Night #1 Puerto de Sol

After checking into the hotel...

we decided to take in the sights of Madrid.

And listen to me practice saying 'Hola and Adios'-SO embarassing.

I was really intimidated to even speak to anyone.

I had a bad enough 'white girl' accent while saying it in High school, now I was talking to real spaniards...they were going to laugh at me! :)

Were walking...not sure where were going..I kept asking...where are we?..where are we going? ..found this map....Craig began pointing to shut me up :)

We walked into this Puerto Del Sol as the sun was going down.

Probably the most gorgeous little plaza EVER!

Picture perfect. I loved it.

A man on a horse, and Robert DiNero.

They are OBSESSED with American 'things'.

And we found Mickey in Spain Scaring the children.

and winnie.

Like I said they are obsessed with American things.

EVERY cab we drove in or restraunt we ate in played american music.

We ate our 'spanish' dinners listening to Rhianna, Taylor swift, Phil collins...Chicago.

SO FUNNY!

I swear it was Kost 103.5 ESPANOL version. We were dying...

I mean dont you go to Spain wanting to AT LEAST hear some Julio Iglesias? or gypsy kings??

Enrique doesnt count -ha!

Sights of Espana

OUR AMAZING TRIP TO SPAIN!!!

Monday, February 28th-10am Flew from LAX to Atlanta

After our plane was struck by lightning while sitting on the tarmack and a 4 hour delay we left for Spain around 1am. Popped a sleeping pill and survivied the 8 hour flight :)

Arrived in Madrid around 2 pm Tuesday - found our 'driver' and headed for the Westin Palace Hotel.

Craig is 'speaking spanish' to our driver here, at this point it was really rusty....but it was slowly coming back to him...and I couldnt have been more grateful for my own personal translator :) A bidet- sorry, just made me laugh everytime I saw it!

After a quick nap after that crazy long flight, refreshed, we headed out to discover Madrid!

I had never felt so lost :) Beautiful buildings everywhere, everything is just so nice. Our hotel was Amazing.

Im gonna break my posts down into a daily report of what we did for journaling purposes.

The rest of this post is random things we saw during the entire visit.

The countryside while on the train traveling to Segovia on our first full day there.

The very cool old world style still exists.

This is a real egyptian temple with hyroglyphics on the walls and everything. It was a gift from Egypt a few hundred years ago.

Question: How does one go about moving a temple from Egypt to Spain?! Crazy.

The royal palace behind us.

We are freezing here :) The temperature was between -2 & +7 degrees celsius all week! I had to learn what that meant quickly - ha! AKA Freezin our butts off...

Lots of men on horses.

Thier Grafitti is even pretty. Most of it is Done like artwork-not just tagging quickly like it is here.

We made many many trips up and down this Metro Subway system. So easy and fun!

Standing waiting for some Ham and bread :) Bocadillo de Jamon.

These subways smelled a little better than NYC ......just a little tho.

But they were way cleaner.

Our hotel entrance at night.

Heading back to the place where we got 8-10 Hours of PURE UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP!!!

EVERY NIGHT!!!

Im telling you.

There is NOTHING that was more needed. After 2 days of this, I felt like a new person.

I had a clear mind, and an actual thought process.

Conversations that started and ended without interuption.

The basket was lifted off my brain.

It was such a wonderful feeling that I didnt realize was needed until it happened.

We definately will be trying to GET AWAY for more nights much more often to recharge the batteries. MINE WERE DEAD.

Espana eats.

Eating in Spain was interesting to say the least. I took pictures of LOTS of my favorites...and some things that freaked me out :)

We took a walk through the city the first night we were there and came across this YUMMY pastry place....so cute! the place was packed...

First we hit up 'dinner'. We randomly walked into this place called Museo De Jamon.

Literally. ham EVERYWHERE. It was busy, crazy, people yelling for food, my first experience in a crowd of people. Knowing hardly any of the language, Craig was still 'rusty'...but we managed to order chorizo, Ham sandwiches & Fanta Naranja (this was kinda our only option). We were starving so it was the PERFECT meal....while standing at a bar shoulder to shoulder with people :)

Ham and bread...seems to be a favorite...and it was good...just not every day for every meal :)

Luckily we had a starbucks outside our hotel....So I could get a muffin....saved my life!

