Can't sleep...

Okay, so don't usually expect three posts in one day :) I can't sleep and have been laying in bed listening to the sounds of Spain outside my balcony door and am hungry from the wonderful smells of the family who runs the hostal cooking their dinner across the hall. After a shower and brief nap, I am much happier to be in Spain than I was in my earlier post. I also figured out that my adaptor comes apart and guess what was inside??? Yep - a European adaptor, so I now have a hair dryer and can recharge my laptop. Life is good!

I'm starting to get into this whole hostal experience... everything is an adventure. The shower, for example, was made for midgets. I had to stand in one place with about 4 inches between me and the shower wall. No shelf to put your shampoo or soap on. I felt like a gymnast every time I bent down to pick something up. The decorator in me loves the clean lines and colors of the room. Everything is bright white with wood floors, doors, and furniture. The room is tiny - about 10 x 10 with two twin beds and a nightstand between. The beds, however, have beautiful white European linens and there are flowy white linen drapes that move in the breeze. It's all incredibly peaceful - looking, that is. Madrid is tall building upon tall building. If I lean way out my balcony, I could probably touch hands with the person across the way. There's lots of singing, shouting, and blaring of tv. So far it's fun to listen to (ask me again at 3 a.m.). So far, I'm not tempted to move to the hotel - I'm liking feeling a part of things.

I just have to mention the flight here one more time for those who have never flown business/first class across the ocean. It was so amazing! I couldn't get over the amount of space we had (think exit row leg room times five!) with private tv's, noise reducing headphones, down pillows, and quilted blankets. They also gave us little personal kits with slipper socks, toothpaste/toothbrush, lotion, chapstick, and other necessities (it was like Christmas when I dug mine out today and looked through it). We were greeted with champagne and mimosas and the food just got better from there. Dinner was a multi-course meal with cloth tablecloths (and hot towels to wash your hands with first). We had two appetizers, soup, salad, and our choice of entree. Lauren and I went with the filet mignon which was wonderful. They had a whole cart of desserts including chocolate cheesecake and made-to-order sundaes. They also had a nice selection of wines including my favorite - Tawny Port - which helped put me right to sleep after dinner. It was probably obvious to everyone else that Lauren and I had been upgraded - we kept ooing and ahhing and snapping pictures of everything.

Tomorrow, we go in search of a Spanish adventure... enough already of shopping and touristy restaurants. We want to eat real Spanish food, shop in a market, and see the amazing architecture we've heard so much about. We're starting the day out with a double decker bus tour so we can get the lay of the land and then we'll start using the subway to get around the city.

Hope all is well with each of you. Thanks for sharing in our adventure!