Time's winding down :( Days 5, 6, & 7

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Nothing of any significance happened on day 5. I can't for the life of me get my sleep cycle on track. I'm not exactly on Nebraska's time anymore, but I'm not on Madrid's either. I think it's because it stays light out until 10:00ish. I'm just not used to that. So by the time it gets dark and whatnot, I don't get tired until around 2 in the morning... then I wake up at noon and don't feel like I've overslept at all. It's a vicious cycle :p A couple more things about Madrid: 1) there is a lot of graffiti everywhere. 2) the shops along the street are kind of like in a mall. They're all open, and then when they close, they cover the whole storefront with a door of corregated metal. And all of this metal has graffiti all over it. 3) there are plazas EVERYWHERE. just little open areas with benches and a statue of some guy surrounded by flowers. Sometimes there's a fountain. They're gorgeous though. Ok, so where was I in my Madrid adventures?

On Saturday night I went out with a friend. We went to a Spanish restaurant and had actual Spanish food! Here you always drink wine with your meals... usually water isn't even served, and if it is, it's bottled water and expensive. Then we had a salad... but even that wasn't as easy as that sounds. It wasn't a normal salad in a bowl with ranch... it was a plate of... stuff. It had little wedges of lettuce, a big chunk of tuna, white asparagus, tomatoes (they eat a ton of tomatoes here), and something else that I didn't know what it was and my friend couldn't explain it to me so I didn't eat it. I need to know what I'm eating. This was all laid out very nicely on a plate of corn and cut up something (maybe cucumbers or zucchini). So you serve yourself from the plate and dump olive oil on it (as you do with pretty much everything else). It wasn't too bad, but it was really different and I had a hard time eating it. I decided I'm not a huge fan of olive oil... I could never be a Spaniard :p Then we got a plate of these little things that were balls of mashed potatoes and little pieces of jamón, breaded and fried. They were incredible. So after those came I was feeling much better about the whole thing (my friend just ordered the food and I had no idea what was ordered). THEN we got a plate of sauteéd mushrooms in some kind of sauce with cheese on top and paté. OH MY GOSH! It was probably one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my life. I'm a HUGE fan of mushrooms to begin with, but whatever they put them in I could've drank through a straw. So that was my first Spanish food experience (and probably my best so far). Then we of course went for drinks because I've become an alcoholic in Spain.

Sunday - What did I do Sunday? I went to the Museo Nacional del Prado. I don't have any pictures of it though because you can't take pictures inside and the outside is nothing special... plus they were doing some construction. By the way, if you think the construction in Omaha is bad, stay as far away from Madrid as possible! I wasn't too big of a fan of the museum. I'm not a huge art fan to begin with though. I stayed for about an hour wandering aimlessly around and then looked for the big green "salida" (exit). Other than that, I didn't really do much of anything. I've done sooo much just wandering around Madrid seeing the sights though. I know I've said this 800 times, but it's such a beautiful city! Even if a lot of areas smell like urine.

