Sto vivendo il sogno: Madrid, With People Who Celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe

I had such an amazing time in Madrid. It was my first time traveling to somewhere by myself, even though I was staying with friends. I took a good ol' RyanAir flight to an area just outside of Madrid. I took the metro to where I thought I needed to be, but I ended up walking around the city for two hours and buying candy for lunch... It was so different to see Spanish everywhere and it was really messing with my attempt at learning Italian. I finally arrived at AS apartment who is also studying abroad. It is so great to see a city with someone who has been living there, although nobody wanted to go to the museums as long as I did. So we went out that night for some "tapas", aka snacks and drinks. It was so delicious and cheap. Later on, LIZARD arrived!!! I hadn't seen her in so long, but she is studying in Bilbao, Spain for the year. We went out for a few drinks with friends and came home pretty late. It is incredible how late the Spaniards stay out at night... and sleep in.

But I woke up early enough to go to one of the museums that I really wanted to go to, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, an impressive private collection in Madrid. It was one of my favorite museums that I have been to, it was curated really well, from Pre-Renaissance Art to Contemporary Artists. It was organized in a way that really made sense and it was so balanced. I got an audio-guide tour and spend around 4 hours there. It was a great day. It also, was Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving, surprise surprise, is not celebrated in Europe... but we went to an AMAZING dinner at the oldest restaurant in the world (supposedly Goya worked here and Hemingway would come eat from time to time...). It was so nice to be with such fun people and have such a great dinner. We went out for drinks again, extremely fun from the dinner of roasted pig and vino... we definitely indulged.

The next day we spent sleeping in and seeing the area, did a little bit of shopping with Lizard and had my first Irish Coffee. That was also the night they turned on the Christmas light in Madrid, the first Christmas lights of the year! It was so beautiful and made me miss home a little. In the evening, we went to.... Taco Bell!!!! Me and Lizard have a sad, but very real, addiction to Taco Bell and there is one in Madrid! We bought Liters of beer and brought them to Taco Bell and we both got Grilled Stuffed Burritos, or GSB's as they called them. It was incredible... No Baja Blast though, but all in all very successful. We went back to the apartment to have a few drinks, then left for Tapas at El Tigre... So delicious. Afterwards, we went to some club. It was a great night and we didn't get back to the apartment until 8am. The room was SOOO small and we fit 4 of us in it somehow... not the best sleep of my life.

The next day, we went to Dunkin Doughnuts for breakfast and I got to go to the other 2 museums that I needed to go to. The Prado and the Renia Sofia. Both very big and well known. I can't even begin to describe the masterpieces that I saw, but the two most well-known pieces were Las Maninas at the Prado and Picasso's Guernica at the Renia-Sofia. It was an amazing day, and then it was our last evening in Madrid :( I had a flight in the morning at 7am, so we went out for drinks with some of Lizards friends, then I met back up with AS to get my stuff and go to the airport. It was so nice to see some familiar faces and I was defintiely sad to leave. After a long morning of travel, it was nice to get home in Florence and sleep the day away.