6-26 Update

We have been EXTREMELY busy in Madrid so far. After saying sad and tear-filled goodbyes to our host families, we embarked on a (4 hour + a lunch break?) long bus ride to Madrid - I slept most of the way and spent the rest of the time missing my host family - not really looking forward to Madrid at all.

After checking into the hotel, we set out to check out the city. We stopped for pictures at an impressive statue of Don Quixote and then made our way past the Palacio Real (which we later toured).  We made our way to the Puerta del Sol (Gateway of the Sun), which is the very famous Okm mark / source of many of Madrid's main roads. There, we saw the 0km mark and of course the statue of the bear and tree.

Then we went to the Reina Sofia (Queen Sofia) museo.  This museum is the site I researched before the trip, so I explained to the group that the building was turned into a museum after the hospital it was originally build for shut down.  This museum was originally home to only traveling exhibits until King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia (still rulers of Spain and very well-liked) opened up the first permanent exhibit. This is how the Reina Sofia earned its name. Now, the museum has gone through many renovations and is home to a lot of modern art.   We didn't have much time to look around because it closed about an hour after we arrived, but I think we were able to get a pretty good taste of what's in the museum.  I walked around with Ella, Alissa, Jake, and Lucas.  We found that the most interesting rooms seemed to be the dark ones.  One room was completely dark, covered in black cloth, and had only a large, black box in the center. It was kind of interesting because you literally had to stumble around a dark room hoping not to trip while trying to figure out what was in the room based on touch. There was also a REALLY strange dark room with only a bench and a projected video of a mouth eating jewels or jello or...something. It was one of the strangest things I had ever seen.

After leaving the museo, we walked over to Madrid's Plaza Mayor (main square). There, we were able to break into groups for shopping/dinner.  Jake, Ella, Alissa, and I found the cheapest (still pretty expensive) Paella we had seen so far at a really nice looking restaurant where you could sit outside for no extra cost.  The service was awful and the Paella was poor, but at least it wasn't ridiculously expensive. We also tried flan there, which I didn't mind but definitely wouldn't buy again.

The next few days were supposed to be hot (they definitely were), so we tried to get most of our touring done early. We woke up early for breakfast then walked to the museo del Prado.  Sidenote: this was the first morning that I've used my alarm clock to get up and it is extremely irritating. Luckily, getting up early was worth it.  The Prado was amazing.  Ella and I were able to see painting by Goya, Rembrandt, El Greco, Salvador Dali, Velasquez, and numerous other fantastic artists.  We made sure to allot plenty of time at the gift shop, and I spent a significant amount of money on souvenirs for the first time on my trip.  It was definitely worth it.  I got a bunch of postcards of famous paintings (mostly Goya and Dali - definitely my favorites), a small Velasquez book  that included some less famous painting that King Phillipe the second commissioned for his palace converted into a hunting lodge (as Senor explained them to me, they reminded me of something my dad could appreciate) and two adorable children's books in espanol. One was about the sea, and the other was about sheep. I'm not sure what they were doing in the Prado gift shop, but they were adorable.

Then, we walked back to the royal palace for a tour. Some of the historical rooms (throne room, bedroom where a kind had died, the armory, etc) were really interesting, but towards the end of the tour, the rooms seemed to be less historical and I felt more like I was in a giant doll house - beautiful but not nearly as interesting to me.

Afterwards, everyone was hot and exhausted, so we went back to the hotel to beat the heat with a little siesta and lunch from stuff we got at a market on the way back. After our unfortunately brief break, we headed back to the plaza mayor for shopping. Ella and a lot of the other girls wanted to go clothes shopping, so I decided to stick with Lucas, Jake, and Jesse who wanted to go hat shopping.  Lucas was in the market for a sailor's hat, which I was obviously super excited about. The first shop we went into had a few extremely nice but also extremely expensive captain hats, but he decided they were a little too pricey.  The next hat shop we found had quite a few much cheaper options. Lucas decided on a dark blue hat to match his dark colored cane he bought at the previous shop.  Jesse then decided he wanted the white, cheaper one.  In the shop, I obviously fell in love with the hats.  It started with just trying them out, but Lucas bought and walked out with his blue hat.  Jesse, Jake, and I joined him with matching white ones... I was so happy with my purchase that I literally danced after leaving the shop. We now have an entire crew...Captain Fagre, first mate Jake, Lieutenant Jesse, and me, the Skipper - SO excited.

