Madrid...

Hello! I thought I'd do a post or two on each city that we visited during our 16 day adventure.

Our first and last stop on the trip was Madrid. We did our first and last two days there. J had already been there for a work conference last year, so luckily he was familiar with many of the streets and popular areas. It was nice to start and end with something that we knew better, because the other two cities were very stressful at times.

We stayed in two different places, the first being a six-bed hostel. Neither of us had ever stayed in a hostel before, but it was a very cool experience and certainly not as scary as you would imagine! We had very interesting roommates from all over the world (and they all spoke at least some English) and they told us about their travels. It was great to get some insight into other cultures!

Our favorite parts of Madrid were definitely the weather and the food/drink. It was gorgeous and warm all four days there, with very low humidity and lots of sun. We got excellent tans! Also, the food is yummy and cheap. We drank a lot of beer and sangria. A lot of their food is fried or involves bread, which can be heavy at times, but they do smaller portions (tapas) so that you really don't consume as much as you would normally.

At the end of our trip, we stayed in a little apartment in a popular city square. We had two sets of french doors that opened up and you could look out and see all the restaurants and people running around. It was so beautiful. On our last full day abroad, we used our towels and laid out and got some color - it was so nice to simply ENJOY being in another country without having to be doing something constantly. We both really enjoyed our time in Madrid and basically accomplished everything we wanted to see while there!

Here are a few photos of the cool things we did in Madrid (with MANY more to come in the future!)

J's view at our hostel, RC San Miguel

Temple of Debod - rebuilt Egyptian ruins

Atocha train station

Paella! Really delicious and HUGE portions

The view from our french doors during our second stay! Stunning lights.

The famous Churros and Chocolate (coffee for me) from San Gines!

Chocolateria San Gines, serving chocolate and churros since 1894!

We ate a lot of croquetas in Spain. These were enormous and had many different fillings - cheese, seafood, ham, etc. YUM!