Whirl wind of a weekend. Madrid.

It´s been a long time, hasn´t it? Well, I´ve told a number of you about my crazy weekend, but for those of you that haven´t heard about it yet... take a seat, buckle up, a get ready for some fun! (WOW CHEESY! I hate myself sometimes).

Well the whole school has off on Fridays so we can take class trips. This first school sponsored trip was to Madrid! We arrived around 10:30 am and headed straight to the Palacio Real. With in minutes, while waiting in line to enter the Palace, a girl got her money stolen right out of her purse! For the rest of the day we all looked around suspiciously, guarding our bags with our lives!! Swiper no Swiping! (again... why do I do these things?). Needless to say, the Palace was FREAKING SWEET! All of the original carpets, tapestries, artwork, and furniture was still there! We had a personal tour of about 30 of the 2800 rooms in the palace and got to see the armory, and royal pharmacy! Haha :) We got back on the buses (which some friends and I nearly missed) and had a short bus tour of the city before heading to lunch at el Museo de Jamon (the ham museum... which isn´t actually a museum) where we were served fried chicken and french fries... AUTHENTIC! The day only got better ´cause the rest of the day was free time to explore. The girls and I went to find our hostel, checked in, and Nicole and I went on a wild goose chase to find a Movistar (cell phone company) so I could add more money to my pay-as-you-go phone.This search went on for about 3 hours, but I also think we went into EVERY shoe store that was selling botas (boots) too. Boots are all the rage... you can´t find a woman NOT wearing boots. Even 6 year old children are wearing them! (So of course we got some en rebaja!).

After a successful movistar and boot hunt, we headed back to the hostel to see what everyone was up to for dinner. As we walked in, it turns out the most of the girls had already gone grocery shopping for their dinner and were eating it happily on the floor. So again, Nicole, Jenna, and I headed out to find a supermercado to get some groceries. And what did dinner consist of? Nicole and I split a loaf of french bread, a bag of almonds and a bottle of 89 cent wine. YES, 89 CENTS FOR A BOTTLE OF WINE! ... And it wasn´t even half bad! Over here, wine is cheaper than water. Works for me! After our fancy dinner we all beautified ourselves for a night on the town. Most of the girls wanted to just walk around and find places to go... but Nicole and I decided to sign up for a bar crawl. 10 euros to get free cover for 4 bars and a discoteca, with free shots and sometimes beer, and discounted drinks. We also got to go out with people from a bunch of other hostels! We met people from Australia, Germany, France... it was an awesome night! (This is when I met Amin) :)

So Nicole and I made it back to the hostel around 4 am (which is still really early here in Spain) so when we met an Argentinian on our way up the stairs, we decided to sit and practice our Spanish with him in the lounge for... 3 HOURS! I didn´t know I was capable of talking in Spanish that long ;)... So long story short, went to bed at 7am, and had to check out of the hostel at 10:30 am... meaning 3 hours of sleep to fuel me for the next day of sight seeing!

I made it through the rest of Saturday seeing many things (see Facebook photo album for details) and headed home to Toledo. I was really surprised how at home I felt when I first saw the walls of the city where I now live. I felt calm, and relieved to be back home.