gamous huge painting Guernica. After I sat in the sun and got this really good pasta, then went back to the hotel to meet up with the group and leave for the train. Although exhasuted, sunday night I met up with Sam's best friend from hs who is studying in Florence and was in Barca for the weekend, at George Paynes an, Irish restaurant/bar. It was really fun and im glad I got to see him. They had karaoke there and it was hilarious.