Madrid and beyond!

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Today was supposedly the international day of free museums- so we took the day off school and headed to the fc Barcelona museum- apparently they dont agree with this and wanted 18euro to go in just to see camp nou! Hopefully we will get tickets for a game and see it this way instead, 18 euro to see a empty stadium? We then headed to montjuic and found out that poble espanol does not count as a museum either but decided to head in anyways. Poble espanol is an artificial town with houses and monumnets from all over spain- supposedly a must see! But was very touristy and I felt that the buildings just on the streets of Barcelona were a lot better than here! Very disappointed! But I can see that if you hadn’t seen any of Barcelona or Spain and only had a couple of days there- then yes it would be really cool! We just wandered around going into all the shops trying the tastings of Spanish food! One thing I did learn though was that the windows in Spanish towns were painted blue because supposedly at the time they thought that mosquitos didn’t like blue and therefore wouldn’t come in. if its true then why do none of the houses today have it? Interesting thought though. We then headed to the museum of art up montjuic- which was free yay! We both decided we weren’t really that interested in art so headed to an archaeological museum which was really interesting!

Thursday- I found out that Mia and I booked different flights to Madrid- two hours difference- but when we got to the airport we asked the desk if it was possible to change flights- and they were happy to! I don’t think this would ever happen in Nz! I got a window seat and enjoyed the views- as when I arrived in barca was so wet I couldn’t see anything! We arrived and headed to our couch surfing accommodation for the night.- although I screwed this up and we were on metro to the wrong couch surfer! We were an hour late to get to our actual couch surfer for the night but he was so lovely about it! He was wearing a nz t shirt and was so nice! His couch surfers from the night before were still there which was so cool so met two other couch surfers from Poland who were so lovely- definitely going to visit! As soon as we arrived Marco (our host) told us to make ourselves at home and was soooo lovely! He sat us down with a map and highlighted all the places to visit and see in Madrid! We then headed out to explore Madrid it was such an amazing time to go to Madrid due to the demonstrations that were happening at this time. There were thousands of people camped out in plaza del sol all protesting about the government and Spains economic crisis. I was amazed that so many people had joined- was not only the hippies ☺ They were so organized and had tents for food for everybody, day cares and much more- mind you these were all made out of cardboard but the atmosphere was amazing. Marco explained to us what was happening and said that Spain had a 21% rate of unemployment- now everywhere I go I can see it whether it be the beggers on the street or the buscars on the train- I naively assumed that they made more money out of this with all the tourists etc but its desperation and I can see it on all their faces now! Finding it so hard not to reach into my wallet every time I see someone.

A little while later we returned to a dinner party of Italian food and he invited friends around and the polish people were still there too! Felt so comfortable there and had such a nice night. In the morning when he woke up for work he said that we could stay there until we were ready to get up for the day and to help ourselves to breakfast, we couldn’t believe that he would leave us in his apartment by ourselves- such a trusting guy, of course he had nothing to worry about with us- but you know.I guess the type of people doing couch surfing are not the ones you need to worry about. We headed out and had a massive day of sightseeing in Madrid- although after a day we had seen it all! Started off in beautiful park where there was an Egyptian temple- yes a real one in the middle of Madrid! It was a gift from the Egyptians to Spain as a thankyou for their help restoring or protecting the temples. Then we went to see the outsides of museums such as Prado and Reina Sofia- but seeing that neither of us are art buffs decided we were content to have seen the outside. We grabbed lunch – Madrilean style – bocadillo con calamares- (calamari sandwhich) was definatley not as good as I imagined but glad I tried it. We then headed to some awesome markets- everything was presented nicer and the markets had a lot better feel than la Bocaderia probably because again minus the tourists.
Later In the afternoon we headed to our next accommodation, I think because we had such a good experience the first night no one could live up to it. Our second couch surfing host, German was very awkward and strange- he told us he only does couchsurfing to practice his English for an exam because its cheaper than language classes- hmm good first impression! Also his English was really bad and he didn’t want to speak in Spanish so there was a great amount of awkward silences ☺ He turned on the tv and this stayed on the entire night. It was 11 before we had dinner as we waited for his friend- by this time we were starving and the fact that he cooked dinner an hour before his friend was going to arrive so we had our food sitting in front of us- both of us starving, watching it go cold. After dinner we went out for a drink and went to a club which was again really awkward they just stood there and didn’t talk we wanted to dance but couldn’t, because they wanted to be with us as well. Hmm interesting night finally we came back at 5 am and I woke up at 8am to get into a line for a bull fight. But when I went to leave the door was locked and there were no keys were anywhere so I had to wake up the couch surfer to get out- he was trying to make plans to spend the day together etc so I left quickly. I think he was quite lonely. I stood in line for 2 hours for tickets as it was Sant Isidre festival but when I got to the people they only had expensive tickets left- separate seats and it wasn’t a traditional bullfight I decided that I will go see one in Seville or somewhere else before I go. I know I am going to hate it but I think it’s a big part of the Spanish culture especially in Madrid (Catalonia has banned bullfighting and are very against it)

