First day in Madrid!

After traveling through time and space, I landed in Madrid this morning! It's the first time I have been across the Atlantic, but I have yet to feel any negative effects of jet-lag. And I have not even been drinking coffee. It's so exciting to be immersed in a culture where the language and food are completely new! People in Madrid speak Spanish to you first, and only reluctantly use English. I am lucky that Mat can speak fluent Spanish. I have been trying to learn and use expressions to ask for things in Spanish, which has met some success.

The hotel I am staying at has a great location. It is right across the street from the big park as well as the train station. It is right in downtown so you can walk out the front door and be in the middle of Madrid.

This city is unimaginably beautiful in architecture and layout. The streets are an insane tangle, with enormous fountains at the center of every roundabout intersection. It becomes hard to navigate because of the numerous fountains. The parks are beautiful - one building that can only be described as a glass palace, a coliseum crowning a pond, etc. One important cultural thing I learned about Spain: not much is open before 11. So that was one reason why we spent so much time exploring the park. There is also lots of art and culture in this city which I look forward to exploring more. I am planning on visiting some of the big art museums like the Renia Sophia and the Prado later, perhaps tomorrow or Saturday.

In the evening we went to the Real Jardin Botanico, which had really beautiful formal gardens and some enormous garden vegetables that I was envious of. No para comer, unfortunately. Later when we went to a tapas restaurant, I accidentally tried tripe, which tasted pretty awful! I felt very adventurous afterwards though. Another thing: it is impossible to find a place to eat before 9 pm, at least if you don't want to eat at a tourist hot spot.