23 Mars 2011
After a week of midterms (which went very well) my friends and I needed a break. Hence, our lovely four day weekend in Madrid!
It was my first airplane ride within Europe, which went fairly smoothly. We took the Orly airport, not far from where I live within Paris. Within a couple of hours, we landed in Madrid, the capital of Spain. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy. But, it cleared up eventually!
We had a hostel fairly central, close to places like Plaza Mayor. The owners were very friendly and helpful, giving us a map and recommending places. Our room was quaint, with yellow walls and a window overlooking the street.
First thing we do is go to Plaza Mayor, a square similar to Place Royale in Paris. Cafés and boutiques fill the ground level of the red-bricked building, with a statue in the center. Depending on the time of day, this place can be very busy with street performers (whom I find somwhat creepy), tourists, or people enjoying their time eating churros outside.
Since we didn't have lunch, we go to a restaurant for tapas, which are small Spanish dishes specifically for snacking. I'm glad one of my friends was fluent in Spanish and had been to Madrid before, since she could tell us about the city and the culture. We ate traditional food like tortilla, which is like a spanish omelette.
At the restaurant, her friend who was studying in Spain joined us. Later he took us all to a traditional spanish restaurant for dinner, where we all had paella (the traditional spanish dish including rice, vegetables, and typically seafood) and sangrias (fruit and wine).
The nightlife in Spain starts late and ends late. We had dinner at 10pm, and the nightlife really doesn't start until one or two, some places don't even open til then!
On Saturday, it was nice and sunny. We ate lunch inside a market, then afterwards we walked in Parque Retiro, the main park of Madrid. The park, with the ancient trees and resevoir in the middle, was gorgeous. Great for a relaxing walk, hence the name retiro (retire). We went to sit down by a roman pavilion area and watch people ride in rowboats in the resevoir.
That day we also went to Palacio Real, the royale palace of Madrid. We were able to enter and tour the area, visiting the stately rooms, each one more grand than the last. Chandeliers hung in almost every room, but my favorite room was the Rococo room.
That night was a fairly chill night. We met up again with friends and went to an Italian restaurant. Afterwards, we went to a cool bar. What made it so unique was that it was once an old theatre, and it has a lot of the original structure still. The bar was up on the stage, so we could watch people eating dinner where the audience once sat. I had a sangria, which looked just as good as it tasted.
The next day we went to the famous Museo el Prado and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. It's hard to choose which one was my favorite, considering Museo el Prado had some great portraits and Rubens, while Thyssen had one of my favorite Degras painting, and a painting of St. Anthony Falls! I would never imagine seeing a painting depicting Minnesota in an art museum in Madrid, Spain.
After lunch, we went back to Parque Retiro and sat down to watch people stroll by or fly kites. Lauren and I returned to the hotel to unwind, then afterwards we went to the market for tapas. Inside the market there are dozens of food vendors and in one of the aisles there's tables and chairs to eat at, in case the food you bought isn't portable. Many people were walking around munching on tapas or drinking wine or sangria at the little bars inside. Everything was very cheap-- two euros for sangria and two/three euros for tapas.
We stayed awhile, finally getting a table near the end (or, what was written as the end--the market was suppose to close at ten, yet it probably didn't really close until 11:30). Alex rejoined us and when market really was closing down, we went to a bar.
Then, Monday came and off we were back to Paris.
Sorry I'm falling behind on the tales of my travels, since it's now almost April and so much as happened in between Madrid and now...hopefully I can catch everyone up!
MM
