Post 3: Madrid (Round 1)

Entry 3: Madrid Round 1 May 24 

Hola a todo! We only had a day in Madrid this time around due the aforementioned delays but we experienced a lot in our short time in the Spanish capital. We touched down in Madrid 14:30 (we’ve had to adopt military time) in the afternoon after a short layover in Zurich. Upon arrival, Matt and I dropped our bags at La Posada de Huertas (International Youth Hostel) and sought to see a couple of the sights that did not have any entry fee/closing time since it was getting late in the afternoon at this point. Our journey began with looking at the outside of el Museo Nacional del Prado. The nation’s most important art history landmark features a gorgeous exterior with statues of Goya and a number of Greek deities. We plan on making it inside during our second stay in the city and hope that Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, and Co.’s art lives up to the standard the museum’s architecture foreshadows. Next up, we walked through el Real Jardín Botanico (Royal Botanical Garden) for some floral pleasure. The garden features vegetation from all over the globe and was well worth the €3 entry fee.  From the botanical garden we walked through Parque de Retiro which was gorgeous, but slightly less than we expected. We went on a Thursday and apparently it only gets really crowded on the weekends.  Then we made our way to the Plaza de Cibeles and Puerta del Sol. The Plaza has a fountain of Athena in the middle and is surrounded by Banco de España and the Palacio Cibeles. Puerta del Sol is a huge quad that has small shops, cafés, restaurants, and some lodging. Our experience was rather unusual because there upon entering we saw thousands of people chanting and protesting “peacefully”. Matt’s sister said that she saw the rally on CNN the next day. Apparently there is a nationwide Spanish social revolution lead by college students. After joining the chanting for a short stint (didn’t want to look too much like tourists) we made our way back towards La Posada de Huertas Youth Hostel in hopes of finding a bite to eat. We found ourselves at a hole in the wall tapas bar called España Cañí for a Spanish staple, Tapas. They were delicious but they merely served as an appetizer for the more substantial meal we got beside our hostel some thirty minutes later. After dinner, around 10pm (the Spanish typically don’t begin dinner until 9pm at the earliest), we got ready to go to a famous discoteca in Madrid called Kapital. Kapital has 7 dance floors and a rooftop terrace. The largest surprise of visit to the discoteca was a huge fog cannon that immersed the dance floor with chilled fog sporadically. We left Kapital for our hostel around 5am where we slept next to an overzealous Kazak and a shy Indianan (that was studying abroad and very depressed about leaving) for the States the next day. We then took a train to Valencia the next morning after about 3 hours of sleep.

The ticket with the garden in the background

 

Video of the gathering at Puerta del Sol