So the past day and a half has been quite an adventure. I felt so rested after my nigh in on Friday (everyone was a bit jealous). We headed in the bus to El Escurial. This is a town where there is a monastery that also functioned as a palace (other than the main palace in Madrid), a library, a tomb, and a school. It was absolutely gorgeous and very impressive. We had an incredible tour guide that spoke to us slowly in Spanish and could also explain unfamiliar words that we did not know, in English. She told us about Felipe the II, the first king to live in the impressive building. She was very religious and wanted to live like a monk when he was away. He had rooms off the church so he could watch all of the services. He was married four times, all of them were to a relative of some type of relative. When he was 17 had married a woman that was 34 (or something along those lines) and at age 36 he married someone who was 13 (Can you even imagine being married at age 13, let alone to someone twice your age). The marriages were of course for political reasons as they were all from different countries. We also got to see the tomb room. There is a special room for the bodies of the kings and queens. However, only the queens that gave birth to a king/queen. However, the bodies do not go in there immediately. They first must go in the "rotting" room for about 40 years to allow all of the flesh to disintegrate (for the smell). However, there are only three more spaces in this special room for the current king's grandfather, and his parents. Which, his parents never reigned because they were exiled, but they gave him his spot. Also there was a story of a king that did not want to be there because he did not want to be in the same room as Austrians, and another whose wife had never born an heir to the throne and he said "If I can't be burried with my wife, I won't be buried here." How sweet! Everything was absolutely gorgeous in the church and I have never seen so many tombs in my life. After our tour, some of us went to the gardens to eat lunch. SO beautiful! They had some of the maze-like buses and roses and a gorgeous view of the mountains. I was not thinking mountains when I thought Spain (though truly I don't know what I thought).
After a little round about of the city ( I LOVED the city! I could totally live there!) we got into the bus again to see the Castillo de Manzanares. Normally I am all for soaking up as much as I possibly can but something about getting in and out again, I was not too excited about el Castillo. Still, we went and it was really neat. It was much smaller than many of the other castles we have seen but it was very well preserved and had a museum inside. Unfortunately I did not learn a whole lot, as the tour guide was very difficult to understand, for all of us. She sounded as though she had been smoking for a VERY long time. After our tour we finally headed back to Madrid. After the bus ride, some of us went back to El Espejo for the Leche Merengue (cinnamon ice cream) one last time. I NEED to know how to make that. After that I came back to the house and rested a wee bit. Then Erin and I decided to pass a little time by watching Tristan and Isolde that she had bought on my computer to watch herself. Oh my goodness, that movie gets me! We only watched half before it was time for dinner and getting ready. We knew that the night would be epic, but we had no idea. So, we head out at 11:00, trying to meet up with two groups of people (never the best idea). We ran into two of our friends but never heard from the others so we decided to head to Sol for a big, then move on. In Sol we ended up at Erin's favorite place, Dubliners. We ran into two guy from Britain (again with the Brits, haha) who were very nice. We then wanted to check out some places that Carmen (la chica de mi casa) had recommended to get a break. They asked if they could come with as they didn't really know what to do so they tagged along. We lost two girls as it was late already so it was just Erin and I. We tried club "Gabana" but it cost 15 euros and looked a bit swanky. Chris (they are both named Chris mind you) knew of another place where you could get in free so we headed there. We did not find the place he was thinking of but we did find another place called IndependanceClub. We got in around 2:30 in the morning? We were there until 5:45 in the morning...I'm SO SPANISH! Ha Ha. We talked with the guys/ broke it down on the dance floor all night and we had sow much fun! It was also a COMPLETELY Spanish place so it was fun to talk to people there, or bond with girls in the bathroom. It was so funny because at one point I was waiting in the bathroom and it had been a while and I made some sort of "oof" sound and a girl looked at me and said "So, por Dios!" and we laughed about how bad we had to go the bathroom. Special moments, lol. Anyways, around 6:00 the metros opened back up and we hopped on in search of some churros maybe but it was still early so Erin and I just headed back home, still in schock that we had been out all night! Chris and I kept talking about how it was past our bed times as he and I were not night people and Erin and the other Chris were. So funny. Anyways, we came back to the house, slept for about 2 hours, woke up and had a nice breakfast, then headed to the Rastro for the last time :(. We were there just a bit, then headed back here for some serious R&R. We showered (as we WREAKED of smoke) then finished Tristan and Isolde to put us to sleep. I have now slept for about 4 hours today and will probably sleep a bit more once I know what people's plans for tomorrow are. Everyone knows last night was a stretch for me, but it was so nice not to be confined by school or something the next day!
Ok, side note though that I forgot the other day. The crazies thing happened to me while I was here! We had a hairdryer that is our Madre's. The first week Erin had been blow drying her hair and came in and said "Allison, I think I burnt my hair. Pieces are falling out! I put it on high and I think it burnt my hair!" Erin can be a little dramatic so I was like "Oh Erin, I'm sure it will be fine, thinking she was just like shedding or something." So the other day I was straightening my hair for the first time in a while with a brush and the hair drying. I had been using the low setting as always but we were in a hurry so I did the high for like 1 minute. As I got done brushing my hair... CHUNKS started falling out. They were burnt together at the ends and literally CHUNKS of my hair! It was an incredibly weird/scary feeling as I kept pulling it out and I did not know when it would stop or what happened. I looked and there was a patch where my hair had been burned off. There was a little circle where my hairs are about 1/4 of an inch long right next to my part. Most of the time it is covered, but you can easily see it. I was a bit freaked out that morning, but when I looked back later it didn't seem quite as bad, but still! I guess the hair dryer was to hot on the end that it burnt my hair! So crazy! Anyways, that's about it! I can't believe we have two more days in Madrid before ANDALUCIA!!!! WOOOO!!!
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