Madrid

Arriving in Madrid was a little hectic because we had a short amount of time to run to our lockers (where we kept the majority of our luggage while traveling in Italy), reorganize our bags and find our program directors who were supposed to be holding a big “ISA- International Studies Abroad” sign. After finding our directors and meeting some other students, we left the bus to head to the airport. From the very first day in Madrid I could tell our program directors were really nice (and all hilarious too!) It was so nice being in Madrid because our program directors had all the tours planned for us and told us about the best places to go for tapas!! (Tapas are basically a variety of appetizers. Most tapas restaurants give you a free tapa when you buy a drink). This being our first time in Europe, Jill and I were really relieved to be with people who knew exactly what they were doing…no more running around like a chicken with its head cut off... like we felt we were doing in Italy! We stayed in Madrid from Aug 27th to 29th in a really nice five star hotel (with an amazing continental breakfast I must add). In Madrid we went to El Museo del Prado, a famous museum which houses incredible paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, El Greco, Velazquez, and Francisco de Goya. We also went to El Palacio Real (The Royal Palace) in Madrid, which was built during the 18th and 19th centuries for the royal family. It is now used for state ceremonies and open for the public to visit. It was truly amazing to see how lavish each of the rooms were, decorated with such fine detail! We also had a couple meetings in Madrid for orientation and about academics for the semester.






El Palacio Real in Madrid