note to self (and others for that matter...): real madrid games sell out better than american soccer games - go figure. so from the beginning... we decided last minute to go to the game tonight because travel plans would keep us from going until late march. so we went, and turns out i gave us the wrong metro plaza for the stadium, well the wrong stadium all together. so when we walked up to a dark and empty stadium with people looking at us weird... we realized where we were. so we went to the real stadium (haha real, re-al, get it?) which was like 15 min away. and well bright idea to plan a last minute trip to a madrid game anyway, of course they were sold out. so we spent our ticket money on t-shirts and a bufanda (scarf) for me. then, wandered around for a bar so we could at least watch the game; of course with no success. so we metroed ourselves to sol, just three of us now (five went originally) to a bar called dubliners.
so this morning we went to a place called el rastro. it's like this famous market where "if they don't sell it at el rastro, it doesn't exist." haha. i fumbled around, didn't want to buy anything really cos i'm in a non-spending money mood (apart from my real madrid fanaticism)... but just browsed for future purchases. none the less it was interesting. aftewards we walked to sol and rested our feet at a little cafe, and had some 4 euro (6 dollar fyi) cokes - yikes!
lastly, yesterday was spent in the famous parque de retiro. it's this gorgeous park, similar to central park but a lil smaller. it has a big man-made lake with a monument to alfonso XII and steps leading down to the water. so it was nice, to sunbathe a bit and eat lunch. then we wandered some more. one of the coolest things i saw there was a statue of el angel caido: the fallen angel. the guide book explanes that it's one of, if not, the only (public) monument to lucifer, aka satan. so it was neat to see that. the day consisted of a lot of walking, as most of them do lately, but all in all it was fun.
