Christiane's Clamor's: Madrid!

As promised, you all get yet another enticing blog entry from me in the same week. Can you stand the excitement?!!

Anywho, Sara, Patrick, and I had tossed the idea of venturing to another city around soon after they arrived. We figured that as long as they were in Spain, they should try to see a little more than just Granada. So, within just a couple days we booked bus tickets, a hostel, and a bullfight. Talk about going out on a whim!

We left early Friday morning for the 5 hour bus ride to Madrid. I was actually supposed to meet Karrie's parents at the Madrid bus station in order to give them their tickets to Granada and make sure they got on the bus alright, so I really hoped that the ride would go smoothly. All went well and I roamed around until I spotted Karrie's mom, Laurie, who greeted me with a big hug. Bob came over soon after and we got them down to their bus just fine. The next task on the list was to find out how the heck to get to our hostel. I had only an address of the hostel and knew of the general area where it was located. Might I add that we didn't have a city map of Madrid in our possession yet. You have to realize that we were in Madrid, a city similar to the size of New York, so the most efficient way of travel was to take the metro. Well, being born and raised in itty bitty little Sleepy Eye where we have a mere two stoplights wasn't really boding me well at this point. Not to mention the fact that everything was in a different language. Cool. Have no fear, we did finally figure out where we were and took the metro to a location near our hostel. After aimlessly walking around and not making much progress, we just decided to take a cab for the last portion of the voyage. And thank God we did because after seeing all the different roads the cab driver took, I think we might still be in Madrid.

After arriving at the hostel and getting situated, we roamed around the streets of Madrid for a while, finally ending up in Plaza Mayor for some lunch on the terrace. The sky decided to open up and downpour so we ran to the nearest place we could find, which just happened to be an Irish pub (darn)! While we were washing down a Strongbow, well a Guinness for Patrick, I called my friend Ana Fernandez. About 12 years ago, Ana came to Sleepy Eye for a year to be a foreign-exchange teacher. She meshed really well with my Mom and family, so we tried to stay in touch after she left. I recently found her via Facebook, saw that she lived in Madrid, and told her I was going to be coming to Spain to study for 6 months. She said if I ever came to Madrid, to give her a call so I did exactly that. We met near her home and immediately engulfed one another in huge hugs. Then we spent the next few hours talking and catching up, while playing with her adorable 1.5 year old daughter, Carolina. I'm very happy that everything worked out to visit Ana and her family. It was so so great to see her again!!

The next morning we woke up early and put on our good 'ol walking shoes to sight see the city. We ventured to various places such as the Palacio Real, Plaza Oriental, Gran Via street, and many others for the next four hours. Whew! The buildings and architecture in this city are simply stunning. I felt like I was always pulling my camera out to snap more pictures.

Upon returning to our hostel we all took a little snappy nappers because we had a big evening ahead of us, an authentic Spanish bullfight! The tickets were super cheap and we all wanted to experience this unique part of their culture. We took the metro (which I felt I was quickly becoming a pro at) to Plaza de Toros and took our seats. Within 5 minutes we quickly realized why we got such a good deal on the ticket price. Our tickets were labeled 'Sol' which meant that until the sun went down, we were DIRECTLY in the heat. Annndd our particular spots just happened to be the last place to get shade as the sun was setting. Go figure. I couldn't be bothered though because we were in the 5th row, super close to the ring! The bullfight started at 7 and we discovered that we picked a good night to attend this event. Apparently it was bullfighting festival week in Madrid, so they were having a bullfight every night of the week. Not only that, but tonight they were going to fight 6 bulls, on HORSE. Whoa! I must say this was one of the most cultural and cool experiences I've encountered in my stay here. They began with presenting the horses and bullfighters, while the horses danced a little routine, they literally looked like they should be in a danceline. Then the first bull entered. Each sword had different colors to signify different things (I'm still in the process of Googling all of that, so, sorry for the non-history lesson) and each fighter used different techniques to conquer the bull, all on horse! Between that and the magnificent clothing they wore, I was simply amazed. At first it seems a little unethical, but you have to realize that not only is this a huge part of the Spanish culture, but they treat those bulls with the utmost respect throughout their lives before they enter the ring. Their meat is also taken to local markets to limit any waste. I think it's a good deal.

A guy sat next to me and heard us speaking English, so he asked where we were from. Turns out he was a Canadian that was traveling with two if his friends for a month or so as a post college graduating getaway. We all met up for a drink after the fight and soon realized how uncultured these three were! First off, none of them spoke a lick of Spanish, but they had been traveling in Europe for the last couple if weeks and had yet to set foot in the metro. Whaaat?! We were the first people to show them just how to use the metro (which mostly involved Sara and I doing the navigating and them following us around like little ducklings). It was gratifying to see that I was actually able to be so self-sufficient in such a large city. We stopped in Plaza Mayor (a landmark that they also had no idea existed) and to my utter astonishment they had absolutely no clue what tapas were! Sara, Patrick, and I took care of that real quick, finding a place that served traditional Spanish food like chorizo, fried calamari, and tortilla espanola, etc. We hung out with them the rest of the night and I think we finally got them culturized!

Sunday morning and the time for our departure came all too fast, but we loaded everything up and caught the bus back to Granada. We were all exhausted but I was really glad that we toon the opportunity to see a different city together. How often can you say that you got to travel overseas with two of your best friends (again, Brooke Kuster should be added to the list)?!?! It was a truly wonderful experience, one that I won't forget!