Yeah, I turned 21 in Europe.

So this past weekend was pretty much the best weekend I've had since I've been here. For about a month, my friend Sohae had been planning this weekend because it was her birthday (we're birthday buddies!) So she got people to come and found tickets to a Real Madrid soccer game (Real Madrid is the name of the team. It's pronounced ray-all, it means royal.) So we had a group of about 12 people go. Most of us stayed in the same hostel. The procrastinators had to stay in another hostel. So let's start from the beginning.

I flew out of Alicante by myself on Thursday night. I'm pretty sure it was the last flight out of the airport for the day. We were in the air for less than an hour. I took RyanAir. It's basically the cheapest airline in Europe. I bought my tickets for about 20 Euros ($26) round trip! I got into Madrid at midnight and took the Metro to the hostel. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. So that makes me less nervous about the Paris Metro for next weekend. But I got to the hostel around 1am and had to quietly find my bed and get to sleep.

The next morning, my friends arrived at the hostel around 8:30am. They woke up around 5am to make their flight... I woke around 8am. Stinks to be them. We had some free breakfast courtesy of the hostel and then left to head to the Palacio Real (again, pronounced ray-all, meaning royal). The palace was beautiful! But some people in our group obviously weren't thinking and didn't bring either their youth card or school ID so they weren't willing ot pay the full entrance price of 10 Euros. So Sohae and I stayed to go in and tour, but the rest of the group left. They decided to walk all the way back across town to see the Prado Museum. Whatever. I don't care if you want to waste your time walking and not just explore this side of town. Anyway, Sohae and I stayed and waited in line to go in and then we realized that they didn't accept youth cards for discounts. So since she didn't have her school ID, she didn't want to go it. So we just walked around.

We went to the palace's gardens and a plaza nearby and then we tried to get into the royal cathedral but it was closed. Though we did find some "cripts." It was a really pretty church with (maybe) graves in the marble of the floor. I mean, they were grave sized so we guessed they were graves. And when we figured this out, we decided to side step them from then on. But there were small rooms surrounding the main church that were mini prayer rooms/shrines(?) to different saints. It was really pretty. See what you can find if you just take the time to explore! From there we met our friend Ryan (who got into town late on a train) at the Plaza Mayor. Basically it's this big town square. There are restaurants and entertainers wandering the plaza. They was this really cool man making huge bubbles! I have a fascination with bubbles. I mean, it was my first word. There was also a fat Spiderman, a red Teletubbie (it's name is Po right?... Are you surprised that I know this?), a mime, a Sponge Bob, two Mickey Mouses and a Minnie Mouse.








From there, we met up with people across town and wandered through the Parque del Retiro. I would compare it to Central Park, even though I've never been there. That would just be my guess. There were a few sculptures, many fountains, and two palacios (palaces). One was the Palacio de Velazquez. I think it was just a museum. The other is called the Palacio de Cristal. It's a big glass building. Again, I didn't go inside but it was very cool looking from the outside. It was right next to a big pond/little lake. Also inside the park, they have a HUGE lake and a monument of Alfonso XIII. It was so pretty. There were a few coffee shops around it and you could lounge around the monument or you could rent a paddle boat and go out on the lake. A few of my friends did this. But I don't like lakes so I just wandered around.




After a little while, we left and met up with another kid from Mizzou who met us in Madrid (he's studying in Sevilla, southern Spain). By this time, we'd broken into a smaller group. My small group wanted to go shopping and I don't really like shopping. Especially when I'm in a foreign country and there are cooler things to do. So I split and went by myself back to the palace. But I got there too late. They had already closed for the day :( So I walked around and found a small park with a monument for Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish writer (Don Quijote, anyone?)

I made my way back to the hostel and took a little nappy. Then some of us got some dinner.

Next day, (MY BIRTHDAY) we woke up nice and early so we could fit a full day in. It stunk that it was raining all day. It's not very pleasant walking across town in the rain. But whatever. Could be worse. So we stared out at the Thyssen Museum. (Hooray for student discounts!) It had some pretty awesome works of art. But this is where I realized that I'm more of a Renaissance art kind of girl. I don't like very old religious stuff and I don't like contemporary "art." I like paintings of Greek mythology the most! They had a temporary exhibit in the basement that I really liked. It was just works by an artist named Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). His work was awesome! The last part of the exhibit was a bunch of pieces related to each other. It's hard to describe. Click here to understand better. The first two pieces (along with a few others not shown) were all related. They were paintings of sculptures with images of other related things in the background. All intertwined. Very cool.

