The buildings are amazing!

Juntos en Madrid!

It's Maddie and India's first joint post! Saludaciones por Madrid! Tenemos mucho para compartir a ustedes. Hoy nosotros caminamos por TODA la ciudad en una busqueda para una tienda de technologia. Necesitamos unos cellulares para hablar por telefono en Espana. Visitemos mas de 15 tiendas y cada vez los trabajadores no podian ayudarnos!! despues de dos horas, decidemos que necesitamos comida y abandonamos nuestro busqueda.

En la ciudad sacemos muchos fotos por todos los lugares. Hay muchos luzes para el ano nuevo y hay MUCHAS personas en las calles estrechas. Hablemos mucho espanol con los trabajadores en las tiendas y los restaurantes y aprendimos que no es una buena idea para comer helado en un restaurante donde se permite fumar. Huele muy mal!

For those of you who do not feel the need to google translate, here is our day in our native language....

Salutations from Madrid! We have a lot to share with you. Today we walked ALL over the city in search for a technology store. We need cell phones to talk on while we are in Spain. We visited over 15 stores and every time, the clerk could not help us! After two hours, we decided we needed to eat, and we abandoned our search.

In the city, we took lots of photos in many places. There are lots of lights for the New Year and LOTS of people in the narrow streets. We spoke a lot of Spanish with the workers in stores and restaurants and we also learned that it is not a good idea to eat icecream in a restaurant where they allow smoking. It smelled so bad!

The pictures we posted are from our first day in Madrid! Churros with chocolate and bright lights for the New Year.

Hasta la Vista!

mmmm.... churros. my first meal in Spain.

Dia uno

Today was such a big day... and it's weird that with the time change it is only 3:13 p.m. Team Knight flew into the Portugal airport at about 5:30 in the morning. We flew in on a TAP portugal aircraft learning a few words of portuguese on the way... (bonjourno, buen dia) The seating was extremely cramped, it was so tight that it placed half of Team Knight into a peevish mood. This half has asked to remain anonoymous.

We landed safe and sound and faced our next challenge, passport check in Portugal. They made us stand in one long line, then we would switch to another long line, and another until we finally found the very short line for transfer flights. Our happiness for the smaller passport line was shortlived because we ended up being reprimanded by the passport official. Why we were reprimanded still remains a mystery because neither member of Team Knight excells in the portuguese language. This fact acted as a positive for the Officials harsh words were turned into senseless blather.

Eventually we made it onto our 1 hour plane ride to Madrid, Where we grabbed our bags, exchanged money, and kidnapped a baby from a stroller. Hahaha no, we just got our bags and money. We took a taxi to our hotel and dropped off our suitcases before walking over to the Prada Museum to absorb some culture. We looked at Goya, squinted at Greco, opened mouths at Valazquez, remembered our manners, and made note to cover our mouths when we got to Rembrandt.

After all this excitement we trudged through the smelly streets and came across a small vegetarian deli. In this deli we learned that we were indeed very hungry from our big day, and decided to eat the breakfast lunch and dinner that we had missed earlier. When we got back to our hotel we reunited with Team Cron.

Maddie and I took a camera and raced out to the square across from the hotel to take pictures. Did it faze us that people would double take when they saw our American hats? Did we worry when children left the playground when we entered? Did we cry when people laughed or scoffed when they saw us playing on the playground? No No No! All of the above did happen, and when it did we just laughed and took snapshots... which I am sure will appear on both facebook and this blog.

So far Madrid has been quite a funny fella, I look forward to the rest of the day because, oh wait, YES, its only 3:34 so I have the rest of the day ahead of me! till later, Ciao!

gate 6

Airport!

So since my family and friends have all deemed my sense of direction hopeless, my mom will be flying with me on our 6:00 p.m. flight to Madrid to make sure I don't get lost. We get to stay in Madrid for a few days before I go to stay with the Serranos for the rest of the month.

I am bracing myself for the little sleep I will get on the 7 hour flight, landing at 1 in the morning New York time, but 7 a.m. in Madrid. Joy. At least I brought some books to read although I find it even more enjoyable to people-watch... observing the quirky and strange styles, accents and luggage preferences. For example, it is common  to spot a young girl in a pink down jacket and Uggs dragging a glittery My Little Pony or Dora backpack behind her. Or to find a 45 year old Swedish man like the one sitting across from me, playing on his PSP with his headphones in and brow furrowed. How intriguing.

Apart from the people-watching though, it is only natural for me to consider that my last hour in the United States is being spent typing away while I observe the people around me.  So my mom and I decided to have a bit of fun on photo booth to document our wait, sitting on the hard, carpeted floor. Due to the fact that people like to put their bags on empty seats instead of on the ground, we have been sitting against a wall, making faces at the camera to cover the fact that we would much rather be sitting in the cushioned, red chairs.

By tomorrow I will be in Spain, jet-lagged, but ready travel around the city and stay in the hotel with India and her mom (who may also not have trusted India's sense of direction.)