Europe in a Single Day

Even though it was Friday, we had to go to class to make up one of the days from the previous where we missed class for one of our trips. Oh well. Class is pretty easy, so it wasn’t a big deal! Someone in the group had heard of this cool park to visit, so I decided to tag along since I didn’t have any other plans for the day. The park was two train stops and one bus ride away on our way to Madrid. The park is called Parque Europa because it had smaller replicas of all the famous monuments around Europe. It was the coolest park I’ve ever seen! In two hours, we visited the Belem tower from Portugal (which I did see in real life already!), The London Bridge in London, England, the Plaza de España in Spain, the Little Mermaid statue in Denmark, some hanging rose gardens, a Viking ship in the north of Europe, the Trevi fountain in Italy, the Eiffel tower in Paris, France, Michelangelo’s David, also in Italy, the Mannekin Pis fountain and the Atomium from Belgium, and a few other cool things. Whew! What a day of traveling. It was fun to see. Afterwards, we had to get back to Álcala because we were meeting with the group to go to a puppet show that Profe bought tickets to. We had a few minutes before though, so we got some ice cream from the delicious place across the street from the Plaza de Cervantes. Yum yum yum! I got a yogurt with candied figs and a tropical cinnamon mix. It was to die for! They have some truly amazing ice cream over here. Next, the puppet show! We weren’t really sure what to expect with this one. The show was for 7 years old and up, and we basically filled up most of the small theater! The show consisted of a man and a woman who would trade off and do different acts with puppets, except the puppets were made out of some part of their body with added costumes. It took me a few minutes to get used to the idea, but afterwards I loved it! The first act was the man, and he pulled a hat over his eyes and nose, leaving only his mouth and chin exposed, then popped two large marbles that looked like eyes in his mouth and situated them between his gums and his lips, then protruded them to make them look like they were eyes sticking out of their sockets. It was amazing!!! He manipulated his mouth to look like the eyes were blinking, staring, and even crying. Wow. The lady did different acts with her hands: one was a dancing mermaid, another of a man in a boat, one with a scene of Adam and Eve, and the final one of a chubby little boy playing with a ball. So cute! She also did an act where her two legs were a man and a woman, and they did a dancing scene. She had her legs up in the air and stretched out for a good five minutes! We all decided that she must do Pilates or something, because that is not easy to do. The best one that she did, though, was when she walked out on stage with her shirt pulled up, bra exposed and everything, and did a scene where her belly fat jiggled and talked, and her belly button was a mouth where she stuck in a cigarette! It was absolutely hilarious! I was a little weirded out at first because she was exposing herself so much, but once you got into the act and could really see the person instead of a half naked lady, it was great. Good times had by all! After the show, we all hung around, deciding what to do and being annoying Americans who block up all the sidewalks, like we do, until Lyn and I just left. We stopped at Carrefour on our way home, then just hung out and did stuff in our rooms when we got back. Super great day! I loved it.