Madrid Madrid

So we arrive in Madrid via night train and the day starts out quite rough, im not gonna lie. We have a stop in irun and then from irun we went to madrid. Well, we have to pay 10 euros about to reserve a 2nd class seat and 25 euros for first class. We dont really understand why because we have a first class eurail ticket...but hell if we're paying 25 euros. So we suck it up and sit 2nd class. Well, when we arrive (STARVED, i might add) in Madrid we go to make a reservation for madrid to barcelona and then barcelona to interlaken and we're hit with even more fees!! Another 25 euro for our first class seat, and then 72 euro for a couchette (a little room with beds because our train from barcelona to interlaken is over night). Pissed, we pay and go to find our hostel. We have to hop on a local train (luckily we didnt have to pay for that) and go to the other train station. We get off and I immediately have to put my 1st grade level spanish to the test. It takes forever for us to get on the right street; i asked probably 5 people "pardon, donde esta?" and then pointed to the spot on the map. Walking up hill, with very little sleep, in the heat, not knowing for sure if we were going the right way was a bit taxing. FINALLY we find our hostel, and our spirits are lifted a bit because they ran out of the room we requested and we got the next room up - one full size bed, a twin bed, our own bathroom and shower, a tv (we didn't watch), and a safe. We loved this hostel.

First, showers were in order. Steph took one and she decided to dry her hair since we had a rough day and we had time. While i was in the shower, i heard this loud BANG. I came out and she had dropped our power transformer and broke it! So with half dry and nappy hair we had to figure out what to do next. We asked the front desk and they directed us to a store called El Corte Ingles. We set out to go find it and discover there are about 10 different El Corte Ingles with like 7 stories each - oy. Well, luckily we brought the transformer with us and after about 100 "donde esta?" and pointing to the transformer, we find the right section! Luckily someone speaks english there too. Well, we soon learn that we dont need the power transformer for electronics with smaller voltage electronics like our laptop and cameras. And sure enough, we didnt - we just needed the adaptors...which we didn't break. Nonetheless, it was still a good experience because we got integrated in some culture and we didn't have to buy anything. Although, now we're just carrying around a blow dryer and straightener for no reason - I'm considering just leaving it somewhere.

After this whole ordeal, we headed to eat some TAPAS! We were walking around La Plaza Mayor (i think) and spotted some guys playing the accordian and tamberine and noticed it was the same guys we had seen in a subway station in Paris! Crazy! Well, we saw some people taking pictures in their general direction and noticed they were speaking English, so we figured it would be a good converstaion starter. Well, they were actually taking pictures of their two friends right next to the little band who had just gotten engaged - whoops, not so much of a convo starter after all. Well, they were actually really nice, and excited to come across some english speakers - they were from georiga (Mandy, I thought about you! They go to Moutain Lake Church if you've ever heard of it). So they were actually in madrid on a mission trip. They invited us to go have dinner with them and so we did! It was kind of funny because they were there celebrating the engagement and we were just two random girls...but they made us feel welcome. It was really fun, we got some tapas and sangria and just talked with them for the evening. After that we went back to the hostel.

The next day we went to the REAL MADRID stadium and took a tour!! It was awesome. We went up in the stands, went to the mueseum inside, the trophy room, the bench and the locker room. We took a ridiculous amount of pictures. Then we hopped on the metro and headed across town to the bull fighthing stadium! We didnt actually see a bull fight or even get to go inside but the outside was cool looking, and i saw what the inside looks like on a post card...so that was enough. Getting tired, we got back on the metro and went to the Royal Palace. It was pretty and big, but that was about the extent of its excitement. Then it was time to head back to the hostel and do laundry for the first time. I'm not going to lie, this was the most excited i've ever been to do laundry. Clean underwear - yay! We met some funny mexican guys while waiting for our laundry and then we heard about a tapas tour that our hostel was putting together. We had to wait for our laundry to finish so we were late to the tapas tour and they were already at the last bar but we got some gross cider and met some cool people. Afterwards, our new friend Guilliam invited us to his hostel cause he said he had some sangria so that we didnt have to pay 15 euro to go on the pub crawl. Well once we got to his hostel we met some of his friends and we all just chilled outside on a bench for a few hours just talking. It was a lot of fun! Guilliam is french candian, and we met three girls who are exchange students in spain, one is fro germany, another from the US, and the last from Switzerland. Then there were also two boy from mexico, and another guy from spain. It was lots of fun to talk to them and learn about life outside of the US. We were a bit embarassed because we were the only ones who werent fluent in a different language, but they said it was all good. The girl from germany, theresa, knew german, spanish, english, french, and some hungarian. Wow. Anywho, we had to head back to the hostel because we had that 25 euro reservation to barcelona at 8am.

Well, if you're smart you could have probably guessed I can't get up that early. We missed our train and woke up 2 hours after it had already left. We freaked out a bit but then got on another train at 11:30 or something. But we lost that 25 euro and had to pay another 10 euro for stupid 2nd class. Don't think I'm stuck up, we were just mad because we bought a first class eurail and have yet to use it by this point! I'll leave Barcelona to its own post, but all in all we LOVED madrid!!! It'll always have a special spot in our hearts. ;)

hi casey! i hope your dog search went well! i can't wait to meet him!