From there we got some good food. Paella. But the server was giving us sass about being 8 people and not ordering a lot. A few of us split a pan of paella and most of us ordered free tap water..... We didn't appreciate the attitude. Whatever. From there a few people talked about heading back to the hostel to take a nap but I figured since I was already on this side of town, I'd just stop by another museum, the Reina Sofia Art Museum. Fun fact, Reina Sofia is the current queen of Spain. I just figured she was an old queen but no, she's still the number 1 lady in Spain. So I was there by myself for a while, which I didn't mind. I got myself a nice audio guide and headed to the main floor. To be honest, it was my least favorite museum. If you're pressed for time and visiting Madrid, I'd suggest you skip it. But one thing it is famous for is that it has a number of Salvador Dali paintings as well as many pieces by Pablo Picasso, most notably his Guernica. It's about the Spanish Civil War. The rooms around the Guernica had his practice pieces, rough drafts, practice pieces, alterations. That was kinda cool to see his process. But otherwise, I was getting tired and aggravated with (what I thought was) a lack of organization among the pieces. So just as my friends were getting to the museum, I decided to split and rest my feet.

Back to the hostel for a rest (which turned out to be just laying in my bed for a half hour), and then I met up with a guy from my group. The rest of our group had bought tickets to the Real Madrid vs Levante soccer game. But tickets were a bit pricey for me so I didn't go. So this guy Ryan and I found an Irish sports bar to watch the game.

Then after the game we met back up with our friends and got some pizza and got ready for a night out for mine and Sohae's birthdays! We started at the same Irish bar and met some Americans and Spaniards and they were really nice. I scored four free birthday shots :) Then one of the Spanish guys told us about a cool club so a big group of us trekked to the club, and one of my girl friends insisted that the birthday girls shouldn't have to pay to get in. I didn't argue with him! So we stayed there for a while. It was a pretty fancy dance club (discoteca) but the other birthday girl and one of my friends had a bit too much to drink and fell asleep from an exhausting day so we had to take them home. But that was at like 5am. So we did indeed have a full day. It was a pretty awesome birthday. How many people can say they turned 21 in Europe?

We slept in a little the next day (Sunday), but not too late. We were out of the hostel by 11am. I headed by myself to the Palacio. I really wanted to get in. IT WAS SO WORTH IT! The Palace turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. It was gorgeous. There were three parts: the royal pharmacy, the royal quarters, and the armory. Sadly, no pictures allowed inside. But the royal quarters were literally breath taking. I just stood around catching flies in my open mouth. That is the one thing you MUST see if you make it to Madrid. The walls were covered in golden wallpaper. The windows were surrounded by golden drapes. The ceilings were painted with lovely murals. There were mythical Greek statues and it was the most beautiful thing I've seen. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

**Here is a good time to mention something I realized. In any large museum I enter from now on, I will try to get an audio guide. You learn so much more! I highly suggest it. I know it costs more but it's so worth it. I desperately wished I'd gotten one at the palace. I even tried to surreptitiously follow an older man listening to a tour in English, but I didn't want to be too creepy. You need to get one if you go to any of these museums. They only cost like 3 or 4 euros. Just do it.**

Then I walked across town to the Prado, which I thought was free all day on Sundays, but actually it's only free after 5pm. Oh well. On the way to the museum, I refueled with a nice little pesto panini and a coffee. The Prado is ENORMOUS so I knew I'd have to prepare myself. Got myself an audio guide and got started. So many wonderful things, so many not wonderful things. The second floor had lots of nice Greek mythology stuff. But I had to take sitting breaks and one coffee and cookie break to stop my feet from screaming in agony. Seriously, I was feeling physically sick because my feet hurt from being on them all weekend. If you plan on walking around Europe, do yourself a favor and invest in a good pair of gel insoles. Again, a group of my friends got there just as I was about to leave. I'd spent ~4 hours there but it felt like 7. By the time I was getting ready to leave, free admission had started so it was getting uncomfortably crowded. That's fine, I'd seen 2/3 of the museum by then.

I headed back to the hostel and napped, got a quick dinner with people and then my 4 friends and I in the hostel settled down around 10pm. It was nice. Kinda like a sleepover. I haven't had a big "sleepover" like that in a while so it made me happy. We just talked for a while and then went to sleep because we needed to get up early the next day for our flight.

The next morning we got up at 5:20am and had a free breakfast at the hostel and checked out and took the Metro to the airport and took a 8:20am flight back to Alicante. A quick shower, did a little homework and then headed to class at 1pm. And thus ended my wonderful weekend :)

Besos and wish me luck in Paris!