Spain - Madrid

I arrived in Madrid on thursday evening and was very excited...simply because I was spending more than one night in a place. Luckily, I was spending 3 nights in a great hostel with some cool people. I met a guy who´s my age. he lives in dallas, went to st. marks, my rival high school, and is starting his first year at UT San Antonio med school in the fall so we might even be classmates. friday morning, I went on a free walking tour of madrid. it lasted 3 hours and was great. however, about 5 tour guides who claim to have a certification were heckling us and telling our guide, who didn´t have a certification, that we were "ignorante" and he was a "guia falsa" (false guide) among other stuff. they were very loud and the one woman wanted to fight some people. funny stuff. eventually, they left and the tour got better. that afternoon, me and a guy i met from new jersey went to the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor. Both were really cool and it would be kinda nice to live in a palace as ornate as that one. We went into the Real Farmacia (Royal Pharmacy) and I saw the grossest medication I have ever seen...Esperma de Ballena - Whale Sperm. I don´t know what they used that for, where they would apply it, etc, all i know is it freaking gross. after that, we sat at a bar and had sweet vermouth. pretty good but not my favorite. that evening, we got a few beers at "alimentaciones" (little store) which were 500mL for 1 euro. We then went for a Tapas tour in which we went to 3 different bars, ordered a drink (beer then wine then sangria), and got a tapa (small portion of local food) with our drink. Overall, a good time. The next day, we went to the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofia Museum and the Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of good Rest). All were really good but as far as the museums go, I prefer the Prado. It has more classic and religious artwork where as the Reina Sofia is all modern art ranging from Picasso to Miro. That night, we had more beers from alimentaciones, then had a 10 euro dinner which included a beer, loaf of bread, a starter, a bowl of paella, a steak salad and fries, and a desert. I was stuffed and it wasn´t a great meal but we were hungry and it did the job. Then we played drinking games at the hostel with sangria and I went to bed around midnight as I had to get up in a few hours for an early train to Barcelona. I am now in Barcelona and am leaving tomorrow morning for France so I´ll post my time here in a few days. peace ya´ll