España!

I just got back from a four day trip to Spain and THERE IS SO MUCH TO TELL!!! Let's start at the very beginning.... a very good place to start... It was a Tuesday, Tuesday the 17th of May in fact when the journey began.  We packed our back packs with everything we could fit and we took the Tube to Victoria station, where we caught the Gatwick Express to Gatwick Airport.  Our flight left at 8:40pm and so we actually got into Madrid at about 1 am because we lost an hour and the flight was about three hours long.  When we got off the plane and through customs we all got euros out of the ATM in the airport and we hailed a taxi.  We showed him the address and he just put it into his dashboard GPS and we were set.  Driving on the highway towards the heart of Madrid my first thought was, "This looks a lot like California!" my second thought was "AH!!! He is driving on the wrong side of the road!!!"  Which was actually the same side of the road they drive on in America weirdly enough. Well the driver took us to this sketchy looking part of town, and when he dropped us off he even told us that it was a bad part of town, so we got out and into our hostel really quick.  Reception was on the third floor and we could smell the incense burning way before we got there.  The man at reception looked like a doppleganger of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, no joke, complete with shoulder length black wavy hair, short beard and leather bracelets.  And he only spoke Spanish.  Luckily one of the girls on the trip is from Mexico and speaks both Spanish and English so she was able to be a BIG help.  We got settled into our hostel room which was the perfect amount of beds for just our group so we didn't have to share with anyone else.  We got our own bathroom too, and it was fairly clean so it wasn't that bad, but I still felt a lot better when the door was locked.  After a fairly restful nights sleep we got up and had breakfast at the hostel which was free at least.  Then we got our stuff and split.  Oh, P.S, we flew to Spain with 8 girls but 4 of them were going to Barcelona after the first day, and the rest of us were staying in Madrid  for the whole time.  So we said goodbye to our other girls and Desi, Ariatna, Megan and myself struck out on foot to get a feel of the neighborhood.  But remember it wasn't a GOOD neighborhood.... so mostly what we saw was graffiti and people whizzing by on scooters.  We were basically just trying to kill time until 12 when we were supposed to meet Desi's cousin Ricky who was there in Spain doing a study abroad, and she was going to show us around.  We did find a really cool leather shop in our wanderings in that part of town.  It had the most ornately crafted leather bags I've ever seen, absolutely beautiful.  The guy who worked there was really interesting he was actually Greek, and we had a fun little chat with him.  We also found what looked like a ruin of some sort of old castle or fortress right in the middle of a neighborhood, but it was actually a functioning Bibliotecca underneath, so that was a neat discovery.  We made our way back to meet Desi's cousin and after we met up we all decided to go to our second hostel and drop our stuff so we wouldn't have to lug it around Madrid all day.  Our second hostel was in a totally different part of town.  It was in a really central location in a cute street with all these shops and restaurants.  It felt very safe and very fun.  The inside of the hostel was very brightly colored with oranges and reds and pinks and purples and had lots of woodwork and modern paintings, it felt very homey and young and active.  There were tons of kids our age there and the staff was so nice and helpful.  We got electronic keys to the front door, our room door, and lockers to keep our stuff in.  They were able to be strapped to our wrists and we would just beep them against a door or our lockers to open them, it was super high tech and actually a really brilliant idea.  After we dumped our stuff we set out to get lunch first of all so we got tortillas espanas which is actually just like an omlette with big chunks of patatoe in it and it is served like a sandwich on some crusty bread.  It was a little bland, but otherwise ok.  Then we went to the Reina Sofia which is a modern art museum and we saw all these original Picasso paintings and lots of others by equally magnificent artists.  I'm not going to lie at this point and say that I love modern art.... because I have discovered that I do not.  I'm much more of a classical art girl, so our next stop The Prado was much more my style, they had Raphael and El Greco and just gorgeous depictions of greek myths and historic battles and great love stories and my eyes nearly exploded from all the beauty I forced them to digest at the Prado.  The Prado is actually the second biggest museum after the Louvre, so that's cool.  We could have spent days at The Prado but alas there was a whole city calling our name outside so eventually we had to leave.  While we were walking to our next destination, which was an Archeology Museum, it started to POUR.  I have never been in such a violent rain, and remember I'm from Oregon, so I know something about rain.  In a matter of seconds we were drenched.  So we ran under cover and waited it out, but it was actually rather refreshing.  It was hot in Spain.  Shorts and a T shirt still felt like too much clothing.  It wasn't disgustingly hot, in fact it was pleasant but it was much warmer than London has typically been.  One thing I noticed right away about Spain was that it has a culture that is centered very much around the out of doors.  There are all these courtyards and plazas where everyone will just go to sit and talk and just be outside.  Also every window of every house has little terraces and most of the terraces have vines and plants galore growing on them.  These little terraces often have some Spaniard leaning on the ornately sculpted iron railings surrounded by foliage and smoking a cigarette while watching all the people below.  Everybody smokes there, all the time, while they eat, drink, ride their scooters, and probably while they sleep. They are pretty easygoing and friendly, and the night life is ridiculous... but I will tell you more about that later.  After we went to the archeology museum which had artifacts from Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt we all went to a Tapas bar, and let me just say that going out for tapas is the THING TO DO IN MADRID.  Everyone does it, every day, possibly multiple times.  Tapas are just like a light meal, usually people have them with their drinks, and they can range from a snack to an actual dinner like meal.  At this particular tapas bar we had one of the most delicious and unhealthy things I've ever eaten it was called papas rotos and it was thin slices of potatoes fried with fried eggs on top and chunks of ham and cheese and some kind of sauce.  SO YUM.  We also got gazpacho which is a cold tomato herby soup type of thing and that was exquisite.  I'm totally going to make that when I come home, it is an explosion of flavor in your mouth.  After that tapas bar, we decided a treat was in order so we all went out for gelato, and Desi's counsin knew of the COOLEST PLACE. It was very elegant with tall tables and white slender stools and drapings all around and it was completely lit by candlelight.  Each table had multiple tea candles in glass containers.  I knew that I was going to indulge so I wanted it to be good, I therefore tasted a bunch of flavors before I chose Straciatella.  I am convinced that Straciatella is the Lord's gift to the righteous in this world.  It is honestly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.  It is like a light coconutty vanilla, but with fruity undertones and the most amazing consistency and creaminess, then add to that whole raspberries and flakes of chocolate and it was celestial pleasure to savor.  I'm not usually a fruit-with-chocolate kind of girl but all the flavors were so mild they melded into one flavor that had different layers within the one flavor, and I don't have the words to tell you exactly how delicious it was.  After that it was about 1:30 in the morning and we were exhausted so we went back to our hostel and crashed.  This story will continue with Espana Part 2 tomorrow! Be excited!