So I am returned from Madrid finally. People have been asking me how my weekend was since I have gotten back, and joke around saying, "Well, I lost my cell phone, got fined 20 Euro on the metro, my friend got pickpocketed, and my flight was canceled coming home. But it was still an awesome weekend!"
Basically, we ran into a bunch of unfortunate situations, but we had enough fun to make up for it. By day, Zach and I saw some of the sights in Madrid and I did a little shopping to make up for my lack in Prague. By night, we ate tons of food and generally enjoyed the nightlife.
On Friday, Zach and I went to El Retiro, a giant park in the city, the botanical gardens, and the Sofia Reina art museum. Saturday, I wandered around Sol on my own to look for some souvenirs/gifts, before me, Zach and his flatmate, Steve tried to go to the zoo. That's when Zach got pickpocketed and both of us got fined on the Metro because we didn't have our tickets... So we went on an adventure to the Madrid police station and headed back to their apartment for the afternoon. And on Sunday, Zach and I went to El Rastro, this huuuuge, ridiculously crowded (see the photo!) weekly flea market and the Royal Palace. The crowds reminded me a lot of Oktoberfest! But it was definitely fun to wander around.
What I thought was funny about Madrid is that you rarely have to eat before going out. A bunch of times I got a pastry thing with my morning espresso. We often got a free plate of tapas when we ordered drinks (and I've never had better sangria, by the way). At the least, we got papas fritas (potatoe chips) with our beers. I am a big fan of tortillas espanolas (I think that's what they're called, it's fried pototoe/egg pancake thing) and churros con chocolada. One night, we wentout out to these restaurants called Los Mesones (they're all on one street and have different themes). One specialized in mushrooms, so I kind of had to try one (photo!). It wasn't terrible...
Anyway, so then my flight got canceled on Sunday after I got to the airport! At first I was pretty upset becaue I had no idea what to do, not to mention, I coudln't call anyone since I lost my phone. But to make a long story short, the airline put us up in a hotel for the night, gave us a pretty good dinner, and we all got on another flight to Prague at 7:30 the next morning. It was a pretty stressful experience though, and it was lonely staying in a hotel alone and eating dinner by myself! Apparently the airline also owes me 400 Euro for all the trouble, but they're being kind of sketchy about it, so I'm not counting on it. We'll see though, that's a lot of money!
I missed a few classes on Monday morning, but it wasn't too bad. I just have a lot of Czech homework to catch up on. It's kind of hard to be back to gesturing with my hands when trying to talk to strangers though, I missed my limited yet much easier communication in Spanish! Anyway, this should be a pretty relaxed week and I'm sticking around Prague for the weekend, so we'll see how things go!
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