Last weekend Rylee and I headed out on our 10 day Fall Break. We had planned our trips to Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, London, and Oxford. We had the most amazing time, but we definitely had our fair share of twists and turns. Here is a break down of our itinerary: Madrid: Saturday, October 27-Sunday, October 28. Barcelona: Monday, October 29-Tuesday, October 30. Amsterdam: Wednesday, October 31. London and Oxford: Thursday, November 1-Monday, November 5.
To make this easier to handle, both reading and writing wise, I am breaking the posts into four--Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam and London. Here comes Madrid! Before I get started you should know that a few weeks ago while in Venice, Rylee and I came up with our motto for our time abroad. "Beating the system 9 times out of 10" We have found ourselves in many situations where we "beat the system" like getting to the train station early, finding our trains easily, find cheap ways to get places, etc. Why only 9 times out of 10? Well, because you can't always beat the system. This motto carried on to Fall break and became a common theme in everything we did.
Rylee and I were so excited to get Fall Break started. The greatest success of my life potentially was packing for all ten days in one back pack. If anyone knows me at all is that I always overpack, so this was a big deal. Early Saturday morning we took a bus to the airport and flew Easyjet to Madrid. Cheap European airlines like Ryan Air, Easyjet, Vueling, and Wizz Air are great, but they have so many baggage restrictions and are pretty cramped, so make sure if you fly with them that your bag will fit! Luckily Rylee and I only had back packs! It was about a 2.5 hour flight to Madrid which was great!
When we got there Rylee and I were searching out customs so that we could get our passport stamped, but we had no luck. Disappointing! After getting out of the airport we got on a bus that we hoped would take us to the city center. Unfortunately, neither of us speaks Spanish, so we were guessing the whole time in Spain. We got off the bus at a bus terminal which amazing was exactly where we needed to buy our tickets for an overnight bus to Barcelona. (Beating the system...) We bought out bus tickets for Sunday and headed into the city in search of our hostel. Without a map we managed to figure out exactly where our hostel was, again beating the system. We checked into our hostel and it was definitely a "don't judge a book by its cover" moment. The door to the hostel looked really sketchy, but the inside was really nice and clean. The desk person was also really nice and gave us a map with all the major places we needed to see while we were in Madrid. So, we headed out! Before getting out into our exploration of Madrid we stopped to get some lunch. They had some delicious nachos and quesadillas, something I have been craving, so it hit the spot! This was also out first time having Sangria, which was delicious!
We walked through the city to a nice park and saw some amazing fall leaves and a cool glass house. The best was the fall weather and the colorful leaves. We haven't had any real fall weather in Rome and I have been missing it, so Madrid was a nice change! After the park we headed over to the Prado Museum, which happened to be free (beating the system). We saw so many Christian paintings, so Rylee and I were quizzing ourselves. But, since were not really museum people we were off to other adventures. We were walking around the city taking in all of the modern buildings and excitement. Madrid, and all the other cities we visited, were so different than Rome. Rome is a very ancient city. Everywhere you turn there is an ancient monument or historic church. When we were in Madrid there were high rises and modern buildings on every corner--very different. We headed to check out Plaza Mayor, the main square of Madrid and went to the San Miguel market where we walked around for a bit. After walking around San Miguel, Rylee and I went across the street to the Museo de Jamon, the Museum of Ham, for dinner! We had one euro sandwiches and one euro beers! Thats four euro for two people, out-smarting that system. After we walked toward the Cathedral and Plaza de Espana, which led us right to the Gran Via, the main street in Madrid. We walked up the road and found a Starbucks! It has been so long since I have had a one and the Apple Caramel Latte was fantastic! We ending up spending three hours in Starbucks talking before we went back to the hostel for the night.
The next morning we woke up early to have breakfast and to check out of our hostel. Luckily they let us keep our bags there for the day so we didn't have to carry them. We started walking and managed to get ourselves back to the Gran Via. We made what we thought was a wrong turn and made it to the best view of the city! It was definitely a good find! After over looking the city we walked down to the gardens of the King and Queen's Palace, which led us to the Palace itself. After visiting the Palace we went to mass in the Cathedral next door. The Church was beautiful and the mass was good, even though I may have dozed off a bit. After mass we continued on to a local market where I bought a scarf for three euro! Deal. We kept exploring and made our way to get some tapas for lunch! Tapas and sangria was amazing! We got so lucky with the restaurant we chose since we don't speak any Spanish the waiters helped us translate. It was a great meal all around.
We found ourselves after lunch with a lot of time before our bus to Barcelona, so we just started walking. We made it to the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum in Madrid. Long story short, it was interesting, again we are not museum people. While still attempting to waste some time we went to get hot chocolate. This proved to be a pretty difficult experience, since we didn't know the language or the culture. We wen up to the bar and it was just awkward. Again, beating the system, a nice man from Houston named Jose who is working in Madrid for his job. He, knowing Spanish, helped us translate and sat with us while sipping what we thought was hot chocolate. FYI, hot chocolate in Spain is literally chocolate that is hot, made for dipping churros in. So, Jose ordered us some churros and it was delicious! Jose was gracious enough to pay for us and it was so nice to meet an talk with someone from the U.S. We decided to head back closer to our hostel so we could get our bags, but not before grabbing one last Spanish cervasa! We went to a a bar and while attempting to order, the language barrier came back to haunt us. Again, we were lucky enough to meet a nice guy from the Dominican Republic who helped us order. After that it was time to get our bags and head to the bus! After a 45 minute walk we hopped on our bus and it was adios Madrid and hola Barcelona! 
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