My Madrid Adventure

After traveling half way across the world, I finally arrived in Madrid on Monday morning (local time). I will spare you the long and boring details of my flights and arrival to the hotel. I have been able to adjust to the local time (nine hours ahead of Eugene) fairly quickly. My roommate, a few other girls, and I spent Monday afternoon walking around Madrid. We visited the famous Plaza de Torros, a bullfighting ring. Later that evening, my roommate, Claire, and I went to daily Mass at Parroquia Nuestra Senora de Covadonga (about a mile from our hotel). The church was beautiful and a woman sang some of the most beautiful opera throughout Mass. One of the songs was Ave Maria. It was very hard to follow along though and neither Claire, nor I knew any of the Mass parts in Spanish. Our goal is to know all the Mass parts and be able to follow along by the end of our trip.

This morning, we loaded buses and went to the city center of Madrid. There we split into groups of 25 and went on a walking tour. Our tour guide was very fun and knowledgeable. A few highlights from the tour:

The Spanish Royal Palace - it is beautiful and gigantic. supposedly one of the largest palaces in the world.

San Martin Mercado - this is a beautiful market filled with high-end tapas, pastries, wine, and coffee. I got a latte and it was delicious!

All of the buildings are so old and beautiful. We walked past so many ornate wooden doors doors and all the street names are on tile on the buildings.

Las monjas de Corpus Cristi - these cloistered nuns live in a convent near the city center. It is a random building that looks like all the others and it is on a narrow little street. They sell dulces (sweets) to make a living, but they are cloistered so they put sweets on a lazy-susan turntable and then swing it around to you and you leave the money for them. Claire bought some and they look like powdered sugar squares and taste similar to really fluffy shortbread.

El Prado Museum - this museum houses Las Meninas by Velazquez (very famous Spanish painting) and other famous statues and paintings.

We were on our own for the afternoon/evening, so some of the girls and I walked around the city and revisited some of our favorite sites. We had dinner at a tiny little restaurant downtown and then navigated the metro (subway) back to our hotel. It's on to Toledo tomorrow!

Also, it was sooooo cold and windy today! I was freezing the whole day (even with a thick sweater) and I kept wishing I had brought my gloves! I'll be wearing gloves tomorrow.

Claire and I at el Parque de Buen Retiro

La Plaza de Torros

The Royal Palace