Had about 3 hours to kill before my flight, so I sat down at a little cafe in the airport and had a nicoise salad. Pretty good, though overpriced (guess that´s what you expect from airport food though). The flight to Madrid was easy, though there was a baby in the seat in front of me who would not stop crying the entire flight. That was annoying as hell, but something that you just have to deal with. As soon as we landed at the airport, we were informed that something was wrong with our main cabin door, so we would have to leave out the back door and take a bus to the terminal. No big deal, and it actually worked out perfectly, as Dave was coming down the stairs from his flight just as I arrived. So I met up with him and Justin, and their friends Andy, Garth, Brian and Alyssa.
We took the metro to the hostel, which turned out to be really nice. About 18€ a night, but we had air conditioning, decent beds, our own bathroom, and free internet (which I am currently making use of). We met up with Dave´s little sister Deanna and went out for some tapas and drinks. The place had an interesting business model: order drinks, get free tapas. We had some beers and mojitos, and were served a few types of tapas including croquettas, chorizo, ham and bread, and frittatas. The croquettas were essentially deep-fried ham and cheese balls, and they were fantastic.
After that bar, Deanna wanted to take us to a park to have a few beers, but when we got there, the police were there as well, and seemed to be disciplining everyone with beers, so we ended up leaving. Went to another bar, had a couple drinks there, and then headed to what was supposed to be one of the more popular clubs in Madrid. Unfortunatley, it wasn´t open on Monday nights. We still took a picture, just to say we´d been there.
Yesterday we started off getting a traditional Spanish breakfast of cured ham, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, croquettas and fries. The place was called Museo del Jamon (Museum of Ham). Can you guess why?
I had already eaten at the hostel, so I didn´t eat much there, but what I had was ok. We explored the big park and botanical gardens, where we saw some nice waterfalls and a really cool house made of glass. Apparently it was a greenhouse at one time, but now it´s just something nice to look at. After walking for a while, we sat down in the park and had some sangria and relaxed. It was fantastic!!
The rest of the day was a little messy. Deanna really wanted us to experience traditional Spain, so she wanted us to have a menu del dia (menu of the day) for lunch, which inclued two main courses, a drink and dessert for a fixed price. Supposedly they go from 2 to 5 every day and you can find restaurants that offer them everywhere. Deanna also wanted us to see a flamenco show, which started at 6. We must have talked about how to plan out the rest of the afternoon for 45 minutes, while shopping for souveniers (an activity I really don´t like), and so at 4:00, we finally decided to do the menu and flamenco show. Unfortunately, we could only find one or two restaurants offering the menu del dia, and they didn´t look all that great. So we went to another part of town which Deanna was sure would have more options, and none of them had the menu. So we went back to our original area around 4:45, only to discover that they were no longer serving the menu del dia.
Ended up going to a little tapas place and got some mini sandwiches and sangria (delicious again) and then went to the flamenco show. I wasn´t too excited about the show, as I´d seen one in Barcelona a few years back, and it really didn´t impress me. But since it was everyone else´s first time in Madrid, I just went along with it. Turns out, almost everyone dozed off at some point during the show. The dancers are all very talented, but it just wasn´t the kind of entertainment we were looking for.
After the show, Justin and Alyssa and I headed out so Justin could find his name brand stores. We walked around for a while with no luck, Alyssa ended up going off on her own, and Justin and I found out from a nice man at a hotel that we were about 30 minutes from the street with all the big brands. We decided to get Paella to make ourselves feel better. We waited for a good 30 minutes before it arrived, but it was just as good as I remembered it. Far too much for us to eat, but still yummy.
Headed back to the hostel to change before going out again for the night. We met up with Deanna´s friend David at a tapas bar, had a few drinks there, and then proceeded to a few other bars to drink some wine. The last bar we ended up at was really nicely designed, with an African theme. We showed up and the tables were all for smaller groups, so the bartender suggested we go downstairs where we´d have more room. There were several big rooms on the lower level, including one decked out with a huge King sized bed. Odd. Drinks there were 10€, but tasted decent. When we were done, we went back upstairs, only to find the place was packed, and Deanna said they were trying to hide the Americans. Perhaps they were... it was still fun.
We went to one more bar, had a final farewell drink, and went back to the hostel for sleep.
I didn´t do much this morning. Everyone else left around 8:30 to go to the airport to head back to the states, so i just slept a bit more and went out to get a breakfast pastry. Now, I´m just waiting to head to the airport myself.
I´ve really enjoyed Madrid, but I´m looking forward to going back to a place where I can actually communicate with people around me. I know zero Spanish, and these past few days, it proved to be quite a challenge. Glad I had the experience though.
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