Monday - Yesterday was a really fun day. I finally met some people at the hostel and I'm finally getting really comfortable in the city. I started eating yesterday too! Well, Sunday night I went to Burger King and ordered a "doble cheeseburger y aros de cebollas"... it was really bad. So, you know how in the US when you go out and get some fast food it usually... warm? This is not the case in España. Actually, my I've had to lower my standards of cleanliness significantly here... but I'll get more into that later. I was so nervous that I totally butchered the pronunciation, but she just rolled her eyes and got me my food 😊 Anyway... Monday. I woke up at noonish (again) and decided to go back to the Palacio Real to actually go inside. Well, before I went I was talking to a friend who said jokingly "don't get lost". I said "oh, I won't, I have a map." This totally jinxed me and I got unbelievably lost. I wandered around for about 3 hours. But I saw some great sights in the meantime. Finally I saw a sign for Calle de Bailén. I knew where that was! The sign was pointing in the opposite direction of where I thought I should be going. But I obviously trusted the signs more than my sense of direction. So I went through la Plaza de España and there, 3 hours later, was the Palacio Real. By this point I didn't really feel like going in anymore. There are gardens in the back (Jardines de Sabatini). So I wandered through those and then made my way back to the hostel. By then I was really hungry so I went and got some Subway (yeah, I'm making my way through american fast food chains... I think KFC is next 😊 The lady working there was actually really mean to me. I tried to use my Spanish (and I did), but she was very impatient. I was kind of upset with this at first, but then two thoughts occurred to me: 1) she's working in Subway in the city center... she has to listen to people butcher her language all day long. 2) she's working in Subway... a lot of people wouldn't be too incredibly happy with this fact. I don't remember a time when I've gone to a fast food restaurant (in english) and the person there has been incredibly friendly (except the taco bell at 108th and Maple in Omaha... they are super nice there!). So I got my sandwich and came back to the hostel to eat it. Then I decided that I wanted to go to el Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. That is an art museum with modern art. I liked this one a lot more than the Prado. It has mostly works by Spanish artists. Their biggest claim to fame is that it has Picasso's Guernica. It was really, really neat. I actually really enjoyed this museum. On the way back (or maybe it was on the way there... i don't remember), I stopped by the metro/train station at Atocha Renfe. This is right by where the bombings happened in 2004. They have a big glass column that goes through the roof and then is illuminated by the light outside. Inside the column are a bunch of different words and phrases and then on the wall it has a list of the names of all the victims. I didn't take my camera because I couldn't take pictures in the Reina Sofía, so I don't have any pictures of it, but there's an article about it here if you're interested. I got back to the hostel at about 9:00ish and it was almost time to eat (they eat here at around 10:00). The Finnish girl in my room said she wanted to go get some paella and asked me if I wanted to go... so of course I did. So she, a girl from Wisconsin, and I went in search of some good paella. We finally found a place. You had the option of either chicken or seafood. I thought that the chicken would be a little safer. I was wrong. I think that they kill the chicken, stick the whole thing in a blender and throw it into the paella. There were bones and organs and all of that fun stuff. So I wasn't a huge fan of the paella. The Finnish girl got the seafood paella and she really liked it. Her exact words were "I thought it was quite good... at least the bites that weren't crunchy." To which I responded, "You have bites that aren't crunchy?" It was quite the experience. When we got there there was a woman from Australia eating alone, so we invited her to eat with us as well. So the four of us sat there eating paella, drinking sangria, and watching that evening's bull fight on tv. Oh, the bull fights! I understand that it's a Spanish custom and whatnot, but a lot of people aren't entirely sure of what goes on, so I'll tell you. They maim the bull before the fight starts. Then, they take it out into the ring and pretty much torture it. They jab it with spears, and it's not like you think where they hold the red cape up and the bull charges... no. They hold the cape up and taunt this poor thing. One of the bulls got tired of it and laid down and they went and provoked it so it would get up and keep going. The bulls don't just randomly charge. They yell at it and try to make it mad. Then, they kill it with a sword, hook it onto a big golf cart thing, and drag it away. They do this usually 6 to 8 times. It kind of made me sad.

Tuesday - Now today. I actually woke up at a decent time today! Like 11ish. I went and wandered around for a little bit and then came back and started talking to another girl who is staying at the hostel (but in a different room than me). We talked for awhile and then decided to go get some chocolate con churros. By the time we left two other people came with us. So the four of us found a place (not very difficult to do) and ate our churros. This is where the standards of cleanliness come in. When you order water they give you a bottle of water and a wine glass to drink it out of. The glasses were dirty, which is fine.. no big deal, right? But one of the bottles of water that they gave us was open and had been drank out of, HAHA. I thought it was really funny... but then again, it wasn't my bottle of water. After our churros, we split up. I went back yet again to give the Palacio Real another go. This time I actually went in. It was really really cool. I couldn't take my camera inside, so I didn't even bring it, but I really wish I would have. Out in the courtyard there is an overlook of Madrid and the surrounding area that is just breathtaking. It's the city to the left, and really green hills to the right. REALLY beautiful. So I walked around the palace for about an hour or an hour and a half, and now I'm back at the hostel again. I'm not entirely sure whether or not I'll go out tonight or just chill here. Tomorrow though, I'm going to do some shopping and hit up the botanical gardens. I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day here! I'm SO bummed. I'm definitely going to have to come back to Spain and definitely going to do a lot more traveling in general. This has really been such an amazing experience.

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Photos

Plaza de Bravo Murillo
This is a little plaza right along el Paseo del Prado, sandwiched between el Museo Nacional del Prado and el Real Jardin Botánico.

Hostel
I got bored and was tired, so I decided to take pictures of my hostel. This is the ceiling in the common area.

Hostel
Here's a picture of the common area

Hostel
And another picture of the common area

Home!
Not really. Actually this is a restaurant. I have no idea where it is, because I came across it when I was lost and wandering aimlessly on Monday. I thought it was pretty awesome though :)

Plaza de España
I took this picture in la Plaza de España before I had any idea where I was. Had I known, I would've taken more pictures here, because it's really a beautiful plaza.

Jardines de Sabatini
These are the gardens behind el Palacio Real.

Jardines de Sabatini
Another picture of the gardens...

Jardines de Sabatini y Palacio Real
Overlooking the gardens to the palace...

Plaza de Oriente
This is a plaza that's right by the palace.

Plaza de Oriente
Another picture of the plaza.