Day 2: Un Dia Perfecto en Madrid

Hola chicos!

I have officially arrived in Madrid and I can say that it is everything that I remembered and more. Our hotel overlooks El Parque Retiro which is a giant park in the heart of Madrid comparable to Central Park in New York... but way more badass than that because this is Spain. 

Hold up, rewind, did I mention that I sat on a plane for 8.5 hours with a personal trainer from the Czech Republic named Magda? She was pretty awesome... but a little too chatty and a little too much of a health nut... she legit read health magazines the whole flight and talked about how much she loved GNC. Her ability to speak English was pretty impressive, por ejemplo: she dropped the F bomb when babies started crying on the plane hahaha. I wasn't ready for her vulgar slang but obvi I can hang with that. So we chatted about random stuff that strangers sitting on a long ass flight feel obligated to do. I was glad she wasn't some obese stinky person, so all in all I can't complain. BONUS POINTS: she loves fro yo (clearly that made us instant BFFs) AND she gave me two Czech coins to have as a momento. Gracias, Magda :)

Okay onto the goodies:

I arrived in Spain and chatted with some security guards about how to get to Terminal 1 so we could meet up with our whole group. This was my first spanish speaking opportunity and I will admit it wasn't my best. Worry not, mis americanos, I'm gunna be a spanish speaking fool when I return to that airport in 6 weeks and then that security guard will know what's up.

Finally, I met up with our whole group... which consists of 98% girls. No biggie, because I'm on the hunt for hot spaniards anyway and girls like to take pictures so it works out perfectly. We meet our two ISA (International Studies Abroad) program leaders and their names are Maria Jesus (MJ) and Enrique (Quique pronounced "key-cay"). At this moment I recall how much my beloved Spaniards use the word "vale" (pronounced like vah-lay). Vale is comparable to saying "okay" and it's basically word vomit for spaniards. One time Quique said vale 5 times in a row back to back, this is not a joke they mean serious business when it comes to their vale. Therefore, I have made it my personal goal to incorporate vale into my spanish vocab, PERO it is not as easy as it sounds because growing up in Florida means growing up around hispanic people who say okay (which really sounds like o-gay) and that is what I'm used to saying when I speak Spanish. I'm so pathetic at trying to say vale that I told my friends that I was going to say vale when I went to ask a woman for directions and then I ended up saying "okiedokie".... clearly it's a work in progress -___-


Enough about my language struggles and onto the awesome sight-seeing:

So we ventured out at 1pm Spain time for some bocadillos (snacks) and went and had a calamari sandwich and una cerveza de marca Mahao (beer named Mahao).  

I also ate a shrimp that had the full head on it, obvi I removed the head, which was a yucky experience as evident in the photos. 

After this delish snack we wandered over to La Atocha, which is the famous train station where the terrorist bombing happened a couple years ago. We tried to find the memorial for the victims of the attack which is supposed to be some beautiful botanical garden with parrots singing and lush greenery everywhere, it basically sounded like paradiso. Well we walked over, got every kind of poor directions from all the people that worked there and after no success decided that we would attempt to find it again another day.

At this point I'm walking around with just a small group of the kids from my program (there are 25 total in my whole program) and since I am the only one in the little group that had been to Madrid before I am acting like a mini tour guide. CLARO I decide that we should head to La Plaza Mayor. It's about a 15 minute walk down the road from where our hotel is located so we mosey down and wander in and out of stores along the way. Everyone in the group, including myself, is amazed at the plaza and all the beauty is magnified by the gorgeous weather. Then, we grabbed a cafe con leche (coffee with milk... sorry if these translations insult your spanish intelligence but I am trying to make sure its an even playing field for all). 

We then continued to meander through the city, stopping in at various little tourist shops and practicing speaking spanish to each other and to local spaniards whenever we need directions. We stumble upon some statues that, naturally, I have to take a picture with and clearly Tebowing was the most appropriate pose for this situation. 

We seem some breathtaking cathedrals and then BOOM suddenly we stumble upon El Palacio Real (the royal palace) which is where the king and queen of spain used to live (now its just used for tours). 

The immensity and architectural detail of this building was worthy of a photoshoot so we found some kind stranger to take a picture of us all marking our territory with the iconic gator chomp. For those of you gator haters, relax. If you're reading this blog, clearly you love me so you gotta take all my gator shenanigans with a grain of salt. (GO GATA!) 

After our photoshoot with some more beautiful buildings, I brought the group to another one of my favorite spots that I discovered during my first time in Spain: El Mercado de San Miguel. This is basically an indoor market where people make and sell delicious tapas and beverages. I got another beer and two of my friends got sangria. This place sells everything you'd want to eat: croquetas (little fried balls of various yummy treats like ham and cheese or chicken and cheese), olives, little burgers, crostinis with various meats and cheeses and a TON of desserts... and mama likey deserts :) We will deff be stopping here tomorrow for almuerzo (lunch).

And that's basically my day in a nut shell. 

More to come from me tomorrow! Feel free to comment on any of my posts, I will read them all and love them all (shout out to Jenna Wheeler and Allison Reynolds for commenting on my first post!!!)

Hasta luego,
Raquel



Side note: we ran into a young couple from Sebastian, Florida. SMALL FREAKING WORLD! Me and Cara Nutt (a girl who lives 3 houses down from me in Indialantic) were freaking out about how these people could have been from anywhere in the world and yet they were basically from our hometown. Clearly melbo is where it's at!