Mi Viaje a Madrid

This weekend, I took a lovely, slightly impromptu trip to Madrid with my friend Brittany from our program. It was nice because she has a friend from MSU studying in Madrid, so we had someone to meet us there once we got off the bus and give us some pointers around the city. The bus ride took about three hours to get there from Salamanca, and then we had to take the Metro to our hostel. At first, I thought it would be really complicated to get around the city, but the Metro is extremely convenient and actually quite easy to use!

We got off the Metro at our stop, Tribunal, right by our hostel and managed to find it. It was this little place called Pop Hostel on Calle Espiritu Santo. I had never really been to a hostel before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleased with this place. It cost 18 euro/night. Our room was a four person room with a bathroom inside. We shared the room with two Australians who were traveling the world for six months and won't be done until November! They were really nice and good people to share a room with. I was glad they spoke English, too.

The first night we ended up going out for dinner and I got a ceasar salad. A little bit different than our salads here, but I was craving something with vegetables because I eat SO MUCH meat in this country (for example I ate generous portions of pork, chicken, AND beef today for lunch). During the night, we went to Chueca with Brittany's friend and his other friends. Chueca is the gay district in Madrid and this past weekend, there was a huge gay pride festival. People were EVERYWHERE! This area of town must have had a million people there that night. The streets were absolutely packed with people, some wearing quite interesting things. There was even a drag show in the middle of the town, but there were too many people pushing us this way and that so I couldn't really see it. We walked around a little bit and got to see the town a little bit. With all the people out, the streets seemed pretty dirty and littered, but it was still interesting to experience the festivities.

The next morning we got breakfast at the hostel and set out to see everything we could in Madrid. We visited Templo de Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple and saw the hieroglyphs. This was probably one of my favorite places we visited this day. After that, we went to several plazas including Plaza de España and Puerta del Sol. There were a lot of monumental statues there and interesting things going on. We stopped in some of the shops and looked around. After, we headed to Parque de Retiro. I feel like it can kind of be compared to Central Park. There were a lot of vendors trying to sell things at the entrance to the park and inside. After leaving the park, we went for lunch near Museo del Prado, but we wanted to wait to go into the museum so we could get in for free. The place we ate lunch with had the most hilarious man working there. What a riot! He wanted to speak to us in English and he kept kissing Brittany's hand and guiding us to a seat. When a Japanese family came into the restaurant, he tried speaking Japanese with them! This man was absolutely hilarious.

After lunch we took the Metro back to the Plaza Mayor and checked out the scene over there. There were a lot of cool shops and I bought a Spain bracelet from a fútbol store. We also stopped for some gelato. It was HOT in Madrid. We met another few American students in the gelato place too. After checking out the plaza and looking at some shops, we went back to Museo del Prado. It was a pretty big museum, but I was almost too tired to fully enjoy the artwork. It was a lot of portraits, which were quite beautiful, but did become a bit monotonous after a while. After taking some time at Prado, we went to Reina Sofia, but not before stopping at Burger King for some refreshing Coca Cola (very expensive, cost 1,95 euro... WHERE is the dollar menu? After we continued walking down, we saw a McDonald's which had an "Express" window on the side where you could walk up and order instead of a drive-through!) Reina Sofia was a much more modern looking building. The elevators were held in glass so you could see outside as you went up. I enjoyed the artwork in Reina Sofia much more than at Prado. It contained a collection of much more modern, dynamic art. I got to see the main art on display, Picasso's Guernica. It was really quite epic. There was also a series of pictures which showed the evolution and creation of the work. I liked going through those and seeing how his ideas and depictions changed up until the final product.

After Reina Sofia, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. We ate ensalada mixta, wihch is a pretty basic salad here: lettuce, tomato, tuna, and this white asparagus which is amazing. We also got personal pizzas. After this, we went back to the hostel and rested for a while. What a day so far! By the time we headed out for the "night" it was already 1:30AM, just in time to take the Metro before closing. But do not fear, the streets were hopping with plenty of people. This is "early" in the night for Spaniards. Really. We arrived at a club called Kapital, which had seven floors! It cost 20 euro to get in, but I figured I had to experience this. We spent some time exploring each of the floors and met some Italians who tried to make us guess where they were form. Apparently, Italians will just come up to you and try to speak English because they don't know Spanish so they just try their luck. I thought they were just picking us out for being Americans, but turns out that most of them know decent English and try to use that with people. Compared to Salamanca actually, a lot of people in Madrid could speak English, or at least a little bit. It's such a big city and so diverse that there's just a bigger mix of more languages and people from all different backgrounds. We also met some Spanish boys who tried to teach us some "interesting" vocabulary. Since the Metro didn't open back up until 6AM, we ended up staying at the club until then! The night life is so different here!

The next day, we woke up and headed to La Latina, a neighborhood where they have a market. I bought a pair of "pantaloones" as I like to call them, but they are quite the style in Europe. Who knows how they will be perceived back in the United States? They are kind of like parachute pants I guess. Black, with a brown high-waisted belt. But they are so light and airy. Very comfortable.

After La Latina, we had to rush to the bus station. We took the Metro there (used up exactly the ten allotted rides we had) and had to transfer twice to get to the bus station! We literally made it RIGHT ON TIME! After the weekend, I was glad to be back at home in Salamanca. Madrid is a great city, but it's too crowded and big for me. I really like the concept of the Metro, but the city is just too chaotic for me to spend a long time. Salamanca is more like Ann Arbor: city setting, but not too big and with a lot of charm. I like being able to walk to my destinations and easily meet up with people than have to navigate a large city, although I think I am able to do so and it's an important skill to have.