We went back to the hotel to eat and get ready for the Flamenco show that night.  The dancing was beautiful, but it was also very, very long.  10:45pm to almost one in the morning. After very few hours of sleep the night before, it shouldn't be surprising that we were all past the point of exhaustion by the end, so we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next day, Saturday, June 25th, began early, as well.  By this point, we were all fairly sleep deprived, so we welcomed the chance for an extra hour nap on our bus ride to Segovia for the day. However, with the warning of crafty pickpockets we weren't too excited for the potential danger of our destination.  Well, the bus ride began and I enjoyed drifting in and out of sleep along the way.  Just our luck, I woke up to an overheated bus. We had to stop to let it cool down.  While this added a much appreciated hour to my napping time, it also meant we had it turn off the air conditioning for the rest of the drive...luckily it wasn't TOO hot...yet.
After arriving in Segovia, we enjoyed a rather hot but very interesting tour of the Alcazar (castle and palace).  Afterwards, we shopped our way to the aqueducts.  Jake, Ella, Alissa, and I were pretty intent on getting pizza, so instead of shopping we just periodically stopped to ask for directions to a pizza place (directions are a lot more confusing when given in espanol - I'm very thankful for the Spanish tendency to use very exaggerated gestures while talking).  The pizza place ended up being right next to the aqueducts (telepizza), so we were able to take our time there and then relax with some candy and ice cream (which is ALWAYS of ample supply in Espana).  The aqueducts were amazing to see (and how many people can say that they sat at the base of the aqueducts to wait for a bus in their shade?).  The plan was that our bus driver was going to get the bus fixed while we were doing stuff (why he didn't just get another one of the 70+ unused buses, none of us know). He was just really rude and unhelpful in general, which is VERY unusual here.  The bus definitely was NOT fixed, so no air conditioning even though it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside...and we're stuck in a closed bus full of 25 people.  I fell asleep to try to ignore the heat.  I woke up covered in sweat, one of the absolute worst feelings in the world.  Someone had moved to the aisle seat next to me and informed me that they had turned the heat on, so she had left her window seat to avoid the vent...wonderful. I was stuck in my seat next to the heat vent already drenched in sweat.  It was 107F in Madrid that day, and when we finally got off the bus, 107F felt like we were stepping out into a cool, air conditioned room. Senor and some students did the conversion from the bus's Celsius reading and discovered that it had been 120F on the bus.

After getting back to the hotel, everyone was very happy to have a painfully cold shower.  We had a nice siesta and went out for a group tapas dinner similar to the one we had in Barcelona.  The best course was definitely the calamari rings...Spain has the BEST calamari rings.  They served the tapas with pitchers of agua and Coca Cola.  I sat with Ella, Jake, and Lucas.  It was all really great food, but we all agreed that our second pitcher of Coca Cola tasted a little odd....but oh well.  Senor and Senora sat with the people in charge of organizing our Madrid stay, and they told our bus ride story.  They were very unhappy to hear about it and called the company right away.  I suppose there isn't much we can do about it now - we're all glad that it's behind us.
Afterwards, we went to see a beautiful temple that was taken to Spain in pieces as a gift from Egypt.  It was surrounded by a reflection pool and looked absolutely beautiful lit up at night.

This morning, Sunday, June 26th, was another early morning.  After breakfast, we took a train to Toledo!  It was really fun (and air conditioned).  It reminded me of the Big Bang Theory and Sheldon's love for trains. Toledo is one of the oldest cities in Spain and VERY beautiful. They are most well known for their metal work (swords, knives, etc) and their beautiful gold jewelry - it was a great place to find a father's day gift for my dad and a generous souvenir for my brother.  After sword+ shopping, we made our way from the main square to the Catedral, shopping/eating lunch along the way because (although all of the brochures claimed it was open all day, every day) we were informed after arriving in Toledo that the Catedral wasn't open to the public until 2pm because of mass.  The Catedral was beautiful and the head Catedral of the entire country!  Unfortunately, upon arriving at 2, we were told that it wasn't open for public tours until 3pm...this was especially frustrating because we needed to catch our train back to Madrid at 3:25, so we wouldn't be able to tour inside.  Luckily, we realized that the Catedral was open in front for people to pray in a small part.  We split up into groups of five and took turns very quietly entering the Catedral. My group - Ella, Allie, Jordan, Sarah Kurtz, and I - decided that we would actually like to pray. I gave an offering, as well.  I'm not Catholic, but it was a really wonderful experience.  The Catedral was beautiful, and everything was peaceful and calm - a nice break from everything that comes with traveling with a group of 24 people for two weeks.  After heading back to Madrid, we were given a couple choices - Senora would take a group to a bull fight for 30+ Euros each or we could stay in the hotel / go out a short distance for dinner or last minute shopping.  I'm going to try to explain what happens at a traditional Spanish bull fight. First, the matadors parade around the ring as a formality.  Then, the fight begins.  The bulls are sent out one at a time. The matador cuts a tendon at the back of its neck, so it is unable to lift it's heading (making the sport more dangerous and challenging for the matador).  Then, the matador gets the bull to charge at him like you see in the movies (there's a lot more to it then that, but I really don't remember).  After a while, the bull is slain by the matador (more "points" for a clean, quick kill) and dragged around the stadium to "honor the bull".  The meat is later used so the meat doesn't go to waste.  Then, this is repeated with five more bulls. The pomp and circumstance of this event as well as the fact that bull fights have began to be outlawed in some regions of Spain were both good arguments for attending the fight, but the idea of watching a debilitated bull, I mean six debilitated bulls, be ran around a ring and killed really put a negative spin on it for me.  I decided to stick around in the hotel instead, which ended up being a lot of fun.