Day 32: Madrid, Spain

At our hostel, we found an advertisement for a free walking tour of downtown Madrid and all of its main attractions. We got ready, put our big bags into the hostel storage and went to the Puerta del Sol (Madrid's city center) to meet up with the tour group. Our tour guide was named Bruce and was originally from South Africa, so he was a fluent English speaker. He guided us through the streets, stopping at important historical places and monuments (palaces, churches, interesting and historically significant buildings, plazas, and statues) to tell us about them . The tour was about 3 and a half hours long and included a stop to the Museo de Jamon (Mueseum of Ham), for a traditional Spanish lunch of Sangria and Paella (or a cheese croissant for those of us who don't like Paella and claim they are vegetarians). Afterwards we hurried back to the hostel for our bags and directions to the airport. We took the metro to the airport for only 2 Euro (it was about a 35 minute commute). Then we hurried to the check in desk, only to find no one there. We thought we were late, and they had stopped checking in for our flight, but we were had really just gotten confused with military time and were an hour to early for check in. So we sat down to catch our breath, waited to check in, and got ourselves organized.

We checked in and then went in search of dinner. We walked very far, but had the time to do so, so it was ok. We ate some expensive, but not so great, airport food and then went back to the gate to wait for our plane to board. The plane was about 50 minutes late in departing. On the plane ride, we took advantage of the time for documenting our pictures. Our 4 hour plane ride was uneventful, but it was very weird to see the sunlight when we landed at 11:30 at night. Oslo is about the same latitude as Alaska, so it remains light for at least about 18 hours per day in the summer, and dark for about 18 hour per day in the winter. We got our bags, went through the customs (once again, no passport stamping), and exited. Jens was right in the waiting area. Jens is a friend who we both met in high school when he was studying abroad in the US. Christine owes passing chemistry to him because he was in her class and they studied together a lot. He and Christine have kept close contact over the years. He revisted the US in 2003, which is the last time we both had seen him. It was great to see him in the airport, the whole time we were in the process of getting up to Oslo, we were in disbelief that A.) We were going to be seeing Jens again! and B.) We were going to be visiting Norway!

Once we met up, Jens drove us to his mother's house in Lillestrøm where we met his girlfriend Ellen. Jens' mother is currently on vacation. The four of us chatted until about 1:30 am and then when to bed, preparing for an early morning for Norway's Constitution Day festivities.

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