A few bulletpoints about my trip last weekend to Madrid, where I was from about 6:30 AM Friday until 7 AM Monday.
-Started the trip off right by cooking dinner with Sari and Stacy at Sari's apt before we braved the sketchy night bus and went to a bar to wait until it was late enough to go to the bus station, where apparently the entire population of Barcelona was also going to the Ryanair airport in Girona. We got to the airport around 4:30ish, and it was surprisingly busy; we're not the only ones who will do anything for a cheap flight.
-Arrived in Madrid and had to kill a few hours before we could check into our hostal, and we were so bleary eyed we barely noticed the gorgeous architecture, but managed to find a museo de jamon (ham museum) and had a quick bite of ham. Only in Spain.
-Our hostal was near Mercado de San Miguel- this gorgeous indoor market with different food and drink stalls, and it was also down the street from a tapas crawl, where there are restaurants for specific tapas like meson de tortilla( the egg and potato omelette), meson de la guitarra (guitar) and meson de champinones( mushrooms!) The first day was spent meandering the city, taking a WAY long nap, exploring the gay area Chueca where we found a cheap cocktail bar playing musicals, and then meeting up with our lovely friend Kate who was also in our TEFL program and is now living in Madrid as an au pair! We went to a cute little wine bar for 1 Euro glasses of vino tinto (red wine), then explored Chueca again where we met some fabulous drag queens named Vicky and I don't remember the other one, and explored the bars, it was fabulous.
On Saturday we roused ourselves to go check out J & J books, this amazing secondhand English bookstore, complete with a coffee bar! Ridiculous! Didn't get anything but was severely tempted. We then wandered to Plaza Espana where there was a neat outdoor market where we partook in some chocolate and churros, and then went to see the Palace which was gorgeous. Not too many tourist either! We basically then walked through the entire city to Retiro Park, which is the Central Park of Madrid and is simply wonderful. Lush green spaces, the Crystal Palace which is on a small lake, and another big lake where you can rent rowboats or sit at a small cafe next to it. Loved loved loved it. We then went to a small tapas place for some chorizo and patatas bravas, like always, and prepared to head out by buying cheap wine at a supermarket for 75 cents. 75 cents for a bottle of wine? get on that, USA!
We went out with Kate's friend Kathleen who is living Madrid and going to SLU-Madrid campus and has been for the past 4 years, really jealous. We went to the place across from our hostal, Mercado de San Miguel for cheap sangria, and then we hit up the Meson de la Guitarra for the best tortilla I've ever had and more sangria, and then somehow ended up at a Chicago Hot Dog place (!!!) And if you were wondering, a "Chicago Hot Dog" in Madrid consists of "Chicago Sauce", which is small pieces of bacon, or some kind of meat. Gross? maybe. Good deal? you betcha! Another long night of drinking out on the town, yet wonderful to spend time with these girls.
Our last full day began at El Rastro, the huge flea market that stretches for MILES. It was really hot out so naturally I was wearing a dress, and had a lovely encounter in which some sleazy guy tried to take picture down my shirt but Stacy swatted his camera away. Nasty, yet unfortunately, kind of typical. I can't tell you how many times I get touched or shouted at, it's hard to get used to it, and even harder to put up with! Didn't ruin our day though as we finished up with the flea market and then walked near the Prado museum and ended up at a sidewalk cafe with patatas bravas again and some other choice tapas before we did a bit of shopping near Plaza de Sol- the center of Madrid and the center of Spain itself, very big.
I even saw the hotel I stayed at when I was studying abroad in Sevilla and had orientation in Madrid!! We kept walking through the city and even had some man in a bunny suit with balloons follow us for a while. Typical day, really. Kate sadly had to go back to her house, so Sari, Stacy and I found a mexican food place (salivating as I write this) and kept walking through the city until it was time to pack and then head to the airport at 5 AM for yet another Ryan Air flight.
Madrid= TONS of sidewalk cafes, with people congregating in plazas drinking with their friends, and the city barely goes to sleep even on a Sunday, before 2 AM. The architecture is gorgeous, very old yet taken care of, and I found the Madrileno accents easier to understand than Barcelona accents. I loved walking through the city, seeing how many amazing cafes there are, and so many plazas! I could see myself living here at some point in my life, I'll add it to the ever growing list.
Also amazing is how well the 3 of us traveled together- usually I need my own space at some point but we seemed to just mesh so well together, we were so lucky! Also our hostal was wonderful- cheap and clean, and we had a balcony that overlooked the mercado that we drank sangria at. A lovely, lucky weekend!
Funny moment: We were in the supermarket buying wine when this old man with pants up to his armpits comes up to me and points to my dress and asked me if I was cold, and I said "oh no, I just wanted to wear a dress" and he goes, " me too" and opens his coat to pretend he was wearing a dress. He then proceeded to become enamoured of Kate who has blond hair and took her hair and put it on his head, saying he wished he had hair like hers. Ridiculous.
Love Madrid. Go visit, if you can!
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