My first day in Madrid

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So, I got here safe and sound. The whole thing was quite the experience and I'm really proud of myself for doing it. Traveling is a piece of cake! I kept worrying about the next thing I had to do, but when the time came everything went extremely smoothly. The woman I sat next to on the flight from Omaha to Cincinnati was a chatty Cathy... not necessarily a bad thing when I was as nervous as I was. She told me all about how she was going to Berlin and pretty much her entire life story. Come to find out, she was also taking a connecting flight from Cincinnati to New York. So, when we got off the plane, I followed her and we got there alright. There was a delay on that flight and then I started to worry about my next one. I had about an hour to get out of my plane and get to the gate for my international flight. I didn't really know what that entailed. I didn't know if I had to go through security again or have them do something to my passport or what. But nope... it was really easy. So easy I began to wonder if I'd done something wrong.

On the New York to Madrid flight I was seated next to a Columbian diplomat who was living in Madrid. She was SO nice. She stopped ready her book to talk to me because she saw that I was nervous. Then she gave me tips and showed me which route to take on the metro, how to get to the metro after I got off my plane, and which tickets I should purchase. REALLY nice. She recommended that I take a day or two to visit Toledo or Segovia while I'm here, but I'm just not sure I'm brave enough to leave the city. The last thing she told me in her heavy columbian/british accent was "Just be REALLY careful... I'm from Bogotá so I'm used to this kind of thing, but you're from Nebraska!" Hahaha... thanks for the vote of confidence. She was really sweet though and just looking out for me.

When I got off my plane, again, everything went SO well. My bag was one of the first to come up, the signs to the metro were easy to follow, and I got my tickets without a problem. Then I began to worry about how to do the metro itself. So I found the sign for the place where I wanted to go and followed it. I was standing by the rail (probably looking lost) when a girl said "you're not waiting for number 8, are you?"... yes, i was! She showed me her map and she was taking the exact same route as me (just getting off 2 stops later). So again, I had a travel buddy. She was from Charlotte and working her way to Sevilla for a study abroad program. We made our way through it though pretty easily. Then, I was there! Well, not really... I was to Antón Martín on Calle Atocha. When I first climbed out from the metro, I was shocked. It was so gorgeous and so different from American cities. I made my way down Calle Atocha, luggage and directions in hand. The directions were well written even though it doesn't seem like any of the streets have signs. I got here and had to wait about an hour to check in. Then there was a line of about 18 French people and that took forever. I finally got in and settled at about 1:30.

I rested for a few hours and then showered and got ready for the day. I was/am so exhausted though! I decided to go to el Parque del Buen Retiro. Wow... again I was shocked at how gorgeous Madrid is. I did a lot of people watching there and then left. On the way home I was spacing off and ran into some guy and almost knocked him over. Instead of "lo siento!", I of course threw out an "I'm sorry". He responded "Nonono". But, I made my way back to the hostel. I'm sooo tired now. I'm kind of bummed that I didn't use Spanish today, but my excuse is that I'm jet lagged. I'm just glad that I got out today being as tired as I am. I've slept 2 hours in the past 37ish. But, tomorrow is a new day!

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Photos

Calle de Espalter
This is just a semi-random street near the center of Madrid. I just love the buildings! SO gorgeous.

Calle de Espalter
Another picture

Gato
Here's a picture of a cat. I thought it was cute :)

Alfonso XII's Mausoleum
This is in el Parque del Buen Retiro. The park itself is enormous. This mausoleum is a semi-circular shape opening up to a little lake thing where people can go out in paddle boats and canoes and stuff.

Alfonso XII's Mausoleum
Here's another picture

Statue in Alfonso XII's Mausoleum
I have no idea what this statue is about, but I thought I was pretty cool.

Crazy Guys
These guys were really funny. They were yelling at each other and carrying on... hilarious. Until one of them tried to talk to me. He told me to call him Pepe and to call him if I had any problems. That's when I left.

Paseo de la República de Cuba
This street runs through the park, but actually, people walk in the streets a lot. A lot of the streets look like little one way alleys and there are always people walking up and down them. That was one of the most surprising things: how busy the sidewalks were! Think of the Old Market in Omaha on a Saturday night... that's how the streets are (the ones I've been on anyway).

Parque del Buen Retiro
I just sat underneath a tree here and people-watched for awhile. It was so peaceful.