Sunday, May 14th. Today we finally left for our long awaited trip to Spain. We departed Phoenix at 10:50 a.m., caught our connecting flight in Dallas and made it to Madrid at 9 a.m. Monday May 15th, midnight in Arizona. Our first two days blended together seamlessly, so much so that most of us probably didn't even realize we were already on our second day of the trip. We were up for 24-plus hours, tired from a long day of travel, but beyond happy to be where we were.

When we arrived in Spain, our excitement took over and our sleepiness disappeared. We boarded our bus and traveled to the City Center of Madrid. There we saw a tile that stated "Origen de las Carreteras Radiales", this is considered to be the geographical center of Spain at 0 km, and where every distance in is measured from. We also saw a statue of a bear and an olive tree, which has been represented in the coat of arms of Madrid for centuries. Our guide Han, lead us through the streets pointing out some places to eat and streets we should venture down. We broke off into smaller groups to find lunch and explore. Some of us had paella, some tapas, and others seafood. The food was amazing. Most of us took Han's suggestions and tried the chocolate and churros and we were highly pleased. This city center is a tourist attraction, so there are many vendors and entertainers present. We did some people watching while waiting for the whole group to come back to our meeting place before we left. There were some people dressed in character costumes; Mickey and Minnie Mouse, The Simpsons, and Mario were just a few of the ones we saw.

After exploring the center for a few hours, we got back on the bus and headed to our hotel. We checked in and got settled for a few, then it was time for training. Training was light, we took an extended warmup and stretch, played a little possession, and just moved the ball around for a bit. Our first game is tomorrow vs. CDE Olympic de Madrid. All of us our ready to get back on the field again and do what we love most.

We then had downtime at the hotel, where we tried as hard as we could to not take a nap and mess up our sleep schedule for tonight. Dinner was held at Cafetería Prosperidad at 9 p.m. This seemed very late to us, but it's pretty common to eat this late here. The menu was in Spanish (of course) so it was pretty humorous watching everyone try and figure out what they wanted to eat. Some people probably ordered without knowing what they were getting.

We sat outside in a little plaza, and one of the coolest things was watching kids just playing soccer and running around. That's something that you do not really see in the United States, and as soccer players, it was a welcomed surprise. Our culture in the U.S. doesn't appreciate soccer like the rest of the world, so getting this chance to witness soccer being the center of focus is a nice change. After dinner we headed back to the hotel.

Our first two days of this trip were great, and we can't wait to see what's in store for us here. But now it's time for some much needed sleep because tomorrow is GAME DAY!

Goodnight from Madrid,

NAU Women's Soccer