Si Si!

Madrid was beautiful. The key word there is "was," because I have returned home to rain and cold again in Denmark. The sun shone in our 17th century church turned hostel every morning, and brought with it the spirit of Madrid. The list of places I planned to go to was met with great success, along with a few other exciting things. The three museums in Madrid did not disappoint: El Prado, Rena Sophia, Thyssen. I would have to say I enjoyed El Prado the most, because it included an entire floor of Goya, my favorite artist (thanks to Mr. J for exposing us to art in AP Euro History). It was very easy to get around the city in the metro, with trains running from each station every three minutes. Each afternoon we took a siesta in El Retiro, the most famous park in Madrid, to "tomar sol" (take sun). On Sunday morning, we went to El Rastro, which is the HUGE market that stretches on for miles in the streets. The shopper that I am, I bought absolutely nothing, but it was amazing to browse around and watch as thousands of thousands (no exaggeration) people filled the streets. I was pleasantly surprised how much Spanish I remembered, and I was able to keep up with the fast speaking locals when they spoke. Whenever I said something however, it took a while to conjugate the verbs and all the other dreaded high school memories of taking Spanish. It was sad when I returned to Denmark and was no longer able to understand anything being said around me. I also made my way to Bernabeu, the most famous football stadium in the world. Whilst I wasn't present during a match, I could feel the presence of 80,000 fans screaming their traditional chant for Real Madrid. Molly and Mal were great hosts during my stay, in spite of their suffering from the Spanish flu. I was greeted with great fanfare to find a huge sign hung at the reception desk of my hostel welcoming me. It was great to see some Americans, not to mention great friends! Check out all of the pics here.