Spring(?) Break Adventure Part I: Madrid!

Here is a long overdue update on what I've been up to for the past two weeks...

We had finals and exams last Monday and Tuesday (not fun, but really not that bad). The exams did, however, lead to a break that, although far too short, was a lot of fun.

Our adventures began in Madrid, but the fun started before we had even left South Ken. The morning of my final exam I finally found the notice telling me that my camera, which I thought had been lost in the mail, had merely been waiting for me to pick it up at the South Kensington Royal Mail Office for the past week and a half. I managed to run over and get it before we left, so I was very excited to have my (JD's) trusty old camera to take with me on the trip. Our exams finished at two, and by nine we were in Madrid.

Our hostel was amazing, and only steps away from the metro stop. We were staying basically in the center of Madrid in the Puerta del Sol. The hostel where we stayed was nestled on a side street about three blocks back from Sol. After checking in at the hostel, we immediately headed out for tapas and sangria.

Katie, Steph, Julia, and I found a great spot right down the street. This was the first point where I realized that I really should have brushed up on my vocab. I knew what most things were, but there were a couple words on the menu that escaped me. Steph decided to be brave and order one of the items we didn't know... Gambas a la plancha. Now, I knew that a la plancha meant grilled, but as for the gambas part I had not a clue. Well, gambas are shrimps, for those of you who were wondering. After asking the waiter to show us the proper way to eat them, and him having a bit of a laugh, Steph dove in and really enjoyed them. The rest of our meal was standard, delicious tapas (tortilla española, jamón y queso, croquettas, pan tostada) and of course a jara de sangria.

After dinner, Jeannie and some of her friends from the Madrid program came to meet us. We ended up going salsa dancing, which, seeing as how Jeannie and her friend Chloe were the only ones who actually knew how to salsa, was extremely entertaining.

The next day we hit up some of Madrid's best attractions. We went to the Reina Sofia Museum where we got to see some amazing works by Picasso and Dalí. There was also another artist Joan Miro, that I really enjoyed. I had never seen his work before, but he had many in the museum and we also saw prints of his art thoughtout the break. We also spent some time in Parque Retiro-- probably my favorite place in Madrid. They have a large lake in the center of the park where you can rent out row boats and paddle around. Thankfully, Katie is a crew vetran, so she hopped behind the oars and we got to spend the better half of an hour soaking up the sun on the water.

That night Jeannie took Julia and I to see her apartment. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet her host mom, but the apartment was really cute and quirky and Jeannie seems to fit in perfectly there. It was really exciting to get to see another one of my friends who is so well settled-in and at home.

The next day we headed out to see the Royal Palace. On our walk over there we visited the Plaza Mayor, and walked through some of the many open air markets. Madrid, after spending so much time in London, was dirt cheap, so I picked up two new scarves, a pashmina and a palestino (a cool checkered scarf, worn bandit style around your neck that is all the rage over here), for only 5e. The Royal Palace, although not nearly as stunning as Versaille, was still impresive. It was used well into the 20th century, so it was interesting to imagine people living in such an ornate buliding not too long ago.

My favorite part was definitely the view from the palace. It's on a hill and looks out partly at some of the urban sprawl of the city but also toward mountains. Truly beautiful.

After the palace we relaxed in a nearby plaza and soaked up the sun. All of the girls that I went with and I really enjoyed the city. Madrid had a very laid back atmosphere. It was really easy to walk from place to place (our hostel being so centrally located really helped), and best of all the weather was fantastic. After weeks of often rainy, sometimes dreary London weather it was so nice to spend a day baking in the sun under a blue, cloudless sky. It was an absolutely fantastic break from the ordinary, and something I definitely needed.


After another lovely dinner, we all headed in to get some sleep before our ridiculously early flight to Barcelona the next day.

An interesting thing to note about Madrid was how much attention we attracted. It was not in a negative way, but Katie is 5'10" and blonde and I am fairly tall (at least taller than most spanish people) and have sandy blonde hair. So although we tried very hard not to draw attention to ourselves, it's kind of difficult not to be noticed. When Jeannie, Julia, and I went out to dinner, everyone in the restaurant was looking at us because we were different. It's something that I've never really expereinced before, and was very interesting to me.

I'll fill you all in on the second part of the trip in BCN soon! Sorry to keep you all waiting for so long.