Madrid

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Today is our third and final day in Madrid. The morning of our first day here we toured the royal palace of Madrid and people watched in a buzzing plaza. There are musicians, human statues, and all kinds of entertainersto see! My favorite was listening to a man musically play on kitchen pots while watching a group of boys perform soccer tricks outside the national theater.

This truly is the city that never sleeps! We went on a pub crawl and at 4am the city streets are as packed as 4 in the afternoon!! (No worries: we were out with our hostel's hype girl/guide). We had a blast crawling with some people we met from New York, Canada, Argentina and Spain- who helped me with my Spanish, too. We covered our bases and tried Spanish sangria, margaritas and the mojitos are unbelievable! We've eaten well two: traditional paella (a rice dish) and the olive oil is SO sweet. We stumbled upon a little counter/diner where we ate dinner last night, and met some Californians. We went with them to a jazz/flamenco bar, and when we came back to our hostel, our receptionist friend greeted us with freshly made croissants he was cooking for breakfast already!

We shopped in El Rastro, a huge flea market, and made some great buys. AND, surprisingly, found a Spanish priest who outdid Father John´s speedy mass; we sat for less than forty minutes.

Today we´re going to check out the park called Buen Retiro and tonight we catch a night train to Paris.

Hasta luego, de España! Y hasta Paris!

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