Day 1 in Madrid

At exactly 8:25 am our train pulled out of Barcelona Sants Estacio. We took the high speed train from Barcelona to Madrid. By high speed train it takes a little over 2 and a half hours. On a regular train it takes about 8 and a half. Anavi and I unfortunately didn't get seats next to each other but we both got windows seats so there's a plus. I got comfortable in my seat and pulled out something to do for the next few hours. I plugged in my headphones to listen to some music. After doing Sudoku puzzles and listening to music for about 30 minutes, I leaned my head against the window to observe the scenery for awhile. That awhile lasted about a minute and a half because I fell asleep. 

One of the sunny times

I woke up an hour and a half later. This left me only about 30 minutes left on the train. In that 30 minutes I observed the weather outside change multiple times. It quickly went from cloudy, to foggy, to sunny, back to foggy, back to cloudy, and then back to sunny as we pulled up to the train station. We got off the train and headed straight to our hostel to check in. Our hostel is really nice. The keys to the front door and our rooms are bracelets that you hold up to the door and it unlocks it. The hostel itself is clean and spacious. The lobby is so cool! I couldn't take a picture because there was too many people in it this afternoon so I'll take one and post it tomorrow.

Both starving, we got lunch after we put our bags in our lockers. From there we went to Museo Nacional del Prado. I was impressed by all the wonderful artwork in that museum. My favorite piece is a painting by Antonio Gisbert called "Fusilamiento de Torrijos y sus compañeros en las playas de Málaga" (The Execution of Torrijos and his companions on the beach at Málaga). Though a sad subject, the painting was beautiful. Looking at it, you immediately get the emotion Antonio was trying to portray through this painting.

A door I found in the garden.
Maybe it leads to a secret garden!

Next door to this museum is Real Jardín Botánico. This gardens are beautiful and full of fall colors. Yellow and orange leaves were everywhere. While there, we meet a women and her young son. The women spoke very little Spanish or English and her son was the same but the four of us commuted very well. She told us about all different types of plants and showed us them throughout the garden. It was a wonderful experience talking with her.

We left the garden and explored the neighborhood between there and our hostel. While exploring we found a small restaurant to eat at. We're starting to miss the great Spanish food already so we shared 4 delicious Spanish tapas. And of course one of them was Patatas Bravas, the best tapa of them all! We are now back at our hostel, dead tired, and getting ready for bed so we'll be rested for our second day in Madrid.