As we learned at Tilburg University in the Spanish classes that we have to say “hasta luego” when you say goodbye, people in Madrid say something like “hasta logo”.
When they ask you “que tal” they don’t really want to know how you are going but just ask it out of honesty and the only thing you have to say is “que tal” back to them.
Just some little facts we picked up this week. I will continue our daily program of the last few days. Wednesday we went to a swimming pool at ‘Casa the campo’. It was like we were totally out of the city centre but actually we still were in. We had to pay 3,50 each and could go in. We first saw a really big competition swimming pool. The water was really cold but we came to fresh up a bit so this wasn’t really bothering us. We tanned the whole day, first in the full sun but I am a bit like English looking redhead with sprinkles and a white skin so after an hour we went to the shadow for an hour. Then we found out that there were to swimming pools more, how impossible it seemed, they were even colder than the big one. It was a nice relaxing day.
Thursday we did a city trip. We started at the ‘Palacio Real’.
We didn’t go in because it is free on Wednesday and as poor students from Netherlands we prefer a free entree. Then we went to ‘Parque oueste’ and subsequently to the ‘Plaza Espagna’. After this we went to the ‘Prado musea’ , for me it was just because you have to see this once when you are in Madrid but even I who followed CKV1 and CKV3 didn’t knew al the painters and thought that it was quite boring! It was time to relax a bit and went to the ‘Parque Retiro’ for a little nap. Then I tried to make a real Spanish tortilla de patatas. In not one of the recipes they told me that I first had to boil the potatoes before baking them and the pan didn’t have a non-stick coating any more. Result; a big fiasco! Too bad we ate the ‘tortilla’ and like an old expression says ; you can learn from the mistakes you made Friday we thought it was time to pamper us a bit. SHOPPINGTIME! Luckily enough Jasper also loves shopping so we went to the Lefties, Stradivarius, H&M, Zara, Mango, Pull and bear, another Zara, another lefties. We really enjoyed the cheap prices and came back with some nice clothes. Also we tried the really Spanish Churros with chocolate sauce, how lovely! That night we wanted to bake some pizzas. We put some extra ingredients on the pizzas out the supermarket fridge and wanted to put them in the oven. We first cleaned it because it was a really grassy one and we could still see the food of our predecessor. We did it with some oven cleaner as they call it ‘limpiar el horno’. We didn’t read that you cannot use the oven for 2 hours after using this cleaning stuff. We went to our neighbour and introduce ourselves. Hello we are you new neighbours from the Netherlands, our oven is damaged and we want to bake our pizza can you maybe do this for us. ( of course this all in Spanish). We had a little chat with him and then we finally could eat our pizza at 22.40h. He told us that he eat always at 22.30h.
Saturday we went to the ‘Debod temple’, it’s an Egyptian temple in the ‘parque oueste’. It was quite small but really nice to see. They really moved the temple from Egypt to Madrid. You can see some Egyption hieroglyphs and you can read the story about the hieroglyphs. Also you can see all the other temples which are moved over to other cities in the world.
Then I decide that I really needed a blue top that fits by my new skirt. Good reason to go again to the city center for shopping. That night a Dutch couple came to see the free room in our apartment. They come from the HAN in Nijmegen and were really nice. They took to room and go to be our new roommates. They guy also goes to Carlos III and the girl to another University.
A bit surprising that people from HBO also can follow a University program over here.
Sunday we went to the market at ‘Latina’. There were so many people !!! The market was really huge but after an hour I just bought a couple of socks. I also tried to buy a present for my mother but when I tried negotiate he refused so I didn’t bought the present and we went to the ‘parque Retiro again. We had the idea to spend the rest of the day in this park so we already bring along a bottle of wine a two glasses, bought some cracker, the typically Spanish meat ‘salchison’ and some little cakes called Madelins. Then we came in the park and just realized that we forgot an opener. We decided to first have a lunch and then went back to our apartment to got an opener and went back again to the park. We enjoyed the 33 degrees with our feet in the water of the fountain and face in the sun with a glass of wine. The Spanish way of life can be so beautiful. 
Today we went to Toledo. We heard some good stories about and Jasper have been there in January with Asset First. To be honest for me it wasn’t that special. The character of the buildings is really beautiful but there are only a lot of churches , cathedrals, synagogues and a lot of tourist shops where you all have to pay entree. 2,30 for a church and 7 euros for the cathedral. Luckily I found two nice presents for my parents and there was also a really nice view on a really nice looking Academic building and a little castle where you unfortunately couldn’t go in. When you are just a week in Madrid I wouldn’t recommend Toledo but this is maybe just my opinion. Tomorrow it is swimming time again. We will go to the new ‘parque rio’ which is designed by some students from Maastricht. It have to be really beautiful and nice so we will see. I will tell you more next time.
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