I LOVE MADRID!

La Puerta del Sol

So last night I did not sleep so well. I can't really tell how many hours of sleep I got because I continuously found myself awake. Vern couldn't sleep either so we both got up around 6:45am when some child outside of our apartment screamed at the top of his lungs as if he was dying and we decided there was no more hope for sleep. We lounged around before we started getting ready for the day around 8:30. At 9:30 we left the apartment to meet up with our group at the train station. At 10 we left Alcala and headed for Madrid!

When we got to Madrid a man named Antonio gave a tour of many places in Madrid. We got to go into some beautiful churches and were shown the outside of more museums I plan to go inside while I am here.

At La Plaza Mayor

Madrid is so incredibly beautiful! It had the same feel as San Francisco, with busy streets and crowds, but my oh my it is MUCH more beautiful. The buildings everywhere are gorgeous. There were so many amazing things to see. I hope to go into Madrid a lot and see and the other amazing parts of it.

Inside La Catedral de la Almudena

After our tour we go to just walk around Madrid and do whatever we want until whenever we want. Some girls and I wanted to try and find a place with some cheap chocolate caliente y churros, but it was a bit pricey in Madrid. I am especially trying to be careful because I am still figuring out the whole euros thing.

At La Puerta del Sol

We were not successful at finding a cheap place but we continued to look around Madrid at different little stores. Then many of the girls from out group decided to head back to Alcala but Vern and I decided to stay behind. We looked at little stores, sat around and people watched, and looked inside the TWO H&M's that they had. Seeing H&M sure made me happy:)

So, let me just say...a lot of the food is interesting and Encarna insists that we eat a lot. She fills our plates and gives us more and more and more and more....and more. Encarna packed us a lunch to take into Madrid, it was some egg/potato sandwhich which was alright but I definitely could not eat it all. Vern and I decided to give it to a homeless man we saw searching in garbage for food. It was a bit awkward. I'm not sure if he just wasn't used to people handing him food, or if he didn't understand because he had trouble taking it. We finally just left it there for him. I hope he liked it!

We headed back to Alcala. Vern and I were proud because we spent NO money at all today.
 We had to figure out the metro and train by ourself. It was a struggle for a bit, but we got it!

We came back home and took a little nap until we had dinner at 8:30pm. Tonight we had PIZZA! It was tasty!
Then I played Wii for a little bit with Roberto.
Then Vern and I decided we would try and walk and see what Alcala was like at night. After walking for about five minutes we got scared and turned around to come home. haha. It was a lot quieter than we expected it to be.

Today was great, classes start tomorrow!