Me encanta España

There is one whole day from our trip that I have absolutely no pictures from..... owing to the fact that we did absolutely NOTHING. Actually, we were true southern Europeans that day, and sat at a cafe for about 3 hours and had more churros con chocolate (not nearly as good as our first experience with them, though).

The NEXT day was quite enjoyable, however. First, we took the metro over to Retiro Park and had a nice little picnic (we including Berry, Sarah, and myself). We found a little grocery store down the street from our hostel and purchased some goodies for lunch. We made cute little sandwiches and got ourselves some chips. Let me take the time to now express my love for Paprika Pringles, an obsession I wish my fellow Americans shared with me. It really is a shame that they don't carry them here.

Estanque del Retiro 

Retiro Park was quite lovely, despite the fact that a girl from our hostel had gotten her purse stolen from there only two days prior. Apparently, she and her friend were just lounging about in the park (much like we were) when some guy walked up to them and pulled his junk out, while his partner snagged her bag while they were distracted. Super bummer! I am still quite honestly surprised that I managed to make it through the whole trip without being pickpocketed.

Monument to King Alfonso XII

While checking out the monument, I saw two ladies in a paddle boat in quite the predicament:


They literally sat next to the spewing fountain for a good 5 minutes before trying to get away from it. They just sat there laughing and screaming. It was entertaining to say the least.

Madrid, like most of Europe, is filled with people on the streets trying to make money. In Madrid, though, instead of just selling things, a lot of people provided entertainment of some sort. This bubble man at least occupied these little kids for a spell (so cute!)







After Retiro, we metro'd on over to the Reina Sofia, Madrid's modern art museum. It has excellent collections of art from both Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and I quite enjoyed myself there.







Yes, I did get to see Guernica, but they don't let you take pictures in that room.... and my camera died literally RIGHT before I got there, so I couldn't even sneak one. 
And that, my friends, was my last day in Madrid. We left the next afternoon for Rome!! Which was also the last leg of my trip.