Madrid!!

Today we had an excursion to Madrid! We had an early morning that started at 8:15.... We took the hour bus ride to Madrid and then had a bus tour through the main parts of Madrid.  It is SO BIG! It makes me happy that I am studying abroad in a smaller city like Toledo.  I am more comfortable here, feel safer here, and will be more accustomed to the city.  Someone made a good point today.  It's like studying in Minneapolis compared to New York City.

After our bus tour, we went to the Palace de Madrid Real.  It was where most of the monarchy lived until the 19th century, I believe.  It was absolutely beautiful! It is amazing to think that people actually lived in that place.  There was gold in every room and all of the ceilings were "Michaelangeloed".  I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside of the palace unfortunately, but it was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Museo de Jamón.  We had a huge delicious lunch which included gluten free dessert!  I have never been so full.  Afterwards we had some free time to walk around and do some shopping.  And I saw that both the Sound of Music and The Lion King are on broadway here! So that may be a future plan of mine.

Unfortunately, my purse that my sister's got me for Christmas broke today... It is still useable, but the part of the cross-body strap that is connected to the purse ripped half way.. I am so sad since I have only had that purse for a month! But I am going to try to super glue it.   It must not have been able to withstand the amount of weight I was putting in it from water, to cameras, to sunglasses, etc.

Sooo that meant when I went shopping, I was going to look for a new purse! As many of you might know, I have an obsession with purses.  I knew coming into this trip that I wanted to buy a nice purse from Europe.  But I did not expect to find one the same day my purse broke or my second week here.  I didn't want to impulse buy it, so we walked around, went for coffee, and thought about it with my friends.  After discussing, I realized that it was 50% off (which is a great deal), and there was only one left, and I don't know the next time I will be in Madrid.  It could be as late as March.  So I bought it! I am so happy with it!

Today has been a good and exhausting day.  Tomorrow I am sleeping in, and probably going to walk around "old Toledo".