Madrid- FINALLY!

*A full slide show of all the pics from Madrid can be found on the right column of this blog- right above my favorite books and below the recent comments and amazon search box. Click on the slide show and it will take you to the full album in a separate window*

Ok I’m sorry that I’ve kept you all waiting. I’m starting to live the “Spanish life”- meaning everything is “mañana, mañana” (tomorrow, tomorrow). I don’t know how I will function if I ever return to the states LOL. So since about a week has passed since my last real posting this is going to be a long one…OH how I can talk!!! Anyways- Madrid- I’m going to try my hardest to condense this but seriously, the trip was ridiculous. You should probably grab some popcorn and a drink. I’m not kidding, it’s a long story. Now…what you’ve all be waiting for…

SATURDAY

This last weekend me and my friend Niki (the Irish girl) decided we would go to Madrid for the weekend. We figured we would just buy the midnight bus tickets so we could sleep (or at least attempt to) on the bus and arrive in Madrid in the morning. At least that was the idea… story of my life right? So we go to head over to the bus station to buy tickets which is about a 30 min walk from my place. Of course on this day it was POURING down rain. Yep the only day it has really rained so far since I’ve been here and it was on the day we had all sorts of errands to run, like buying the tickets, clothes, food…and then an umbrella. The rain of course was pretty warm so not even as close to as bad as Seattle where if it’s raining your hands start to go numb lol.

So we purchased the tickets…only 32 euro ROUND TRIP (and yes- I can see you glaring at me out of jealousy) haha. Afterwards we wandered into a few shops to try to find bags/small luggage to take with us to Madrid. That was an adventure in itself because small duffle type bags are basically impossible to find, at least in Lucena. I, of course, got sidetracked and found the shoe section (lol) and got a pair of SUPER cute boots and one of those little waist scarves that belly dancers use that has little metal coin looking things to make noise- obviously I don’t know what it called but hopefully you get the picture.

Moving on, after wandering around Lucena we each went home to eat/pack/drink wine :) until later that night when the bus came.

When I headed out for the bus station it was raining again, of course. It was like every time I was walking through the town it would rain more, but whenever I was inside the rain would lighten up haha…my bad karma. The bus came and picked us up on the side of the road next to the bus station (the bus station was closed so I guess that’s just the way they do it)…it really confused me at first though especially when I arrived to the bus station and everything was closed haha. The bus was pretty much just like a grey hound bus (in the states) and you can sit wherever. So our whole goal was to sleep on the bus, wake up in Madrid and then scour the town…again, this went a little differently than planned. Sitting on the bus- great. Sleeping on the bus- not so great. So when we got to Madrid 5 and a half hours later both of us had gotten a little sleep off and on but we were both kind of out of it, I think Niki more so than me.

AFTER ARRIVING IN MADRID

6am in Madrid...

Since it was 5:30AM when we arrived, nothing was open so we just stayed at the bus station about an hour. After we headed down to the metro (underground bus system). Trying to figure that out when you’re half awake was VERY DIFFICULT. I was pretty much willing to just sit on the bus for an hour or two and let it drive us around in circles until I could wake up a little and figure out what was going on lol. Niki ended up figuring the whole system out…its actually pretty easy once you do figure it out…so we were only on the bus for no more than 30min. We got off at the “puerta del sol”- just a kind of famous location…in the center of town. Because it was still EARLY and dark we sat in a bar/restaurant drinking coffee and orange juice for another hour or two. Eventually we left…as some drunk guy walked in and was kind of harassing some American girl lol (keep in mind that this was about 8 or 9am at this point). 

Walking around Madrid was amazing, especially that early in the morning (it was on a Sunday so nothing opens until 10am or later) because there were barely any people walking around. We just wandered for a couple hours because 1. The hostels wouldn’t let us check in until noon and 2.

The town was SUPER empty in the AM

The friend (and sister) of Niki’s that we were going to meet up with- had just gone to bed a few hours before that so they were dead asleep. I was wide awake so exploring and walking around was just fine by me...although I know Niki was exhausted. We walked by tons of places, most of which I don’t know the names, but one I do remember was the royal palace. It was HUGE and so beautiful. The buildings here are amazing…I know it’s just like everyone and their mom says…but it’s very true and the pictures don’t do it justice- SO COME VISIT ME! I took about a million photos while walking around so make sure to look at the MADRID album (I’m creating a separate one for Madrid)- be sure to check it out.

I tried the one on the left- called a Palmero (I think)

Oh and I can't leave this out! While wandering around we stopped into the open air market (I will talk about it more later) and had a little breakfast. Actually that morning I have like 3 or 4 breakfasts so yea... Anyways they also had some amazing looking goodies...along with churros and chocolate which I will HAVE to try on my next visit.

