Magnificio Madrid

Hola again everyone!

Well, Aunt Karol and I are still in Madrid and it is amazing!!! SUCH a beautiful with a completely opposite feel than Barcelona. For one thing it's much cleaner and the town is just more beautiful in general.

We decided that we'd explore the city on our own today instead of paying almost 20 Euros for a city tour. We're so glad we did b/c we literally covered the city on foot and took our time. WOW...so many neat places to see! Our day began with a visit to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), which claims more rooms than any other European palace and a library with one of the biggest collections of items in the world (learned that in the Rough Guide, Stuart.....yesssssssss!). It's absolutely beautiful (see the pic with the lighter colored exterior walls and the grey-ish pointy things) and ridiculously huge!

Then we headed over to Parque del Buen Retiro, a really beautiful park on tons of land near the center of the city. The gardens inside are quite impressive and they also have tons of street vendors along the paths either wanting to sell you jewelry or paint your portrait. One of the guys was apparently so desperate for money he kept coming down on price when he approached Aunt Karol....he went from 8 Euros to do her portrait all the way down to 1 Euro. Geez! Dad...no wise cracks here about your sister, ok??? HA!

Then we took a break after all of our walking and got some coffee at Starbucks and had an interesting experience while sitting outside. All of a sudden this pack of kids (from about the age of 12-14) ran up to the tables outside and then this one Spanish woman started yelling, "They are thieves! They are thieves!" Of course in one swift motion, everyone outside immediately grabbed everything they owned and held onto it for dear life (I didn't have to do much though b/c I keep my backpack on my front at all times to prevent such a thing from happening). The kids were absolutely unbelievable though b/c they then ran inside the store and started trying to get people to give them money as well. This one Spanish gentleman literally THREW them outside of the store and they ran off, but they were obviously very desperate for money. They weren't physically grabbing people or anything crazy like that, but they did what everyone warned me young kids do in touristy places, which is run up to you with magazines or signs that they put under your nose to where you can't see below and then try and pickpocket you. That's why I carry my backpack on my front though (with locks on the zippers!) and immediately walk in the opposite direction of young kids and "shady" looking people, so don't worry Mom - everything is fine and I'm being SUPER careful to the point of being a comical American tourist abroad. :-)

Anyway, after our excitement at Starbucks (where BTW, I found a Splenda sugar substitute! WHOOP!) we roamed the city some more and eventually made it back to our room. We just finished a quick cat nap before we head out for the evening to have dinner and see some nighttime action in Madrid.

Tomorrow morning we're getting up to go and see the Prado Museum, one of the most famous art galleries in Europe, before I have to make my way to the airport for my afternoon flight. I'll get into Venice, Italy around 5:30pm tomorrow and I'm SO excited! It will also be good to quit saying "Hola" and switch to "Ciao!" :-)

Once again, thanks to everyone for the e-mails and the comments on the blog - I love hearing from everyone back home. I'll update the blog again once I've arrived in Italy. Hope everyone is doing well - I miss you all!

Love,
-V