Spain days # 1,2,3

My first day in Spain- May 19th 2010- May 20th

After unpacking and repacking about 3 different times, I finally was ready to leave for the trip of a lifetime. It was adventure time in SPAIN!! My parents and Ryan dropped me off at O'hare. I said my farewell's and held back my tears. For the first time I felt very alone, but at the same time extremely independent and like I was my own woman embarking on a new chapter of her life. Of course I would be the 'normal' looking person to be swabbed in the security line.. happens almost always. After that.. it ws smooth travels. My nervs started to get the best of me once I was at my terminal 2 hours early. My dad called and advised me to go get a drink. I called Ry and sat down in a bar by myself and had myself a double cranberry vodka. I was good after that! Haha.
We boarded the plane and I got lucky with a window seat and a very friendly neighbor. Yuri a different study abroad director and I giggled the entire way there, well when we werent sleepign or eating of course. For dinner they served a shrimp salad that I was not brave enough to try, a rice/chicken/pea mixture, the cutest triangle of delicious cheese, bread, and carrot cake. I ordered a water and already noticed the absence of ice. I will miss ice.
8 hours later, we landed in Madrid around 7:40 a.m. I was so excited to finally be in Spain!!! Went through customs without a problem and claimed my baggage without a problem. According to ourr specific directions we were given from ISA, it said to meet them outside of baggage claim at terminal 1. Well I walked right otusid eof baggage claim and just kind of figured I was in terminal 1. I took a seat, and a girl sat down right next to me with an ISA luggage tag. Gina and I started talking, and after about an hour decided to go look for the ISA sign. There was no one to be found.. We then realized that we were definetely not in terminal 1. We then hopped on a bus and arrived at terminal 1 where we found a HUGE group of ISA travelers.THANK GOD! We then waited on a few more late travelers (one being my roomie Ellysia.. pronounced Eeelyssa.. haha) We got off the bus in modern town Madrid. Our hotel was down a very small coblestone street. It was called NH Hotel Lagasca.
This hotel is BEYOND fabulous. 4 star, and completely stylish. Our two twin beds were pushed together so we had superly awesome roomie bonding time. Once we got settled, we decided to go to lunch. We started walking around and found a cute cafe called Cafe y Te. We ordered the most delicious tinto de verano (fanta mixed with wine) and a ham and cheese panini. Something useful I leartned at this cafe is NOT to smile at anyone. Its rediculous I know, but just dont.. you look like an idiot American. The only time you smile at them is when they smile first.. which is very RARE.
We ventured back to the hotel passing up cute shops on the way and also some familiar ones like Sephora and the North Face. When we got back we decided we wanted to take a shorttttt nap.. which they advised us not to do. It turned out lasting around an hour and a half and was the BEST decision ever. At 5:30 I went on a bus tour and poor Lyssa was feeling sick. I sat across from my two newest friends Courtney and Carly. We got a bus tour of the central of Madrid including the Plaza de mayor and also El Palacio Real and much more. I ended up putting my sunglasses on and kind of started to feel my head get heavy and drop. I was falling in and out of sleep while court and car laughed at me.
We got back and I went back to my room to see if lyssa was okay. We then attended the mandatory meeting at 7 and received informative booklets all about everywhere we would be traveling times, a calendar, food places, and many more useful resources. After the meeting lyssa, court, carly, and I went to dinner at the most FABULOUS pizzaria in Madrid. Named Il-something? Our waiter Manuel was so adoreable and could speak Spanish, Italian, annnnnd English. The fab four ordered 2 margharita pizza's and shared them. We also split a half a bottle of a delicious Chardonnay. That night we all clicked and from being extremely delirious we laughed at the most hilarious things... guess you had to be there. Crunchies...jsut look at the window if you dont understand!...Man-U-elll? (southern accent) By the way.. all of my friends here are from down south and it is so cute! All the girls found out about my TERRIBLE cutting skills that night when I was attempting to cut through the cracker crust... pretty funny over all. After dinner, we headed back to Lagasca and decided we would try out our free 30 minutes of internet in the lobby. Lyssa and I split the 30 minutes and set messages to our families and our boyfriends. I didnt think it would be this hard to be away from the people you love! I miss them already.. Internet access is so limited here and electricity and water are used much less frequently than in america. After that we went to bed to cure our jetlag and because we had to be up at 7:17 (lyssa sets her alarm on funky numbers just like me!) Goodnight Madrid.


