Madrid

After a much needed siesta, group meal, and what seemed like the best night’s sleep EVER, we set out to explore the city. Our program had arranged for several tour guides to travel with us for the duration of our stay in Madrid. I opted to do the tour in Spanish…figured I had to start sometime! The first day was really difficult, but as much as I wanted to switch to the English tour, I knew that it was important to start tuning into the Spanish language. Our tour guide was super sweet, and very accommodating for our wide range of language needs.

Having really only ever been to New York City and Washington, D.C., I was interested to see where Madrid would fit into my lack of knowledge of cities. It’s not as busy and chaotic as Manhattan, but less serious and businesslike than D.C. Day and night, however, are two different worlds. Nonetheless, it was very cool to experience the different culture. Some parts (i.e. the artwork, architecture, family-oriented nature) were welcomed with open arms, whereas others (smoking *cough, cough*) I could have done without.

Three days was certainly not enough time to see everything, but we managed to see a lot. We'll be back in December!