Honestly, it was kind of anti-climatic, but it was still cool to finally take a train somewhere.Once we got to Madrid, we all piled onto the subway and were immediately warned by a security guard to watch our stuff very carefully because the pickpocketing was particularly bad that day. Off to a good start... Nevertheless, we all made it to our hostel without incident. I was kind of excited about this too because I've never stayed in a hostel. It was basically like a hotel except it had three beds instead of two. The shower was huge though; I didn't even know what to do with myself. Anyway, our room was pretty nice.
That day we went out and about, sort of just wondered around the city. Our hostel was only a few blocks from Puerta Del Sol which is where the tent city was, so I got a few pictures of that.
There were quite a few people there. On Sunday night though, they took a vote and packed up and left the next day. They're coming back on the 19th. Anyway, that day we went to the Palace in Madrid. It was huge. No big surprises there, but still. I failed to take my camera to that little excursion, so I don't have any pictures of that. I'll steal my friends pictures and post them up later. It was really quite extraordinary. Apparently the royal family still uses that particular palace on occasion for State dinners and that sort of thing.
We went to a club that night. Puerta Del Sol and the surrounding areas are filled with tourists and, therefore, much tourist-y stuff and buildings. The club was pretty cool, but there was a 16 euro cover charge, which is like $24. No thank you. We turned around and were about to leave when a bunch of people from class showed up. One of the kids had some connection, and we all got in free, so that was kind of cool. Anyway, clubs in Madrid are pretty much the same as the clubs in America. Amen.
The next day we wondered around Madrid a bit more and went to the Prado. It's one of the major art museums in Madrid. It was pretty cool. They didn't have any modern art, nothing past the 19th century, I don't think. It was still pretty cool to see.
Monday we did our school field trip stuff. We went to the Constitutional Court in the morning. One of the Laretos (I think that's what he was called; basically the same as a law clerk in America) told us about the Court, so that was kind of cool. The building wasn't what we expected.
Later that day we went to the Senate.
The Senate building was really cool. I wish they would've let us take pictures inside, but they wouldn't. It was comprised of two buildings: one modern and the other from like 1763 or something like that. We also got to see the Senate library, which was literally breathtaking. It wasn't very big, but it seriously looked like Harry Potter in its design plus the books they had were priceless. They had a first edition Dante. First Edition. They had the first Spanish Grammar book ever written. They even had some book written in a dialect of Chinese that is now extinct. I felt like I was in a temple of books, and they were all very sacred. All that history and knowledge, it was just incredible. Anyway, then we headed back to Seville. I enjoyed Madrid, but I was happy to be back in Seville. It's crazy how little time it takes for a place to start to feel like home, and Seville has definitely become home to me here in Spain. I wish you all could come visit me, only you'd have to get a hotel because I have no futon for you to sleep on here.
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