Day 2 in Madrid

The Cathedral of Madrid that
took until 1993 to finish.

To start off our second day in Madrid, Anavi and I took a free walking tour of Madrid. The tour took us through the historical side of Madrid. We saw Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, and so much more. Plaza Mayor has a Christmas market set up but we didn't have time to really look at it as the tour started from there.

At first I didn't like our tour guide to much but his humor and endlessly information grew on me. In our tour group there was a guy from South Carolina who is studying abroad in Paris. He's here for the weekend and has to go back for his last final this week before he heads home. He's feeling the same way Anavi and I are about having to go back to United States soon. We're all excited to see our family and friends but do not want to leave Europe. We've all have come to love our lives here and the cities we have been living in. 

Anavi and I got lunch after the tour. On the way to get lunch there were a group of gypsy dancers. Joining the larger group already surrounding them, we watched them dance for a while. We tried to get lunch from a popular indoor market but it being a Saturday, the market was so packed we could hardly move around. We got lunch at a small restaurant off of the market. It has actually gotten cold today and the restaurant was really warm. We took a long 2 hour lunch break there mostly so we could stay inside and enjoy the warmth.

We explored the streets of Madrid after lunch, window shopping as we went. We found ourselves in Plaza del Sol, one of the places on our list to visit. It was packed. Everyone in Madrid seemed to be doing their Christmas shopping today.

I guy tried to get me to pay
him for taking this photo.
[In Plaza del Sol]

From Plaza del Sol we made our way to Gran Via, one of Madrid's most popular shopping streets. Since England, Anavi and I have been trying to go to a Primark but have always forgotten until today. 



We found a Primark on Gran Via and tried to go in but the security guard told us to go to the other entrance. So we walked to the other entrance only to find a line that wrapped around the building. We've decided that this is a sign that we're not meant to go in a Primark.

It has over 3,000 rooms!
Hike and seek would be fun in there!

Leaving Primark behind, we began our search for an outdoor ice rink we had found online.We walked around trying to find it only to find out it doesn't actually exist. This was slightly disappointing but our search had taken us back to the Royal Palace, which is beautiful at night, so it was okay. 

To get back to our hostel, we needed to go through Plaza Mayor. I'm glad we had to because we got to explore the Christmas market. It is very different from the ones in Barcelona. This one didn't have any handmade items. It was all store bought trinkets and silly hats and wigs which many people had bought and were wearing. The lights above the market were pretty and bright.

We've now made it back to our hostel and are doing some more planning for the rest of our trip. We may go out again tonight but are both very tired. After more planning we'll decide if we'll stay in or go back out.
By the way, sorry about the weird photo placement. I left my laptop in my luggage locker in Barcelona so there was one less item for me to be keeping track of this week. So to post, I am using the hostel computer. And this computer is DRIVING ME NUTS! I've been trying to put the photos on the side of the paragraphs for about 30 minutes.....so I'll move them when I get my laptop back in 9 days.