MADRID:

C, G, and I left Geneva airport at just before 6pm on Thursday night on our way to Madrid.  The mountains were absolutely gorgeous when we passed over them, and the sun was setting when we landed in Madrid. We took the airport shuttle into town, and though I had directions printed out, we got a little lost. Thankfully, the Spanish are very kind and we had no less than 3 guys walk up to us and offer help with directions because they spoke English and we looked lost. The last guy, R, G invited to go out with us later that night, and we told him to meet us at the bear:

Then we went on a very round-about trip to find our hostel, which included getting directions from many more people, and ultimately we realized we had been sent in the wrong direction originally and taken an hour detour when the hostel was only a 3 minute walk from where we started. *sigh*

We had a 4-bed female dorm to ourselves, and as there was three of us we had an extra roommate, this girl from Germany. We took full advantage of the free wifi and the shower, and then went out with R. He took us to El Tigre, a cute little bar where if you buy a drink, you get free food! So we had authentic Spanish food in an authentic Spanish atmosphere, and I learned that the measure of a good bar in Spain is how dirty it is.

After a peaceful night's sleep (well not really, people outside were very loud) we went down to the cafeteria for some free breakfast, and that's when the fun begins. We all brought our purses with us to breakfast so that they wouldn't get stolen in the room, and lo and behold, C's bag is stolen at breakfast. She had put it on the back of her chair and some guy walked in off the street and grabbed it. We could see him on the video cameras later coming out of the hallway from the cafeteria holding his coat in front of him, and presumably her bag underneath it.

As soon as we got up to leave she said, "Where's my bag? I brought my bag with me but I can't find it!" Immediately deducing what had happened I directed her to the front desk (the receptionists were very helpful!) and we started checking trash cans in the hopes the thief would take the money and leave everything else. Her purse had literally everything in it- all her money, her passport, her phone, her ipod, her camera, her residence card and all other forms of ID.

We called the Smith Center to get direction on what to do, called two different embassies (she has dual citizenship), called the airlines to ask about check-in ID requirements, her parents, the credit card company, the bank, the list goes on. Thankfully, since it was a Friday, the US embassy was open and we were able to get her a passport. If this had happened Saturday morning instead, she would have had to stay in Madrid through Monday when they reopened.

After a trip to the police station to report the theft, C left for the embassy and G, J (who had just arrived), and I saw the royal palace:

And a cathedral. We also grabbed some lunch at the Placa Mayor:

Where our waiter didn't speak English. I tried paella, though, and had some steak. After that we headed to the hostel to grab C, who was back from the embassy, and then G and I went to meet R again to do some shopping! I got a really gorgeous black dress that is perfect for work, and it was under 10E when it was originally 36E.

Then we got Chinese food for dinner (I know, right? I'm in Spain, so I eat Chinese food. Please don't be mad at me) which was really good! Afterwards we headed back to the hostel for a good night's sleep.

The next morning, after breakfast, G and I headed to a major park near the Prado which I unfortunately can't remember the name of. It was absolutely gorgeous! We saw the Crystal Palace and a giant monument to Alfonso someone:

It was so gorgeous! They also had boats you could rent to go out on the pond.

Finally, our time in Madrid was done, so we headed to the airport to catch our plane for Barcelona, which I will write about tomorrow!