La próxima semana

¡Hola chicas!
For next week, dont forget to write a short story about an experience you had while on walk #4. ¡Por favor no olvidéis! Keep up the good work :)
Muchas gracias,
Adri

Whoops

Ok better late than never.......

1. yup sure did
2. mas o menos
3. better than last time
4.

At the restaurant w/ mosaics, obviously. I think this one's Sevilla.
I just can't resist their sexy pose

We found a little stump

The 2 cutest boys sharing a skateboard. Precious

Camino Tres y las Tres Mosqueteros

We, las tres mosqueteros (Nikki, Meredith, and I; hereafter referred to as Athos, Porthos and Aramis), thoroughly enjoyed our walk through an area of Madrid that we had never before explored. In this thrilling summary of our conquest, I shall enlighten you on the greater adventures of our noble journey to overcome aforementioned task.

1. Yes, with the exception of one particularly conceiled location, we successfully navigated ourselves to all of the outlined destinations.

2. Yes, in a grand triumph over our deepest fears, we conversed in Spanish with at least three people--the woman who was not from Madrid, the amiable gelato man, and the lady who graciously pointed out that we were standing 20 feet from the street we were searching for.

3. Indeed, Spanish words seemed to flow from our lips like intermittent rainfall on a wet day in Spain.

4. My most preferred photographs:

So we ended up waiting probably a good 3-5 minutes

for this little boy to finish his water so that we could take

our pictures with the statue... what a devilish little rogue!

Aramis and Athos.

AND Gelato. Good stuff in any language.

I was really quite torn between this picture and the picture

of the "Ojalá" sign, since I use that word so much.

Finally decided that weird bathroom sinks were cooler :)

Hermano Cervantes

1. Yes indeed we did, without anything dire to report.
2. Yes we did, some of them included some creepers that hung around us forever, and others include keeper's of very adorable shops.
3. Yes! We did a lot better this time, and it got easier and easier to get used to it as time went on. Hooray!
The cutest little traditional Sweet Shope. They have really good business tactic by offering free samples. I am hooked para siempre.




Another really cute store that is in the place of an old cemetery where a lot of the great thinkers/writers of Spain's Golden Age were buried, until they were unceremoniously moved by Napoleon's hermanito
And this...this the door of the house of our own Mr. Cervantes. He lived here at some point of his life. I thought this walk was great, I really liked seeing all the different quotes along the street, and seeing the "intellectual gathering place" of Madrid's Golden Age.

I'm seeing double

1. Yes
2. Yes and to a few people I didn't want to speak to (aka men old enough to be my father and scary homeless guy with dreadlocks).
3. Sure did! Only a couple of slip ups!
4. First photo: I don't know if you can tell but the reason Riley looks so distressed is this guy was sporting a mullet with a ponytail in the back. I still can't get over how well the guys dress here but how gross their hair can be. That is one fad I'm hoping does not make its way over to North America.
Second:I loved this little flower shop we found. It had such a cute ambiance!
Third: We got to see the real sweeper man statue! The best part was recreating our original photo our first day in Spain. See if you can guess which one is a live man.

Walking through Literature

1. Yes we arrived everywhere, whether all the locations were open or not is another story.
2. But of course! How else would I buy me some food?
3. Claro. Just love trying to communicate my thoughts using broken Spanish and amazing charades skills.
4.

Well first off this mural on the wall of the building was really cool to see, it just looks like a continuation of the city. However what is more funny is the fact that we had amazing trouble locating this mural and thought that it may have been torn down. Note to us: turn around and use your eyes.

Hayley likes to strut her stuff out front of the governmental-type building (I think-doesn't it look official?). Everywhere we go it's like ANTM.

My Spanish boyfriend found in the alley leading to the restaurant with the tile murals of the different Spanish cities. I love how they even graffiti holes in walls here!

Pues nada

1. Es que no pudimos encontrar una o dos..

2. Una mujer era un poco rude. pero si.

3. Always

4. The mural was probably my fav part or the tiles at that restuarant but my camera died, so I was only able to capture these images. This area of Madrid was to my liking, and I even discovered a gelato shop con un chico que me quiera besar. La building de foreign affairs was a little breathtaking too.

Sure. I'll marry you, grey-haired man.

1. yrp.
2. yrp. employees of sorts. men who were pretty high on the creepycrazy chart. they were about 8s?
3. YRRPPEEE. so exhilarating. I didn't want to stop!
4...
     Mustard is really in right now. Though I still refuse to eat it.
     Such a cute Flower shop. Keep on flying to your dreams, little birds.
     Merely the sight/thought of Haagen Dazs forces the tongue out of its cave.

 

  

 

Numero 3

4.This picture was in the garden store. I loved all of the flowers in there!
This is when we were looking for the mural on the wall and right after someone said, ¨I bet they just painted over it,¨ someone said, ¨oh, look guys the mural.¨

This was next to the tiles on the wall for Sevilla, Granda, Cordoba, etc. I thought it was fun and random.

