It is 4:14am central time, yet it is 11:14am in Toledo. I arrived in Spain on Thursday and today, Sunday, we are headed to Granada where we will be staying for the next three months. When I say we I mean all of the Fall B students studying in Granada with ISA – International Studies Abroad. We are from all over the United States, my roommate from Colorado, close friends from Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Girls and boys from Tennessee, California, and more. We all flew into Madrid Thursday morning and afternoon and stayed Thursday and Friday nights. Saturday we traveled to Toledo, where we are departing from this morning. Here are some insights into my last three days.
The first two pictures are of housing near our hotel and the other two are from the tour we took Friday.
This night was quite the joyride. We planned to eat at a restaurant right by the hotel but some people had already eaten there earlier in the day, so we decided to find another place. We sat down at this restaurant ordered drinks and were ready to order when we found out that the kitchen was closed at this time (7p I think). Alright, on to the next. We sit down, look at the menu, and realize we do not recognize most of the options and it was quite expensive. Ditch this restaurant and go to find another that we settled on. Half of the stuff was not available at the time. Two girls and I shared paella. It was huge and not that great and 12 euros a piece.. I went ten hours without eating and I promise you it was not a pretty sight.
These pictures are not the best, lo siento. I was only able to view the outside of the palace. I hope to be able to return during my trip and take a tour. There are 2,800 rooms and I am assume that they are all just as gorgeous as the outside. A piece of information I learned from our tour is the Royal Palace is decorated in a French style, not Spanish. The reasoning being some past royalty was from France I believe. I am not sure and do not remember but hey I am not a history major so at least I am trying.
El Mercado de San Miguel. Tapas are the main focus here. There were also selections of meat, fruit and vegetable stands, lots of alcohol, and one stand that sold water, smoothies, and mojitos of course. We were only able to spend ten minutes in the market so it is on my list of places I would love to return to if I travel back to Madrid.
What are tapas?? Appetizers is pretty much what they compare to in America, except better obviously.
Hello pano. This is plaza mayor. I would tell you some facts about it but I am getting all of my locations confused. Just enjoy the beauty of this one.
Different places we saw on our tour of Madrid on Friday. Y’all this place is insanely gorgeous. I really fell in love with Madrid and the thought of big city living. It definitely has me thinking about my future.
And this is where my work on the bus ride stopped because I took a nap and did not feel like blogging afterwards. Today is Monday September 24th. It is 2:05pm. I have already toured Granada and I am currently waiting on lunch to be ready. Yes, you read that correctly, it IS 2pm and I have not eaten. Now to talk about my last night in Madrid and my day in Toledo.
Maybe working on a blog containing food was not my best idea when I am starving. However, Eva said food will be ready soon! Three friends and myself found Café del Principe on our walk back to el Mercado de San Miguel. We decided this looked like a promising meal and it was! We received a free glass of champagne when we sat down. El menu del dia is very common in Spain. It is a two course meal that includes bread, dessert, and sometimes a drink. I had the house salad which is pictured and was delicious. It had quinoa, Mom!! (She will appreciate it.) For my second course I had a chicken fillet which was also amazing but I forgot to take a picture of it. For dessert I had arroz con leche and the restaurant gave us free frozen lemon drinks. I am not sure what type of alcohol was in them. I also had a sangria with my meal. Sadly, no other sangria has compared to the one I had the first night in Madrid. Also, it is a cultural norm here to have one or two drinks with your meal so please do not think I am over here binge drinking every day. Another great thing about Spain is you almost always receive free food or a free drink with every meal. It is wonderful.
I have decided to stop this blog here. I do not want to write one that is too long and I would like to be able to publish something ASAP since I said this would be done yesterday. Here are some mannequins and statues on the balconies in Spain and a flamenco dancer which is very common in Southern Spain.
I really hope you all enjoyed this blog and I look forward to sharing my time in Toledo with you as well. As they say in Spain “a luego!”
♥ Annie
Life of Leslie Annie 