Second Half of First Day In Madrid

Hello adoring fans. I've never written a blog that people actually read before, so this is new to me. However, I figure I should take full advantage of the free internet in our hotel, because who knows what it will be like in Alicante.

Anyway, after I posted yesterday, we went to the Palacio de Real, which used to be home to the royal family in Spain. It also happens to be around two blocks from our hotel, so all of a sudden we turn the corner and see this:

Its impossible to capture on film. But just imagine this building continuing on as far as you can see!

Now, let me tell you some fast facts about the Palacio Real. (We learned these things because we are SOO smart. Also, I have a travel guide that tells me them. Which I am too lazy to get up and look through for you, so I'm just trying to remember.)

• The Palacio Real has 5,000 rooms. And around 216 windows, which just doesn't add up to me!
• Although the royal family doesn't actually live here anymore, they do still use parts of it for special occasions and political events -- and they still use the throne room.
• Their dining room table seats at least 200.
• They don't allow photographs inside the tour, so we don't have any cool pictures of it :(

However, it was really neat to see. Another awesome thing is that, here, we are considered jovens, which means that we get into everything ridiculously cheap because we're poor students! Hooray! (U.S., you need to catch on to this theory. Saying that "Student Prices" for the movies is $7.00 instead of $9.00 is not a student discount.)

And that's the SIDE entrance!

Famous photo of the guy on the horse. Very Spanish.

So we walked around the palace feeling like royalty. Seriously, we said it was like the White House...yeah, right. No wonder Europeans think they're better than Americans. They've got like 10,000 years of history on us. I'd think I was better too if my city had a Palace! (And the Winchester Mystery House doesn't count.) I could just imagine those princes and princesses running around the castle, like all of the movies I like so much.

View from the Palacio. It didn't show that much, but you can see all of Madrid.

Trevor and Lauren in the Palacio. We got in trouble for taking these! Hahaha

Across from the Palacio is the Teatro Real, the biggest theatre in Spain. Turns out they had a ballet that night, which was right up our alley, and they also had student rush tickets! We stood in line for an hour and a half, but we didn't get any :( We did get to watch all the Spanish teenagers, though, which was an experience.

Later, we went to a tapas bar that we found in my Travel Guide (which, is the best travel guide ever). We're getting pretty good at navigating -- but we still keep getting lost constantly. On our journey, we crossed through the Plaza Mayor, which is one of the most historical plazas in Spain. It was the place where everyone used to meet (and still does, although Puerta de Sol has replaced it a little in modern-times) and watch things like demonstrations, street vendors, public executions, hangings, you know, all that good stuff. I could easily imagine all of that happening in that place though. Walking into these buildings and plazas makes you feel like you've transported into an entirely different time. Its so hard to imagine things like Playstations and cell-phones when you're there -- and then its so strange to see technology juxtaposed with such history! There were lots of street vendors and performers, including a guy dressed up as Mickey Mouse, which was actually just creepy. Everyone else was cool though. (People sometimes do that in the US, dressing up like statues and stuff? We have that one picture of me and Sarah with one in Disneyland. Its like that. We didn't take pictures because we would've felt bad not giving them money.)

The Plaza Mayor! Its very tall.

We also walked through this HUGE market outside of the Plaza. We tried to take pictures but it wouldn't translate. My senses were going out of control! There were soo many smells, I can hardly describe it. Everything from huge vats of olives, to every kind of meat imaginable, to delicioso chocolate cakes to nuts and fruits galore. Very cool.

The market, but its really hard to see how intense it was.

Then we found Cava Baja, which is the name of the street that all the tapas bars are on. Its like, the place to go, so of course, we did. The place we went into was really neat -- I loved the ambiance, music playing, the walls wood-paned. Everything is smoky, of course, because everyone smokes in Spain, but it just added to the coolness.

What we ordered at the tapas bar. A mushroom thing, a tortilla and a bomba, which
is mashed potatoes stuffed with meat and covered in mushroom sauce. SO GOOD.

After that, we decided to venture out to a discoteca. That was really fun, and really crazy because we got ridiculously lost again. We were bad Madrilenos because we only went to bed at 4, not 6, like most people do. We came home early, according to them! Ahh, now it is 2:00pm here and we're still sleeping. So much for beating jet lag. Alright I have to go shower so we can see the Prado museum today.

Love love,
Kandace