It begins...Spring Break

To cover my entire spring break in one post would be absurd, I think I'll do it one day at a time as that's how my journal is formatted. This means 17 posts will be coming your way, prepare yourself. I'll set you up with a basic overview of the trip: Madrid Friday, April 3 through Monday, April 6; Barcelona Tuesday, April 7 through Thursday, April 9; flew into Rome, day trip to Florence Friday, April 10; Rome Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12 (Easter Sunday); Naples and Pompei Monday, April 13 and Bari (Italy) Tuesday, April 14; overnight ferry to Greece and a bus ride from Patras to Athens, then Athens the night of Wednesday, April 15 and Thursday, April 16; Paris Friday, April 17 through Sunday, April 19

Ok, now you're all set...

Day 1

Well, spring break started out wonderfully when I missed the shuttle bus to Charleroi Airport. My learning curve when it comes to time management is about the same as a doorknob's, I just never learn. No worries though, I caught the next bus and made the flight with time to spare, even after spending some time trying to stuff my purse into my carry on because of Ryan Air's ridiculous one bag policy. No problems finding the hostel in Madrid and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I fell in love instantly, narrow streets, cobble stone roads, colorful apartments each with a little balcony and shutters, exactly what Spain should be. It was quaint even while being the largest city in Spain. Our hostel used to be a "palace" or something fancy so it was really pretty inside. It had free internet too, always a plus. After we (Becky and I) checked in, we headed out with no real direction in mind - the hostel didn't have maps. We found a nice place for lunch and some Spanish fare - chorizo and iberico ham, I'm a big fan of cured meat. After that we went to Plaza Mayor, Madrid's version of the Grand Place. It was such a nice day, we got some ice cream and just sat soaking up the sun. Then, after buying a map, we got a free one, of course. We had no desire to go indoors so we went to Parque de el Retiro for some R & R. I'm so used to go-go-go on these trips that it felt weird just to sit around and do nothing, but it is spring BREAK afterall and the rest of my trip was going to be busy.

We went back to the hostel before dinner, we'd talked about bull fighting earlier and how it would be really amazing to see one while we were in Spain, so we decided to look up prices. It was pretty reasonable, so we got tickets, more on this later...After that it was time for dinner and we went on a hunt for paella - not hard to find in Spain. In Spain, they eat dinner much later - at 9:30 or 10 - so we were there around 6 or 7 and the restaurant was completely empty. The paella was good, it's a rice dish with some vegetables and usually seafood and maybe meat, ours had seafood and meat. A good day one.