Madrid and Nottingham

After my family left, I spent a few extra days in Montpellier with my adoptive French family- the Costes. It was nice to unwind and self-pity in homesickness with the comfort of the lovely Costes to make me feel better. I then headed to Marseille for a quick two nights- caught up with my friend Caro, and flew out to Madrid to meet with my Linfield friend Jacob!! We had randomly decided to meet there and then the plan was for me to follow him to Nottingham to get a taste of England for the week before I went back to Marseille for good.

Madrid was awesome! I think I would like Barcelona better- the landscape is better and there's more to see so I've heard. With the ocean, the architecture, the history, the environment and the vibe, it's all great. But that's for another time. I still really enjoyed Madrid. We stayed in a bad-ass hostel. It was like a riad style architecture and it was really pretty- the rooms were nice and we stayed with 12 other people in a giant dorm room thing which I imagine sorority sleeping porches are like. We met tons of people mostly from Australia and Brazil. Everyone was super friendly and we ended up spending our 3 days there with an Australian, Noah, who showed us places he was already familiar with as he'd been there longer- tapas places, bars, plazas, etc. We went to el Museo de la Reina Sofia- an art museum. It was free, thank god. Because it was cool and all but art is weird and maybe this makes me sound ignorant but I just don't get art! I appreciate it most of the time but it's hard for me to appreciate an artist's work when all they did was stick four giant black blocks of steel in a long and narrow white room, and saying that the art is in the weight. What the hell does that mean. Please. Explain. I don't get it. Hahahaha. Afterwards we went back to the hostel because three hours of staring at confusing artwork made our heads hurt. We napped and then went out for beer and tapas. We ended up drinking wine in our hostel room and talking about life, and then I randomly met a girl who went to University of Washington that knows someone I went to high school with. Only in Madrid right?

Day two, we explored town some more. We went to el Parque del Retiro, saw the Cristal Palace, explored some parks and neighborhoods, saw the Palacio Royal, took some funny pictures, saw la Plaza Mayor and La Puerta del Sol and just took in the vibe of the city! That was my favorite day. It was Friday and we were tired but it was going to be our going out night, so we went back and napped and got ready. The hostel hosts pub crawls almost every night. We met downstairs in the bar and drank and socialized with all the internationals, made some friends, and at one am began the 3-night club destination trek. We got in free (after paying the hostel a cover) to each club and got free tequila upon entering, hahaha. It was really cool and each place had good music, and it felt so good to let loose and dance a little. I hadn't had a good night like that in a long time! Needless to say, Madrid left it's mark on me and I left my mark on Madrid! Especially considering the next day is the day I fatefully lost my purse. Or rather, accidentally left it downstairs in the hostel and within thirty minutes it was stolen. My phone, my wallet, my camera. AND THANKS BE TO GOD MY PASSPORT WAS NOT STOLEN. Otherwise......... I don't even know what I would have done! It sucked though.. My bad, Mom and Dad, I got no money now! Oh and Jacob, can you lend me a couple hundred euros? Yeah it was an awful situation and I felt so bad putting my friend out like that, but luckily he was generous enough and kind enough to pull me under his wing so I could continue on to Nottingham with him. I am paying him back of course, but it was complicated and extremely stressful trying to figure everything out!

That third day in general we just kind of hung out, got some lunch in the sun at Plaza Mayor, and then we went and saw Zero Dark Thirty. Now, I am not your average war-movie person. I am not your average "Yeaaaah Go 'Murica!" kind of person. But I have to say, as heavy as this movie is, it was awesomely well done. The actors- awesome. The script and writing and dialogue- awesome. The symbolism and little nuances- awesome. The cinematography itself- awesome! I am not your best movie critic but I loved this movie because I got so wrapped up in the story. I do not support our involvement in the Middle East (sticky issue, I know, for the most part I don't but of course I support the troops individually from our government's decisions and I know that we have done a lot of good, despite the bad we've done, too), but as for the pursuit of Bin Laden separately, it was a fascinating story and how they portrayed it was incredible. The years of work and stress and effort and hope and loss- loss of lives, morals, hope, direction, ideas, patience, trust... That all came across very strongly in the film! I'd watch it again. Even if afterwards I felt like I really need a drink, haha.

Sunday Jacob and I headed to Nottingham! I never gave England much thought in terms of visiting and being interested in it at all. But once it became an option, I have to admit I got pretty excited! Although I do regret not seeing London. I think I would have really enjoyed that but maybe another day. Nottingham was a cute town, we got to see the mansion where Batman was filmed- Wayne's Manor, which has a different name in real life of course, and it was only on the outside that it was filmed here but the inside was weird anyways. It had a bunch of taxidermied animals inside. Not ma thang. But the grounds themselves and the mansion was beautiful. We went to the oldest pub/inn in England which dates from the 1100's I believe. It was basically a modified cave attached to the large rock on which the Nottingham castle was built. We got ciders and beers and met this old friendly drunk British guy who "mistook" me for Kate Middleton- I'll take it. We went and got fish and chips- because it's England- duh. But other than that we didn't do too much, which I understood because Jacob had lots of studying to do for finals. Nottingham isn't a busy as Marseille, or as I imagine London would be. And he lives in a residence with freshmen in university who were also all studying for finals. So the dynamic was interesting. I didn't quite connect with people like I normally do when I travel but I guess that's expected given the circumstances. However I did really get along with his friend Jack who is a very gifted musician and played some of his music live for us. That was a real treat! I hope he goes far with his music, I have a little intuitive feeling he will! :) Overall I noticed the British are fairly reserved. Kind people of course, but very polite and very reserved. I guess that's because in France, (this is just a guess), I seem more "foreign" and therefore attract more attention,  get a lot more curious people asking about me and wanting to get to know me. I definitely didn't get that here, but maybe that's because although I'm American, I still speak English. And maybe it's because they're more reserved and were afraid to talk to me. Of course this was a very biased and quickly-assumed judgement based on my few days there and trying to make some kind of comparison to the French culture... I am still so grateful for Jacob's hospitality!

The hardest thing during my trips to Madrid and Nottingham (besides being stolen from) was that I was pretty damn homesick. I found that even being in Madrid which was so exciting, I didn't have the will to do certain things. I didn't NOT want to be there, it's just that I didn't feel like being anywhere. Except home. Once it was time to go back to Marseille, I was overwhelmed with relief and joy to find a home again.. My regret in Madrid is that I really didn't come into contact with authentic Spanish culture, and it'd be nice if I knew someone who lived here to have access to that. Maybe one day... However I really enjoyed myself both places. It was just a time of transition for me which admittedly took a bit away from my travel enthusiasm. It was a learning experience...

All that being said, after going to two new more countries, France and Italy are still my all time top favorites!!!

So today I discovered...

How to make GIFs. I would like to make a PSA and say I apologize in advance for the overload of GIFs that will from now forward be forever and always on my blog each time I post. They are just too fun. 

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