We had a blast with our friends at our housewarming/send-off party at our house on August 15th. Those of you who were there, thank you for your presence, your kind wishes, and your gifts!
Thank you to Tom Carson, Chad´s dad, for taking us to the airport. Here´s a little video we did before we flew out from Atlanta:
Departure from USA - Chad from Chad Carson on Vimeo.
We flew stand-by on Delta using passes from Chad´s grandfather (thanks Frank!), and to our excitement the flight wasn´t full and we received seats #3F and #3G... 1st class! We have been visualizing this trip for years, and wouldn´t you know that the beginning of the flight unfolded exactly like the vision we saw 100´s of times in our head. We sat on the right of the plane, first class, big reclining leather seats. As we got settled while the other passengers were boarding, a flight attendent asked us if we´d like a drink. We of course asked for a memosa, like we´d planned, and we smiled, sat back, and enjoyed the ride.
There are some pictures of our fine dining along the way... not your average burger and fries!
Appetizer - asparragus soup, Morrocan crab salad and Greek salad
Chad´s meal – 3Cheese Veggie Spaghetti
kari´s (half-eaten) meal – seared mahi mahi, paella rice, & asparagus
Once we got to Madrid, we spent most of the day walking around looking for a hostel. It´s sort of a game to find a place to stay that fits reasonable living standards – safety, cleanliness, noise – but is also affordable.
Our first night was nice but not as affordable as we would´ve liked – 53 euros or about $75.00. Nights 2-3 we found a better deal – 35 euros or about $52.00. San Isidro was the name of this hostel, and it was in the center of the old, fun part of Madrid. We´re of course looking for a catch each time we get a good price on a room. For a while we were stumped because we didn´t find any bed bugs or other nuissances. Then Chad went to take a shower. We now affectionately call our shower the “Sputtering Llama”, because it sort of hisses, spits, and eventually puts out an uneven stream of water. While it´s possible to get clean, it´s not your spa-like shower experience.
We spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning in Madrid hanging out in parks, people watching, and catching up on sleep. On Thursday we were in the park near the Royal Palace we saw a guy on a Google bike ride around taking pictures for their maps. We´ll have to check if we made it online! Here´s a picture of part of the Royal Palace:
We also spent time in the Parque del Retiro. Here´s a picture of the pond there:
If you ever go to Spain, you will definitely see the Plaza Mayor (main square) in every town. The one in Madrid is huge and is cool with its historic buildings and cafés. Here´s a picture of us in the Plaza Mayor:
The evenings are an awesome time to be outside. There are so many people out strolling the streets... teens, couples, families, and older people. We´ve also been eating tapas and drinking cerveza (beer), vino (wine) and sangría. Tapas (also called pinchos) are like little appetizers that are served with beer and wine in the evening. Some of the tapas we´ve had so far are fried squid, Iberian ham and sausage, tortilla española (which is like a potato quiche), and cheese. We spent 20 euros one evening on two tapas and a bottle of wine:
The next night we learned that they bring you a new pincho with each round of drinks you order. Now we know!
Chad took a cool video of the life in one of the plazas (squares) on our way home on Friday. You can see it below (1 min, 6 seconds):
Music on the Plaza - Madrid from Chad Carson on Vimeo.
Another cool thing we did in Madrid was go to two of their famous museums... the Prado and the modern art museum. We got to see famous works by famous Spanish painters such as Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Francisco Goya. It was cool to see the works in person, brush strokes and all, after seeing them in books. We got to see Picasso´s famous painting Guernica. It´s a painting depicting when the Germans dropped bombs on the Basque city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War (just before World War II).
Saturday evening we took a bus to Salamanca. It was a comfortable two and a half hour ride. The landscape is open with sparse trees and giant boulders. When we arrived, we called Angela, our Spanish mom, and we took a taxi to her apartment. She was very welcoming and had dinner ready for us. She has two grown sons, who live out of town. There was a French student who was also staying with her, but she went back to France today.
After dinner, we took a walk down to the Plaza Mayor (the Main Square) and walked through the ancient streets. It was awesome for me (Kari) to walk through the streets again after 12 years. Although the buildings are ancient and some older than our whole country, lots has changed since I was a student here. I still kind of know my way around, but have already seen much more than I did last time I was here. I´m realizing that I wasn´t so adventurous as a student because I didn´t take any long walks around town for fear of getting lost. Now, I realize that it´s okay to get lost and that maps and people help :).
Today, Monday, the 24th, would have been my first day of classes at Tri-County but instead it was Chad´s and my first day at Letra Hispánica in Salamanca. Chad´s head hurt after class today because of all of the new information, but he´s really learning alot and is speaking quite well. We try to speak only Spanish but allow ourselves to speak English after 11, but actually it´s much later. Days are longer here. We were out until 2 am on Friday and on Saturday until 1:30 or so but we didn´t realize how late it was because tons of people were out walking around, hanging out with friends and pushing their babies around in strollers! Well, it´s about tapas time, so until next time... ¡Hasta luego!
