Madrid Day 1! I thought it was supposed to be hot...

A bright and early start today, as always! No rest for the wicked (wicked meaning BYU study abroad students who just want to frolic through Europe). We had grand plans for a walking tour and two museums along the way, ending at Retiro park. We got started on our walk and the fist thing we saw was Ratoncito Perez's house. Who is Ratoncito Perez? He is the Spanish tooth fairy - who is a little rat! There's a little house and door by the metro for him so of course I had to take a picture haha. 

Our next stop was the Madrid Archaeology museum which had a bunch of different exhibits from a really long time ago and some cool archaeology finds. There were some real human skulls which was kind of creepy, but also a lot of pretty jewelry and carved tools. I think it is so beautiful that all throughout history humans just want to make their belongings and themselves look beautiful! Here are some pics of what I saw.

Next, we went to an anthropology museum. And I'll be honest I was not feeling it. We were all tired and hungry and the museum was not that great. I didn't even take any pictures aha. So after that museum, we headed to Retiro park which is a very large park in Madrid. I was still done at this point. I am not as much of a fan of the "study" part of Madrid as I was in our last few places. It's just been very very long with no breaks, which we usually got in Paris and Belgium and Amsterdam. But I do loooove Madrid it is so beautiful here! Anyways, so we went to Retiro park and the directors talked for longer than they said they were going to, and then finally set us free haha. The park was pretty though!

We were all starving at this point, so we did not stay super long in the park. A group of us went to try Vips (pronounced veeps), which is basically like a Denny's haha. They have pancakes and burgers and sandwiches and other assorted breakfast food. We all got burgers, and maybe it was just because we were so hungry, but they were actually so good. It was the first burger I've had here and it did not disappoint. Vips is right next to our hotel, literally side by side, and so we just headed back to our rooms after that to hang out before our flamenco show!

The flamenco show was actually so cool! It was different than I expected, but once I got into it it was so fun. There were 3 dancers, 2 women 1 guy, and then a singer and a guitarist. A lot of it was about rhythm so the dancers used their shoes to stomp and create a beat. The control they had was crazy! I wish I had a video or pictures but when I tried to take one, my FLASH went off. Ahhh it was so embarrassing and I felt absolutely awful. I checked it was off, but it must have turned to auto. Luckily I noticed immediately and whooshed it back down, so I have a video with a split second shot of the stage and then just darkness for 10 seconds. But regardless it was wonderful and I really enjoyed it! I also got to try European Fanta for the first time at the show, and I can confirm it is wayy better than American Fanta. No fake orange flavor at all!

After the Flamenco show we headed to a cafe as a group to get granizados de chocolate which I was told was like a chocolate slushy. So my expectations were not super high because it sounded kind of strange but I was VERY pleasantly surprised. It had a super dark, rich chocolate flavor and it was icy but very smooth. I don't even know how to describe it, just know it was delicious! One of the girls didn't like hers though because it was too dark of chocolate for her, so Annie, Betsy, and I shared it haha.

You'd think that we'd be chocolated out after that but I am never chocolated out! So of course we had to try churros con chocolate - Spain's specialty. They were good, but I wanted them to be better unfortunately. I think that I just hyped them up too much in my head maybe. I just think the churros needed something else because it was just fried dough, no sugar or cinnamon. The chocolate was yum though! So yum that I drank it straight after the churros were gone and everybody made fun of me. It was quite rich, but a good way to end the night :)