Madrid and Paris

Leona got into Madrid on Thursday the 20th of November, safe and sound. After spending a couple hours getting our backpacks ready and everything to gether at my host mother's house, we headed to the hostel. Then, since we were starving, so we ate some doner kebab (pita bread with falafel tomatoes lettuce and cucumber sauce. After running a few more errands, we walked to a couple of my favorite "touristy" sites in Madrid such as Templo de Debod and Plaza de Espana. Because Leona's jetlag was kicking in, we called it an early night. The next day, we started off by buying Leona a larger memory card for her camera, then joined up with a tour at noon. It was really unique to learn the stories of a lot of the buildings that I had just casually walked past for a few months. After a few hours in Buen Retiro park, we went to the Prado Museum to see all the Dali and Picasso that I studied for class. The next day, we spent hours at the Reina Sofia Museum and in the evening, went to the incredible night club, Pachaa. On Sunday, we walked through the Rastro fleamarket/Lavapies until getting on our night bus to Paris.

The train wass really rickity and I was nervous about motion sickness, but I mostly slept. When we got to Paris early the next morning, we first went to the bus station to buy our bus tickets to Amsterdam, then headed to our hostel (I've been the navigator and have done a decent job of it so far). We started at Arc de Triomphe, working our way down Champs Elysee (which currently has a HUGE Christmas market going on, with tons of russian dolls and crepes and canadian goods), and then spent the day walking around in the centerr of the city, seeing sights as they popped up in front of us. Our dinner was a yogurt and fruit and we called it an early night. The next day, we got a flexi metro pass with unlimited rides for a day and we just went EVERYWHERE imaginable. Montmarte, Sacre Couer, Eiffel Tower, Petit Palais, Hotel D'Invalides, Latin Quarter; you name it, we saw it. It was tiring, but well worth it.