April 22, 2010

I got up at 6 a.m. today, which was like death, to get ready for Madrid. We had assigned seats on the bus, and I was next to a girl from the U.S. that is doing the semester in Cordoba in Spain. She was interesting. Let's just say that we live very different lives. She was telling me all about the things that she does on the weekends, and I was glad when our conversation was over. Anyways, when we got off the bus we had to take the metro to the city near our hostal. We were very careful with our bags because we had heard that Madrid can be sketchy, and there are a lot of pick pockets. Good thing Arielle had the maps ready, and knew what metros to take. We made it there pretty easily. The hostal was very small, but we had a private room for the 4 of us girls. Right away we ate our bocadillos and then went to the grocery store to buy some snacks. Then we went walking around and stopped at some shops. We saw the Cathedral and Palace. We just spent a lot of time outside. We walked into th center and there were tons of poor people dressed in Halloween costumes...freaky! They want you to be interested in taking a picture with them, but then they want you to pay them. Jess saw one and thought he was funny, so she walked closer, and actually got a picture with him, but he was creepy, so we left right away! Then we went to the coolest McDonald's ever! They had a kiosk where you could order your food. Also, the chairs were very comfortable. There were so many totally funny things that happened in this McDonald's, and no way for me to explain them, but we had a great time! After that we walked back to our hostal, and got ready for bed, and then played some rounds of Phase 10. We played that until about 1 a.m., and then wanted to get some rest before the next morning quickly came! Our bedroom door could be locked from the outside when we left, but we couldn't lock it from the inside, and we were nervous about someone coming in while we were sleeping, so we made a barracade with our desk chairs against the door, that way we would hear if anyone tried to open the door. I soon fell asleep after that, but Jess said people were outside the window all night making a bunch of noise. The hostal was okay for one night. It was pretty cheap, so we made it work!