I then caught up with Mia and we met up with our friends from Barcelona who had come to Madrid for the weekend on a bus 8 hours both ways- and they only arrived Saturday morning CRAZY! We met them at about lunch time and in typical Spanish fashion had a couple of drinks. They were so cheap and amazing. It was lemonade mixed with red wine- similar to sangria but much better. We then headed to Retiro park for the afternoon this is a HUGE park in the middle of the city. There is a lake where you can hire boats as well- we found it very funny all the madrileans were sunbathing in bikinis and kept talking about the beach, we then realized that for them this was what they called the beach! Glad I choose to live in Barcelona I don’t think I would survive a Spanish summer without the beach. We slept in sun and had a picnic, then wandered around to see the different performers in the park. There was an amazing circus performer juggling with chain saw etc very good.

We headed to public toilets to get ready for town- we were wearing the same clothes from the days before and didn’t even have heels oh the joys of backpacking. Had drink in very Spanish bar- so nice here there’s hardly any tourists and everywhere you go you only hear Spanish such a nice change from Barcelona. The differences have surprised me so much. We then headed to meet a friends, friend and proceeded to enjoy sangria outside. Although it is illegal to drink on the street there is a plaza where all the young people go and bring guitars or music and everyone is here drinking or having picnic dinners. Atmosphere was so cool- wish we had a plaza like this in Barca. Headed to the biggest nightclub in Madrid with 7 huge floors each one having different style of music was amazing! Had awesome night the music was soooo good I loved everysong! Best night out yet!

We left the club at 6 and rushed to the metro station to catch our flight home – we were just in time- 2 minutes later and they wouldn’t have let us on. Needless to say we were so tired the alcohol and warn off and after only 3 hours of sleep in 2 days I crashed on the plane. I tried to stay awake to see the views of Barcelona but keeping my eyes open proved to hard. We finally got to Barcelona took train home and bus so was about 11am before we arrived home. My dad here picked us up from the station and he told me that Laia had lost her first tooth. It was so strange I felt like a proud mum and when I got home I gave the girls huge hugs- and realized I had missed them heaps- I think I am going to find it really hard to leave!!! I proceeded to sleep for 16 hours and awoke the next morning- I had planned to wake for dinner but was so exchausted!

On Friday I headed into Barcelona to do some much needed shopping 😞) as I don’t have school on Fridays. I thought I would go and see the protests occurring in Plaza Catalunya (same as in Madrid- happening all over Spain). I had the absolute worst timing I wandered around for a minute or so and then I saw people running away from something at first it wasn’t many and then I heard gun shots and suddenly everybody was running and screaming. Was the scariest moment of my life and I don’t think I have ever run so fast- I tried to get in the closest shop- Cortés ingles but they had locked the doors and wouldn’t let anyone in or out- this scared me even more reminded me of images I had seen on the news or movies about shootings in the street. All I kept on thinking was this doesn’t happen in NZ! Haha But after a few streets all was calm and I later found out that they were only using plastic bullets- thank goodness! So all safe and sound here! So strange I was shaken up for a while and then I entered the shops with their strobes and nightclub music and forgot about what I had experienced 30 minutes before. So strange how quickly we foget. I bought a skirt, dress and a bikini so all in all good shopping day! How am I going to bring all my things home!! My bag was overweight when I came over! Or maybe I should be worried about lugging a 20kg+ backpack for 5 months around Europe and Asia hmmm I will think of something!

Sat –Our kids had a music show of their singing classes then a party so went along and it was so cute! I was really surprised though afterit they had a lunch and there was so much alcohol and food- crazy! Marissa was very drunk and stealing all the beer what a laugh! There was dancing afterwards it was so fun danced with my girls and lots of people from town- traditional Spanish dancing but was incredibly hot in the gym. So we went home and grabbed togs and headed to Marissa’s house with a huge pool! So nice and the water was perfect temperature. I know where I will be this summer! I

I headed home and showered and went to kates- made yummy home made pizzas and had a awesome atmosphere going listening to music, cooking and enjoying a glass of wine but the dad returned home drunk and we felt like we needed to look after kids so we cooked and they came to the café- or bar with their dad and us and we watched the second half of the game.

We were really gutted as it was supposedly an amazing game but we spent the whole time looking over the children and comforting Kate . But the after party definitely made up for it! We chilled with the girls from volley and the other young people everyone was in such a good mood cause Spain had one the cup- didn’t get home til late the next morning and proceeded to sleep until the afternoon where we headed into barca for the celebration of winning the cup and Camp Nou opened up to the public- there were so many people.
I Bought my first souvenir a fc Barcelona shirt! We saw the team come and wave the trophy on the roofless bus. But when tried to get into Camp Nou but it was closed too many people so we were really gutted but will just have to see a game. However it sounded amazing and we, as well as the other thousands of people who couldn’t get in wandered around thriving off the atmosphere. We then headed home- having to wait an hour for the train and got home at 12. Wow what a weekend!!!! School Monday ☹

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poble espanol