Study Abroad
Day 4
January 21st, 2006
7:30 PM

Best thing about Thursday? Our luggage finally came. I’d already resorted to washing underwear in the sink and trying to figure out what I was going to do about an entire weekend in Madrid with no clean clothes. And, thank god, just as we were walking out of the Fund at 10 or so—there they were, being wheeled into the reception office. And there was much rejoicing.

Thursday really was a busy day. We registered for classes and took a bus tour around Toledo. That evening we had an informational meeting where they filled us in on all the rules and stuff. Miguel and Jose Luis (two of the guys in charge here) told us of the dangers of pickpockets: people who offer you a sample of fake perfume which is actually chloroform, so when you smell it they rifle through the pockets of your unconscious body. That was uplifting.

After the meeting they had a little party for us with tons of things to appetize us. The University’s troubadours came and sang for us too, which was fun. Afterward a few of us headed out for some tapas at the bar down the street from the Fund which was delicious.
Friday: Madrid. They stuck us all on vomitrocious buses, which was so kind of them and we endured the hour and a half to Madrid. They dropped us off at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia—the modern art museum. Their main attractions were Dali, Miro and Picasso (most notably “Guernica”). We looked at those, but we also spotted mullets (they’re in here. It hurts) and followed a bunch of little Spanish schoolkids on their guided tour.

They drove us around a bit, pointing out a few landmarks before dumping us again for lunch at “Museo de Jamon” (Museum of Ham. You can’t make this stuff up.) where they served us…chicken. It wasn’t that good, mostly because it was a Spanish restaurant trying to serve us American food. But we were hungry, and the company (Robin, Amy and Danielle) was very good.

Afterward they let us loose. Amy, Danielle and I had decided we’d like to stay overnight in Madrid instead of returning with the group, so we set off to find the hostel we’d looked up online. Amazingly, it was only about a block away from the “Museo de Jamon” (which was too easy, so we walked a little more than was necessary). Unfortunately, if a hostel gets a high rating on a travel website, it’s probably best to get a reservation. Lesson learned. Luckily, Rick Steves came to the rescue and sent us to another a couple blocks down—Hostal Continental. It wasn’t a youth hostel, so we actually got a whole room (3 beds plus a bathroom) all to ourselves for the night.

We decided our first order of business to be heading over to El Corte Ingles (the big Spanish department store). I got a watch, which I needed desperately (it’s blue and pretty) and we wandered around looking at other things. In the end, we decided what we really needed was to go downstairs to the grocery store. We got some snacks for that night and some fruit and muffins for breakfast and brought them back to our room. We chilled for a bit—I read, Amy napped and Danielle wrote in her journal.

After that we were ready to go. We’d made a reservation at a flamenco bar called “Las Tablas.” We figured since it was listed in Frommer’s it would be filled with tourists, but we were the only non-Spaniards there. In fact, they looked surprised to see us Americans in there. We tried to look inconspicuous, making a no-English policy for the evening. It was a really fun show—crazy buff women and sweaty men clapping and dancing. We drank sangria and ate chorizo. By the end of the show, we were ready to head back and go to sleep, so we did.

We were out by 12 this morning and hauled our rucksacks over to the Palacio Real. King Felipe V wanted it to be his own special Versailles, and I believe he succeeded. We walked through room after room of ornate decorations, chandeliers, thrones. We saw the Royal Armory, with hundreds of suits of armor and the Royal Pharmacy, with millions of bottles of creepy powders with Latin names.

We had lunch at a restaurant nearby, and were served our food (sandwiches—tortilla Espanola in Amy’s, chorizo in Danielle’s, calamari in mine) by a cute little man who was so excited to hear where we were from because he has a son who lives in Chicago. He even pulled out his cell phone to show us his son’s number with the Illinois area code.

We got on the Metro, where Amy headed for the train station to return to Toledo (she needed to work out how to switch her living situation from a family to the Fundacion). Danielle and I continued on to see the Prado. It’s pretty big, but the rooms are color-coded. We decided we just wanted to see the Spanish art for today, so we stayed in the pink rooms and looked at Velasquez, Goya, El Greco and such.

We hiked from the museum out to the train station, bought our ticket back to Madrid and hopped on the train. 30 minutes. Not even enough time to finish a chapter of my book and write a postcard. Sweet. From the train station we got on a bus that took us up into the city of Toledo, then we walked back to the Fundacion.
Not sure what we’re going to be doing tonight. Dinner in an hour, and hopes to sleep in tomorrow morning…

Miss you all!