Spring Break: Day 1

Ok so I am finally back from intense two and a half week spring break trip. I was definitely for it to come to an end but it is nice to be back in alicante and be able relax and go to the beach. Although it has brought me back to the reality of life and school. Kind of stinks but I can't travel forever unfortunately. For some people on my program their travels are lasting a little longer than planned because of the stupid volcanic ash from Iceland freezing all flight travel throughout northern Europe. We really lucked out with our plans being in southern Europe and Africa and that our last mode of travel was by train so we didn't have to worry about not making it back to Alicante. I am wondering what is going to happen with our projects and presentations and exams and such since a huge majority of the people can't get for several days. Who knows what will happen I guess I will find out soon enough. I will keep you updated on what happens. For now I am going to start sharing the story of my amazing spring break. I am going to go day by day so that it will be a little easier and quicker to post. And since it will probably take a long for me to my entire trip I will have current updates in between.


Okey dokey here we go!

April 1- Day 1- Alicante and Madrid

We got up bright and early to catch our flight from Alicante to Madrid. Alex, Sarah and I had to take a taxi to the airprot cause it was too early for the buses to be running and Pepita said it was too early for her to drive us. So sweet isn't she? We were all going to have Britta's uncle drive us but his car only fit four of us and apparently they are really strict in Spain about everyone having a seat belt. So Britta and her uncle picked up Michelle and met us at the airport. We got there in plenty of time and made the flight fine and it went smoothly. A very nice way to start off a trip, not missing a fought or anything. Unfortunately though Michelle and Sarah both had to pay 35 € for their bags to be checked because they were to big according to ryanair's ridiculously strict standards. This was the only leg of the trip that we were flying ryanair though so we didn't have to worry about getting any charges again.

When we got into Madrid we got on the metro and made our way to our hostel. The directions I had printed off of the hostel's website didn't give us directions for what to do when we got off so we had to call but it was no big deal we found it, dropped off our bags since we couldn't check in yet, and headed to Dunkin Coffee (yeah not donut, it is coffee here). We were all super tired from waking up early so got ourselves some coffee to wake us up.

Sarah is gluten free so she couldn't have a doughnut so instead she found the Prado museum on the map.

After that we walked to the famous Prado museum of Madrid. It was a huge museum, but I really really enjoyed. While we were there we just kind of walked around and looked at whatever we wanted and met up before we left. We all stuck together at the beginning and then we started loaing each other.

Sarah and I walked around together pretty much the whole time and towards the end we found some artists that we both really liked. They were Goya (he does amazing detail on the faces), Count Jacob of Rechteren-Almelvo, and Juan Bautista Maíno. I realized when walking through the museum what I really am drawn to in art and design. I am drawn to the details more than the pictures as a whole. I found that every picture I looked at I got up really close to it and examined it. And I liked the artists that made their paintings look like a photograph and believe there were some that were insanely, impeccably detailed and photograph-like. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum so you can look up their work if you want. It was hilarious there was one portrait that we both thought looked like someone we knew so I snuck a picture on my iPhone so we could ask the other girls who it looked like. Can you guys figure out who he looks like?

It looks like the actor who plays Dr. House! It was so satisfying figuring out who he looked like.

After several hours in the museum we were super hungry so we headed back towards or hostel and got Dominoes pizza. I know hat you are thinking dunkin coffe and dominoes aren't they in Europe not the US? And yes we are but we wanted cheap stuff an we have had spanish food for the past 3 months and we all miss american food. So don't judge us :) After we ate we went and checked in at our hostel and got our room. It was a 10 person mixed room at the Cat's Hostel. It was pretty nice but the doors were so hard to get into we felt so stupid.

They had these little wrist watch looking things that you put on the knob to unlock it and turn but it was super hard. We had to go get the guy who was working there to open the door for us. Finally by the time we left the hostel we had it down. Later in the evening Alex, Britta and I went and walked around the city a little to look around while Michelle and Sarah slept and read. We wanted to go find the oldest restaruant in the world Botin and the main plazas but when we started walking to the main areas it started to get really packed and then we could barely walk cause there were so many people. We realized a parade was about to start for semana Santa so we took a different route and ended up seeing everything we wanted to. Then of course while were out we went shopping for souvenirs and such. It was hilarious, they have street performers everywhere and in the plaza mayor there was even a mariachi band playing. It made me laugh cause I was like wait where are we Mexico or Spain?

After that we headed back to our hostel to go to bed. When we got back Sarah and Michelle were sitting on the floor playing cards with three Portuguese guys who were also in our room. It turned out that they neither slept nor read they just talked and played cards with those guys. We all ended up playing cards with them except for Alex cause she was really tired. The boys were really nice and only one of them really spoke English well but we were able to communicate what we needed and wanted. It was kind of annoying though cause one of the guys was really childish and wouldn't play fair and was just being stupid. Before we left we exchanged emails and skype with the one guy who spoke English and he begged us to come and visit them in Portugal. I would love to do that cause I have heard it is beautiful but one I don't the money to and two I don't have the time too.

That was day 1 of our trip. It was an excellent start to our trip.
Even though it was just a short visit to Madrid we saw what we wanted
to and had fun.

Sorry if there were any major grammatical errors in this post. I typed it up on my phone on the train from Barcelona to Alicante and I don't feel like rereading to look for errors.