we went to madrid, toledo, cordoba but right now i''ll just write about madrid cause i'm runnin out of time... This weekend I was able to go on a four day trip. I went with some new friends from my school, april was originally coming, actually she originally planned it, but was overwhelmed when she discovered all she had to do with DLP classes before she would be able to leave on Tuesday. So she stayed home, and off i went with Jonas and Annie, Sweedish students studying spanish with me. We went in Jonas' car and drove friday night up to Madrid and stayed there in a hostle for friday and saturday night. it was totally cool. we went to the royal palace and the prado museum and the big bull ring and the stadium of Real Madrid. It was a total blast. While touring the palace I couldn't help but feel like Bell in Beauty and the Beast, there were marked off sections we were unallowed to enter that were totally calling my name (no i didnt go, but i wanted to really badly), along with that, there was an entire section down below the palace with all of the old armor displayed like the ones that moved as Bell walked by in the movie... it was incredible, i got to see the real armor of Charles the 5th and the armor of so many princes and their horses and even lots of different armor made along the way of the prince's childhood. it was so strange to see such intricately decorated armor for someone the size of what looked to have been a 4 or 5 year old child. It was crazy, plus i saw the size of the shields, i put up the pictures for you, but you can't tell the actual size, they must have weighed at least 60 lbs (very least) and were only a piece of the armor that they had to be able to hold up without rest all day long! you know with all the lifting i've had to do throughout my volleyball career i'm very impressed because i immediately thought of the pain it would cause on the shoulders to do such a thing. I have a whole new respect for the way men had to fight back then. Then we went up into the palace (no they dont still live there) and we saw the throne room and the chapels and the rooms decorated SO beautifully, some, i will eagerly admit were WAY overdone and i wouldn't last a second having to live in them but others i could have spent an eternity looking just at the ceiling paintings and the chandeliers. it was incredible. next we went to the bull ring and as it is winter it was closed, but we took pics and jonas (who is a tour guide and had been there in june) told us about his experience inside in detail. then we took the metro over to the stadium, we didnt get all the way inside, but were able to go into a café in which we could see the field and then up into the suvenier store with an even better view. lots of fun! we bought souveniers of coarse and then left. the next day we visited the prado without an audio guide wich just made me incredibly lost and then we visited starbucks for the 3rd time and we were off on the road again.