Madrid and Toledo....

So...I just gave up on the pictures from the last post... i tried several different times to get them up and it didn´t happen so...i dont know what to tell you.. enjoy the ones you´ve got haha. I am sorry though... maybe i´ll have better luck with the next ones...

we got back from Cordoba on Monday.. and Friday morning we got up early to get on a plane to go to Madrid... amazingly that was our cheapest option. So we got on the plane... got off like 30 minutes later...about the time we were going to turn our I Pods on we were landing. haha grabbed the metro and took off to the hotel/hostel. The man at the hostel was just so cute. He made sure we knew where we were and where to get a map and told us we were close enough to walk anywhere we would need to go because he didn´t want us to take the metro too much since we were three girls. he was telling me so much. it was so funny but it was nice to know that he was at least looking out for us and warning us (about the 2000th person) to be safe...we were safe.

When we got to Madrid we ate our lunch in our little room. it was quite cozy. and headed out to find our map. We had to go to plaza Mayor (famous plaza) to get the map so we were kind of killing two birds with one stone. so we went and started taking pictures of the plaza and the people dressed up in the plaza... uncle sam mickey, pooh bear (in a costume that was way too small for him) a really creepy bunny (kind of like the one from donnie darko for those of your who´ve seen it) and an incredibly overweight spiderman all made an appearance among some other weird looking things...we took pictures of them. when we went to the tourist center to get our map we also encountered some brochures... one of which was for the zoo. it said they had a KOALA BEAR at the zoo.. i do love koala bears...and they had a panda bear.. kelly does love panda bears. poor rhoda. it was done for. we decided we would go if we had time. After getting our map we looked and decided to go to the Palacio Real.. where the royal family lives. It was beautiful.. unfortunately we weren´t aloud to take pictures inside ... general rule for the weekend but it didn´t stop us... I still have pictures. I was just warning you not to judge the quality. :) haha. It really was amazing and beautiful and If anyone becomes a prince princess king or queen someday i just want to sleep over for a week... cuz it was just cool to think about living in a place like that. It was slightly nuts...

After palacio real we headed for a metro stop to go see some more landmarks (the were marked on the map... we didn´t know they were landmarks). On the way we found a pretty park (also on the map) and took some pictures.. as well as the senate and a monument to Cervantes with Don Quijote.OH! and a Starbucks.. yay starbucks! it was nice to get a drink and hang out. Afterward, of to the Puerta de Alcala and Parque del Retiro. After that off we went to the biblioteca nacional (national library). I know we´ve done a lot in one day. So at the Biblioteca nacional we saw an expo. about malaria.. yup.. in spanish. it was interesting. we really didn´t know what we were getting into but we walked into it anyway haha. so we had some fun with that. just being random. we did have fun with the don quijote room. haha.

After that...more monuments from the map! casa de america and a fountain that was suppose to have lights on it at night. no lights. so we started walking back home...on the way we stopped to get some souvenir shopping done. I got some post cards and what not and we headed back to the hotel for sleep... we had a tv again so that was really nice! haha

Saturday morning.. we were up bright and early..on the slate for the day The Prado Museum and the museum for Reina Sofia...and whatever else.... We got to the museums and discovered that Reina Sofia was free from 2-8 and the Prado was free from 6-8... we were going to the museums when they were free...so... remember that zoo?? that´s where we went. so we went to the zoo in the morning.. yay. it was so fun! I saw my favorite animal ever.. KOALA bear!!! ahh it was so so so so so cute and fuzzy!! this zoo was so fun. we were close to everything.. again and saw a sea lion show and a koala and a panda and a kangaroo and we have officially been to two zoos in spain... kind of sad i know.. but Kelly and I are both kind of obsessive! haha. I saw a koala.. i´m so very excited about it. The pictures are adorable. :) i think i may want one as a pet one day... :)

After the zoo we went to eat lunch. yay peanut butter and crackers! haha and then we headed out to the museums... we could take pictures in neither of them. However, i dont understand why I can take pictures in the louvre and not in these museums so i took some anyway haha!!! I saw a really famous piece from Picasso in Reina Sofia... my favorite by Picasso i would get a copy to hang up in my apt. next year except it´s kind of creepy so ... not gonna. haha. we left reina sofia... disapointed...and got a starbucks as a pick me up before we tackled the prado (we realized how much time we really saved when we can´t stop and take 30 pictures of everything... haha) the prado was great... we saw ALL kinds of amazing pictures we had learned about in class. Las Meninas, 3 de Mayo, etc. I loved it.. it was so cool to see all of the paintings we had learned about. we also heard man (american) explaining some paintings to his daughter... incorrectly...it was hard not to laugh or cut him off. He was so far off it was ridiculous... When talking about a Velazquez painting he said the faces were a very dutch style.. so dutch the were almost groteqsue... Velazquez is spanish...and actually the faces were normal. He would also act like he was reading the cards beside the paintings.. they were in spanish. he definitely did not know spanish. ohh people who think they know what they are talking about or at least try to act like they know what they are talking about haha. it was quite entertaining for us. We didn´t leave the prado until about 8 or so and the day was over. back to the apartment for dinner and to bed early because we were taking a day trip to Toledo (small city about 30 mins away by train) the next day..

Sunday... we woke up at 7:30 to get to the train station in time to get our tickets and get on the train to head to Toledo. When we were trying to get our tickets we had to help an asian man. he was doing really well speaking english to the lady (the all know english.. especially at the train station in the CAPITAL of the city. ugh.) she was laughing and talking about him to her co-worker like it was such a struggle for her. he asked if they train left at 10 and she nodded and then held up 10 fingers.. at this point we step in and help him. that really didn´t help us out as she was rude to us afteward.. we couldn´t get our ticket there so we got bounced around about 3 different places. and finally got our ticket. we were just happy to be on the train. The city was absolutely beautiful. it was QUITE the hike to get up to anything though. it is definitely on a mountain and there are streets of cobblestone. We saw the alcazar and couldn´t go in. The greco museum was closed and it was 7 € to get into the Cathedral. we decided to pay the 2.30€ to get into the iglesia santo tome (saint thomas´s cathedral). and see the big painting by Greco.. once again sneaking pictures haha. they rest of the day consisted of walking around, taking pictures outside, souvenir shopping, and chinese food (it was cheap and there was A LOT of it). It was beautiful and then we ended up going back and eating a cheap dinner and going to bed early to get up early to catch a plane.

Monday morning.. oh what a morning.. .we made it to the airport after much struggle to get away there...some guy ran kelly into the side of the metro...we had to buy an extra thing to get off of the metro at the airport. then we had a ridiculous time to get through security... kelly had a unforgotton sword in her bag and obviously we couldn´t take it onto the plane... so... we had to go back up check the bag and go back through security.. but.. God is great and likes to push my faith.. we made the flight. the plane was actually 30 mins late. but we got back to Valencia and I do love it.

More to come about the last three days of class and the final banquet...

<3 again.. pictures to come... i know you´re excited about the Koala bear.