One of my new scarves

Around noonish we met up with Niki’s friends from Ireland…after stopping by a local market where I bought my FIRST scarves since coming to Spain. Meeting with her friend is a story in itself because we were all in a city we didn’t know, so trying to find a common place to meet at…well let’s just say it took some time haha. When we finally found each other we all (4 of us) went for a coffee. I also ended up trying my FIRST tortilla de patatas/tortilla espanola/tortilla (they're all the same thing) which is like a potato omlete that they sometimes add other items too but is typically just eggs, olive oil and potatoes (and sometimes onions).

Tortilla...halfway through eating it lol

I seriously think we sat there for about 4 hours chatting, mostly since Niki rarely gets to see her friend so I understand the want to hang out for a while. I ended up getting pretty antsy to find a hostel though, since it was a Puente (long weekend) and EVERYONE was traveling…basically meaning it was hard to find a cheap and good hostel that had space. We ended up settling in one right across from where her friends were staying so it was convenient to be close to them.

After we booked into the place Niki stayed in and took a nice long nap while I ended up wandering around the city. My goal was to go to some museums but all the ones that I passed by were closed so I just wandered around for 2 or 3 hours just staring at the buildings in amazement and taking tons of photos. Here’s a few photos but definitely be sure to check out the album for a million other pics.

AND THE FUN BEGINS…

Later that night all of us reunited and went out for tapas. The funniest and most reoccurring part about this mini trip was that both Niki and her friend are very “free spirits” meaning they just kind of go with the wind, time isn’t important as long as they’re having a good time. I’m starting to learn how to be like this a touch but it is basically completely OPPOSITE of how I function and how I’ve been raised lol so this made for a very interesting night…and trip in general.

Anyways we met up and headed for this open air type market where they have tapas and just a good, lively atmosphere. Since none of us know Spain very well…we walked about 45min to find the place (me and Niki had already stopped by there in the morning so we knew where it was…in general). When we arrived the place was pretty packed, but since it’s an open air market the vibe wasn’t stuffy but rather just lot of fun. I would compare it would a busy day at the Pike Place Market in Seattle but everyone is there to try little bits of different food (tapas) and wine/beer. I ended up eating some croquettes and they were AMAZING. I suppose croquettes are like fried lumps of food…there are different kinds so it makes it more difficult to explain hence my horrible and unappetizing description. The ones I tried were 1. Spinach croquette- just like blended spinach in a ball and fried, 2. Lobster and something…it seemed almost like mashed potatoes with lobster mixed in, formed into a ball and then fried, 3. Muscle croquette- this was interesting because it was a blended mix of muscle (or some seafood) and maybe potato or something, then spread into a muscle shell, the breaded and fried- AMAZING, and I tried 1 or 2 more but in don’t remember what they were. Basically they were delicious and I would like to be eating some right now. Next time I eat croquettes I will try to remember to take a picture.

Moving on (I told you this would be long)… after eating and having a drink at the open are market (I think the name was San Miguel) we headed to a bar. We ended up in a Shisha bar- we have some in Seattle and its where you smoke flavored tobacco. I’m not sure exactly where they started but they definitely have Middle Eastern decent- if you know more- post it in a comment please. So we stayed there, met some cool people. Of course I was the only one in the group that spoke Spanish so it was mostly me having a conversation with the other people we met there lol. We left at about 1 or 2 am…so I was thinking we would head home…but of course I was out with Irish girls so that was not an option. We headed to another bar…now that is kind of a long story so I will try to make it short if I can.

THE BAR

Everything began relatively normal at the bar, we ordered drinks, ate some snacks (that were over priced), etc. Then a "interesting" woman walked in with the best outfit ever... She was wearing shiny (maybe pleather?) black leggings, a black and white animal print jacket that had shoulder pads, and CRAZY HUGE RED hair. To top it off, when she took off her jacket she was wearing like a plain white t-shirt/tank top with the big arm holes...like guys wear when they play basketball. The 80's are OFFICIALLY back. We took multiple photos of here but they were all pretty bad. Its really hard to take a photo of someone at a bar when there are less then 10 people there haha.

The night started to change even more when we had an older man decide to join our table…then things changed. At first he seemed normal…a friendly Spanish man…and then he opened his mouth. He started talking about all the jewelry, money and stuff he has. Of course I was translating this all to the girls because he only spoke Spanish. It was also funny because he kept saying that he did didn’t speak Italian, he didn’t speak French, he didn’t speak English and he didn't speak Spanish very well either. YEA- TRY TO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT lol. He was crazy and I was the link between him and 3 young girls (4 including me). The man didn’t really start to become a pain until about 2 hours into our being at the bar…then I became “THE TRANSLATOR”  and he wanted me to translate everything he was saying. Now if he had paid me and I hadn’t had just drank 5 beers maybe I would have been fine with that…but not at that moment. I started to get tired of translating because he kept just telling us that he has nice jewelry and he has money. He even had the nerve to tell Niki’s friend that the ring she just bought was crap. At that point I was done…of course he wasn’t so in order to get my attention he kept grabbing my arm every time he wanted me to translate. Luckily…the girls I was with are awesome and helped me out a little. They began to make fun of him (in English) in such a way that it seemed as though they were trying to explain something very serious and important to him. I was trying SO hard to keep myself from busting up laughing. Soon after that we left, and actually not because of the man but because the bar was closing…it was 5am :) We left and I hurried back to the hostel to get some sleep.

