Madrid Madness

At 3:45 am in Ireland, I got up to get ready for my flight to Madrid. Last night was spent watching the Blind Side with Rae and Maeve and strategically repacking my bags to make my checked bag go from 51.2 lbs when I left the USA to 44lbs to get on my flight without leaving anything behind, mission accomplished and I was off to the airport.

The flight went smoothly and I landed and went through customs, getting another great stamp in the passport. I found the ISA staff person fairly quickly and met up with the group. Here begins the relative madness. Our pick up time had about 30 people, with lots of luggage, dragging things through the airport and onto the bus. We got a little run down of our day and then were split

from the group staying in apartments. Our hotel is nice and right on one of the main roads, Calle de Alcalá. At the hotel we were given our rooming assignments, that for the most part were everyone's roommates in the homestays as well.

A group of us ventured off to get some food and look for where to buy a phone, the lunch was a success but the phone hasn't happened yet. Then I went walking around Madrid with one of the guys in the group. We headed to Parque del Buen Retiro, a breathtakingly beautiful and huge park right in the center of Madrid. We spent a good hour walking through the park (it has a very large lake or lago, a statue to the Reynas (Kings) that were the original owners of the park and took pictures of some of the great architecture around the park as well.

We headed off for a quick nap before our bus tour of the city with the group and then a safety meeting (definitely not the most exciting thing of the day). The city tour was fun for me especially because I got to see a lot of the places I took tours of the last time I was in Madrid, just over 6 years ago. After all that a group of us headed into the city for some dinner and tapas (little bite-sized appetizers you get with drinks). We then tried to meet up with some of the "apartment" group to go to a discoteca (sp?) but ended up taking another huge walk around the city and called it a night instead.

Tomorrow we are off to the Prado Museum and Plaza Major with some free time as well. Day one in Spain has been great as are the people in the program, it seems like everyone is very excited about the next four months! (We've even started talking trip planning).

Until next time,

Kelly