Ahora soy una madrileña

Today was so full and fun that it deserves a post all to itself. This morning Evelyn and I went to El Rastro, which is a humongous flea market that is held here every Sunday morning. We arrived around noon and the fact that we were squished like sardines into the metro was a pretty good indication of what was to come. The place was absolutely packed! It extends for blocks down the main street, then lots of other streets with more specific items intersect. There where such random things for sale, including lots of stands that were selling underwear, lots of t-shirts with "interesting" designs on them, and I even saw a stand with camo pants and gas masks. The only thing I bought was a Real Madrid scarf in anticipation for the game, but I definitely want to go back later and buy souvenirs. Next time I will go earlier in hopes of avoiding the crowds (and the heat.)

Since it was such a gorgeous day out (70 degrees and sunny) we decided to go to El Parque de Buen Retiro, which is like the Central Park of Madrid. We stopped first at a place outside the park to pick up some bocadillos (sandwiches) then went and found a shady bench to eat them on. It was a great place to people watch, as the park is very popular on Sunday afternoons. I was surprised by how dressed up people were just to walk in the park. Maybe they were coming from church, but I have learned in my culture class that not many Spaniards attend church any more. The park was beautiful and we didnt make it very far inside, so I definitely want to go back and see the lake and the sculptures inside.

After that we were invited to a barbeque that some people from the University of Florida (who also go to Nebrija) were having on the terrace in their apartment. So we went there to hang out for a little while. Then from there we headed to El Estadio de Santiago Bernabeu for the Real Madrid Game! We had quite the time actually getting there and inside though. Once again it was a jam-packed metro ride, and once we squeezed out of the metro it was basically a scene of chaos. Just massive crowds going in all directions. We managed to find a ticket office and tried to pick up the tickets that I had tried to order by phone (a long story, but basically a very difficult task when it is all automated in Spanish.) They told us we had to go to a machine and insert the card to get the tickets out, but when we did that it said that we had no reservations. So we tried to go back and buy tickets. They had some available for 40 euros, but neither of us had that much cash, and they didnt accept cards. So we went down the street in search of an atm (by this time the game had started.) We found one, but it was out of cash! So we went on and found another that had only 50 euros left in it. So we took all of that out, and went back to the ticket window. But this time they said all they had were 65 euros seats, and we didn't have that much cash, nor were we really interested in paying that much. Feeling pretty disappointed at this point we asked at one more ticket window as a last ditch effort, and they had 40 euro tickets! (who knows what was going on with the other window.) So we finally got our tickets, climbed the stairs all the way up to the top of the stadium and found our seats. It was about 20 minutes into the game, but tons of people were still looking for their seats.

The rest of the game was really exciting. The stadium was huge, but even though we were in the 2nd highest section we could still see really well. David Beckham played, although not very well I must say. Real Madrid had lots of scoring opportunities, including a couple off the posts, but couldn't put anything in. They scored on a PK and the game ended 1-1. I guess the actual play wasn't all that amazing, but the atmosphere in the stadium was awesome. They offer tours of the stadium in which you get to go in the locker rooms and on the field, so we definitely want to go back and do that.

Overall it was a very excellent, very Spanish day.