Britta's Europe Photos- Madrid

The weekend Jenny Stahl came to visit. Hurray! Our six person room in Madrid. Unfortunately we had seven people. Dave took a bed in the other room that was mostly empty. The nice thing is, it was still really cheap, but we had some privacy- though no bathroom.

The enclosed courtyard space in the hostel was covered in a very dirty but pretty stained-glass dome kinda thing.

Pretty big courtyard! Us planning our attack.

Us starting our attack. Plaza Mayor, lots of restaurants. A bit chilly. We sat down for some lunch to start our day off. Jenny, Katie, Me, Kat, Shawna, Dave.

This is where I preferred to eat. 1 euro bocadillos (sandwiches). Get a croissant with a slice of Spanish ham on it. Sweet.

One of two giant parks in Madrid. Oh, actually three giant parks.

In the park, this little weird shack that was being renovated, and had cool stained glass inside- Britta took this through the window cause it was locked.

The shack. Outside was covered in cork bark. Kinda weird.

Our legs.

Cool bridge. We walked under it. That is all.

A small plaza where we had pizza later.

Our room. We're having Cava (Spanish champagne). Alcohol wasn't allowed in the hostel- because they had a bar down in the basement and wanted a lock on your business :) So we were careful, and quiet- but kinda felt like we were underage cause we were worried about getting busted the whole time, it was funny. We had a balcony which was good for chilling our beverages while we slept.

The pizza place- they had these weird little cutter things, and the pizza was served on boards. Dave for some reason intensely enjoying cutting his pizza with these medieval weapons.

Dave, Kat, Katie, Shawna, Jenny, Me.

Someone's pizza.

Yum.

Dave stacked up all the cutters. They were actually pretty heavy. They fell right after this. And almost broker a glass.

Sometimes Dave wanted to take naps in our room. Between the door and the storage locker.

Living green wall on the right, old building turned into a gallery/theatre building, on the left, with new rusted-steel building built on top, where the restaurant is.

Under the building, a plaza space was created by lifting the whole thing up!

The entry stairs, from beneath the building in the plaza.

Back stairs. Abstract.

I took this one, but still Britta's camera. I was the only one with energy and curiosity enough to explore the rest of the building I guess :) They were resting. Katie, Dave, Jenny, Britta, Kat, Shawna.

Here, another day, we were getting bocadillos calamares, which our prof said we hadta try. They were spensive. Pretty good though- just filled with fried calamari.

On the backside of that bocadillo place was the Reina Sofia museum, with a glass elevator built on the outside. Pretty cool. Nice plaza.

Also on the plaza- terrible English, poster of MLK.

In one of the stairwell areas of the museum.

Museum had a courtyard too, with a sculpture garden. Us resting. Me, Jenny, Katie, Kat, Shawna.

Me trying to be as cool as Dave with his camera tricks.

The old train station. Looked cool, so I said lets go check it out!

Inside the train station. Huge.

The turtle pond.

Yeah. It was huge. I counted over 100 turtles, on those rocks, and there were easily another 100 turtles under the water. Insane.

Dave being Dave. He liked climbing and jumping on things.

Me trying my best again, to be Dave.

More bocadillos de jamon (ham).

Our hostel- Cat's Hostel, in fact.

Me and Jenny watching the Notre Dame-Somebody game, in the bar at the hostel. Dave wanted to watch, and then others joined us. It was here that they had a drink/food special- buy a beer, get a plate of paella. Its a deal. That was when I saw the same girl I had seen the week before in the south of Spain, at a hostel in Sevilla! What a coincidence. Then she was surrounded by British dudes. Here she wasn't. I think she recognized me, I didn't talk to her because I was busy watching the game, and cause I had a girlfriend. I don't have a girlfriend now. Hey British girl.......?

I used my headphones splitter so three of us could listen :)

The biggest park in Madrid. Which is saying a lot.

The glass house there. Had some art installation inside. But just plain a cool building.

Wow.

Yeah the stuff on the ground? That's the art installation. Yeah.

These strings coming out of the ground. Weird. Kinda cool. But weird.

Us at the Belgium bar, where I drank Kasteel, the most delicious beer in the world, that I'm holding in my hand. Dave's discovery the week before when he was in Brussels. Dave, Katie, Kat, Me, Jenny, Shawna.