Un día real

(Me in front of El Palacio Real in Madrid, Spain)

Lizzie and I decided to go to El Palacio Real today, so we met up and got there at about 3:30.  We signed up for a tour, (which was tricky, the ticket man really only spoke Spanish, but we succeeded) but had an hour to kill before our group started.  There is this huge gated area in front of El Palacio, so we wandered around there, being tourists and taking our pictures in front of everything.  Plus, both Lizzie and I are very picky about how we look in pictures, so we usually end up with 4 or 5 each of the same shot.  Lizzie's phone rang in the middle of one of our photo shoots, and she started to talking to someone on the phone.  I was thinking how jealous I was of her that she spoke such good Spanish, but then I realized that she was speaking to her mother in Korean.  Hmm. . .

Our tour started and in an hour we went through only this tiny section of the palace.  The place is huge!  Our tourguide was a little lackluster - he spoke so quietly we couldn't hear him without his microphone and he spoke mostly about all the things that came from France.  He had a French accent, so maybe that had something to do with it.  But the rooms were really elaborate with fancy frescos, portraits by Goya, silver-embroidered wallpaper, and lots of plaster work.  One of the coolest things was this table that looked as though it had a really intricate painted design.  But it was actually a mosaic, with really tiny pieces.  We also saw 5 Stradivarius instruments - 2 violins, 2 cellos, and 1 viola, so that was nifty.  Our tour guide said one of the cellos is among the best instruments in the world.  Unfortunately, El Palacio Real does not allow photography, so you'll have to look up pictures yourself.

Afterwards, Lizzie and I went and toured through the gardens in the back of El Palacio, which was really nice and then we went to Vips, a popular Spanish restaurant.  We both got ice cream and I also ordered the "juice of the season."  The waiter came with our order, and my "juice of the season" was two oranges on a plate.  I waited for him to bring out a juicer or something, but he never did, so I just ate the oranges (which taste kind of funky with a brownie sundae).  I'm not sure exactly what happened -  apparently, I can't even read the English menu. . .

We then went back to the park next to La Plaza de España (the one with a statue of Don Quixote and Sancho, if you are familiar) because I needed a picture to send to the editor of globalpost.com.  I had Lizzie stand next to random groups of madrileños so I could pretend I was taking her picture when I was really being quite the stalker and accumulating a collection of madrileño pictures.  I'm sure that's how they do it at National Geographic, too.

So those cookies, Marbú Doradas, are my new animal crackers.  They are wonderful little things, and I've already plowed through the first box, (I stopped to get more on my way back to Julia's).  The best part (or worst part, depends on your angle) is that I have no idea how to read the nutrition facts in Spanish, so I have no idea how big a serving size is.  I should probably assume it's not half the box, but who am I to judge?

Julia and I had shrimp and green bean paella for dinner tonight.  It was my first paella, and I really liked it!  Even the shrimp!  It was one of my favorite dinners in Madrid so far, so that was exciting.  During dinner, I mentioned wanting to interview Aline, Countess of the Romanones, for a future globalpost.com article and I think Julia said that one of her sisters is friends with the Contessa.  I said, for heaven's sake, why haven't you mentioned this before?!  So who knows, maybe I will be meeting some royalty.  

Then Julia and I watched the news.  Well, she watched the news, I looked at the pictures.  From what I could gather, the Spanish princesses Sofia and Leonor had their first day of school today.  Also, Barcelona is protesting something and burning flags and what-not, so maybe that's not the best place to vacation anytime soon.  Got to get to Sol now,  my friends insist on being social. . .