We were thrilled to learn while flying from Barcelona to Madrid that Madrid was indeed one of those magnificently well-planned cities where for a mere $2.00 one could take a subway from the airport and arrive within 100 yards of their hostel in less than 45 minutes time.
Due to our flight being slightly delayed, we did not arrive to our hostel until a bit past 11:30. Much to our happy surprise, however, Madrid stays up much later than Barcelona and so finding food at that late hour was not difficult. We went a to fashionably decorated, though unoriginally named tapas bar called “tapasbar” before turning in for the night. We were a bit disappointed to learn the next morning that Madrid was in the middle of an unusual bout of rainy weather. Since that day’s downpour had already started, we decided that our first activity of the day would be to check out the Museo del Prado so that we could hopefully save the outdoor activies for days with better weather.
Though we did have to wait about 30 minutes to enter, we were thrilled to learn that EU students could enter for free and American student admission rates were only 3 euros. We were really struck by many of the paintings in the early rooms. Though neither of us were familier with the artists, they were exceptionally moving, even graphic at times. We had a list of masterpieces that we wanted to see and we saw them all, I believe. My favorites naturally were three of the most well-known paintings in the museum: Velasquez’s Las Meninias, Van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross, and Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.
For lunch we ate a wonderfully crummy hole-in-the-wall bar and ordered bocadillos de calamares con salsa brava, or fried calamari poboys with hot sauce. Since they were only three euro each, we ended up ordering two bottles of San Miguel beer as well. Since the weather had improved, we spent the rest of the day walking around the old town and finding a nice cafe/bar where we could go and read at night.
To save some money, we went to a grocery store and bought some bread, cheese, and tomato/olive oil sauce so that we could make some light tapas for dinner. While in the store, we both commented how it would be a bit sad leaving Spain because it won’t be until Australia that we’ll be in a country where the native language is one we can understand. Though we have been remarkably successful thus far at pointing and showing fingers, there is just something pleasureable about being able to tell someone, correctly and eloquently, what you are trying to say. After dinner, we headed over to Arca, the cafe/bar we had picked out earlier that day, where over a pitcher of sangria we read books an began to draw out a few ideas we’ve had about how to make better travel gear.
Sunday morning began at an English-speaking mass in north Madrid. One of the priests invited us to stick around after mass for donuts and coffee and we had the chance to speak to him. A native of San Francisco, he is a Jesuit who was assigned to Madrid as he continues to work on his doctorate.
After mass, we took a subway to a part of town a bit closer to where we were staying so that we could go see el Rastro, the weekly Madrid flea market. Though we hardly ever see anything we would really buy at these sorts of things, Katie did buy a headband to keep her hair out of her face. For lunch, we entered a crowded cafe next to the market to grab another bocadillo (swiftly becoming our favorite Spanish snack).
We got to take advantage of a tip from a local after lunch. Less than a hundred yards from our hostel was a place called the San Gines Chocolateria, whose speciality is chocolate con churros, or hot chocolate with churros, a fried, tubular, beignet of sorts. Needless to say, it was delicious. Ingesting so much sugar in such a short period of time made us quite sleepy though, so we took a short nap in our hostel before we went over to the Museo Reina Sofia, which is currently putting on almost all of the major works from Paris’s Picasso museum as a temporary exhibition.
We were a bit disappointed to discover that the museum closed very early on Sundays so we went instead to the city’s largest park, El Retiro. After having a sufficient amount of time exploring the park and reading on one of its benches, we went to yet another tapas bar and vinoteca to get some dinner. To drink, Katie and I tried two different sherries, a dry Palomino and a sweet Pedro Ximenez. To eat, we ordered octopus and potatoes with “salsa brava;” goat cheese and anchovies; goat cheese and carmalized onions; as well as pesto, spinach, and smoked salmon wrapped around mozarella cheese! It was one of the savoriest dinners we’ve had on this trip, but we’re also confident that we could replicate all of these hors d’oeuvres at one of our own parties.
Monday brought a lot less rain so we did almost all of our urban walking then. Our first destination was the Cathedral de la Almuden, next to the Palacio Real. The cathedral looked old from the outside, but the inside looked quite modern. We walked around parts of the newer town, hoping to find a theatre where some of Madrid’s best flamenco shows take place. We were a bit disappointed to find that an Argentine pop singer, whom we had never heard of, was performing there instead of any traditional flamenco shows.
So after another bocadillo (poboy) lunch, we headed back to Reina Sofia and finally got the chance to go see the Picasso exhibit. One cool thing was not only seeing Guernica, but also a series of photographs that Picasso took as he was working on it, documenting changes that he made as he worked on it. When we looked at the finished painting on display, we could see some of the half erased marks he never fully cleaned up.
We went to sleep early that night, after another light dinner of cold tapas at the hostel. On Tuesday morning, we caught our plane to Athens. The subway ride took a bit longer than we had expected and since our eticket didn’t specify we were departing from the furthest terminal, and we ended up catching our flight only because we ran through the concourse to the ticket desk!