Madrid, Day 1

Day 1:

Madrid.

Today we landed in the aeropuerto, got on a few different metro trains, which are very easy to navigate, and made it to our hotel. Liabeny Hotel.

It's an upper-class hotel in the center of Madrid, al lado de the Sol station. It's pretty nice. Hot water comfy beds, air conditioning... I'm expecting none of these in Granada.

Today we had a break from the time we go to the Hotel, aprox. 10:00 local time, until 3:45pm. Needless to say, everyone zonked out and slept until 3:00. A select few slept past then and were left behind.

At 4:00 we left and headed to the Palacio Real. Which is the Royal Palace in Spain. Home of the Rey y Reina. :) It was mildly boring, but pretty educational.

It's a big white palace resembling what I first thought the white house would look like, big, grandiose, large pillars lining the front, marble build, statues out front resembling saints, moorish architecture in the outlining walkways and stone stairs leading to the entrance. It was beautiful, covered with gold accents on windows and at balconies. The architecture was amazing and the art was as well.

There was a room which I loved in the palace which happened to be dedicated to planets, in an odd way. It was really cool. Pink walls, 9 statues representing the planets and pale pink accents everywhere... heaven. :)



The Armaria Real, located in the basement of the palace, was a little weird. Lots of suits of armors and lots of horses covered in armor as well... nothing magical, just historical. Interesting, but weird.

After that, since everyone slept through breakfast and lunch, we headed over to a place to find real Spanish food... which took way longer than expected. We finally found a place and sat down for about an hour talking, eating, and having fun. I had a calamari sandwich on a nice loaf of white bread and some coquettes de jamón.
Yumm.
After that we all kind of went on an adventure to find a park that we couldn't locate on a map well enough to find... so after walking for about 45 more minutes in the opposite direction of the Hotel we started to walk back.
Instead I headed off with two guys from the group G and H. We found a nice little bar, sat and talked over beers and just hung out.


On our way back it got dark, so needless to say we got lost... for about an hour.

Now I'm back in my room, much more learned about the geography of Madrid and ready to pass out. Talking to C and M about what we're doing tomorrow for desayuno.

:)

Jet lag sucks. Spain does not.

Buenas Noches

<3