Oh Mama, Madrid!!

After our 4:15 am goodbye to Britt :(, we went to the room for a couple hours, then got back up at 6:30 to get ready to head to Madrid! We were a little nervous about this bus ride, since the last one was so bad, but this one actually turned out to be really nice! We shook things up a bit and sat at the front of the bus with the girls that we've made friends with on the trip. I got my own seat bc Jac and Eeps are SO nice. I'm sure you will all see the lovely sleeping picture that Jackie took of me later. After a couple hours on the bus, we stopped in Zaragosa, a cute little town, for lunch. We kind of got pushed towards an outside restaraunt. It turned out to be okay. We paid our check, then ditched that crowd to get some gelatto!! What's new? After that, it was back on the bus. Surprisingly, we only had ONE pee pee stop the rest of the trip to Madrid! When we got here, we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice hotel smack dab in the center of the town. We checked into our room, then walked around the hotel area. We found some Paella to satisfy our new craving. Erin enjoyed hers, but my rice was a little undercooked and crispy. Oh well, I was fed. Being the party animals that we are, we headed upstairs to watch a tv show online, then go to bed early. 10 am the next day, and we were back on the bus for the sight seeing tour of Madrid! Our tour guide was a cute little lady who reminded me some of Sue Sue! We listened as she talked to us about things we were passing. We took a quick picture stop in Plaza del Espana, then headed to our tour of Palacio Real. This is an old Palace in Madrid where the royal family used to live. They havent lived there since the Spanish civil war in the 1930's. After the palace, we hopped back on the bus, FOR THE LAST TIME!!! They dropped us near the hotel, right across the street from Mickey D's.. so naturally, we had tat for lunch. Then, we voluntarily went to an art museum.. weird. We went to the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica, thanks to Catherine's recommendation. It was a really great piece of anti-war propaganda that Picasso did in 1937 to speak out against the civil war in Spain. So after this busy morning of sight-seeing, I'm sure you can guess what we did next.. SIESTA!! Obvi. After the snooze, we went out to explore a little more. We walked to an area a little ways away from the hotel called Plaza Mayor. This is a fun local place with shops all around. We found the Adidas store, Desigual (one of the main Spanish designers, so I had to get a dress and a shirt!), and some souvenir shops! Our tummys were talking to us after the intense shopping, so we stopped at a little cafe. It wasn't great, but Erin had a good tortilla con ensalada! Haagen Daas was right next door to this cafe, so dessert came next! Jackie ended up paying more for her waffle/ice cream sundae than she did for dinner! After all this walking and eating, we came back to the hotel, rejected the invitation for one euro beers with some of our friends, watched a little online tv, then went to sleep for the night!

This morning was when the homesickness really set in! We didnt have any scheduled activities with the group, so we slept in. When we woke up, we spent the morning packing, after a yum breakfast of DUUUUUUUNKIN' DONUTS! (that was for you, Kyle!)We somehow managed to fit all of our things into the suitcases, with little cruisin' and losin'! (that was for you, Dad!) Since we were already ready to get home after packing, Jackie and I decided to go wander around and kill time. Eeps decided to wake her parents up extremely early to skype! Jac and I ended up on a street called Grand Via, which is another one of the great shopping areas in Spain. We somehow end up in all these areas when I set the plans for the day.. whoopsies! We found a great little spot for lunch, Cafe VIPS, that served CHIPS AND QUESO!! Yuumm.. After lunch, we just walked around, and of course, found a great store called Springfield. We decided to keep the purchases minimal, each buying one dress only! After that, we were back to the hotel to sit and wait for the day to move faster. Tonight was fun! We got dressed up cute and went to the farewell dinner with the group to "shed a few laughs and a few tears" according to the tour program. The food was good! After the metro ride back to our hotel area, we hung out with a few of our tour besties. I am now sitting back in the room, waiting for my wild friends to come back from club Kapital! Whitney suggested it, so I posed for a pic, then headed upstairs to pack and take it easy. Jackie and Erin decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about!

Can't tell yall how EXCITED we are to be back home tomorrow! Pray that we dont encounter any delays or problems! can't wait to show and tell everything!!!

We survived,

Kaci and mis amigas!!