Hola de Madrid!

 

This city is so BEAUTIFUL. It’s surreal.  It’s like being in a movie set!  BUT! It’s so expensive here! Oh my goodness…my taxi cab from the airport cost over 55 dollars (37 euros) and it didn’t take more than 20 minutes to get here.  I still cant get over it.

Although I was initially prepared to explore the city for a couple of hours until our orientation, I decided to sleep instead because I was so bitter I didn’t want to spend any more money! Haha..But I was really tired anyway. Some kid on the plane was playing a game on the back of my seat and was pressing the buttons hella hard so I couldn’t sleep! My head was knocking the whole trip.

            But anyway, my first day was great. Everyone seemed really cool during the orientation. That was the first time we all met each other. After, my professor took all 30 of us out to dinner at this beautiful outside restaurant. It was sooo gooood. We had tapas and sangria. I swear…every meal that I’ve had here, I’ve had with sangria. 

Then we toured the city…and I fell in love with its beauty! My professor showed us historical landmarks and he ended our tour with a trip to an Irish pub. He’s a tank!

            Today we toured to the Visigothic capital of Spain, Toledo. HOLY TOLEDO! It looked amazing. It was built as early as the 10^th century and has been continuously built and rebuilt by the different conquerors throughout history so there was different influences of Rome, Christianity, Muslims, Arabs, Jews…it was pretty cool. The streets were super narrow, since they weren’t built for the convenience of cars. You could almost touch both hands to each side of the tall buildings surrounding the street! Well… actually everything seems to be narrow here in Spain. The cars, the streets, the people..even the damn dogs! Hella skinny dogs!

         

   But after that we came back to Madrid and had dinner at expensive restaurant! Meals were over 30 dollars a plate! Everything in Europe is super expensive. Not good for my frugal mindset! After dinner, our teacher took us to another pub. It was fun. I swear, our professor is a G. This city does not sleep. The streets are still FILLED with people, all the shops, street venders and restaurants are still open and are super busy. People don't sleep here until 5-6am. Even old people are out! Instead of sleeping at "normal" hours, they take naps. I wish our culture functioned like that! That would be so efficient for my lifestyle.

            So now im up at almost 4am, writing this blog. I gotta wake up in 3 hours- - still not used to this time difference! Tomorrow is our free day to explore the city and do whatever we want. Cant wait!