Ola

So I've started my grand adventure. I packed everything up from my flat on Friday, shipped it off, and say goodbye to Bethnal Green. I should have been a little sad to leave London, but I was so excited to start my holiday, nothing could bring me down. I caught my flight to Frankfurt and it all went pretty uneventfully. Yeah, right. This is me - there's no such thing. I headed the right direction for my connecting flight to Madrid, but made wrong turn somewhere and ended up where I started, except I had to go through passport control (my favorite place) and they gave me a little trouble, although the guy was really friendly, because when I was deported from the UK in January, my place of origin was Frankfurt because I had connected through there from Chicago. Somehow, they were able to see all this by the way the stamp was placed on my passport. It wasn't too much hassle, I just feel like you get deported once and you are on the Interpol list for life. On the good side, I got the German stamp in my passport.

Flying into Madrid, I could already tell that Spain was a beautiful country. The soil seems redder and it looked much different than anything I've flown over before..

I have to admit, I didn't even bother with figuring out the public transportation and just got a taxi to the hotel. It's the first time in my travels and although it was so much easier and only 22 Euros, I feel less authentic and much more like a "Turisto."

Now, the moment of truth was about to avail itself - was doing a 13 day trip with a huge group of strangers a really good idea or was it a really, really bad idea? After checking in, I went to my room and my roommate was there, but dead to the world she was asleep. I tried to wake her politely, but no luck. So I went out and got something to eat. When I got back, she was stirring and I introduced myself. Unfortunately, she doesn't speak English. She's from Tijuana. I'm not quite sure how she ended up on this tour because all of the lit and the website are pretty clear that everything is English for the whole trip. I feel badly because not only can we not communicate, but all the instructions and information are English. And then she asked to borrow my hairbrush. At first I thought I wasn't understanding until she walked over and gestured for my brush in my hand. I was kind of shocked and just handed it to her. Some of the guys reading this might not think this a big deal, but girls are you with me on this one? Unless I am somehow related to you, we're good friends, or you're a famous movie star and I think I could sell any stray hairs on ebay, I'm not exactly excited about sharing my hairbrush with you.

This wasn't really how I hoped this trip would start.

Despite the unfortunate roommate situation, the rest of my group seems cool. It is mix of college kids and some older adults like me:-) It is also a mix of Americans, Canadians, Aussies and a few other countries represented. We had the first dinner together near the hotel and then went out to Club. And when I say club, I mean disco in a way I have never seen before. This place puts any NY or Chicago club to shame. It was 8 floors and it was pretty hard-core. The Spanish love to dance. I was particularly fond of the Spanish men dancing without their shirts.

It was a pretty late night but that didn't stop us from a really early start to go see the palace. It was pretty cool, but I'm a little castled/palaced out. You can only see so much extravagance without becoming a bit immune to it. After the palace, some of us headed to the mountains to see the valley of the cross. It was really, really beautiful and a bit intoxicating to breathe mountain air. It strangely reminded me of home and the Cascade mountains and the Nye cabin because there was so many pine trees, which I wouldn't have expected in Spain if I had ever given it a thought. The cross was huge, but the really amazing part was the cathedral below. It was actually built in the hollowed out rock. Think about three football stadiums inside the rock hallowed out to make the church. It was really, really beautiful - one of those things I would have missed if I was visiting on my own and glad I didn't miss it.

After returning from the mountains, we walked around the city a bit, although many things were closed because it was Sunday. One of the best parts was sitting outside on at a cafe having tapas and Sangria with some of my new friends Patrick and Christine. Many of you know that my favorite restaurant in Chicago is a tapas place, so it was a treat to be having the "real" thing in Spain. Yum - it was delicious, especially my favorites - the manchengo cheese and potatoes bravas.

The sangria and the sun did me in and I called it an early night. It was great to get a good night sleep in preparation for the long, long bus ride the next day.

Overall, I liked Madrid and my first taste of Spain. I would take a day or two and visit if you can fit it in your travel plans, but probably not make a whole trip of it by itself. Next entry - Barcelona. Teaser... Topless beach.