THE NEXT DAY

I woke up at 11:30am and all I wanted to do was to stay in bed the rest of the day- I was exhausted! Also, when I woke up Niki wasn’t there either…and we needed to check out at noon- great. So I got ready real quickly, walked over to the other girls’ hotel and went to their room. I knock and knock and no one answered. LUCKILY…I speak Spanish so I explained to the maid (who was in a room next door) what had happened and that my friend needed to grab her stuff from the hostel. She opened the door and of course- all the girls were sleeping there. I have no idea when Niki went to go grab her stuff but I know it was HOURS later lol but the hostel people were really nice and just put it off to the side for her to pick up when she came by. So my mission that day- to not pass out while sitting on the metro or while sitting down for a meal haha. I ended up wandering around the city some more just trying not to look too hung over with my bloodshot eyes- and I NEVER have bloodshot eyes- so I thought I looked like a monster. I  spent a while trying to figure out where they have lockers in Madrid and eventually found them at the train/bus station (there are multiple bus stations but this is the only train station there) so I was at least able to not schlep around my bag for a large chunk of the day.

Since many museums are closed on Mondays (many stores in general in Spain are close on Mondays) I looked into what WAS open. I ended up at a botanical garden- it was great. Now right now because of the time of year there weren’t a lot of flowers so I’m sure it’s much prettier in spring but I actually really liked it…especially because in this botanical garden they had a series of artwork. The artwork was just pictures of “historical events” that have happened all over the world. Some were funny, some were just beautiful and some almost made me cry because they were SO sad. They were amazing though and I wanted to take pics of almost all of them but I tried to just enjoy the moment instead.  The day ended up being really emotional for me with all the artwork I saw…it was great though and I loved it.

After the botanical gardens I wandered some more. I ended up sitting down to eat some food at a local bar/restaurant. One thing I learned is that if you have any sort of a hangover, don't drink a glass of wine and then follow it with a coffee...this will lead to a headache...that will last hours lol. So lesson learned there. Of course I didn't only order wine and coffee...I also ordered some food and it was REALLY good! I ordered "patatas guisado con bacalao" which is just stewed potatoes with cod...and it was seriously so amazingly delicious. After chowing down my super yummy food i headed out and explored some more.
At one point ended up sitting in Retiro Park (a famous park) but didn’t explore too much because I was still pretty tired so I just sat on a bench. Hopefully I didn’t look as crazy as I think I did just sitting on a bench by myself next to the children’s play area and laughing at the kids sometimes lolol.

After scaring all the kids away (totally joking lol) I went to Reina Sofia- one of the only museums open on Mondays…and free between 7 and 9 (when it closes). On my way over there I actually met a guy from L.A. who is super cool. He’s here and trying to find work and living here (Madrid) with his girlfriend. He’s a chef so of course we got along right? lol So I ended up spending an hour in the museum before it closed and it was so great. I only got to see about ¼ of all the art (yea these places are HUGE)…including Picasso’s work and some other great and famous artists. When I go back I’ll make a list of everyone I saw and who I liked…and even take some pics. It’s going to take me at least 3 days to get through all the museums because they’re all so huge so I’m sure I will have a gigantic list of artists that I saw…be prepared for a list as long as this posting lol.

HEADING BACK HOME

Afterwards I walked back to the center of town (“puerta del sol”) which took about 45min and hung out there for a little while. A guy from Seville actually approached me so we hung out and had a coffee for about an hour before I had to leave for the bus station (I actually had a HORRIBLE migraine at this point and it was making me nauseous so he helped me find a pharmacy and get some heavy duty migraine meds). I headed back to the bus station and was just hoping that Niki would be able to find her way there since I hadn’t talked with her all day and also because there are two bus stations in Madrid (actually 3 if you include the train station). When I got to the bus station Niki was there so no worries on that part- we headed back…again sleeping horribly. We arrived in Lucena at about 5am and both headed straight home. That trip was so exhausting I literally spent the whole next day (well I suppose it was the same day) in bed.  It was great. So thanks for reading ALL of that and make sure to check out the Madrid photo album. Also if you want more details about any part of the trip or places we went just ask.