Madrid
For the first week of my spring break, I met my friends studying in England in Madrid! We had a little mix-up at the airport and my phone wouldn't let me send text messages any more, so I accidentally bought a Spanish SIM-card for my phone. The sales man spoke English, but it was like he only knew the pre-planned sales pitch in English. When I tried to ask him questions about what I was actually purchasing, he had no idea what I talking about. After this, I took a cab to the hostel. Speaking Spanish for the first time was awesome. It was initially confusing because I would confuse German with Spanish; I kept saying "und" or "Ja" instead of "y" and "si". Its a weird problem to have- mixing up three different languages.
Our hostel was called Way Hostel. It was in an awesome area and the staff were so friendly. They had different events for us to do every night and a nice kitchen/lounge area to hang out in. The best part of most hostels is that they offer free walking tours. These tours generally pick up people from a few different hostels and then the guide takes you to random things throughout the city. They really are free, but then you tip according to how well you thought the tour was given. If I was a rich parent I would have given all the guides a 20, but since I am the opposite of that, I tried to give 5-10 euro. Our guide from Madrid was actually awful so I only gave him 2 euro. He basically only took us to different "famous" restaurants around the city. One of them was "the oldest restaurant in the world", as proved by the Guinness book of world records, yet we are pretty sure Rome would have the oldest restaurant. It was a bit odd.
Our hostel was called Way Hostel. It was in an awesome area and the staff were so friendly. They had different events for us to do every night and a nice kitchen/lounge area to hang out in. The best part of most hostels is that they offer free walking tours. These tours generally pick up people from a few different hostels and then the guide takes you to random things throughout the city. They really are free, but then you tip according to how well you thought the tour was given. If I was a rich parent I would have given all the guides a 20, but since I am the opposite of that, I tried to give 5-10 euro. Our guide from Madrid was actually awful so I only gave him 2 euro. He basically only took us to different "famous" restaurants around the city. One of them was "the oldest restaurant in the world", as proved by the Guinness book of world records, yet we are pretty sure Rome would have the oldest restaurant. It was a bit odd.
We met up with one of our friends, Connor, who was studying abroad in Madrid. Its good having locals to meet up with because they know secrets travelers wouldn't necessarily figure out. The best example is ordering food. In Spanish, "I want a taco" would be "Yo quiero un taco". But in Spain, you actually wouldn't order food like that. The Spaniards can tell who is American because the language is too formally thought out. You would just say "Me pone" or something less formal.
Another cool thing about Spain is that the food is crazy and if you try and order something a little too crazy, the waiters won't let you. My friend Abby loves calamari and its eat once a day. She tried to order calamari at one of the restaurants and the waiter said no. I couldn't understand his Spanish, but we think that it must be prepared in a strange way that he knows Americans wouldn't expect, or want. After dinner, we went to some of the ham museums in Madrid. They really aren't museums, but they are called "Museo de Jamon". The one we went into had a grand entrance as if it really were a museum! Every square inch of the ceiling has ham dangling from it. You can also order a beer and get free ham sandwiches with it! It's a really strange concept, but so much fun.
I think my best advice for travelling is to lose the concept of time. It doesn't matter when you eat or when you go see what monuments or when you sleep, eventually it will happen. It's easier to just go with the flow of the day rather than to make plans and have them be ruined by things going wrong. So, lunch may be at 4pm and then dinner is at 11pm. It is a crazy lifestyle, but you get used to it. Its almost nice to never know what time it is or even what day it is.
After the ham museums, we walked around more cool sights of Madrid. Spain is just an amazing place. The people, the food, the culture- everything was just awesome. We loved being forced to speak Spanish again. Two of our friends took French in high school, so they really relied on us to order food or to buy souvenirs or to even say "excuse me". It was so much fun having to rely on things I learned four years ago! Having a conversation with a Spaniard will help you learn Spanish faster than any class you take. You will remember the situation, what you said, how they responded and that teaches you way more than memorizing flash cards for three hours does.
Another cool thing about Spain is that the food is crazy and if you try and order something a little too crazy, the waiters won't let you. My friend Abby loves calamari and its eat once a day. She tried to order calamari at one of the restaurants and the waiter said no. I couldn't understand his Spanish, but we think that it must be prepared in a strange way that he knows Americans wouldn't expect, or want. After dinner, we went to some of the ham museums in Madrid. They really aren't museums, but they are called "Museo de Jamon". The one we went into had a grand entrance as if it really were a museum! Every square inch of the ceiling has ham dangling from it. You can also order a beer and get free ham sandwiches with it! It's a really strange concept, but so much fun.
I think my best advice for travelling is to lose the concept of time. It doesn't matter when you eat or when you go see what monuments or when you sleep, eventually it will happen. It's easier to just go with the flow of the day rather than to make plans and have them be ruined by things going wrong. So, lunch may be at 4pm and then dinner is at 11pm. It is a crazy lifestyle, but you get used to it. Its almost nice to never know what time it is or even what day it is.
After the ham museums, we walked around more cool sights of Madrid. Spain is just an amazing place. The people, the food, the culture- everything was just awesome. We loved being forced to speak Spanish again. Two of our friends took French in high school, so they really relied on us to order food or to buy souvenirs or to even say "excuse me". It was so much fun having to rely on things I learned four years ago! Having a conversation with a Spaniard will help you learn Spanish faster than any class you take. You will remember the situation, what you said, how they responded and that teaches you way more than memorizing flash cards for three hours does.
Real Madrid
The absolute funnest thing we did in Madrid was go to the Real Madrid game. Obviously, soccer is the biggest sport in Europe and we had to see at least one game. None of us had ever really watched soccer until coming to Europe, which was also cool. We bought tickets for about 40 Euro outside of the game, which is cheap considering Madrid is one of the best teams in Europe. The Real Madrid team, pronounced rey-al, is actually the King's team. Thus, real means royal. The uniforms have the royal crown and emblem on them. Unlike most football clubs, the Real Madrid members have owned and operated the club since it was started. It is the richest club in terms of revenue. Real Madrid holds many rivalries, but the biggest one is Barcelona's team, FC Barcelona. It is basically a rule that you never cheer for a team in public because people take these rivalries so seriously. They are the cause of many fights and problems. The most famous player on the team is Christiano Ronaldo, who is one of the most beautiful men on this planet.
The game was pretty late, but since we ate lunch late we got dinner after the game. We had our first taste of authentic Spanish food. Paella is a classic Spanish meal and you will see signs for it everywhere you go. It is a creamy rice dish, with fresh vegetables, sea food, and sometimes other meat. The dish is really expensive because it contains Saffron. Saffron can be more expensive than gold sometimes. This is how you know if you are eating fake or real paella. If it is really cheap, you know its fake. Sometimes cooks will put in yellow food coloring so that it looks more real, but true paella has a rich gold color. We didn't have real paella until we were in Barcelona, but you can definitely taste the difference.
After Madrid, we took a five hour bus ride to Granada!
The game was pretty late, but since we ate lunch late we got dinner after the game. We had our first taste of authentic Spanish food. Paella is a classic Spanish meal and you will see signs for it everywhere you go. It is a creamy rice dish, with fresh vegetables, sea food, and sometimes other meat. The dish is really expensive because it contains Saffron. Saffron can be more expensive than gold sometimes. This is how you know if you are eating fake or real paella. If it is really cheap, you know its fake. Sometimes cooks will put in yellow food coloring so that it looks more real, but true paella has a rich gold color. We didn't have real paella until we were in Barcelona, but you can definitely taste the difference.
After Madrid, we took a five hour bus ride to Granada!