Madrid

We got in pretty late off the train so we all headed right to bed, but the next day we got up ready to explore. No one knew much about what sights were great to see in Madrid to see so we decided to take advantage on the New Europe Free walking tour. Only there was no tour, they had been boycotted out by the paid tour guides of the city. So we got a verbal desciption of what all was good to see and why it was and then where to go. So we took off with a map and a few things we actually remembered. We found the Haribro candy store (not on the tour), the Madrid Opera house (whoes accoustics are second to only one other performance space in the world). We also saw the Habsburg#s Palacio Real, the Cathedral de la Almunda as well as the Placa Mayor and the Placa Santa Ana (where Hemingway used to hand out-its a major hang out for writers and poets), as well as the Congress building and the Placa Canovas del Castillio, with a very impressive fountain in the middle. After the tour we went to dinner at a Norwegian restaurant called Olsens, the second chef there is the brother of a coworker of Justine and Kristin from their first coop. The food was amazing, i had the best peice of pork of my life. The next day Katie and I got up early and went to the Muses del Prado, the most famous art museum in Madrid and most of Europe. They had the most stunning collection of Ruebens and El Greco's work. It was really amazing. After that we all met up to go on a Tapas tour. We went to some of the most authentic places in the city and learned the history behind the dish, while eatting and drinking ourselves retarded. Afterwards we all bought wine and a whole group of us from the tour went up to the Egyptian Temple to watch the sunset. One of my favorite nights so far. Good scenery and good company. On our last day, we did some shopping in the morning and went to the park where we rented row boats, but ended up laying in the boat more then rowing in the boat. We each did our own thing in the afternoon (I had lots of sorority book keeping to catch up on) and then grabbed tapas for dinner before the pub crawl. We met lots of fun people on the bar crawl, and needless to say we went quick to get up and catch our train the next day.