Madrid (Round 2 with MCP)

Our group took a weekend trip to Madrid. It was fun because we had more time to explore. Everyone in Madrid was preparing to hear the news of the Olympics. Unfortunately, Madrid lost. :(

But after going to the Prado again, we went to this really cool park. People were boating, some playing music on the sidewalk, and some at restaurants in the park.

We went to Cervantes' house. It was closed though. 

Plaza Mayor at night.

Glad I went to Madrid again, because my mom and I didn't get to see Plaza Mayor. It was beautiful.

Palacio Real. 

Church across from the palace.

The palace's pharmacy.

I have an odd obsession with pharmacies.

I don't know why, but I just really like them... 

It was cool seeing all the old mixtures and plant extracts used to treat illness. Did you know more than 2/3 of drugs used today have plant based active ingredients?

Some old scales.

If you were royal, your Advil bottles would look like this. Fun to imagine, right?

I think the pharmacy was my favorite part of the whole place. They even had the place where they would mix all of the plant stuff together to make the medicines. I couldn't take a picture though because there was one of those "¡No foto!" people there. Sad.

The third largest palace in Europe behind Versailles and Schönbrunn in Austria.

The palace was crazy decorated inside. Almost every room had a different theme. There was an Oriental room, which was my favorite. Some rooms had all embroidered walls, some were basically gold encrusted, and everything was just pretty insane. Then I realized that someone's tax dollars created this and felt kind of sad. Did you know the king of Spain gets an 8,000,000 euro annual salary for basically doing nothing while there's 26% unemployment?

There were strict no photo rules, but I snuck an artsy? picture of this chandelier. Then I got yelled at, but I pretended to not know what he was saying to me (he was telling me to delete it) so I could keep my photo... hee hee

View from the palace.

A place I went to with my mom and was plenty happy to return to was Mercado de San Miguel. 

It's the coolest place ever. It's a huge market with tons of booths of different foods and drinks. There are fish stands, dessert ones, empanadas (where I got my delicious lunch), nuts, Mojitos (I got one of those, too, of course), olives, all sorts of tapas, and really everything you would ever want to put in your mouth. I want to go back.

People crowding below to experience the goodness. 

Madrid is an amazing city.