Madrid

Little behind on everything, sorry!

So, Madrid. Sean and I tried to look as untouristy as possible while we were there, since we weren’t sure if the Spanish Occupy protests had quite cleared up. So, I left the camera and camera bag (or, as Katie called it, my man purse) at home so I’d have less to keep track of. As it turns out, we didn’t need to worry; didn’t see a single protestor the whole time we were there. Not a problem, though. I already have photos of everything in Madrid from a few years back. Apologies if the post is a bit picture-free, though.

Anyway, the train from Santiago to Madrid is sloooooooow, so we didn’t get in to Madrid until 9, then didn’t get to the hostel until almost 10. We were very thankful that the sun doesn’t set in Spain until around 10, since it made it much easier to find where we were going. Anyway, we got in, got some dinner, and crashed.

Day 2 marked the day I officially turned old (my 22^nd birthday), and to celebrate Sean and I went to the Prado, Madrid’s massive fine arts gallery (wrote a bit about that earlier) and Retiro Park, which makes Central Park in New York look like a putting green. It’s MASSIVE, and has at least two ponds, which make it a fantastic place to just wander. Anyway, after that we went for a spin around Plaza Mayor, went to dinner, came back to the hostel, met Namisha, and went to bed.

The next day was a bit more abstract, as we went to the Reina Sofia, Madrid’s modern and contemporary art museum (also discussed earlier). Also went to the Royal Palace and saw how the Spanish 1% lived (quite lavishly, if you’re wondering). It was also really cool to see the royal armory, though Sean and I couldn’t figure out how some of those early firearms worked. When a gun’s barrel is as long as you are tall, and as big around as your upper arm, how do you fire it without breaking your shoulder? The Royal Pharmacy was fun to snicker at. They reeeaaallly didn’t understand medicine well back then. One of the medicine jars was just marked “good coffee.” Anyway, that was the night we did tapas at San Miguel, after which we came back and chatted with our fellow hostellers before heading to bed at 2am.

Our last day before Barcelona was a day trip to Toledo, which is its own post (which will actually include pictures!)