![\"Our](\"http:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_mary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/day1.jpg\" "\\"day1\\"")
<\/a>Our first day in Madrid! Puck is checking e-mail in our hotel room.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n
We also ate in a little bullfighting restaurant called the Green and Gold (Verde y Oro) on our first day walking around Madrid.<\/p>\n
<\/a>There are bullfighting photos, paintings and memorabilia on the walls behind us.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n
<\/a>And here's the bull.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n
Today we picked up a mobile phone, and we are hopefully close to getting an apartment. Tonight after looking at a couple of places, we wandered down to the Prado Museum and by the National Library where we ran into 2 of the grad students from the UCDavis Spanish department who are home visiting family before going back to California for the academic year. What an amazing coincidence! We sat in a cafe across the street afterward and had coffee and a flan-like dessert before heading back to the hotel to soak our tired feet.<\/p>\n
We are meeting with the owner of the apartment we like on Monday to hopefully work out a contract. The flat will be near the Plaza de Espa\u00f1a and the Royal Palace. It is only 30 square meters, but it is near some pretty plazas and parks. It is a little removed from a main thoroughfare, across the street from a police station and has a doorman named Manuel. So it feels very safe. Keep your fingers crossed that it all works out for the best.<\/p>\n