The €1 Blog

Hola,

I apologize for the brevity and lack of quality in my previous entry. You, my loyal readers, deserve a better blog post than that! This is no ordinary blog. As the title proclaims, this is the greatest blog ever written! In order to prevent upcoming blog entries from being as bland as the first, I now write down all of my ideas. Anything amusing or interesting I write down to tell you. As the title suggests, I have invested €1, or $1.58 USD, in this one post, so I assure you, this entry and future ones, are going to be awesome.

€€€
Madrid is an expensive city, and it does not help how weak the dollar is currently.

American Tastes
There are some ¨American¨ restarauntes here¨: Starbucks, KFC, and, of course, McDonalds. Of course, I went into all of them (except Starbucks) to investigate. Each McDonalds has been packed everytime I see one. They are a lot nicer in the city, and they offer free wi-fi internet services with any purchase. Many UD students have utilized this offer; however, Mickey D´s has not convinced me to purchase anything. However, their ¨Euro Menu¨ is defintely appealing.

Bocadillo de Calamares
One of the eating highlights has been the cheap and tasty bocadillo de calamares (squid sandwich). The price is great (€2.15) and they are delicious. Many people were skeptical; however, I convinced them to try it and they loved it. We ordered them at this tiny tapas bar right next to Plaza Mayor, and this placed was packed with people ordering these things. The locals serving us were witty and made us laugh. We may go back tonight for another bocadillo!

Churros con Chocolate
For breakfast this morning, Josh, Steph, and Tyler ordered churros con chocolate at a small chocolateria. Unlike in the US or Mexico, the churros are rather bland, and the hot, pudding-like chocolate provides all of the flavor. They were great!

Parque de Attraciones
I saw Madrid´s amusement park today from El Palacio Real. I saw two of their roller coasters and their drop tower. While it is not a must-do park, I would have liked to have visited it, but there is just not enough time!

Madrid Vision
The past two days, all of the UD students had a bus pass that took us around the city. It definitely came in handy after walking around museums all day. We could easily walk everywhere, but it is nice to sometimes rest on the bus.

Am I in the US?
Guess what the two most advertised products are currently in Madrid? Grand Theft Auto 4 and Indiana Jones 4. You cannot go anywhere in the city or metro without seeing huge posters for both! I guess the Spanish love stealing cars and adventure movies just as much as Americans do.

Parques, parques, parques
Madrid has some outstanding parques (parks) in the city. Due to time constrains, we have not been able to explore them all, but the ones we have been in are beautiful. Clean walkways, shaded paths, fountains, and amazing trees adorn each park. As big as the city is, I am impressed with the amount of nice gardens, parks, and fountains.

Euro not going to believe this
I found a euro coin on the ground yestery (€.50), and I was pumped. You would be excited too, if you were with me.

Cafe con leche
I have only recently started to occassionally drink coffe, but I have greatly enjoyed Madrid´s cafe con leche (coffee with milk). It sounds simply enough, but this drink is half really strong coffee and half hot milk. It is never too hot to drink because it is always the perfect temperature. Even the non-coffee drinkers have enjoyed it.

Portion Size
It seems like all I have been doing is talking about food, but food is a big deal in Spain! The portion size here is extremely smaller than you will find in the US. Plates, cups, portions, everything is smaller here! The bottom line is simply that people eat less here, but they are eating more often. It is unusual to pay such a high price and receive such a small amount of food, but that is how they do it here!

La Reina Sofia y Picasso
Today, I went to ¨Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia¨ or just La Reina Sofia. This was my favorite museo of the big three. It contains modern art (from 1900 to present), and I enjoy that a little more than classical art. While the Salvador Dalis and Miros were cool, this museum is all about Picasso. Where do I begin? There are about 6-8 rooms dedicated to Picasso, and they are all pretty cool; however, the real gem here is ¨Guernica.¨ I would consider it one of the top five most important/famous works of art in the word. Google Guernica, if you do not know the story behind why Picasso painted it. Adjacent to the actual painting were Picasso´s sketches for all of the characters and figures in the painting. These were horrorific and disturbing, but it was incredible to see how much work he invested into, what I consider, his masterpiece. It was awesome. When viewing ¨Guernica,¨ I tried to get a closer look because the crowd was about 25 feet away from it (NOTE: this painting is approximately 25 feet tall and 50 feet wide). I crept from the left side of it, closer and closer, and the alarm went off! It was so embarassing. Everyone looked at me, and all of the UD students with me were laughing. The security guard had seen me the whole time, so they understood. I will surely never forget my ¨Guernica¨ experience.

Other Notes
I do not have much time left, so I will try to summarize a few other points. Overall, I have felt rather safe. There has not been any one moment were I felt unsafe, and nobody has been rude to be or anyone in our party. El Palacio Real, one of Europe´s best palaces, was awesome, and we spent over 2 hours there. Each room was unbelievable. Hopefully, I can talk more about it later. I have explored a lot of the city, but it is so big that it is impossible to do it all in our limited time here.

We leave for Morocco tomorrow afternoon. I am unsure if we will have internet or not, so it may be a few days until my next post. Hopefully, this entry will keep you satisfied for a few days. I hope you are all doing well, and you will hear from me soon!