The flight was ok, no major hitches. Although I did get pulled aside at the security checkpoint so they could search my bag. When he pulled out the pineapple-shaped candle snuffer (don't ask), he said "Huh. Definitely thought that was something else on the screen". Don't know what that would be... but then he said, "well, you don't look like that kind of girl anyway". Uhhh... hello? Why do you think terrorists pay women to go on planes with them, or carry kids? It's a diversion technique! But so glad to know I don't look like terrorist, despite my previous experiences with airport security. When I got to the gate, I slowly realized that I was already on an extension of Spanish soil in Dulles Airport. It was Iberia airlines, so I was literally one of the only Americans. Not gonna lie, their rapid Spanish was making me really nervous. And then when they went on the intercom to say families with young children and rows 75 to 45 to begin lining up (only in Spanish of course, no translation), EVERYBODY lined up. I was sitting there looking stupid, waiting for my row number to be called, until I realized everybody was already inside the plane. Apparently lines don't really mean anything in Spain.
So I've been in Madrid for a grand total of one day, but it really feels like a lifetime. I wish I could be more descriptive of what I saw and everything, but it's all kind of foggy right now. I had been up for 36 hours straight (couldn't sleep on the airplane), so I was a zombie walking the streets of Mardrid pointing and shooting with my camera. We had lunch at a restaurant in the Plaza de Mayor, although it was kind of forgettable. I had a chorizo sandwhich, which ended up being a lot like salami instead of the sausage I thought I had ordered. But it was nice, because I was there with a group of girls, so we got to bond a little bit. My group is huge! There's about 50 people or more in it, so it's a little intimidating to try and meet everybody right now. Oh, and I'm definitely the only one from the DMV area. Met a lot of Californians and Rhode Islanders, curiously enough. For dinner, API treated us to dinner at another restaurant off the Plaza de Mayor. Now THAT, was yummy. True Spanish tapas. I think we literally had 12 plates of food come. My favorites were the Tortilla Espanola, Jamon Serrano, and these little round nuggets with potato in them. Don't really know the names of the rest of them, but they were all delicious.
The walk back was amazing. It was about 10:30, and all the stores were still open, everybody was walking around, it was livelier than during the day! Everybody was just walking around, or having tapas, or just enjoying doing nothing. And according to our API leaders, Madrid is way more fast paced than Granada!
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