España pt. 2!

Hey Hey! So You have only heard about the first day I was in Spain... there is more... lots more!  So in my journal it starts with an entry about the atmosphere of the neighborhood we were in so here is a little description. The colors there are very vibrant with houses that are rose colored, tan, orange, or sunshine yellow.  And there is lots of graffiti, also in vibrant colors  If you get up on the roof and look out all you can see for miles is the reddish tiled roofs sloping out in all directions.  I didn't see one building that didn't have tiles on the roof except for the palace and museums.  Everyone's windows are always open, and most of the time their doors are too, and everyone just sits in their doorways or on their terraces.  Ok, so on the second day we woke up in our nice hostel and got up and dressed and went down and had breakfast (just cereal and fruit) and then we went out to find some shops and brows around.  We shopped forever and I really didn't buy anything but this super cute pair of sandals because I didn't have any and they were a really good deal. Then we walked over to the Atocha train station which was just down the main road a ways and we got really confused trying to figure out which train to take to get out to Alcala de Heneres.  Alcala is a smaller town outside Madrid, and it is where Desi's cousin Ricky is living with her study abroad group.  We wanted to go out there and see her one more time and explore Alcala a little.  We finally got the ticket situation figured out and by the time we got to the right terminal and bought our tickets we had to sprint all out to catch the train in time because it was starting to leave, but we did make it.  Then we all sat on the train and watched the scenery go by for about 40 minutes.  The scenery was a strange mixture of different kinds of foliage on rolling hills and massive amounts of graffiti on everything that had a flat surface.  You would think that would kind of ruin it... but it didn't it was still pretty and still pleasant to look at, Spanish graffiti is more artisit and colorful than graffiti back home I think.  When the train finally pulled into Alcala we got off and found Ricky and we all  started exploring this cool little town, which coincidentally was the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, you know... the author of Don Quixote. Yeah! That guy!  We got to see the church where he was baptized in and his house.  Also in the town square which was lined with perfectly pruned trees and filled with the most beautiful rose garden, there was a big statue of Cervantes himself.  We stayed and sat in the courtyard for a while and people watched and then Ariatna (the girl from Mexico with us) started a conversation with these three old ladies sitting near us.  Pretty soon we were all trying to talk to them and we had a fun little interaction, they kept calling us "so young and beautiful" in Spanish.  Their names were Victoria, Carmen and Josefa and two of the three didn't have basically any teeth. They were adorable and I wish I had gotten a picture of them.... but I didn't.... so moving on... we next went to this little cafe where Ricky said we HAD to try their churros and chocolate.  Churros in Spain are not like churros in the US or in Mexico, they are loops of fried dough with no sugar or cinnamon or anything on them and then they serve them with a teacup full of the richest, thickest chocolate in the world.  You dip the churros in the chocolate and eat it.  IT WAS LIKE HEART ATTACK HEAVEN.  Yes I ate it.  Sue me.  It was worth it.  Have you ever seen the movie Chocolat?  Well that is the kind of chocolate they served you in the tea cups.... yep... absolutely amazing.  After we were all full of saturated fat and sugar and feeling very happy we decided to go back to the main street and go to a park we saw but on the way we saw a music shop and decided to go in.  We were all looking at guitar picks and stuff and then some of the other girls decided to buy some of them and the guy was  SO NICE he gave them to us for free! All of us! It was a wonderful surprise he was so generous.  Afterwards we found the park and explored that a little and then it was time to go back to Madrid.  We caught the train and rode back and then walked back to our hostel to change because we wanted to go out for the evening and see a flamenco show.  Problem was, all the flamenco shows around were really expensive, so we heard about this show that was going on in a bar and would be cheap but we couldn't find it so we stopped to ask this guy sweeping the sidewalk near us.  Ariatna talked to him for a while and then translated that he had never heard of the bar we were looking for but he offered to sneak us into the flamenco show going on in the theater he worked at right at that moment.  We were shocked and didn't know what to expect.  He told us to be really quiet and follow him up the back stairs, and Ariatna was freaking out and kept saying she had a bad feeling, but none of the rest of us did so we kept going.  And lo and behold we were sneakily ushered into this big beautiful old theater with ornate carvings and about 200 people already in there. On the stage was the most intense woman I have ever seen surrounded by fog with a spotlight right on her.  In the background there were guitarist and singers, clappers, and drummers providing music and she was dancing her feet off.  She exuded anger and passion and focus, and I have never been so entranced by someone in my life.  We thought it would just be her the entire time but after she was done there was a number by some different dancers and then a solo by this Spanish guitarist and then there was this man who it seemed was the whole focus of the show.  He came out and danced with incredible energy. He wasn't as intense as the girl but he was more skilled with his footwork, and he would stop and talk to the crowd at different times.  All the older Spanish women in the audience were yelling things at him like, "Vamos aqui!"  "Guapo, guapo!" and "Quite la ropa!  And would laugh and shake his finger at the audience and say something that would make everyone laugh.  I don't know exactly all of what he said, because he said it all in Spanish but he seemed very at ease and conversational.  after it was all over and we were walking away we realized he was on all these huge signs with flashing lights all around the city and we got into his show!!! FOR FREE!! We felt pretty lucky, but we also felt hungry so we went to a tapas bar for a snack and we got fresh mozerella and tomato with basil on toast and it was muy delicioso! After that it was again almost two in the morning and so we all headed back to our hostel, which was really close actually.  Oh one note about the night life in Madrid, everyone comes out at night.  Literally the streets are teaming with people, and not just young people either there are old people and even families with kids! Everyone just stays up really late and like to go out at night! It is kind of cool actually, especially because the nights are so comfortable and nice.  So that was the end of the second day!  More to follow stay tuned! :)