Trip to Madrid

Sorry.  I've been lazy and been putting off writing on here.  I have been having a great time though.  The kids are really starting to warm up to me, and I have done a bit of exploring as well!

First, I guess, I will start with Madrid.  One of Carmen's friends called the house and told them she was planning a visit to Madrid, and wanted to invite me to go with them.  It was very kind of her to think of me, and I was so excited.  So after Carmen and I picked up Lucia and Eddie from school, I went with Maria and her daughter Irene, and Eva to Madrid.

 It was great because Irene is about my age, and she speaks English.  Eva also speaks English, but she is much more shy about doing so.  Most of the older generation of people are scared and ashamed to speak English because they think they are not good at it.  I think that when people do talk to me, they realize that I do understand their English, and it isn't bad at all.  Yet some still just won't even try, even though they understand what I say in English.

But I digress.  Back to the trip to Madrid.  Maria drove to the train station, and they bought a ticket for me.  It was very nice of them.  As they were buying the ticket, we looked at the schedule, and it said that the train we wanted was departing in 2 minutes.  We had to run to make the train, and if we hadn't, we definitely would have missed it.   The train ride there was pretty uneventful.  Irene and I talked about ourselves in turn, and got to know each other a little bit better.  When we got there, we had to swipe our tickets again.  Apparently in our rush earlier to get to the train, we had only swiped the ticket 2 times instead of 3, for Eva, Maria and me.  (Irene had her own ticket)

 So as we were going through the turn-styles, (which were doors that automatically opened and shut) one shut on me.  Eva was telling me to hurry through, and I wasn't quite quick enough.  The man who was guarding the gates began talking to Maria, and they started arguing.  At that point I had no idea what was going on, except that we were in some kind of trouble, and that my arms kind of hurt from the gates closing on me.

We ended up getting a ticket for not swiping our tickets enough, and they were not happy.  I offered to help pay for it, but they would not let me.  So we went out of the train station into Sol;  the center of Madrid.  It was full of protestors.  It was kind of cool to see all of them, camped out on the pavement, and with all of their signs plastered everywhere there was room.  

We soon left the plaza though, and went down a maze of crowded streets to a few shops where they needed to go.  One was a flamenco shop which has been open, as Eva was telling me, since she was a little girl doing flamenco.  It was cool to be inside of the shop because the flamenco dresses are intricate, and are very beautiful to look at.

Soon they had found what they were after, and we left the shop.  Next we wandered down more streets, and Irene was showing me shops where she liked to shop.  I remember some of them from when I was in Germany with Viv.  It was pretty cool.  I definitely want to go back and go shopping at some of them.

We went to a few other places in Madrid, but nothing really interesting happened, unless you count being scared by the creepy street performers.  But I think that is pretty normal.  One was a headless person dressed as a sailor who made chirping noises.  Weird.  Another was dressed kind of like a caveman, but more exaggerated, with pointy ears and a spear.  He yelled the equivalent of "BOO!" as we were walking by.  Not cool.  Then there was the weirdest one.  A stroller with a huge baby head, and it was making crying noises.  Irene and I just thought it was really weird at the time.  When we walked past it again, the man who was the baby, was standing up smoking a cigarette with a painted white fake baby face on.  It was just really weird to see.

I almost forgot.  We went to a little bakery type deal, and sat down to have a coke.  The coke is so much smaller here.  It's only 200 ml, and it always comes in a glass bottle.  I think I like it, because it is a better portion size, and it is just cool to see the glass bottles.  So we sat down and talked for a bit, and then decided to keep moving, but before we left, Eva bought a few "napolitanos."  To me, they are croissant type pastries filled with custard, or chocolate.  Eva bought me a chocolate one, and it was SO GOOD!  Literally, it was one of the best pastry concoctions I have ever tried.  When I tried to pay her back, she wouldn't let me.  She just told me to speak English to her daughter, Natalia.  I thanked her, and she said it was not a big deal at all.  Or at least I think that is what she meant.

So we then headed back home, after about 3 hours of shopping and walking in Madrid.  I definitely want to go back.  It is a huge city, and I think I want to explore.  Preferably with someone who knows Spanish, in case we get lost.