Dessert!! Mmm...always good.

Dip a yummy pastry into thier dark chocolate fondue drink....

also ate this sugar dough ball covered in pine nuts.

Starting to get into the 'relax' mode...

Our Meal in Segovia on Wednesday.

After we walked out of a few restraunts after looking at their food...we came across this little place.

Craig got lentil soup that was yummy.

Broiled Califlower and cheese...not so much.

Emperador fish. not so much...ate it with lots of lemon.

And a wierd potato thing.

one cool thing was that they had sparkling water everywhere....love it....and soda out of bottles. Love drinking soda out of glass bottles-the bottles are so cute.

Some places they charge $1 per bottle, others charged us $3 a bottle.

We learned to ask before we kept ordering more after our cokes cost us more than our food at one place. Spains 'chips and salsa'-they bring you bread and olives.

I learned there are WAY too many types of olives that are SOOOOO yummy!!

Obessed now.

They have donuts. and anyplace with donuts is alright with me.

Craigs 36th Birthday Flamenco Dinner!!

1st course: Tortilla-potato egg omelett (at 9 at night...?!)

2nd course: Chicken-covered in a crazy cheese

Unlimited cokes in glass bottles-priceless

Flamenco show-Funny, but I dont think it was supposed to be. ha!

Friday Night Dinner: Our favorite meal of the whole week.

1st course: YUMMY SALAD. oil and vinegar dressing

2nd course: Seafood paella-yum!. with crawfish with legs and head attached. um no thanks.

I held one up and apparently was looking at it like 'what do I do with this?!" and a lady in the corner

(the only other couple in the restraunt because we were eating at 9 at night - VERY early) signaled to me to snap it..like break its head off....Um. Craig can have them. But after I removed them from my plate...paella was really yummy!

Dessert: Cheesecake with rasberry sauce. MMMMMMMMM.

Saturday night we walked through this big marketplace that was really trendy and cool.

It had individual spaces people set up to serve all kinds of random food.

Gelato. Yes please.

Bought this.

Dropped it on the floor.

Picked it up and still ate it.

Spain dirt is clean.

Cool looking fruit stand.

Crazy crawfish.

"tapas"?!! fish with scales still on. um. next.

Octopus. lets keep walking.

They have hot dogs. They put a solid bun on a hot stick to warm the middle and kind of toast it..squeeze ketchup and mustard in the hole...then stick the hot dog down the hole....and there you have a Spanish Hot dog.

It was pretty good. Less messy! well unless were eating it.

Our first meal and

Our last meal.

We were running out of money.

Since Museo de jamon was $1 per item you eat its like the "taco bell' of Spain :)

We ate this twice in one day.

Lunch I had a croissant with fresh ham....bocadilla con lacon.

Dinner I had a bocadilla de jamon. (bread with jerkey ham).

Such a variety :)

I do crave this Fanta Naranja. Its not the same as Fanta orange here. I cant find it. Craigs going to start hunting the spanish markets around here for it :)

Chorizo. Dont think about it. Just eat it.

This place really saved us. (or just me). When all else freaked me out, I could count on Ham and bread. Even though it messed up my stomach after day after day of it....

here are some fun food facts about spain:

They dont give you 'to go boxes'.

No hurry to eat....you are done...they dont bring the bill...you are supposed to sit and talk and sit and talk....It took me a while to catch on to this....I never got used to it :)

Ham and bread. Everywhere.

Potatoes everywhere.

They eat small portions all day long....and only saw 1 really fat guy.:)

(& they do a lot of walking too)

They dont walk around with drinks in thier hands like we do.

No fountain drinks.

Standing and eating is thier thing. Hardly any sit down restaraunts. If you are sitting you pay for it.

You dont have to tip! woot!!

The food really threw me off in Spain.

Interesting stuff....Craig was even thrown off so I didnt feel so bad :)

We walked into a fruit stand almost every day to take some fruit back to the hotel with us so we didnt starve to death :)

Thank goodness they grow the same bananas as we do.