Hola,
This is going to be a really long post because I haven't updated in over a week and there is so much to talk about. So I will just go in time order.
To start off, I didn't have much to do last week; we didn't have much homework, and I am here to adventure. I got on the metro and got off at a random stop. I walked around, got lost, found my way back, and went a different direction. As I was walking down a street I came across a kid from my program. He had a surf board and explained to me that a beautiful surf beach was right down the street. I walked there and immediately fell in love with it. I am going to take up surfing somehow....
Ok now to start with my Madrid trip. Prenote: Madrid was influenced by the Muslims, Catholics, and Jewish religions. The word Madrid is actually Muslim meaning running waters.
I stayed in Thursday night, which is really out of the ordinary here in Spain. Some people went out, but they paid for it by missing the bus in the morning and having to pay to get a bus to Madrid. We got to Madrid and immediately went touring. We went to this Castle that used to be home to the king, called Palacio Real, but has been turned into a place to hold important social gatherings and for touring. I wish I had pictures, but they wouldn't let you take them. I could not believe that people actually lived in that place; there was at least one chandelier in each room and the walls were sewn in cloth. To explain how big this place was, my teacher said that the King, who lived there at one point, said he was the only guy in Madrid that couldn't get a warm soup, because once the soup arrived to him it was already cold. After that, we went to their Casco Viejo or old town. On a sidenote, I will be going on many tangents of why I enjoy Bilbao better then Madrid. Here is the first one, this Casco Viejo was extremely touristy, with many shops that were more like the others, selling products that a standard American would buy. After this, we navigated our way back to our hotel on the train, which we somehow accomplished. To explain this train system, it was 6 different lines all with town names we didn't understand. (Still don't know how we did it) On this train ride we got asked about 3 times by homeless people for money. Tangent 2: Yes, we have homeless people in Bilbao, but they keep to themselves for the most part. These homeless people would ask me for money in Spanish, and normally if I don't want to talk to people I just say in english "I don't speak spanish." But like everyone else I talked to in Madrid, they spoke english as well. We got back to the hotel, ate there and headed out. We went out on the metro which was filled with shady characters. Once again homeless people asking for money and then kids our age which treated the train like their own personal party. They were smoking cigarettes on the train and drinking god knows what out of plastic cups. Tangent #3: Bilbao's metro system is heavily watched over. There is atleast one security guard on each train, and it is extremely clean. You try to open a pop on our metro and a security guard is right behind you asking in Spanish whats going on. (Ok maybe that wasn't exactly true, but it was used for emphasis). We get to a club at about midnight, and realise they are charging 60 euro cover....haha I am not made of money. We decide to walk the town instead. We find a Burger King, and I order a Whopper. Ofcourse, the guy answers me in English, I get angry and answer him in Spanish, and he in turn answers me in English. Oh what a struggle we had Madrid. I get back to my room after a lovely cab ride at about 4 in the morning only to get a wake up call at 8:30.
We head out to Segovia which is a beautiful town with a lot of Roman influence. It is home to an aquaduct that dates to the first century. This aquaduct is put together using only stone; no adhesive whatsoever. It amazes me that this thing is still standing. We then walked to a REAL castle called "Alcazar De Segovia" This thing had a moat and bridge and all! It was amazing. We got a tour in Spanish, but this guy didn't understand that we were American students and he needed to talk slow. So I lost attention and that is all about I can tell you about it. After visiting the church we headed back to the hotel. We ate and went out again.
This time we actually made it into a club paying 20 euros to get in. Drinks costed 12 euros so I stayed away from them. Once again Madrid, I am not made of money.... To explain this club we went to it was 7 floors, with different music on each floor. There were thousands of people in this club. Being social and using my broken Spanish, I met people from Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, and ofcourse more Americans. It was unbelievable that there were so many different nationalities in this club. I was getting tired so we headed back to the hotel and I went to bed again at 4 in the morning. My roommate didn't get back until 630; we had to get up at 8 hahaha sucks for him, he had a rough sunday to say the least.
Sunday we went to el Museo Del Prado. I am a big fan of Goya and they had a huge selection of his artwork. The museum is huge, but it could be bigger with the amount of art they have. I got tired of the museum and all the hungover people were dragging, so I decided to head out on my own. It was a beautiful day so I headed to el parque de retrido which (if i spelled it correctly) means the park of the retired. This park used to be the Kings private park, but once again they have opened it up to the public. It was a HUGE park with a lot of people and things going on. I enjoyed it immensely. I walked around thinking in Spanish, and listening to the city for about 2 hours. Slept in the grass for about 15 minutes and then headed back to the Museum to meet up with everyone. Tangent #4: Madrid was very dirty. They had graffiti and garbage everywhere. Bilbao has graffiti, but it is either extremely artsy or stateing a political statement so it adds to the character of the town, and there are always street cleaners in Bilbao. A long bus ride home, 10 hours of sleep, and a day of school later I am here telling my story.
I have come to the conclusion that I would not be content going to school in Madrid. For all the previously stated reasons, and the fact that it is not close to water. The only benefit of Madrid for schooling is the fact that it has a huge airport to get to other places cheaply; Bilbao is expensive to travel. That is all for now sorry for all the random tangents, jumbled thoughts, and grammatical errors. There is just too much to say. If you need any further elaboration email me. Here are some pictures of my life. Sopelana is the beach aka the previously stated surf beach.