Madrid, Spain

Everytime I sit down to do my blog I get a tad overwhelmed. Everyday we do and see so much I can't possibly share everything, as much as I would love to. Last Sunday we had to leave Lisboa and go to Porto. I was incredibly sad because just felt so at home at the "Travellers House" and I loved the people. We caught a cab to the train station and we literally had to run to catch our train. Our friend Claire who we met at the "Traveller's House" came with us to Porto just for the fun of it. Our hostel in Porto wasn't quite as nice and no one spoke English who worked there so that was a bit challenging. Porto was a really fun city! We went on a boat tour and we got a wine tour and tasting of Croft's Port wine. On Tuesday we had to check out of our hostel by 11:00am so we put our bags in storage. We definately couldn't leave Porto until we went shopping! When I say shopping I mean going in to all the stores, and wishing we all had a million dollars and room in our packs to actually buy stuff. We caught the 4:00pm train back to Lisboa and dropped Claire off. From there we took the 10:00pm train to Madrid. It was a 10 hour ride but I slept pretty much the entire way. As you've probably figured out I can sleep anywhere. Airport floors, Trains, planes, noisy hostels; I haven't had a bad sleep since I've been here. when we got to Madrid we took the metro and then walked to Elaine and Brent's house where we would be staying. Elaine was friends with Starr's dad in Saskatchewan. When we got there Elaine made us feel right at home. I have my own room and bathroom, and Elaine made us breafast and even did our laundry for us! She is so sweet! It was funny because while we were eating breakfast we discovered that Elaine's sister and my mom were best friends in college! What a small world eh? At about 1:30pm we took the metro out to Sol to see the sights. We did our own walking tour and for supper went out for Kono Pizza. It's pizza crust in the shape of a cone with the pizza topppings in the midddle--so GOOD! Ever since we've been here Elaine and Brent have been so awesome. They've fed us, taken us out, made us midnight snacks; they're quite the entertainers! On Friday we started the day bright and early because Elaine drove us out to Segolvia. This city is about an hour north of Madrid and we got to see the aquiducts, a fairy tale castle, we did some shopping and went out for coffee and pastry. After Elaine drove us to Pedraza, which is a medieval town designated a monumental site in 1951. This small walled city has a population of 150 people. All the cute little shops were closed but we walked around and looked at the goods through the shop windows. Pedraza is famous for it's lamb, so Elaine took us to an adorable restaurant and we shared a huge serving of lamb. It was so good and I don't even like lamb. Elaine had to be home at 5:00pm to go tutoring so we left Pedraza at 3:00pm. It was so fun being in a car and really nice being seeing the countryside of Spain. When Brent got home around 10:30 that night he cut us some Ibericol ham off his pig leg. His company gave him this pig leg which is like $60.00 CDN. We were really Spainsh and had it with crackers and olives--tasty! On Friday Sheri-Lee wasn't feeling well so Starr and I took the metro out to the Real Madrid Stadium. Starr is a die hard soccer fan so she totally knew all the players, it was really significent for her to be in that stadium. I don't watch soccer, I don't play soccer, but I really did enjoy going through the museum with all the trophies and learning about all the history of the soccer club. "Real" actually means "Royal." Brent told us that it would probably take an hour to walk throught the museum and check out the stadium and the shop. Starr and I were in there for 2 1/2 hours--we were just having a great time! That night Brent and Elaine invited us to come along on their date night so we went out to Sol. We had a really eventful night! First we walked around looking at everything. At about 10:30pm they took nus to a tapa bar called "Museo del Jamon." There were Ibericol hams hanging everywhere, and there was a deli with all different kinds of sausage and meats. Brent ordered us all orange juice that they freshly make right in front of you. He also ordered a big platter full of cheese, meats, stuffed mushrooms, and olives. It was 11:00 at night and the place was packed. There is no where to sit at these types of places everyone just stands and eats. From there we went on to the Ritz hotel. This is where the phrase comes from "puttin' on the ritz." Starr and I were thrilled to have an excuse to sing the song. You would not believe how fancy this place was! You walk in and its like chandeliers, fancy furniture, a pianist playing the grand piano, elegant everything. Brent treated us all to cappucinos which were like 8 euros a piece! The tuxedoed waitress brought us mini cookies and our cappucinos were served in china cups. I quite enjoyed myself--Even though I was extremely underdressed for the occcasion in my jeans and hoodie. Everything was perfect; good atmosphere, relaxing music, and most importantly good company. Our final destination was the Hard Rock cafe. Brent and Elaine bought us drinks, nachos and dessert. Sheri-Lee, Starr and I shared an apple cobbler and a brownie sundae. It was so good. At this point is was like 1:30am. Brent and Elaine really know how to have a good time. I felt so spoiled the whole night; they paid for everything.
Yesterday Brent and Elaine drove us out to Salamenca. On the way there a crazy driver in a white delivery truck crossed over his line, took off the side mirror on Brent's really nice Wolkswagon passat, and gave us a flat tire. There was pretty much nothing we could do, it was either chase him or go back for the mirror. We were unable to get a license plate number and we were all looking for one. It could have been a lot worse. We were expecting the whole side of the car to be scratched and dented. This delayed our day a little bit but we still made it to Salamenca. We had a wonderful day there. There was so much to see. We really love all the places we go where we can walk and see everything. We had chiros with chocloate which were just the greatest thing of my life. Today is our last day here, and we feel like we'e seen a lot of Spain. Brent and Elaine have been amazing and we couldn't have seen half of what we did without them. Thank you so much Brent and Elaine for everything. We really enjoyed ourselves and you spoiled us rotten.