May 21st, 2010
Day #2 in Madrid
This mornign I woke up at 7:17 to straighten my hair, only to be warned by lyssa that my straightner may catch on fire. So I literally turned it on for about 20 seconds.. straightened my bangs and was done. I left my hair wild today. We went downstairs for breakfast at 8am and the amoutnof food and varieties were extensive and elaborate. I snagged some pineapple, kiwi, coco yogurt(which was amazing), a banana, this chocolate danish looking thing, and of course... ESPRESSO!! They didnt even serve regular coffee, just an espresso machine. I was in heaven. The breakfast was amazing, and lyss devoured her last bowl of cereal for about a month. They dont really do breakfast in Spain, especially Sevilla. It is usually just coffee and toast.
After breakfast we came back to our room to chill for a bit before our long day ahead of us. At 9am, we boarded a bus that took us to the largest art museum in the ENTIRE world; el Museo Nacional Del Prado. The fab four stuck together all day and received a guided tour from Carlos in spanish. We saw almost all of the orignales that were painted by “El Greco”, Goya, and Velasquez. My absolute favorite was probably El Greco and how incorporated el espiritu santo (what looks like a peace dove) in almost all of his paintings. After a two hour tour there, we headed over the royal palace of Spain; El Palacio Real. This palace has housed almost all of Spain's Kings and Queen's since a little before the 19th century. We walked about 2 miles to get there, but it was SO worth it. We received another guided tour from Carlos in spanish and saw the outside and inside of the royal palace. We saw a few of the many rooms in the palace, and boy were they extravagent. With murals on every ceiling, and gold lining all around it was an amazing thing to see. My faovirte room was of course “The Yellow Room” which is where the King would study, the porcelin room, and also the room where the thrown was.
After our tour there we were free to go for the rest of the afternoon. The four girls decided to go get our very first tapas in Spain. We walked to a small tapas bar and I ordered a two different tapas and water(sin gas, or without carbonation) I ordered a spread cheese with spicy sausage tapa, and a chicken with salsa tapa, they were both delicious, and the water just made it all that better. It was extremely hot today!! After tapas we started looking for a metro to take back to the hotel and stopped in a few boutiques on the way back. We got on the metro at plaza del sol and got off at Goya. Using courtneys gps on her iphone we managed to get extremely lost a FEW times. We gave ourselves our own tour of Madrid and saw a lot more of it than we wanted to. With aching feet and crabbiness we decided to stop for some helado. Court and I got dulce de leche, lyssa got strawberry and Carly got ferrero (chocolate ish) It made us feel better. After thinking we were going in the right direction for the millionth time, we just decided to take a cab. 4,10 euros later we were back at Lagasca. After a much needed very late ciesta 3 hour nap, the girls decided to go out for dinner. We walked up and down the main rooad by our hotel and decided eventually to check out the cute underground bar to see if they had food. We some how stumbled upon the most adorable little authentic restaurant/bar EVER. Our waiter Pepe, was so friendly and very helpful. He spoke pretty good english and told us what was good. Courtney and I split a meal called caraques de jamon (sp?), Carly ordered fried chicken and these AMAZING homemade fries, and Lyssa ordered un tortilla de queso(a toritilla in Spain is an omelete). Of course we ordered a pitcher oF Sangria, which was also quite amazing. After our second pitcher and some in depth conversation about alcohol, and Greek life, we decided it was time to go. Welllll Pepe thought otherwise. He informed us that a man would be coming in soon to play guitar and asked us if we would like to stay. We obviously said YES!!!! He brought us a round of free Kulua shots and we waited for the guitarist to come. This joke that Pepe told us will stick with me forever.. he said where are you from? We said el estados unidos (usa) and he said ME TOO, and then goes my parents are estas-dos-unidos.. you will only get that if you speak Spanish (ahem..Carly) haha it was too funny. Before long, the guitarrist showed up and started playing some authentic yet freaking HILARIOUS music. It was like a comedy show and a music show all in one. Around 1 am we decided we should head back because breakfast was at 8 and our bus to Toledo leaves at 9am. Goodnight & Adios Madrid!!! I wish we could stay longer...