Our Saturday started with a skimpy breakfast of toast…there was a dining room attendant strictly monitoring what everyone took. Kind of reminds me of The Soup Nazi, but we all got enough to make it through the morning. We started out the day with a free walking tour given by New Europe tour company. I had been on one of their tours on my trip to Germany, so I knew it would be good, and I really wanted to go. A tour guide picked us up at our hostel and helped us purchase a discount metro pass on the way to the place where we met the rest of the tourists.
We ended up switching tour guides, and a super fun tour guide from England showed us and 20 other English speakers around Madrid. I LOVED the tour. Our tour guide taught us lots about the city, showing us all the best spots and sharing its history with us. Some of the highlights of the tour were the Royal Palace, Plaza del Sol, and a famous chocolatier, which we passed just before the tour took a 25 minute break for snacks. We made our way back to the chocolate place for some typical churros with chocolate, which was totally worth it. After the tour we went back to the Plaza del Sol to take pictures before heading to the city’s shopping district to check out a few stores. I really liked recognizing places and remembering little trivia facts from my last trip to Madrid.
Jenna and Corinne wanted to head back to the Prado, so we all hung out and talked on the lawn in front of the museum until the free hours opened. When the other girls went into the museum, Danielle and I headed to a nearby park and stopped at a little café on the way for some coffee. We had so much fun talking to the baristas in the café that we spent almost the whole time there, but we did eventually make it to the park where we found a bench to do homework and people watch. We saw five different wedding parties pass through the park to take pictures, so we had fun analyzing the dresses we saw and watching the groups of people enjoy their big day.
We eventually met Jenna and Corinne and brought them back to the park to see it, mostly because it was so much cooler than the gardens we walked through yesterday. There were street performers out when we went back, and when we stopped to watch one I got pulled into the show. The performer was making a family out of audience members, so I was married with two children and a grandmother within about 30 seconds. We had lots of fun with that, and eventually made our way out of the park in search of dinner.
One of the staff members at our school recommended a little restaurant in Madrid when she found out we were headed there, so we searched for a while to find it, and we were very happy we did. It was a cute little restaurant with lots of fun decorations and a very Spanish menu. We enjoyed trying new things and eating in a place that was overflowing with locals waiting for the great food. Again, by the time we finished dinner it was time to head back to the hostel, and I was happy to get to sleep at a reasonable time once again.
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