Madrid

I love Madrid. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I had heard mixed things about it... but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. The city was bustling with people and I loved that. It was prettier than I had expected too.

Standing in the very center of España!

We arrived in Madrid in the evening, and hopped on the metro to find our hostel, called Way Hostel. This was my favorite hostel mostly because of the location, the French reception guy, our enormous room (& proximity to the bathroom), and the kitchen where we had our first "homecooked" dinner! First thing we did once we had arrived: grocery shop. I think we went a little nuts (by this time in our trip, we were pretty fruit & veggie deprived). We made a huge stir fry dinner (with too much broccoli, my bad, hehe). We then met our roommate, Dave. He was a weird one. Nice I guess... but did not get the hint at all that we didn't want to hang out with him. In the end, we basically had to tell him we wanted a "girls night out" so he would leave us alone and not tag along. hahaaha, sorry MP for having to be the bearer of bad news.

But we did have a fun girls night out! We walked over to Calle Huertas, only a few blocks from our hostel, which was crackin' at night! Tons of bars and things open late, with recruiters who kept trying to get us to go with them to their respective bars/clubs. We then realized that we were being a bit too close-minded and that, honestly, we didn't want to spend money. So, we gave in, with one catch--we wanted free drinks! This is when we met the funniest guy I think we met all trip: Manuel. I don't think I can accurately describe him here. Should've taken a video. But needless to say, we got free drinks! And met another cute bartender and DJ. Oh Madrid, how you treated us well.

Free sangria! Thats whats up.

The next day was VERY full. We went to the Royal Palace, El Reina Sofia museum, and El Prado museum. We also took our lovely "homemade" sandwiches to the park to have lunch. The park was gorgeous. Filled with runners, bikers, kids, and picnic-ers. The weather was absolutely flawless too. After the Barcelona humidity, and the heat in southern Spain, Madrid was perfect. Felt like bay area weather.

Royal Palace, Reina Sofia & El Prado Museums

We made sure to have a nice last meal in Spain at El Caldero, where we had amazing and legit Paella, and were entertained by 3 older Italian men who kept making funny comments to us, had us take a picture with their paella, and take a shot of that end-of-the-dinner sweet dark thick liquor thing with them. Funny times. And can't forget our waiter who would walk by singing Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston. LOL.

We went out that night, for our last night in Spain. We returned to Sunset bar and later ended up at Kapital, a big club, with 2 new Chilean friends who we decided to go with on their hostel's pub crawl. Funny and fun night is all I have to say. I love meeting people from different parts of the world. I must go to Chile now! They taught us some Chilean Spanish, which is too inappropriate to write in this blog. hahaha. :)

I can't tell you how sad I was to leave Spain. Leaving Barcelona was one thing, but leaving Spain was... a bit terrifying. I came to be so comfortable there, with the culture, people, way of life. And of course, speaking Spanish! I went from being very capable and comfortable getting around, to being plunked down in France, with absolutely no knowledge of French. Scary. Guess I got a bit spoiled... but a day and a half in Madrid was FAR too short. Definitely on my list of places to return to! <3