Alex decided to make this weekend a 3-day weekend to accommodate travel, so Naomi and I spontaneously planned a trip to Madrid!
After climbing to the castle in Alicante, we took a bus to Madrid. We arrived in the evening and took the metro to our hostel, No Name Hostel right on Calle Atocha, one of the main streets in the heart of Madrid. We explored some of the city the first night, but we mostly planned out what to do for the next two days.
Saturday morning, we set out in the morning after a hostel breakfast (cornflakes, milk, and toast). We saw so much and everything was walkable! We saw everything on the Western side of Madrid. The Gran Via is the largest street in the city with multiple lanes; it is lined with shops like H&M, Nike, and McDonald's. Puerta del Sol is a large plaza, a very open public space, with a lot of history. Plaza Mayor is a closed square with many, many restaurants on its border (the photo is the plaza at night). We saw many palaces and churches that had amazing detail on the outside. I had a smoothie for lunch because I ended up not being able to decide which of the countless restaurants to dine at. Mercado San Miguel is an indoor marketplace of gourmet tapas; the building is intricately constructed with glass and steel. We had tapas in the La Latina neighborhood at a restaurant where the bartender did not speak English--but it was delicious! I love little foods with a glass of wine.
After tapas for dinner, we stopped by the supermarket to buy some snacks for Sunday to save some money (and to use the internet!). At night, we went out again. I found a bar that Hemingway used to frequent and had a hefeweizen there! Then we went to a chocolate and churros place--the hot chocolate is super thick so it's perfect to dip the churros into it. I ended up letting a chunk of churros marinate in the chocolate until it was infused with flavor.. yum! We slept well that night.
Sunday was museum day. It was amazing to see famous works of art up close and with succinct explanations. Most of the museums were East of our hostel. Our first stop of the morning, though, was a flea market called El Rastro. It's like the market in Guardamar, but much larger! It was on our way to the Reina Sofia, a huge museum that's free on Sundays in the morning. I got to see Guernica, my favorite painting by Picasso (and probably of all time). It was amazing to see the process and the sheer size of the painting. We were kicked out at 2:30pm so we didn't have time to see the entire museum. We then went to the Caixa Forum, which is another museum, but we mostly marveled at the green wall next to it. Then we went to a huge park near the Prado--it was really hot and there wasn't much shade, but a lot of people were there enjoying the weekend. It reminded me of a more planned version of Golden Gate Park. We went to the Prado Museum when it was free--it's filled with classical paintings with Christian themes. It was interesting to contrast all the modern art in the Reina Sofia with the realist and romantic paintings in the Prado.
For dinner, we went to Plaza Mayor to catch the sunset while eating tapas. We got to people-watch, which is always a treat! Some street performers were just setting up. After dinner, we went off in search of gelato, which I had never had before! I ended up getting the yogurt flavor, and it was super intense. Naomi got lemon and chocolate, and both were also very intense in flavor.
Tomorrow, we have a lot of time before our 3PM bus back home. Madrid has been awesome. We've walked so much in just two days... but it was worth it!
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