Due to graphic nature blah blah blah...Prepare to be grossed out. I was walking peacefully with my one bag to the metro, looking at all the different buildings and just enjoying the weather and my Ipod when a man 3 feet in front of me blew his nose onto the ground right in front of me. I tried to ignore it and just sped up the pace-but when I was passing the park I looked to my right and saw a child going to the bathroom right next to a tree in the park. It's normal for kids here to pee in the small dirt patches (meant for dogs!) but this was a bathroom break of a different kind. Gross. And to top it off, when I was waiting for the crosswalk two foreigners stopped their car in the middle of traffic and yelled stuff at me while holding up traffic. Needless to say I knew this was going to be an interesting trip even before I got on the (unairconditioned) bus to the airport. The bus driver was break happy and Krista and I were sitting in the 3rd seat from the back. By the time we got to the airport, I knew I could live through anything...
Once we got to the hotel after we landed it started pouring so we just settled for a restaurant and a Haagen Dazs near the hotel, which was cheap and satisfying. Saturday we got up early and went to the park, Plaza Mayor, Plaza del Sol, and the Royal Palace. Later that afternoon we got extremely lost in a not-so-great neighborhood, and I swear I'm getting really good at ignoring crazies! We then hiked our way up to a local restaurant called Lateral, where we were the only Americans and also the only people with a pitcher of Sangria for two...I can only imagine what people were saying because it was in one of the nicest parts of Madrid so we were also WAY underdressed.
Afterwards we went to the Reina Sofia where Krista got yelled at two times by the guards-once for being too close and once for "pointing". Mind you-she was getting yelled at for these things right next to a Spanish man whose eyelashes were practically grazing the photos. It was discrimination, I tell ya! Either way, I got revenge later on when I snuck back through the locker area to my water bottle I had hidden earlier behind a door :)
Afterwards we went to the Prado (meh) and later that night we went to this restaurant called the Teatriz which was amazing. It's quite funny, actually-we read her Fodor's book everyday but the best places we went to were recommendations from the guy at the front desk.
I also need to mention that the breakfast there was AMAZING. and FREE. U.S. hotels really can't compare to these breakfasts. Fruit, pastries, meats, cheeses, juices (mango, kiwi, etc.). I swear I've never eaten such lavish breakfasts in my life. And it's funny, because as many eggs as they eat here in Spain there was no eggs whatsoever for breakfast-apparently it's only a lunch/dinner item.
On the way back from the airport in Barcelona we took the bus again, this time sitting at the front to avoid any nausea. A man came up to the driver ON THE HIGHWAY to argue that the driver had given him the wrong change. He was speaking to him in English when the driver clearly didn't understand. AHHH. The driver has your life in his hands and you want to argue about CHANGE?! Krista and I were terrified because the driver was getting angry, but the man finally gave up and went back to his seat. After the bus I took a taxi and he told me I speak spanish very well :) WOOHOO! We got lost trying to get to my tiny street but he was playing this really relaxing music so for some reason I didn't care. He also wrote down the name of it for me to listen to later. It was a nice end to a very busy weekend.
So that's it, more or less! Sorry about the randomness of this post-It's a lot of stuff to recap and I'm really horrible at remembering the order of what happened....Just look at the photos and you'll get a better summary :)
Glad you had a fun time. Miss ya.
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