I traveled to Madrid last June when I took a tour of Spain from Barcelona to Torremolinos in La Costa del Sol.

My first glimpse of the city was driving in on the highway... or whatever that big road was. It was gray and drizzly, but I was excited nevertheless. Once we arrived, we checked into our hotel, the Hotel Convención, which was thankfully near a Starbucks (did you know they have Banana Java Chip frappuccinos? How come we don’t have those?). We went out for dinner and then went to the Plaza Mayor. I was so happy to see it, even though it was in shadow because it was already dark. Actually, the Plaza Mayor is a lot smaller than I had thought it was, but just as beautiful. And you know the saying "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain"? Well, it was STILL raining. Which, apparently, is unusual for this time of year. But we didn’t care because we were in the Plaza Mayor, in Madrid, in Spain! A few of my friends and I decided we had to have churros y chocolate first thing, so we started to search for a place. We went into one restaurant and asked, and they gave us a funny look and told us that people usually had that for breakfast. Uh oh, tourist alert! But the man was very nice and directed us to a place where we could go that was just outside the plaza. So we had a delicious dessert while we sat at a bar in a café. It was kind of funny, because after we talked to the bartender/waiter, he asked us if we were from Italy. We laughed and said no, but I think it was a good sign because it meant our accents weren’t horribly bad.

After our delicious nightcap we headed back to the Plaza Mayor to meet up with the rest of our group. We were to meet under the statue, but when we got there, we found not our fellow Chicagoans but a huge group of people dancing and singing, clustered around some dancers and a man who seemed to be leading some sort of Madrileno pride song. I couldn't really understand what they were saying, something about bears, I think, but everyone seemed to be having a really good time. We finally found our people on the other side of the dancing mass, and afterwards we headed back to the metro to go back to the hotel.

The next day, after a breakfast of bread (what else?) and corn flakes and Coco Krispies (which are apparently the only cereals they have all over Spain) we hopped on the bus for a tour of the city. We stopped first at a statue of Don Quixote for a photo op, and then headed over to the Palacio Real. The entire place is just dripping with opulence. Even the hedges walking in are trimmed into beautiful swirly shapes. We headed to the gift shop first (which we deemed as 'holy' as they had AA batteries) and I bought a fan (#2), a pen, and some chocolate. We then headed to the armory where examples of armor from back in the day were displayed. They even had armor for dogs! Then it was time for our tour to start. Our guide spoke a mix of Spanish and English, and, quite honestly, with her thick accent it was much easier to understand her in Spanish. The palace is so big and elegant it is hard to imagine anyone living there. Nearly every ceiling is painted with beautiful frescoes and almost every wall is carved or upholstered. We found out that the Queen of Spain always had the bigger bedroom and the larger bed... further proof that, while the king is the head, the queen is the neck, and therefore able to turn the head any way she wants!

After we left the palace, the two groups split up again, with us, the Chicago people, going to Toledo while the other group, I don't know, shopped or something. It was about a 45-minute bus ride to the old capital. When we arrived in the city we were greeted by seemingly ancient architecture and incredible views. The bus stopped near what I suppose must be their main plaza, the name of which, as our guide assured us we would, I've forgotten. We were all hungry, so the majority of us went to McDonalds. Actually, I make a point to not go to McDonalds ever since I saw Supersize Me, but I had to go to a Spanish one! So I ordered a McPollo sandwich, just because the name was too funny not to.

We ate fast and then met our tour guide, Fernando, who soon urged us to "come closer, I'm a vegetarian." If you're ever in Toledo, look him up. He took us to the gorgeous cathedral which houses many paintings and artifacts, including part of a bone from a saint (but I'm not sure which one). We also visited an old synagogue-turned-church and then, of course, the famous painting of the Burial of Lord Orgaz (it used to be Count Orgaz, but after some research they found out he was just a lord) by El Greco. Which is impressive to see in person, especially if you have already studied it in your Spanish class.

We then headed to the place where all the famous Spanish swords come from. In this shop/factory you can watch swords being made, intricate brooches and coins being carved, and most importantly, you can buy stuff! They have loads of silver jewelry, daggars, and swords you can buy, some for just 35 euro! I ended up buying a daggar, a silver pendant, and a bracelet, and cringed a bit when my total was 99 euro. At least 4 people bought swords, which, thankfully, they managed to get on the AVE train we took later.

After Toledo, we took the bus back to Madrid, where we split up into two groups- those who wanted to go to the Prado and those who wanted to go shopping in the city. Naturally, I went to the Prado. The paintings are just gorgeous (while many are more than a bit disturbing) and I was so excited to see La Rendicion de Breda, you know, the one where the horse moves? I did a lot of walking back and forth in front of that painting! Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time in the museum to see everything as we only had about 40 minutes until it closed. After we left we sat in the front of the museum admiring some different, living artwork in the form of some extremely attractive young Spanish guys. We took some pictures and waved, and then they took pictures of us! Sadly, there was no hope for any of us, as the two guys seemed to be with each other... But when we took the metro to dinner, three more chicos guapos offered us their seats! Now, not all Spanish men are attractive, but the ones that are... wow.

Sorry, back to travel and culture! We had tapas for dinner at a lovely restaurant. I got to try tortilla, red peppers, croquettes (yum), and a few things that I'm not totally sure what they were but they were good. This was also the first time I got to try real Spanish sangria. Very very good. You can't go to Spain without trying that!

Afterwards we went back to the Plaza Mayor for some last minute shopping and went back to our hotel to rest up for the next day's journey to Cordoba and Sevilla.

The next morning a few of us ran to Starbucks for some delicious Banana Java Chip Frappuccinos and then I grabbed a croissant for breakfast (which, by that time, was not at all appetizing but I needed food). We loaded our luggage onto the bus and headed for the Atocha train station. This is the same station that had the terrible bombing in 2003. Inside there is an absolutely gorgeous jungle that you can walk through. Another cool thing that I noticed both at the train station and the Malaga airport was instead of escalators, they have these cool moving ramps. These are really nice, especially if you have suicases to lug around. See, I get a thrill out of the little things...

While we waited for our train, we went around to the shops where I found my second box of Spanish pocky, which is actually a Japanese cookie-type dessert, so I got a kick out of finding it there. Once it was almost time to get on the train, we went through security, suprisingly without a problem as a few people had the swords they had bought in Toledo. Our guide, Christine, advised us to pretend we didn't speak Spanish if there was a problem. But there wasn't, so we boarded the train without a hitch.