Spain: Madrid

Between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college (Summer 2004), I traveled to Spain as part of the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates (GIEU). I'll post later about my experience with the group, but I flew into Madrid a week before the program started, so that I could see more of the city.

I traveled around Madrid with Yasmin, who was also part of the GIEU group. We stayed in a hostel on the Gran Ví­a, which is the major tourist strip, and it was still really cheap. When we first got there, we didn't have any set plans, which I think is a good thing. Each day we picked out one or two things that we really wanted to do and after that we would normally wander around and take in the city. We did do some of the main tourist things. We went to the three main art museums: Prado, Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza. We also made it to the Royal Palace, although they were not giving tours because of the upcoming wedding of Prince Felipe and Letizia Rocasolano. Yasmin and I made it to many of the famous plazas as well, sometimes by accident.

This is me at the Plaza Mayor

One of the most memorable experiences happened when we were just wandering around. We came across a small plaza and decided to take a break. Some small children were kicking a ball around (it was more like a kickball then a soccer ball). I tried to join in, but it didn't work out to well. Then, Yasmin saw a group of college-age people and she really liked how they were dressed, so she asked if she could have a photo with them. That is how our encounter began, but we ended up going with them to a student hang-out where we celebrated one of their birthdays. It was a lot of fun, and i think you should definitely try and interact with natives wherever you visit.

Yasmin (far right) with our Spanish friends