madrid

people have had mixed reviews about madrid but i can tell you that i loved this city!  from a tourist perspective, there isn't a whole lot except for the usual museum/palace/cathedral, but i just loved wandering around and getting lost.  it's the second largest city in spain, therefore huge, but it didn't feel that way to me.  


i got to my hostel incredibly early in the morning and for some reason decided it would be a good idea to do the walking tour that started at 10:30.  HORRIBLE IDEA.  it went on for 3.5 hours (the longest walking tour i've done to date), the scottish guide talked like he was a tv show host for the ENTIRE TIME and it was hot.  not seville hot, but hotter than the other cities i've been to so far.

churros con chocolate...awesome drunk food :)

one awesome thing about madrid is that most of it's major attractions have free entry after a certain time.  since i enjoyed the picasso museum so much, i wanted to check out the reina sofia where guernica is.  i took a little siesta then headed over at 7 when it was free.  the reina sofia is a modern art museum which is neat...but huge and overwhelming...like most art museums if you ask me.  after getting in and checking out some rooms, patrick and i headed to guernica and gawked at it for a while before calling it quits because we had had enough after 1.5 hours. haha.  patrick is a friend of chris' who i met in valencia.  he happened to be in my walking tour and after speaking for a bit, we realized we had a degree of separation.  small world, huh?


i went to the prado the next day when it was free after 6 and holy shit that place is a maze and a half.  the prado has classical art and houses work by goya and valesquez (spain's well known artists) so the crowd here is larger than the reina sofia.  the prado also had at least 75 ROOMS of paintings.  i got so lost in there and after about 1.5 hours, i was out.  i swear everywhere i turned i saw yet another jesus in pain painting.  i will say that valesquez's las medinas painting (some people say it's the most impressive painting...ever...) was cool to look at.  i just don't think i know how to appreciate art.


before heading to the prado, i wandered around on my own checking out the royal palace (it was ok...they tried to compare it to versailles...i laugh in their face).  then made my way to the san miguel market which was awesome!  i was such a happy little kid walking around and trying out all kinds of foods.  i got a few seafood/bruschetta type things from the casa de bacalao and then also grabbed a tapas portion of paella.  everything in that market looked so good that i went back the next day with some girls!  this time i gave gazpacho a try and it was so good!  when it's as hot as it is there, you don't want hot soup.

after hitting up the market with the girls on wed, we walked around and found my fav chain in spain, cervecerias 100 montaditos!!  it is pretty much a little sandwich shop (i really mean little...think sandwich sliders...you need at least 3 or 4 to get full) with salads and cheap beer and tinto de verano.  this place has a soft spot in my heart.  we went a few times in seville and on wednesdays, everything is 1 euro with the exception of salads and tinto de verano (2 euros).  since it was my last wed in spain, we made a stop and had some tinto de veranos before moving on.  oh how i will miss you!

my guidebook also sold me on what was arguably madrid's best ice cream so obbbbviously i had to go check it out before i peaced out.  i really enjoyed it.  it was definitely the most expensive ice cream i've paid for, but worth every penny.  i had the dulce de leche which was pretty much pure caramel and then marscapone with fruit.  yeah...it was a lot of ice cream and i ate it all.  not that you expected any less.

i had the best time in madrid meeting tons of great people from my hostel and just touring the city at a leisurely pace.  it's bad but siestas are becoming part of the daily routine.  i will definitely miss that about this country.  what i won't miss is the spanish.  i've been able to survive off key phrases, but it's funny because even when you tell the people you don't speak spanish, and you give them the most confused look possible, they still continue to the verbal assault on you as if it will click if they talk at you long enough.  yeah right.  that is definitely one thing that i am really looking forward to in morocco...french!!!