We are in LOVE with Spain!!! Madrid is SO beautiful. Our hostel is amazing... it is just two blocks from Plaza del Sol, the center of everything. And the facilities are amazing... nearly brand new. I think staying here may spoil us a bit!

We arrived in Spain early Friday morning after taking the overnight train from Paris (that´s a whole other story... lousy loud obnoxious Frenchmen!). What a relief to be in a country where we at least know a BIT of the language! And everyone is so much nicer in Spain! We had next to no problems finding the correct metro and then finding our hostel. What a change from Paris! Friday we spent wandering the spreets of Madrid... I think we were all still in Paris mode, because we were ready to get a move on and see some sights. But Madrid´s city center is surprisingly compact, and just in Friday afternoon alone we saw more than half the sights to see in the city.

...More to come...

Aright... that was cut short due to lack of internet time. Now, on with the show!

Saturday we did some strolling around Sol and then moved east, towards the massive park on the eastern edge of the city center. Silly us, we thought this was a park where we could lay in the grass and lounge about. Wrong. This was like a park of mazes! Just bush mazes and trails and trees enclosing you everywhere. It was so pretty! And so massive! We wandering around until 3pm, then headed to the something something Sofia museum of contemporary art (just in time for it to be free!). There were some pretty crazy things in there... interesting. Definitely contemporary art. After our fill of that we went back to Sol, found a grocery store and stocked up. Mmm food... Saturday night was very relaxed... we just lounged about the hostel, planning portions of our trip and doing who knows what. Some guys in our room invited us to go out with them, but we were too lazy... plus, once you´re in pajamas... you know.

Sunday, our last day in Madrid. There is a massive flea market in Medrid every Sunday in the summer, and it is GIGANTIC. I was reading about it ahead of time and the directions it gave set the market between two streets that were nearly 5 blocks apart width wise, and stretched from one plaza, past several more south of it. I thought surely this was a mistake... this market was probably just down a street or two for a couple blocks. No. It was probably bigger than what I´d read! We just went to a small portion of it... mostly because it was so packed with people and tents and this and that... it was hectic. Megan almost got stuff stolen out of her backpack, but luckily she had that little twistie carabeaner thingy on, so she felt someone fiddling with it. Close call though! Shortly thereafter we´d had enough of this giant mass of people and started walking towards the Prado, museum of classic arts. We lounged on the Prado lawn, waiting for 5pm to roll around when the museum opened for free (we plan ahead). There were some cool pieces in the Prado, some we all recognized from school,etc. It was also fun jut to commentate on them... some were quite hilarious with jomegamie analyzing them! After enough giggles, we hustled to pick up some snacks from the delicious pastry shop that had been taunting us for days. And, lucky us, they also sold sangria. So we got a bottle and power walked to the temple park on the far opposite side of the Prado. We went with the idea of watching the sun set over the city (spectacular view from here!), but it was too cloudy to really see the sunset. And then we realized that if we hoped to be leaving for Barcelona early the next morning, we had better get back to our hostel before reception closed on 10pm so we could get early checkout and get our €20 key deposit back. Now THAT was some serious hustle. We made it just at 10! Phew! After that we all needed a cold shower and then spent the night trying to pack our bags. So sad to leave Madrid... but Barcelona here we come!!!

IN LOVE WITH SPAIN!!!

xo Amie