1. Yes, we reached all destinations even though some were closed and we could not go inside.

2. Yes, I spoke to a couple random people in the streets and a lady working at the garden.
3. Yes, we actually did really well speaking Spanish from what I remember.

3

1. si
2. si
3. si. we asked a few people directions and a boy asked for my phone number on the tren.
4. I like these photos. The sign is of a gelato shop we stumbled upon and had to try. One is of Nikki with the streetcleaner. The other of the building of foreign affairs. I love its architecture.

Insert creative title here.

1. We sure did!
2. Yes indeedy. Including some drunken men at a fútbol rally.
3. As much as possible en español, and only when we were failing miserably in fully explaining ourselves en íngles.
4.

I fell in love with this adorable garden store. Very zen and beautiful.

We enjoyed the pretty tile scenes. Obviously. 

 

I thought it was cool that these famous quotes were everywhere on this street. 

numero dos

1. yes, I did the walk.
2. yes, I talked to people in spanish.
3. yes, I conversed with a few spaniards. even waved at a few guapos.
4. I really like the architecture in this one picture that i took. I enjoyed the david statue in a window, and of course i loved the dessert shop we walked by. Supposedly the king´s grandmother (or something like that) frequents this one.
sweet!

A load a girls

1. si si si
2. I spoke to over 3, si
3. mas o menos
4....

Rx: A "Dos" of Walking...

1. Yes, the walk was "un gran éxito". Thanks to all our awesome navigators!!

2. Um, things are a little hazy at this point, put I'm pretty sure I spoke with at least three people... there was the lady at McDonald's for sure, can't remember who the other two were. It was a little bit harder to talk to people on this walk, since we didn't get lost once and since there were so many of us.

3. Sí, hablaba (love that word) solo en el Español.

4. Favorite pics from the walk:

"La Duquesita" aka The Little Dutchess

pastry shop. Royalty love it, and obviously

so do commoners:) Yum!

Our walk was a series of epic failures:

this museum was CLOSED, the market was

under construction, and we spent 2 hours waiting

for a parade that was exactly three minutes long. haha:)

This building looks so incredibly average

in comparison to some of the RIDICULOUSLY

cool buildings in Spain that I almost didn't realize

it was what we were looking for. Built in the 1930's.

Numero dos.

1. We were playing follow the leader, and the leaders said we reached every destination, and I believe them.
2. Por supuesto...even if a few were only 5-word conversations.
3. We gave a concerted effort to the Spanish language whilst on this walk. But we are only human, and slipped up a few times...

4. We found this amazing toy at one of the playgrounds on our route, and this picture embodies how we all feel about them.

 

I thought this Goya painting in the Romantic Museum was groovy. 

  

This was a funky building that we were not allowed to enter. One day........

1. We reached the location, whether or not there was anything there to see was a whole different matter.
2. Certainly did. My favorite was the strangely helpful and cute lady at the front desk of the Romantic Museum. I say strangely because I don't think anyone in Spain has heard of customer service. Oh excuse me for trying to buy something at your store, I'm sorry to bother you, I'll just be on my way. Actually, no scratch that, my favorite was the dirty construction worker I asked for directions who nearly got hit by a car watching eleven guapas walk by.
3. For the most part. There were a few moments where an encouraging English phrase was required to round up our gi-normous group.

Even though I thought this walk was a little ridiculous, one of the things I did find interesting was being in a less "touristy" part of Madrid. I felt like you got a bit more of the local flavor, complete with sketchy homeless men and graffiti on every corner.

I also enjoyed the protest posters lining the street. I'm still not positive what they were protesting, something about writers, but I thought it was interesting to see their enthusiasm (20 posters is a little overkill).

Whatever may have happened on the walk, it was all made worthwhile since we got these sweet cowboy hats in Madrid for free! Ten bucks for whoever can name which cowgirl is which!

Numero dos amigas

1. From what I remember every spot was reached with little to no difficulty.

2. Si. I talked to some construction workers who were a little too friendly.

3. For the most part I'm going to say that we were.

4. My part favorito would have to be when we went to the Museo Del Romanticismo. This might sound horrible but I just loved the house it was in and all the colors they used on the walls. Like this gem of a color below.

4.

We went to the pastry shop that the Great Grandma of the present king goes to. If it's good enough for her why not me?

1. Yes we reached the destinations, even though there usually wasn't much to actually see (except for maybe a name).
2. Yes the people at the museum were quite nice and helpful. As well as the folks that directed me to a bathroom (always my personal favorites).
3. I tried to talk in Spanish for the most part, but sadly failed at doing it for the entire time.
4.
I giggle at the fact that everytime we pass a pasteleria (no matter how many we've seen here) everyone must stand and oggle in the window. This particular one is the one that the current king's great-grandmother would go to everyday, La Duquesita.


I thought this building was so pretty (El Palacio Longorio). The only problem was that they just did not want us to go inside to see if the inside was just as good. One of these days I'll be able to see what's behind the locked doors of all these buildings...


This particular beauty occured as we were walking past La Plaza Alonso Martinez and rather than taking notice of the plaza, I actually took notice of this.