..And we became instant friends

1. Pues si

2. We have people's emails even

3. Venga si

4. Here we have Meredit and her asian friend that thought she must have looked like someone famous, because he asked to take a picture of her. I loved the banco Banesto, reminded me of good old Gringotts. Obligatory pic with the art that was pretty sweet.

This was probably the most fun I've had on a walk thus far. I saved the best pic for last, here we have our new friend(email and all) jimmy. He came up to us as we were looking for one of the banks, and gentlemen that he is asked us if we were lost. He then proceeded to basically tell us his life story and took us around the neighborhood. He introduced us to his Egyptian friend that owns a souvenir shop (and let's just say I can get you a great deal on a Matador outfit). We have new friends all over the financial district. Don't be surprised if either Riley, Meredit, or I start ditching on excursions to hang out with our new posse.

Why, you don´t eat?!

Yes, we did the walk without a map, too thank you very much!

Yes, we spoke to quite a few strangers, but some of them were speaking to us in English, but we tried to just Speak Spanish.

Yes, other than when strangers would talk to us in English.

So, I´m not really sure if this is going to work with the whole picture thing, BUT...

The first one i of Nikki and Meredith walking with our friend Jimmy who is an old Philippino man who showed us around a little bit.

El segundo es de mi novio y yo. This was the Russian guy who is about 8 ft tall and tried to hand Jimmy a flyer for comida, but Jimmy said no, so mi novio said, in a Russian accent of course: Why, you don´t eat?!

The third shows my new fear for basically any and all animals, but especially dogs and cats. I saw this cool tree and thought, wow i should go sit in it and take a picture, then this dog decided to come out of no where and try to kill me.

The funny story from our walk would have to be when we met Jimmy. He came up to us because he thought we looked lost and then showed us around for about 30 minutes. We learned that his wife is in the military, he speaks about 7 languages, and he´s a boy scout!

Financial District, Shminancial Shmistrict

1. Por supuesto.
2. Indeed. I bought postcards and the man tried to speak to me in English but when I replied in Spanish he said "mejor" and commenced in speaking Spanish. Gracias hombre.
3. We try so dern hard. Pero es dificil decir palabras como "fuzzy" en español.
4.

I love the architecture and detailing on the buildings here. It seemed like every building was HUGE and had such incredible detailing, and I loved all the different styles and elements.

How on earth would you describe this dog...en español?

5. I have a story. It may be funny now, but at the time I did not thing it was very comical... There is a beautiful gated plaza near our house with gardens and fountain in the middle. As I was sitting there sketching, a creeper came and sat on me. Well, close enough that he practically was. He asked me all these questions, and then asked if I would meet him back there in a couple of hours to have "cafe y zumo" with him. He was very persistent, and after running out of excuses I finally just pretended like I didn't understand what he was saying. Then he proceeded to steal my sketchbook and pencil, draw a circle and some lines, return the book, and set his hand on my thigh. I was highly uncomfortable by this point, and I abruptly stood up to leave. He did not seem to get the discomfort vibe, and gave me dos besitos and left. I hid behind a bush and called Katie to come walk home with me. El fin.

Había cuatro personas, come el numero del paseo

1. Los destinos: absolutamente!

2. Los desconocidos: sí, es la verdad :)

3. El Español: más o menos; nos daría "10" por esfuerzo (creo que esta frase ha estado perdido en la traducción... discúlpame)

4. Las fotos mejores:

Group: Well that's weird, it doesn't look at all convex to me.

*moment later* "Oh, maybe they meant the curved

building across the street... " ^_^

Ministry of Education. It's pretty darn cool 'cuz

1) Ministry of ANYTHING makes me think of Harry Potter,

and 2) Because if I had a door like this on my office, I would think better too.

Nos gusta helado... muchísimo!

Interesting story, sheesh, many come to mind, but I still think my favorite moment was when--after several minutes of staring at the BBVA building trying to figure out how anyone could even possibly think "convex" when they saw it--we realized that the real building was across the street. It was a really big, really curved building. Go figure. :P

Heeeey

1. Oh did we ever.(that was a yes)
2. Man in souvenir shop-check, guards at the army place-check. (that was a yes)
3. I left being quite proud of our Spanish-speaking effort. (that would be a yes)
4.



