Mathrid, Ethpana!

MADRID! AY AY AY! Finally, sunshine! It was so different from England, from the architecture to the culture to the food. I really can't believe I made it there and back already! In fact, it's quite a miracle that five 20-year-old girls can plan a trip and navigate their way around a country safely. We really had a blast. The following is an account of my trip:
Now, we all know that the Spaniards speak with a lisp, so it was definitely not just a coincidence that I accidentally bit my tongue really hard on the way there, causing me to have a lisp for the next two days.
When we got to Espana, we got to our hostel and headed right back out to check out the night life in the city. We bought some churros which were to be dipped in hot chocolate (A great way to be welcomed), looked around, and went back home. Our hostel was actually really nice, and the kids there were all really fun to meet. I thought it was funny how their jaws all dropped when we told them we don't drink. Almost everyone there was travelling through Europe with the purpose of drinking. They were really neat kids though, I was impressed with them. I can't write about my hostel without putting a plug in for the incredible hostel sheet Denise made for me to keep me from getting bed bugs (I didn't know they really exsisted till now. gross). Though it was the most awful, ghetto looking thing in the room, it made me SO happy to read all the notes everyone wrote on it. It was like a yearbook. On a sheet.
Anyways, we slept, and woke up. And then we went to the Prado! I love museums. The Prado was very historic, lots of Goya and Velazques. We spent a good 3 or 4 hours looking at great spanish art, then moved on because we were starving.

Now both of my parents had insisted that I try Paella, and it looked pretty good in the pictures, so we asked a Spaniard where we could get good paella, and we went there, and we tried it..... and..... I think I've never seen so many little faces looking back at me from my plate of food. As in, the fishies were boned and some had eyeballs. And I don't even LIKE fish. Oh well, it was a good experience. In theory.

Next we went across the city, to the cathedral. It was by a beautiful view of the city, and when we went inside, the organ was playing really loud and it made it really cool. I loved seeing the spanish-ness in this cathedral, mixed in with the Roman and Greek influences also. It was really colorful and lit up. And like I said, the organ playing made it really cool.

We then went and looked at the King's palace, but we didn't get to go inside. It was HUGE, and we had fun playing in the gardens by bushes and fountains. In the SUN.

That night, we found a local bar that had flamanco dancing so we decided to go, even though we were SO tired from walking all day. It wasn't till 10:30 so we decided to hang out with the kids at the hostel till then. When it was finally time to go, we almost bailed because our brains were shutting down and our legs could barely hold up our bodies anymore. But oh man.... I am SO glad we didn't. The flamanco dancing was one of the most real and passionate things I've ever seen. It was soooooo fun. And it was even better because the audience was a small group of locals (and us) so they were all yelling and ay ay aying. It was a blast. And the band was great. This picture is of us waiting to get inside. We were sitting under meat. Uh...
You'll NEVER guess what we did next!!! ...We went to our beds and fell asleep really fast.