Madrid

Hola! I arrived in Madrid yesterday (Jan 4) around noon. All of my flights were (thankfully) uneventful, although the pilot did start my flight to Paris by announcing "I apologize for the delay, we were just having some mechanical issues with the plane." Not exactly what I wanted to hear before traveling over an ocean in said plane, but everything turned out fine.

 I left Des Moines on the 3rd at 1:30pm and flew to Detroit, then from Detroit to Paris, and Paris to Madrid. My layover in Paris was only an hour and a half, so I assumed that I would not have to go through Customs until I arrived in Madrid. Unfortunately, I was wrong and ended up not only having to go through Customs, but also go to a different terminal and go through security again. When I finally made it to my gate, I discovered the flight was delayed 20 minutes, so I had plenty of time.

In Madrid, I met up with the ISA representatives and other Salamanca students and we headed back to the hotel for a safety meeting and then took a bus tour of Madrid. It was nice seeing the sights but hard to stay awake since it was now 11am Iowa time and I had only slept a few hours on the plane.

After the tour, a group of us headed out to get supper (and test our Spanish for the first time). We ate at "El Brillante," a well-known restaurant in Madrid recommended to us by Rodrigo, one of our ISA reps. I had a delicious "bocadillo de camarones" (shrimp sandwich). I should mention the weather here- it's been really nice compared to the 15º F temperatures that I left in Iowa. During the day it's been in the 50's, which I think is a little warmer than usual for this time of year.

Today (Jan 5) we did a lot of sight-seeing in Madrid. As a big group, we toured El Museo del Prado and El Museo de Arte Reina Sofía. It was interesting learning about famous Spanish painters such as Goya and Valásquez. After the tours, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Madrid with Andy, another ISA student. El Parque del Retiro, the largest park in Madrid, is right next to our hotel. It didn't seem that different than a park you'd find in the US, with lots of joggers, dog-lovers, rollerbladers, and kids running around. Then we walked to the Plaza Mayor, a giant plaza surrounded by shops and restaurants. The plaza itself had a merry-go-round, people dressed up in costumes (Spongebob, Patrick, & Spiderman were all there), a guy on stilts, and tons of people hanging around. We ended up getting lost on the way back to the hotel and going completely the wrong direction, so we decided to keep going to the Palacio Real, since we were already so close. The Palacio Real is where the royal family used to live. Now it is only used for official business and the king lives in a "more modest palace" in Madrid.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Toledo.

View from right outside the Palacio Real

Palacio Real

Plaza Mayor