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2001-06-12 - 10:38 a.m. Well, this weekend was nice. We went to a travel agency on Friday to see about getting to Barcelona. I am supposed to hear back for sure today and I am HOPING it works out! It wonīt be too expensive ... it includes a room in a nice hotel for two nights and our train tickets to and from. Itīs been so hard to get to Barcelona cause there is some sort of fair there and Madonna began her European tour there. For the afternoon on Friday, we went to El Retiro, this huge park in Madrid. It was so beautiful. There is a large lake were you can rent paddle boats and row around the lake. It was lots of fun and I ended up being in the boat with the male in the group, so we sat in the boat while he rowed. Friday night we went and hung out at Puerta del Sol. We ate at some restaurant, and we all were somewhat disappointed. I ordered churros expecting them to have sugar on them or something, but they were completely naked. One girl ordered a 4 cheese pizza and didnīt really like it. We discovered that the cheese we donīt like is goat cheese (well we think anyhow). Saturday me, Candice, and Ricky went to El Escorial again. We didnīt know it was going to rain and be cold, so we were somewhat ill-prepared. None of us had umbrellas or anything. We took the bus from Madrid at Moncloa and it took us about an hour to get there. We went back through the monostary. It took us about 4 hours to go through the whole thing. It was really beautiful inside the church though because an organist was practicing while we were there, which made it even neater. We got to see the church, the library, and the gardens. The actual monostary portion is closed off to the public since it is still in use. It was interesting to see the actual living quarters in the palace area which surrounded the church. They were very simplistically decorated with no ornate ceilings. One side was Felipe IIīs room and the other side was supposed to be the queenīs quarters, but she died and so it became her daughterīs quarters. It was interesting because both of their rooms overlooked the church and they could see mass from their room. When Felipe II was dying, he watched mass from his room. The crypt was actually one of the most impressive parts. All the kings and queens (only queens who gave birth to kings) were in the first burial chamber. The coffins were gold and surrounded the entire round room we were in. Then there was a separate area for princess and princesses. The illigitimate children were placed in the back with very plain coffins. There was a big round burial area which contained all the children who would have been princesses, princes, etc. but died before puberty. All in all, there were 8 different burial chambers. It was quite impressive. We got back kind of late, so we didnīt do anything. I just came back and called Justin and bummed. Sunday I was excited to find out that we have a place to stay in Portugal. That was nice to know since we are leaving Wednesday night! It is a bed and breakfast place and we have reserved 2 doubles and a triple. They were really nice and said we could lock up our luggage since we get there at 8 AM and cannot check in until 2. Sunday I just did homework. Ricky and I had to watch the movie for ĻLa BuscaĻ. The VCRs at both our houses are broken. My host mom, Eva, called her sisterīs house and they let us watch it over there. We did not like the movie!!! They had a really nice house though. I am still behind on my reading. Oooops. Today we are going to Museo Reina Sofia with my civilizations class. Thatīs about all that is up at the moment. More later!! Adios!
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