Not as Hot, Just as Vertical

Hello again!  It's siesta time, so I'm writing in.  I doubt I'll have the energy to do it later.

Today I have some things to report.  One:  Spanish Breakfasts.  They're good.  American breakfasts are very meaty, greasy, and pretty crummy for you.  Not the same at all as Spanish breakfasts, which are light and delicious.  Firstly, it's mostly made of bread and fruits.  I prefer that for breakfast anyways, and they had so much good stuff!  Spanish pastries are divine, and there were some French pastries too, but you could get any type of bread you can think of.  Except wheat bread.  They don't really have that here.

As for the fruits.  In the United States, your fruits are limited to bananas, apples, oranges, and maybe a melon.  Here in Spain, you can get all of those, but also pineapples, kiwis, strawberries, and some other stuff which I unfortunately forgot.  In addition to that, you also can get a dozen different types of juices, all of which are freshly squeezed because in Spain, they don't load their yummies with corn syrup or preservatives.  Why would you need to?

I had, for my breakfast, a croissant, a banana, some pineapple, and some absolutely delicious strawberry-plum juice.  Sounds weird?  Nah, it was amazing.

Then we, as a group, took the Metro to La Plaza Del Orient, which is a pretty little garden-thing in front of the Royal Palace.  That pretty place we accidentally found yesterday?  That was the palace, it's not used or anything, though.

At the Plaza, we met up with a nice tour-guide who would lead us up and down Madrid.  Quickly.

We got to see some very old things, including the Arab Quarter of Madrid, which is one of the oldest sections of the city that dated back to... the 12th century?  No sé.  Anywho, we eventually ended up in a market, where we had some time to wander.  It was 11:00 at this point, which is about three hours too early for lunch (in Spain), so I went to the fruit stand.

There were some really cool fruits, including some I doubt you've ever heard of, like mangosteen.  There was one I don't have the foggiest idea of what it is, it's in the middle of the picture between the cherries and oranges, and looked like a squat peach.

I got myself some guava juice (since they didn't have just plain guavas) and I was very very happy.  Very happy.  It was delicious.

Then, we went to El Museo del Prado, which is a very famous art museum.  It had de Goya and Velazquez paintings, and many, many others, but I can't remember all of their names.  I also couldn't take any pictures, but most of them wouldn't have looked right in photos.  Some paintings can only be viewed from a particular angle, you know?  One of them could only be seen properly from very far away, one only from the very far right, one from below, ect.  It was neat.

We said goodbye to our friendly tour guide and went for lunch to a place he recommended.  The guys had gone back to their rooms for a very early siesta, and I was hungry so I went to the restaurant with the girls.  It was expensive, so I ordered an appetizer.  Glad I did, too!  It was huge!  They had Spanish escargot!  I don't remember what the actual name was, so I'm just calling it Spanish escargot.

 It came in the shells.  I was a little surprised, since all of the escargot I'd had before came unshelled in green garlicky goodness.  This was still in the shells, and I was supposed to suck it out.  They provided toothpicks, though, so I happily wrestled with the snails to avoid sucking them out.  As much as I adore escargot, I have to draw the line.

It was the most delicious thing I'd ever put in my mouth.  Just saying.  I would have eaten the whole plate if the group hadn't finished before me.  Also, the last snail I ate was bad, so I stopped.  Anyway, it came in a garlic and tomato sauce with some other stuff, some Spanish spices (probably paprika?  is that the spice they use?) and it was ever so slightly spicy.  Just enough to add more flavor.  It was good.

After my utterly pleasurable meal, the girls decided to go to the park right up the way (emphasis on up, it's always up) and we walked.  it was a lovely park!  Through the forest!  Over pretty creeks!  We saw a group of people playing soccer, some guy was practicing his viola (and sounded very nice), and a pretty rose garden.

They really wanted to see the lake that was supposedly in the park, so we got lost.  Very lost.  Did I mention how absolutely huge this park is?  It's big.  And as we tried to get un-lost, we discovered a museum-thing, and it confused me.  It had signs in French, German, and English that were intentionally written in contrasting colors.  It was something about color-blindness, I think, but all I know is that if you look at the signs long enough, you'll go color-blind.

We kept walking until we saw the lake, and it was ok.  I guess.  You could rent paddle-boats to row around it, but the lake was small and man-made, so I don't really know why you'd want to.  We saw adorable ducklings and fish.

We wanted to then return to the hotel for our siesta time, at around 3:30.  We were very far, so we decided to take the metro.  Madrid has a metro, it is complicated.  As are all metros, I guess?  They're cheaper and simpler than taxis, which we took last night.  Anyways, we changed trains all by ourselves and felt very proud.

Then we walked the short distance from the metro stop to the hotel, passing a toilet gallery to get here.  I went straight on to the room because my feet hurt, and they wanted to see if they could get onto the roof.  Seeing as it's been like an hour, and they haven't come back... I guess they found something else they'd like to do.  I wonder where they went.  Sigh.  I'll be fine.

Toodleoo, people!  See you tomorrow!

PS: Apparently my name is Katherine, no matter how many times I introduce myself as Kailey.  Well, this will be fun.