I got up at 9:30, and had breakfast. It might be my favorite meal. It's free, and I can eat as much as I like, including toast, cereal, and some really good pastry things. I like it! It's served from 7:30 to 10:30, which is nice. We're trying to adjust to the eating schedule here, but it's hard. They do late meals, but I like to eat early. Fail.
After breakfast, we decided to wander. We headed in the direction of El Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). Along the way, we went into a bunch of stores. We love the fashion here, and prices aren't bad at all. But not only do I not need clothes, they'd never fit in my bag! So I definitely can't do any shopping. That's probably a good thing.
It was really easy to find the Palacio Real. It's huge. There was a GIANT line to get in. I'm not sure why--maybe there are a lot of people here for the holy week--Semana Santa? We decided to go into the cathedral next to the palace, but they charged to get in, and we didn't have any small change. Plus we've been into about a billion churches now, and almost all of them were free.
We hung out by the cathedral for a while, then decided to walk to the nearby temple. We attemped to find lunch nearby, at about 1:30, but there weren't restaurants. We did find the Debod Temple--an Egyptian temple that was relocated to Madrid. It was donated to Spain. How do you move a temple? And why would you give that to someone as a sign of gratitude? I think it's a little strange, but I enjoyed seeing some Egyptian history during my travels.
It was a nice, sunny day today, but still cold. So we didn't want to spend much time outside (and we were very disappointed by the cold). By 2, we really wanted food. But we have the hardest time finding places to eat. It's almost funny (except for the part when I am starving and don't have food). By the time we started finding restaurants, they were closing for "siesta." We ended up eating at Burger King (pathetic, I know) because it was open and we were starving. Then we got ice cream cones at a nearby shop, and sat in the sun to eat them. I love ice cream, even when it's cold outside :)
At about 3:30, we went back to our hostel. We just chilled for a while. No one was around, so we had unlimited computer usage for a while. That was nice, but no one was online! That's not true--I did get to talk to Dani and Missy, which made me happy. I miss so many people, and not getting to talk to anyone is rough. I napped from about 5:30 to 7:30--I love siestas. My bed is warm and comfortable...I never want to leave it!
Melisa and I both showered, then went to find dinner. We're still really struggling. We want authentic Spanish food. We can find American-Spanish food, or Mexican food. They are very clearly labelled as such. I didn't come to Spain for Mexican food! And, many of the dinner places don't even open until 9 pm. We found sandwiches at "Pans and Co." which might be my new favorite restaurant. It turned out to be really good, even if it is the Spanish version of fast food.
Finally, we went back to our hostel again. I was able to get on a computer for about 30 minutes, which was good. I got to talk to my sister! I miss her like crazy, and her birthday is tomorrow! I forgot to tell her that I'm going to try to call her tomorrow...whoops. Oh well, it'll be ok. I wish more people had been online. I feel like a hermit. I'd like my life to return to normal, soon. And now I guess I'm going to bed? It's about 11:30 again. I could learn to love this sleep schedule. I do actually wish I had more to do. I seriously miss being busy. But no worries--I have two papers to write when I return to Bangor!
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