3. big roll of some red tubing or something. I like to call it art
2. guy on a razor
1. elephants: there were elephants on a building-so cool

Funny Story:
Nothing happened that made me, or anyone else keel over laughing, but one time, Katie and I crossed the street, leaving Megan and Haley on the other side. We were taunting them, it lead to very embarrassing pictures being posted on the internet. I learned my lesson

El estacion del tren tiene mi amor

1. Si
2. Yes and if you are looking for proof look below.
3. I wouldn't have it any other way.
4.

Hello street of awesomness. This calle had some of my favorite buildings in Madrid and was so awesome to just cruise up and down the streets.

These men were kind enough to tell us what was up with the building they were guarding and about one of their Texan friends (yeah we totally know her because we're from the US too!). After before I'm pretty sure I heard me some kissing noises (Proof that we hot...or they just love the American girls).

Rebecca and I risked our lives crossing the street very late and left Meg and Haley in the dust. Then we celebrated our victory by dancing for them across the busy intersection.

Funny story of this walk: Well it's not exactly that funny, but rather intensely passionate. Man with the beautiful eyes me and Meg met on our way in to the train station. "Will you attend an economics lecture in Spanish and vote for this one man?" he whispered delicately into my ear. "Will you be there to enchant me with those deep blues?" I affectionately replied. "Para ti, claro." he muttered, his voice dripping with something that can only be described as overwhelming joy. You are all invited to our wedding, aka: celebration of love.

Maybe eating out in Madrid just sucks

1. Yes we did
2. Sure did, my personal favorite was trying to be nice and donate to help the deaf and the girl stealing five dollars for me. New rule of life, get your change BEFORE you give them the bill. I also went back to La Finca de Susana with Adri for supper and talked to our waiter there. The food was good but the portions were a little small, and they didn't have the ten dollar deal that the walk boasts about. The place was packed and had a huge line up before it even opened so it's pretty popular. However, I've decided if you want to be full AND have a cheap meal in Spain your options are shwarmas and McDs (as much as I hate to admit it).
3. Yup
4. You have heard of the legendary dancing that occurred on this trip and now you can witness it yourself, starring Megan and Hayley!

Adri looking oh so chic in our favorite tree.

Really cool visiting artist that has decaying sculptures all around Madrid.

Summertime...and the livin is easy

1. We reached all the points of interest, although most of them weren't extremely captivating. "the building across the street used to be a bank..."
2. I had a harder time finding people to speak to on this paseo than on the others. But I did manage to talk to 4 strangers, if you count the creepy boy on the train.
3. We did speak in Spanish for the duration of the trip, expect when it was absolutely necessary for directional purposes.
4. I had a great time on this Walk. My favorite happenings consisted of dancing swankily on the street to the smooth, jazz tunes of Porgy & Bess' "Summertime" (and then singing the fragmented Spanish translation the rest of the day). As well as seeing the really cool collection of sculpture all along different parts of the walk. Another memorable happening is when Angela lost 5$ to the UNICEF girls. we had a little too much fun with this tree...

cutest old man in the world who was rollerblading and covered with every protective pad imaginable. props old boy. props.

I mostly just love this picture because of Hayley's face. It is an accurate depiction of how we felt when we looked in at the Haagen Daaz store.

Bet yer bottom dollar

1. We saw all of our intended sites, many of which I had already seen. It says a lot that we can marvel at bank buildings, no?
2. Throughout the course of the hours in Madrid I did speak to some strangers. Some of conversations were quite hasty and short, as they should be.
3.We spoke Spanish, and daresay that we did quite a good job of it.
4...
     The spy the weasel and the tart. what do they all have in common? They use the post office. and what a glorious post office it is
     One of the first buildings, if not the first was decorated beautifully with fat stone faces. I love me some fat faces.
     Through the course of the walk, everyone took their turn in taking a spill and my turn happened to be a step into nasty cig water.

It was a beautiful day and the company was mighty fine. It started out perfectly with the sight of Chubaka in the plaza, this led to many vocal imitations, which were right on spot if I do say so myself. Jazz musicians played in the streets and we danced in our sultry way and entranced the men. Much coveting went on when we passed the ridiculously overpriced Haagen Dazs, but we did not give in. We climbed a tree, and not once did I think about finances. Except for when I gave that scammer a Euro.