Oh my CajaMadrid!!!

Aceptas las tarjetas de credito?

That has been the sentence that we have heard over and over again on this trip because one of our friends accidentally only has a credit card with her haha. AND, CajaMadrid (a bank in Spain) ate my ATM card when I tried to get cash! No worries though, I got it back the next morning.

Janelle and I just got back this morning at about 5am from our trip to Madrid/Toledo.  We did a lot of walking and wandering but had an awesome time.  Our bus to Madrid left Wednesday afternoon so we spent some time Wednesday in Granada watching the parade for Corpus Christi and packing for our trip.  The bus ride was about 5 hours so we arrived Wednesday night and then took the metro into the city to find a hostel.  We found a great hostel in no time.  The four of us had a room and a bathroom to ourselves.  After we found a hostel off puerta del sol, we went to a bar to grab some food before bed.  Janelle got meatballs that were soooo good.  The rest of us just ate the free pan (bread) and churizos (sausage) that are very popular in Spain.  One thing we've discovered about spain is that PDA (public display of affection) is very common here...people do not hold back.  For example, at the bar wednesday night, there was a couple to my right, a couple behind janelle and a couple to my left all making out!! We were surrounded.  I never would've thought that the metro would be a good place to make out either, but apparently it is! 

Thursday morning we got up and headed into the center of Madrid to grab breakfast and do some shopping! We all got churros finally (they're like donuts but not circular that you dip in chocolate...kind of hard to describe) and cafe con leche.  Then, we went to a few stores on Gran Via and bought some european/80's clothes haha. I got my first pair of real skinny jeans and janelle got a sweet pair of pink converses.  We then decided to head to Retiro park to find some lunch and walk around.  Retiro was beautiful and huge! We ate a cafe there and relaxed for a while before we decided what to do.  By this point in the day, we were so hot because we had already been walking a lot.  We kept seeing this tour bus pass by called Madrid Vision so we decided to do it.  Let's just say we spent the rest of the day taking wrong turns, walking miles, and eventually finding Madrid Vision only to realize that they were closed because of the holiday Corpus Christi.  Another one of our goals for the day was to see the Real Madrid stadium. So, as soon as we found out madrid vision was closed, we looked up the Real Madrid and saw that it closed at 6:30 on holidays...it was 6:40.  We were so hot and exhausted so we fell asleep in the park in front of Palacio Real (once again surrounded by couples making out).  Another thing we learned about Spaniards is that everyone knows their way (or at least think they do).  We asked a ton of people for directions and nobody ever said they weren't sure.  That left us with so many different opinions that we had to find our own way.  It ended up being a great day though because we realized that sometimes the best way to see the city is to take a few wrong turns and get a feel for the real spots, rather than just the touristy places. Anyways, that night we grabbed dinner and ice cream, then headed to bed early.

Friday we went to Toledo!!!!!!!!!!! We LOVED it! It was my favorite.  It was absolutely beautiful, and they had so many cool swords and armor everywhere haha.  We got to see a museum of art, the alcazar, a cathedral, and some beautiful side streets.  Lunch was an experience in Toledo.  Sometimes we regret not buying a travel book with recommended restaurants because we always end up stumbling into the ones that look good but are not.  I ordered "lomo" because we couldn't figure out what is was and I was curious...I still don't know what it is.  I think it's the back of a hog or something haha. Lomo means back or loin...so it's probably something gross.  It wasn't that bad though.  I have a slight bruise on my nose now because our chinese waitress banged my head with janelle's pasta plate while six workmen starred at us from the bar in a spanish restaurant.  It was the weirdest thing ever, but hilarious.  We had been walking all day in the heat (at record high's!) so we were pretty exhausted.  We wanted to make it to Plaza del Torros but it was too far to walk and Toledo doesn't have a Metro.  We took a train back to Madrid at 5:30.  (the trains are awesome here...it only took us 25 min) 

Janelle and I met her brother-in-law's sister, Miriam, outside the metro that night and hung out with her and her fiance, Jonathan, until our bus ride back at 11:30.  Miriam and Jonathan were so nice! I loved them.  It was such a blessing to get to spend time with christians from spain who knew their way around.  We also got to see Isaac's (janelle's brother in law) parents. They were so sweet.  We thought we were going to miss our 11:30 bus ride, but thanks to Jonathan saving the day, we made it in perfect time!

Well, that's it for now.  We're gonna head out to take a bus around the city of Granada today. We're hopefully going to get to go to "el campo" tomorrow with Manolo, but we're not sure. Monday we have Arabic baths on our schedule...can't wait for that! Buenas Dias!

Elizabeth and Janelle