Alright here is what I did in Madrid in a nutshell

may 25

we finally got to madrid after a freaking 14 hour long train ride from paris around 11 am. We found our way o our hostel, MAD hostel, dropped off our bags and walked arund while we waited to check in at noon. We went to a Plaza nearby and at at La Suiza a really local bakery and bar. Rebecca and I split a plate od some spicy sausage, not chorizo but similar, and had that with cokes and bread. Here they actually gave us ice in our glasses! We had a great lunch and then we checked in. Our keys to our room were electronic wristwatches that also opened doors, and the lockers within our rooms. Quite snazzy. Once we finally figured out how to open our door, we found we had a roomie in bed sleeping. His name was Tal but we wouldnt learn his story until later......

Rebeeca and I took a nice siesta and then planned on seeing some Flamenco at another hostel that was nearby. We walked around, found Sephora at Plaza del sol and I finally bought some makeup and such there! I was so elated. we also went by a bakery, Panaderia, and got some spainish pastries. After that we ate dinner at Don Latinos, a fast food latin resturant. I had a combo meal that included: 2 beef empanadas, 2 cheese empanadas, llapingachos, patacones, fried banana chips, and then Kas Limon to drink. Such a fried feast I had never seen before. After dinner we went to Cats Cave to see the infamous flamenco. We waited for 2 hours and then they finally performed. 2 guys on guitars and a lady singing. Rebecca and were both puzzled about when the dancing would happened. We asked some peeps about the dancing and they guy reccomened some other places for flamenco in the latin district of town. They guy also commented on my Mexican Spanish, ah! So we found the latin district and went into a couple of the recommended places, and Apparently Flamenco is just the guitar playing and singing, the dancing is only for the tourists, and very expensive to see. Real spainards dont pay for flamenco and dont dance, lol. After that we walked around, saw paza Mayor the old center of madrid, ad then ate Churros and hot chocolate at Mastero Churro. You dip the churros into the hot chocolate, which is really visous, it is basically like a melyed choclate bar!

May 26th

we got up and went to the Prado and Sofia Reyena art mueums. we saw Velasquez, Goya and el Greco. At the prado we ate lunch and ate gazpacho and paella, very spanish indeed. It was so so. After that wen went to the sofia reyena, which was cool, and full of modern art. I saw alot of picasso, salvador dali, and others, best of all we got in for FREE. The train statio is very close to the reyena so we went there when we were done with the museum. At the Atocha station, this is the conversation I had withe the ticketer:

Me: "Habla ingles?"

Him "no"

me "problema"

it finally got all worked out and we got reservations for the early morning train ride to barcelona. We rode the metro back to the hostel and bought some spainish candy at tutti frutti. I got some friendship braceltes that were gummi for rebeccca, lydia, kryatal and myself. PS this morning we saw Conor and Patrick at breakfast, byx boys in mad hostel who knew?

When we got back to the hostel we took another siesta, and then i woke up to go us some internet. While doing that, our roomie Tal came on the computer next to me and we got to talking. We decided we should play some cards, so we stayed in and he taught rebecca and I an Isreali card game which he americanfied to call "Frank and Johnny" It was a good time. He told us MANY stoies of how he ended up in madrid and it was ridiculous. We ended up talking and joking in the room unitl 3:20, when we were hushed by the "hostel hall monitor" That was a funny night in my life. We woke up the next day at 6:50 to make our 8:15 departure from the train station. on the train a french movie was playing that was dubbed in spanish, it was a little wierd.

Anyway it was great to finally arrive in barcelona!