So it's been almost three days, and I've realized that everything is increasingly surreal. Fake life. New shit has come to light, and due to the fact that I've already spent some time here (seems like weeks already), certain things need to be addressed. As I write this I'll be recapping as much for myself as for any of you, and for the sake of chronological order I'll start from the beginning. Likely, this post will be longer than most to follow.

1: American Airlines Sucks

Okay, so it was Tuesday, January 3rd, and I hadn't flown for almost three years. I'd forgotten that I'd almost rather go out and buy a Nickelback CD than put up with the TSA Gestapo. Almost -- fuck Nickelback. Not to mention the delays, maneuvering airports and the general stress involved. We waited on the tarmac for almost two hours due to "communication problems," which was a precursor to an 8 hour flight with enough leg room for a small child/Danny Devito. Then again, I experienced the miracle of flight and am going to spend the next six months in Spain. Goddamn SPAIN. How cool is that??

2: Madrid Does Not Suck
Seriously, it doesn't. After navigating my way from the international terminal to my study abroad group we took a bus to the Hotel Nacional, which had these bad ass automatic Persian blinds that held my attention spain span for a solid 10 minutes. Wicked cool. The hotel was pretty centrally located in downtown Madrid, close to any museums/shops/parks the city had to offer. I quickly realized that the guys in our group, about 50 people total, were outnumbered 4 to 1. F'real. So that's nice and whatnot. Moving on.

The first day was nothing special.  Actually, that's bullshit -- it was my first day assimilating into a new culture, speaking a new language and meeting dozens of new people. Pretty much, though, we got to the hotel late afternoon, I met some kids and ate dinner al restaurante cerca del hotel, and passed out. Thursday was when shit got real.

I swear I'm like Chris Brown when it comes to jetlag, because I beat the HELL out of it. Woke up Thursday morning, realized I was in Madrid (Yeah, dude. I know.) and headed with the ISA group to the Prado Museum. This place was just ridiculous -- I was flat out speechless with the amount of history and culture harbored this sanctuary of all that is artistically holy. Here are a couple of my favorite pieces. The first one is by Goya, and is a very emotional piece. He equated the story of Saturn (this bastard had a nasty habit of devouring his children, until his wife got him drunk and switched the last kid out for an animal; the son grew up and fulfilled a prophecy in killing Saturn, his father) with his own struggles of conception -- due to VD's and miscarriages it took he and his wife EIGHTEEN attempts to conceive a child. Gotta love that tenacity. The Velazquez piece is called "Los Meninos," and is especially intriguing to me because Velazquez, who is looking directly at you as you view the painting, is said to be painting a portrait of the king and queen on the giant canvas. You can see the royal couple in mirror in the background, and true to perspective, would be standing in the place of the actual view of the painting. MIND. BLOWN.

Francisco de Goya statue outside of the Prado museum.

Thursday afternoon followed with a tour of central Madrid. I could write for days about it, but I'd rather post a few pictures. This post is pretty long as it is, right? And we've got another full day to cover. God dammit.

This is La Plaza Mayor -- the main plaza in Madrid. Unlike the States, there are large open spaces where people meet/drink/eat and it's awesome.

La Plaza del Sol. There were a ton of decorations/music/stages etc. being set up around here because it was La Día de los Reyes Magos -- pretty much Christmas in Spanish cultures. The day the three wise men brought gifts to little bebe Jesucristo and whatever.

I have way too many photos of buildings and landmarks around the walking tour this woman Silvia took us on, so I'll continue to include the most memorable shots. You can see the others if you ask (for a nominal fee). This is Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena de Madrid. The main cathedral in Madrid. Apparently a lot of the locals think it looks like shit compared to other architecture around the city -- unoriginal, gaudy, etc. Sucks to suck.

This is the royal palace in Madrid, across from la Catedral. El Rey y la Reina don't live here (I don't think they knew what do with all the fucking rooms -- there are thousands). It's open to the public in most occasions, and used for special government receptions.

L-R: John, my good looking self, Ty, Rachel, Sam, Sarah, Peter. Real cool kids. Palace in the background. PS, holy shit we're in Spain!!

