Madrid

Me and Brenna at Parque de Retiro

When I arrived at the hostel in Madrid on Sunday after a treacherous trip on the metro, I was greeted by Brenna and Rosa who had been waiting for me in the lobby for the past 5 hours. They had not known when I was arriving and I got in late. We had a wonderful reunion and caught up on various stories from the first legs of our trips. I’m sure other people in the hostel thought we were crazy because we were so excited to see each other. We talked like no time had passed since graduation but way too much time has passed.

On Monday, we had a day out and about in Madrid. The weather was not great – it was raining on and off all day – so we were in and out of cafes. We started off with a walk to Plaza Mayor which was pretty but too crowded because it was a holiday in Spain. We went to a restaurant with homemade breads and delicious jams. The place looked like you were on the inside of a bread oven. Then we went to Puerta del Sol and popped in and out of the European clothing stores. We saw the enormous Palacio Real and the cathedral nearby. We had a lunch break at a non-chain version of 100 Montaditos, and I was proud of myself because I confronted people in Spanish who had taken our seats after we had been waiting for a long time. It worked, too. We strolled to the prettiest part of town near the Prado. We stepped into the Ritz, which is where I had stayed on my last trip to Madrid with my family. But this time I got yelled at for taking a picture. It sort of outshined our hostel and was exactly as I remembered it. On the way back to the hostel, we found a Dunkin’ Coffee! I was beyond excited because it is so hard to find to-go coffee in Sevilla. We enjoyed kebabs for dinner, of course, and saw Harry Potter in English, which is not available in Sevilla. I looooved it! But it ended way too abruptly for my liking.

On Monday, we went to Parque de Retiro, a beautiful park near the Prado. It was gorgeous and great for taking pictures. It started to rain when we were there so we didn’t get to row in the boats. In the evening, we went on a long hunt for tapas. They are much pricier than in Sevilla and not as plentiful, but we ended up settling on a crowded place near our hostel. Brenna and Rosa had delicious soup, tortilla, and croquetas, and I had a ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg in the middle. Mmm. We rushed back to the hostel to get dressed for the pub crawl that night. The turn out was low that night, but we met a few other kids from Canada who are studying at Oxford. We all had an amazing night dancing together! We found the pop music we were looking for, including a Backstreet Boys song that clearly identified us as Americans. I tore up the last club we went to – people gathered around and were taking pictures! We ended up meeting some guys from Liberia who were pretty strange but fun to practice Spanish with. It is so easy talking to foreigners and Brenna and I had a great time translating everything for Rosa. We eventually went to sleep at 4:30 am, an early night by Spain’s standards.

Brenn and Rosa in Puerta del Sol

On Wednesday, we woke up late and headed towards the Prado. We got famous calamari sandwiches before going to the museum. We walked around the museum for a few hours, which was interesting but not my favorite part of exploring cities. I wish I were half as talented as anyone featured there though. I met up with my friend Abby and her boyfriend who are teaching English in Madrid for coffee. It was great seeing them and comparing our stories. They work for many more hours than me and have had quite different experiences. Hopefully we will meet up again in Sevilla. After I met up again with Brenna and Rosa in the hostel, we went to dinner at a place with a cheap menú del dia. Although we did get paella, it was a pretty bad meal. Luckily, the price turned out to be 4 euros less than expected, which was a big relief because the food was so bad. The literally gave Rosa a pudding cup from a grocery store. We went back and continued the slumber party with a stimulating game of “Would you rather?”

This morning, we got up and packed. We had an egg-filled breakfast near our hostel and went to the airport. The flight to Barcelona was very short but on a cool plane sponsored by MTV with purple lighting. We found our hostel pretty easily and are about to head out for dinner. The room is tiny but very well located. And the city seems much better to me already than Madrid and is full of Christmas!