Day 17, 18, and 19 (by Nic)

Day 17

Instead of continental breakfast at Isaac's Hostel, today we went out to eat, which was our first time going out to a restaurant for breakfast our entire time here. I don't remember the name of the place we went to, but it was almost like a buffet style, except you chose your foods and the people got them for you. Hannah got french toast and a fruit salad, and I got a double portion of scrambled eggs and two hash browns. It was all pretty good, not like phenomenal or anything, but it was pretty inexpensive.

We checked out of Isaac's Hostel next and moved our stuff literally two doors down to our next hostel, Paddy's Palace. Then we rushed to St. Patricks cathedral for one of the best church services I have ever been in. The organ mixed with everybody singing in the huge stone church made every note sound so incredible! It was awesome.

The rest of the day we walked around more and went into tons of stores. Hannah got two cheap tank tops, but that was all. We had veggie soup and rice for dinner and then did some Spanish before we hit the sack.


Day 18

OUR LAST DAY IN DUBLIN!!! We got up at 9 and had really fast continental breakfast. We wanted to fill our last day, and we did. From about 10 till 12:30 we managed to go to a store and look for food for the plane, although we only bought 2 muffins, then we went to another store and got hannah a jacket. We went to the library and went through an exhibition on W.B. Yeats, a famous poet. We went to a whiskey store, and maded it back to our hostel in time to eat before we took a free 1:00 shuttle to the airport.

Our flight was at 4:30 and we had no problem checking in or going through security. The flight was fine and it took 2hrs and 20min, and then......... SPAIN!!!

Andre was amazing and met us at our terminal. We had to walk like 10 min through the huge airport to make it to the metro. It was my first metro ride! Haha. He took us to Plaza de Espana which is right next to where we are staying. We had a little trouble finding our hostel because the name was different than what it said online, but we did find it. We have a double room, so it's just me and Hannah.

We walked around with Andre a bit and he showed us a few of the main plazas in the city. We went to a mexican place for dinner and got awesome nachos and an avocado salad and margarita for dinner. We didn't end up getting back to our hostel till midnight.


Day 19

Our first full day in Madrid, Spain. Andre met us at our hostel, since we still had no idea where we were really. He took us back to his dorm room, which is really nice! He has a private room with a sweet view and tons of stuff to make it homey.

He also showed us to his college, St Louis university of Madrid, and he showed us around too. We ate in his cafeteria for €4 each ($5.63), and it was a ton of food! Andre had class at 2:30 so we went back to our room. The walk between us is about 25 minutes. We looked at our spain book to figure what we wanted to do till 6:30, when Andre was done classes.

We decided to walk to a market a little past Sol, a big palaza near us. We got un Sueno de Chocolate. It was incredible, just imagine chocolate mouse with a rich chocolate sauce on top and then like a thick marshmallow topping.

Ww met Andre at 6:30 and used the computer lab at his school to book all of our hostels in Spain except for the last 3 days. We have booked Rambla & Catalunya Hostel in Barcelona from April 4th till the 13th. Purple Nest Hostel in Valencia from the 13th till the 17th. Calderon Hostel in Alicante from the 17th till the 19th. Then a Eurostar Hotel in Seville from the 19th till the 21st. Hostal Don Claudio in Bilbao from the 21st to the 24th. Now all we need is a place to stay in Madrid from the night of the 24th till the 27th when we fly home!

After all this planning we were hungry so we went to the cafeteria at Andre's dorms and ate. Then we went walking around a bit and Andre took us to a really cool sangria bar. We shared a bing jar of sangria and then we went and got hot chocolate and churros. The hot chocolate was like a pudding and it was so good!!!

We got back to our hostel at like 1:30 am and fell right to sleep :) We are having so much fun in Madrid already!!! It is insanely amazing here! Bye-bye folks!

Nic