Habla Igles? I didn't think so....

Pretty Lamposts are everywhere in Madrid!

After yet another week of classes, the weekend of Madrid got off to a good start. A cheap 3 hour train ride to Heidelberg with my friends Kristine and Barbara (who I was going to Madrid with) and we were in Heidelberg where Barbara's mom and stepdad live on the American Base. After three months away from all things american, it was like stepping into a new world upon entrance of the American store. Hidden Valley Ranch wasn't $9 (like when I found it at KaDeWe in Berlin) and everything was 100% recognizable and cheap! We feasted on a dinner of tacos and queso dip (which I had been missing dearly) and a movie- a night "away" from Germany was actually quite nice! It was nice to feel just for a day like I was "home" again. However, the next morning Barbara's mom decided it wouldn't be wise for her to go with us to Spain so she didn't come- but she did drive us. Although we thought we were leaving relatively ontime, it turns out that Frankfurt Hahn is further away from Heidelberg than we thought. So after driving about 90mph down the highway for a good hour and a half, I can now officially say that I have made it to an international flight 15 min before I was supposed to board and MADE IT! Checked that one off the bucket list... not hoping to do it again.

The flight was relatievly short and easy. However, I was so thirsty on the plane that I almost bought water, until I asked how much- 3 euros for one cup! When the flight attendant saw my outraged face, she responded: "It costs money. It was a cheap ticket." I had expected items such as peanuts, sodas, coffees, etc. to be costly, but WATER?! It seriously reminded me of this English comedy group I saw a video of who did a bit about cheap flights- follow that link to see it! It's pretty funny.

We had packed everything in our backpacks (cause it cost money to check bags, of course) so the airport was relatively easy. I managed to fit sheets, blanket, pillow, clothes for 3 days, shower items, and make up comfortably into my backpack and still made the measurement and weight requirements for a carry on. Score! Once we landed we managed to find the Metro (subway) and it took less than 15 min for poor Barbara, who was already worried about getting kidnapped/killed/etc to get almost-pickpocketed by a quite terrible pickpocketer if you ask me. Not only did she feel him opening her backpack, but he was wearing a polkadotted bandana (recognizable) and all three of us got an eyeful of him. Thankfully we did not have any more pickpocketing encounters the rest of the trip. Once we got into the city we managed to find our hostel (post being barked at by Spanish men). It turns out the phrase "Habla Igles" is pretty worthless in Madrid and lots of charades, pointing, and gesturing ensued for the rest of the weekend. Negotiating our rooming at the hostal was quite the spectacle, I made the poor receptionist pull up a translation page through google and that was the only way we communicated for almost

 a half hour. Ultimately everything worked out and after traveling for 9 hours we FINALLY got something to eat and drink! It was an early night for us.



In Front of the Spanish Palace



Saturday morning we got up bright and early and hit the town. It was our only day to see anything in Madrid so we had mapped out all of the major places we wanted to see the night before. We started out at the Palace, which ended up being a key move. There was no line and we got an audio tour of the whole palace for less than 6 euros and when we left around 11:30 the line to get tickets was WAY out the door, like down the whole street long. Afterwards we took the Metro to Sol, which is considered the heart of the city, and we found a Kebap restaurant to eat at- we are all on a budget (naturally, with only one month left we've all spent all of our money already) and everything in Madrid is EXPENSIVE! Now I've officially eaten German, Italian, and Spanish Kebaps- I might even venture to say that Spanish are my favorite! (don't hate me everyone in Freiburg!)



Beer Station at the Festival in Plaza de España



Afterwards we took the Metro to Plaza de España where we stumbled upon a festival for the celebration of the 100 years of Mexican revolution. This confused me since we were in Spain, but someone explained that there are a lot of Mexican restaurants and such in the area. Kristine and I noticed that we have a way of stumbling upon random street festivals together! Some good luck if you ask me. What was also cool about the festival was that it had lots of tents selling things and it reminded me a lot of Arts, Beats, and Eats with little crafters selling their cute things. After wandering around for a little while and enjoying the good weather that had surprised us for the afternoon, we decided to head over to Museo del Prado which ended up being a bust- we thought it was free entrance after 2:30pm on Saturdays but it turns out that it is from 6-8pm. We decided to go home for a little while and drop off our purchases and then go shopping along Gran Via which is right next to our hostel and bustling with lots of shops and things to do. At 5:45 we headed back to Prado where we saw lots of famous art works- thankfully Barbara has taken some art history classes because otherwise Kristine and I would have been completely lost! Afterwards we decided it was time for some dinner... It had been 8 hours since lunch! We went over to Plaza del Mayor and found a couple bars to eat in and went home around 11:30pm... quite the marathon of a day! What we found pretty strange about Madrid is that the restaurants open up around 10pm and then everyone parties until 6 or 7am, so most stores don't open until later in the day and nothing is open usually between 2-5pm. It's quite the interesting lifestyle, definately not something I would enjoy!

ALSO- Italian men get a bad rep, but they have NOTHING on Spanish men. I understand my roommate more now! :)

Sunday we were up and out of the hostel by 11am and got some Empanadas for lunch and got on the Metro towards the airport before noon. We made it in plenty of time and everything went smoothly from there! We made it back to Freiburg by 10pm Sunday night. The whole weekend we were waiting for something bad to happen and thankfully everything went (pretty) smoothly! I feel like quite the accomplished traveler now... train, plane, and car I can do it all- and I did twice this weekend!

As for this week... Happy Thanksgiving!!! I'm going to miss getting the long weekend off of school, sitting around and watching football, and eating more turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie that I should ever eat, but we still get to have a special Thanksgiving dinner with IES. Hopefully it's good! Also Nick's girlfriend Meg is in town this week to visit so that will be fun! And FINALY the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) starts this week in Freiburg so I'm really excited to wander around all of the little vendors and see what cute things they have to sell! I've definately been waiting for this time of year since I got here in September!

Any questions? Let me know!