Party Time

Throughout the streets of Madrid, there are always people doing strange talents, mainly looking for tips. One of the performers I found pretty interesting: he was dressed in normal clothes but had knee pads on and Clown make up. His talent that he exhibited to the crowd was dancing to the music on his head phones. He was very good and my friends seemed to like him as well.

Gondola Tour

If you are running out of things to do while in Madrid, you should take a Gondola Tour. It was really cool way to see Madrid. The Tour is about two miles long and each gondola can seat up to four people. I went with three of my friends and for some reason, we let the kid from England make all the plans. He lived up to being the "not so smart" kid from England because he brought us to a mentro stop that was about four miles away from where we were going. So if you are ever in Spain, don't let the English kid make the plans. When we finally got there, it was a beautiful tour and I defiantly would recommend it to future tourists. At the end of the ride, there is a bar that overlooks the City of Madrid and I thought it was appropriate to get a quick drink.

Even Spain has Zoo's

Who would have thought that Spain has a zoo! One day after class, Casey and I were trying to figure out something to do. After brainstorming, we settled on the Zoo because it was the cheapest option we had. It was fun seeing all the exotic animals, but we realized we probably should have done something else. An observation that I had made about the Zoo in Madrid, and about Europe in general, was that every thing is smaller than the things we have in America. Although the Zoo was smaller than expected, it was still a good time. Here is a video i took of some talented seals.

Surviving with Low Funds

During the first week in Madrid, Casey and I had ran into a small problem: we spent five hundred eruo in one week! From this, we realized it was time to start managing our money better. There are a couple ways to do this: first off, you need to figure out what bars have cheap drinks. I luckily found a bar that had cheap drinks and a nice atmosphere, so I was of to a good start! The main problem was finding cheap food. Every where you go to eat, it seemed like they wanted you to sit down; not to mention they charge you for water! Eventually, I learned how to say "pitcher" in Spanish and started to order tap water, which was free. Finding cheap food was still my main problem when trying to manage my money until I discovered places that served Turkish food or Middle Eastern food. If you haven't tried any, it is delicious and not to mention cheap! Above, there is a picture of a kabob which is a delecacy within the country of Turkey.

Madrid Architecture

Before I left America, I honestly did not know much about Madrid. I knew of a few things though; they spoke Spanish and they like to have a good time. It was a pleasant surprise to see that Madrid's buildings were extremely beautiful. Everywhere I went in Madrid, the architecture of the buildings were very sophisticated, with every little inch carved into a specific design. Here is a picture of me taken by Casey Chinn, also known as "Mini Moose", of me walking down a street in Madrid.

Next Segway Stop

We went to a monument for Miguel de Cervantes, the writer of the famous book Don Quioxte, which was said to inspire the artist Pablo Picasso .Here is a little video of our tour guide explaining the statue.

Egyptian Monument

During my stay in Madrid, you might think that all I did was party. You will be happy to know that I made time to do some "tourist activites" during the day. One of the cool monuments I got to visit during my segway tour was an Egyptian Monument. Good thing we had our tour guide with us because I would have had no idea the history behind the monument. So it turns out, the history behind the monument was due to the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1960. Many valuable monuments and archaeological sites were in danger of being destroyed during this time. The Egyptian people made an appeal to other countries to helpthem save these monuments. Due to the aid given by Spain, particularly in helping to save the sacred buildings of Abu Simbel, the Egyptian government donated this temple to the Spanish people in 1968. My tour guide told me all the rocks in the monument were flown in directly from Egypt. The monument is located near the palace, so if your near the palace check it out!