We left the IES Center at about 9:30am and rode the bus for about an hour to get to Rascafria. I love riding the bus because I get to look out the window at the countryside :) I like being in Madrid, but sometimes the city life, with all the people and smoke, really gets to me, so it's nice to be in a more rural area. At around 11am, we got to the Monasterio de el Paular. It's about 2km outside Rascafria, and it's one of the most historically important Monasteries in the Madrid community. They started building it in 1390, and then continued working on it for several centuries. Apparently part of it has now been made into a hotel. At one point I think it was partly destroyed, and a lot of the art disappeared, but then in 1954 Benedictine Monks came and restored it. It's really beautiful! A lot of it is made of wood, even though it looks like marble and metal. Very impressive! The guy that was giving us the tour was really funny (unintentionally). He kept having Matt turn the lights on and off because he was tall, and then he made him walk up these stairs to sit in this little balcony where one monk used to sit and read to the other monks while they ate. It was hilarious! I took a picture :) he also kept getting when people used their camera flashes and saying "sin flash!", which mean "without flash" in Spanish. He also said "ON FLASH!!", which I'm pretty sure was his attempt at saying "NO FLASH!", but he just sounded like a German or something. It was priceless!
Next, since there were no bathrooms at the Monastery other than those that the monks used, we made a pit stop for about 20 minutes. Naturally, almost all the girls had to use the bathroom, so the line was really long! Luckily I was third in line. My friend Brook and I decided that since we had used the bathroom in a bar, we had to buy something, so we got ice cream bars. They were called something like "Choko Klack". It was like a chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar with a chocolate bar in the middle. I loved it! And they only cost 1 euro! Totally worth it!
Next we went to Pueblo called Buitrago del Lozoya, which is another small town in el Valle del Lozoya. Apparently the people who live there are a mix of Arabic, Christian, and Jewish. We took a tour of the small town and saw El Castillo de los Mendoza (a castle), la iglesia (a church), and El Puente Viejo (a really old bridge). There was also an old bull-fighting arena, and I could tell that it was definitely Muslim architecture (thanks to Art History I at Trinity!). There was a Picasso Museum too, but it was closed for siesta by the time we got done with the tour. We ate lunch on the old bridge, which was really nice. It didn't really rain much, but it was cloudy and cool. Honestly, I was glad it wasn't hot! We had some free time before we had to meet up at the buses, so me and some of my friends sat in a Plaza and sang Disney songs! haha a guy walked by and clapped for us and told us in broken English that his name was Jose. We made a new friend! haha
On the bus ride back we played "I'm going on a picnic", which I'm actually really good at! lol
I came back to the apartment and had a nice long talk with Ana, and rested a little while before going out to la cena with some friends. We found a Mexican food restaurant! Now, going to school in San Antonio, I've got some pretty high standards for Mexican food. The guacamole at this place was great, and so was the rest of the food, but it really wasn't Mexican haha.
Now I'm back at the apartment and EXHAUSTED! Tomorrow I'm going to Toledo with some friends, so I'm gonna get some rest!
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