Hi everyone! Today two of my roommates arrived, Matt and David. Matt came in this morning and after he unpacked a bit he was antsy to explore. I showed him how close we live to Puerta del Sol and from there we wandered. Our way of wandering was, “Oh see that up ahead? It’s big and shiny, let’s follow it!”

We passed by the Plaza de Ciboles, which is like a City Hall. It’s beautifully grand! On the same side of the street, there is a garden and we made our way there. Matt found a tourist information booth and picked up a map. We were trying to find our way to Parque del Retiro, a HUGE park. It was designed for Philip IV as part of his Buen Retiro Palace, and was opened to the public in the 1770s. I’ll post pictures later when I go back with a real camera. My iPhone doesn’t do it justice. In the park, there’s the Palacio de Cristál, a glass palace. I don’t fully understand its construction, but it’s pretty! There’s also a beautiful fountain and a lake where you can take out a paddle boat. Matt and I reached the end of the park and decided to grab lunch somewhere and soon head back. We got back to the apartment about 3, after 4 hours of wandering. 

An hour or so later, David arrived! He had been touring around Europe for 2 weeks before. Then he and I went wandering! We went in a different direction than Matt and I had earlier. We found that there’s a public concert honoring the blind society on Sunday at 12. At least, that’s what we think the concert is for. But anyway, we just walked in whatever way and when we reached a point, we decided to turn around. And then a bird pooped on me, in my hair. I thought I was hit with a pine cone, or something other than poop and then realized what it was. I laughed a lot and through my hair up in a bun. A couple drops landed on David too but not as bad. We laughed it off and I washed my hair when we got back to the apartment.

David and I got back around dinner time and he, Matt, and I went to find food. We took a different street heading out of Puerta del Sol and saw where our stomachs would take us. We found 100 Montaditos, a place my friend Ali recommended we go to. It was busy though, so we kept walking. We saw some commotion and open seating and headed towards it. We found a restaurant, and after being seated for about 5 minutes, Matt saw that we had found Plaza Mayor! It’s maybe a 10 minute walk from the apartment! We ate dinner, determined it was freezing and went back to the apartment before grabbing some churros and chocolate for dessert. So.delicious.

The other roommates arrive tomorrow, I may be seeing Carley on Sunday, and classes begin Monday! There’s free admission at the Reina Sofia Museum tomorrow, and a soccer game later on. Hopefully I can do both!