Tuesday, January 20, 2009
La Vida Española Continua
Wow! Another week has passed since my last blog. I can explain though - Spain has lots of stuff to do, and I'm no time-ologist, but I think time passes much more quickly here than in the United States. Or so it seems.
Well I'll start this one by recommending that you check out my Facebook link on the side of the page for all of my latest pictures. They include the ones from the previous weekend, as well as the most recent weekend adventure to Madrid. And what an adventure it was!
We started the weekend with the group from school, which basically included a walking tour of all the places we went with Carlos' family the first weekend, but in reverse order. We saw the opera building, the king's palace, the cathedral, plaza mayor, and lots of other interesting stuff. In the afternoon we broke off into our own groups. Some students went back to Alcala but a lot of us stayed the night. I ended up staying with my friends Aaron, Holly, Ally, Abram, and my roommate from Alcala, Carlos, in Hostal Americano (how appropriate) which was right on the plaza of Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid. The room was quite large and suited all of us just fine except for the excessive street noise a few stories below.
We all stuck together to go out to dinner, and Abram and I walked a bunch all around Puerta del Sol for a couple hours. I got some new shoes, and we found some cool soccer jerseys too. Afterwards we all went out to a bar and tried some new spanish beers. Everyone else was tired so they went back to the hostel, but Abram and I decided that we weren't going to stay the night in Madrid without doing something fun, so we went out and met some other CSU students who were going to a club called El Kapital near downtown Madrid. It was about a 15-minute walk from our hostel, but wow was it cool!
This discoteca cost 18 Euro to get into, which included our first drink, but once we got in I quickly realized why. The club was about 7 full stories tall altogether, with 5 of those floors being dance floors, each with a different theme and type of music, and half-floors in between. Needless to say, by the end of the night I had gotten a good start on breaking in my new shoes! It was cool because with the exception of the very top floor, every other floor could see down to the main dance floor, separated only by huge panes of sound-proof glass. We ended up moving around a lot, and we were pretty tired by the time we left (~5:00 AM!), but what an experience!
The next day we slept in until we had brunch at Maria del Mar's house (our program coordinator, bottom center in the photo here). We walked around a bunch after that and went back to the central park in Madrid, Parque de Retiro. We got a couple boats and went out rowing on the lake and had a lot of fun. Since then we've gone out a couple times here, and I've been meeting new people every day. This weekend Carlos and are planning a trip to Granada to see the Alhambra and travel a bit more, but it's still in the works. Hasta tarde!
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Shannon!
ReplyDeleteI have a request. Can you post your photos here so I can see them. I am unable to find you at Facebook and I cannot deal with that madness anymore. If it's too much to post the photos here I understand. Just asking if it is no big deal that you post them here as well. THANKS!
peace out,
April