Once upon a time....

I am probably not a very emotional person for my own sake. While most Indian brides would sob endlessly during the time of their "vidaii", I was just a tad sad and had no tears in my eyes. I did not shed a tear or feel gloomy when I was leaving my friends and family in India and moving to U.S. permanently. I did not cry like my mother when we were in the middle of an earthquake that threatened to take our lives, nor did I express any intense emotion once the earthquake was over and we had been moved to a safe location. I did not cry at any point in my own wedding and I did not cry when I was moving away to college, away from my family. I don't claim that I have never cried because I did cry a lot at my grandfather's funeral. I also cried a bucket full after watching the 9/11 documentary. I have cried while watching videos of social injustice. And I have cried a LOT when I realized that I had hurt someone unintentionally by my ignorance and immaturity. I *almost* cried when I got pulled over by a cop for no fault of mine. My mechanism to cope with grief is to forget about it. And I don't cry because I consider myself pretty strong and I think that I can take on anything that comes my way. However, things that are out of my control and happening to someone else are worth crying over. I also tend to forget about my sad phases every easily. Those sad memories stay in the background and are overshadowed by the current affairs or events. There were certainly times when I wondered if there was something wrong with me. While all other girls could cry effortlessly at ALL sad things, I could only cry for selective, truly sad things. I know now that this was foolish and that I was worrying in vain. I am actually proud of the fact that I am not overly emotional and can avoid feeling unnecessarily overwhelmed most times in my life!

1/19 - Landed in Madrid.. we were super tired when we landed, so we ended up taking a 4 hour nap and woke up refreshed in the evening. We were staying at the Westin Palace Hotel which worked out great in every way! It is centrally located to everything and is a very nice hotel. Anyway, we walked in the Arts district (the hotel is in the Arts district) and met up with Alap's family friend in the evening. She took us out for tapas to a place that also put on a Flamenco show. We were told that the food scene in Madrid is that you have tapas in one local restaurant, then you walk around for a bit and then go to another restaurant for more tapas, and so on. So we tried tapas at 3 different restaurants in that one night :P We were all vegetarians but you should have their cured ham. It's a very famous dish/snack there. One place you should visit is there local market called Mercado de San Miguel (http://www.spottedbylocals.com/madrid/mercado-de-san-miguel/) We did not opt for this option but if you go to Plaza Mayor (downtown square) during the day, then you can stop by their visitor center and take their guided tours by foot or tours by bus. I think the tours by foot were free. We had Alap's friend show us around since she also knew a ton about the city. You should also check out Puerta del Sol which is considered the heart of the country and where they have their iconic Bear and Tree statue. 1/20 - We took the train to Toledo and spent most of the day there. There is a neat El Greco museum and Alcazar there. 1/21 - We took a tour of the Royal Palace, the Royal gardens and saw the Egyptian temple from the 2nd B.C.. Also walked around and did some shopping. You will notice several El Cortes Ingles stores.. they're HUGE stores that have all sorts of American and European brand stuff. They have EVERYTHING from groceries to clothes to furniture, if you happen to need anything while you're there. 1/22 - We went to the Prado museum for first half of the day. We rushed through a lot of it. You should definitely check out the Prado Museum -- it has quite a few amazing paintings from different ages. We flew out to Barcelona the night of 22nd.