Spain: Day 6 Part 1

Playing: Heartbeat Slowing Down-The All American Rejects
Reading: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

For our sixth day in Spain and our first full day in Madrid, my family and I kind of got tired hunting for inexpensive breakfasts, so we just went to a fast food place called Pans & Company, which was a sandwich and pastry chain. I'm not sure what the name of this is because I just pointed at it and said, "Uno por favor!" I do know that it was a cranberry muffin stuffed with vanilla yogurt though and it was surprisingly good.  The only issue I had with it was that after the first half, it tasted too sweet and too much like a vanilla cupcake.

After breakfast, we walked around and I looked at all the grafitti that was on the buildings. It's surprising how much grafitti was in Spain and how everywhere you look, there's grafitti. It's like your in the seedy parts of Los Angeles...I kind of liked this one though. It looks like me after my AP World teacher announced that we were going to have three more projects after we took the AP test. Either that or a psychotic toad. Not much of a difference to tell you the truth...

When we got to our destination, the Palacio Real, it was thirty minutes before the opening and there was still a line. I was standing behind these two girls, both over six feet, complaining to my mum about how she should've given me growth hormones. The Palacio Royal is a stunner, but it looks just like any other European palace to me. The most unique part of this palace was that we got to take a look in the royal pharmacy, but the armory was so confusing for the audio tour. I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking at. For this, you really should get in line before it opens because when we left, the line was at least two blocks long.

For lunch, it was another one of those times, where I pestered my dad into letting us eat anywhere because the heat was killing me and the walk felt like it was never going to end. We ended up at this little place called Cafeteria Otero, which I really liked because it felt like you were eating in your grandmother's kitchen. I ordered the Filete de ternera con champinion (veal with mushrooms) for only 7€, so this was my cheapest meal in Spain and probably one of the best ones I had. The veal was buttery and tender, while the mushrooms were lemony and full of garlic. Even their French fries were amazingly crisp and salty, which I stole from my family members' plates. You wouldn't have expected this, when you first stepped in because the place was empty, but I definitely recommend it to you. 

After lunch, we walked to the Plaza Mayor and here you can see my lovely parents standing right by the entrance to it. My dad's camera ran out of battery at this plaza, so he took over my camera asking me to take a photo of this and that for him. We both have camera sharing problems, so that's why we needed to get our own. We used to get into fights over it.  Anyways, this particular little entrance had all these cute places to eat and look at.

For example, look at this! How adorable are those giant gummy bears made of well, tiny gummy bears? It reminds me of the time we set fire to gummy bears in chemistry and how my chemistry teacher would always be snacking on them during lectures. Also, these long candy vines looked fun with all their bright colors, but I wasn't quite sure what they were. Are they licorice or what?

In the Plaza Mayor, there were locks attached to all of the lamps, so I'm guessing they serve the same purpose as the ones on Pont de l'Archevêché. It symbolizes couples everlasting love and then they usually toss the locks somewhere. That's what I'm guessing right now, but I could be wrong. If you know of this, let me know if I'm right! Thanks for reading!

PS Today is my last day of SAT prep class, so I'm celebrating by going to an All American Rejects concert with Rebecca!