So, that's about it for pics from Madrid. I wish I had more, but the truth is I was entirely too busy having the time of my life. That night, after a solid siesta, things got real. Really, really real. A handful of us went to a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Ordering food in Spain es muy difícil para los gringos, but fortunately we met Sergio. His dad owned this place, he bullshitted as much as the language barrier allowed with us, and in all honesty poured me the heaviest rounds of Black Label I've ever had the pleasure of crushing. I'm talking a few shots per glass -- God bless Madrid. Afterward, we headed across the street to El Kapital.

L-R: Krista, some good looking dude, Tracy, South Carolina Sam, Katt, California Sam, Peter.

This place deserves it's own damn paragraph. Two words: seven stories. Bars and balconies at each level, dance floor on the seventh floor and giant main dance floor with DJ's on the first floor. We chatted it up with some locals with moderate little success, and eventually made it down to the first floor to rage. We got there at one, and it was dead; total tourist move. Around 2:30 the place got packed, and we danced the shit out of shit. Blaring house music. Some dude (who the booze led us to believe was Nero for a brief time) playing Nero remixes and shooting us with a fire extinguisher. Cross dressing, toga-donning dancers on stage. Giant club. Combine that with the all-too-touchy Spanish hombres and our down ass group of ISA students and we had a hell of a time. Finally left around 5 to get slices of pizza at 2 euro a pop and trek a block back to hotel. WHAMMY. MADRID. DONE. Artwork, architecture, culture, dancing. Check it off the list.

3: Toledo Is My Favorite Place On Earth
Not Ohio, for anyone that wants to make that shitty joke. This place -- the entire city -- was something out of a movie. We checked out of the Hotel Nacional Friday morning and took about an hour long bus ride. It was seriously breathtaking. Again, I'm going to follow this brief introduction with a series of photos and captions, because while I'd like to think my prose is on point in terms of using this blog as a literary canvas, words just don't do this city justice. Go there or your life will not be complete.

I mean, damn. Right?!?!

My dude Muneeb y yo. Roommates in Madrid y Toledo. Notice how bad ass the city looks in the background. I obviously have an exceptional height advantage. I'd probably win in a game of basketball.


FUN FACT: I saw two pigeons banging while crossing this bridge.

Fernando, our tour guide, is in the foreground. All around awesome dude. He took us around Toledo, and in this pic we're in La Iglesia de San Juan de los Reyes. Due to the gothic architecture throughout this place, I walked around with a slack jawed, shit eating grin on my face for a solid hour. The next few photos are from this place.

This guy was just chilling

Thy holy courtyard.

Everything about this place was so intricate. This is the ceiling of the second story overlooking the courtyard. "F" and "Y" at the left stand for los reyes Fernando y Isabel. Other things symbolize various areas/kingdoms of Spain. Lion -- Leon. Pomegranate -- Granada. I think the bars stood for Arogón.

Yeah, man. I went to Hogwarts.

Learned all about the coats of arms. Forgot some of the symbolism (see previous caption) which was wicked prevalent around this place.

The river around Toledo is called la Tajo, and is the longest river in Spain. Tajo means shortcut. Isn't this educational??

El Catedral del Toledo.

Took this near the restaurant we ate at on the edge of the older district in Toledo. I had Carcamuscas, a pork/veggie/spicy dish that is signature to Toledo. Delicioso.

Before I forget, I also saw El Greco's most famous work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. The poor dude -- the count -- was stoned to death...with rocks. Amazing artwork -- this whole city gave me this strange old world feeling. Like every building had been constructed to tell a story. It was goddamn phenomenal. My pictures really don't do it justice. Walking through the narrow, culture-rich streets was really something else.

We met back in the main plaza in Toledo before checking in at the Hotel Beatriz, this Shining-esque 70s style hotel on the outskirts of the city. Ended up taking a three hour nap before heading out to el Círculo del Arte, this awesome church-turned-bar tucked away in the cobblestone side streets of Toledo. 

Did I mention it's 7 AM here and I'm jumping on a bus to Barcelona in two hours? Aforementioned bus ride is almost 9 (dammit) hours long, and I have no idea why I made it a point to finish this first post tonight. My best guess is I can't sleep wanted to get it out of the way -- succeeding posts will be more to the point and focused on individual events. Share this thing if you feel it, I'll keep it up as often as I have time to kill. Enjoy!

I am.