Madrid: Land of Sangria and Tapas

Last weekend I finally got the chance to fill by backpack with a few of my belongings, wake up at the crack of dawn and travel to another region of Europe. I went to visit Madrid with three of the girls in my program; Lauren, Pam and Cara. The trip was definitely worth the cost and many hours spent traveling. The trip was only for three days, but we were able to get a good feel of the city and were happy to come home to our own beds at the end. Luckily, we had an amazing tour-guide in Pam's friend Suzanna who speaks fluent Spanish and is studying in Madrid.

Our travels began very early, as we needed to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a bus to another bus that would then take us to the airport. We actually missed our first bus and had to resort to a cab, but we were all in good spirits so the set-back only made it more of an adventure. Cara was meeting us in Madrid as she was already in Barcelona for a few days beforehand, so with another tag-a-long friend for the morning we started our journey. You can see in the photo how thrilled we were to be sitting outside at 4 in the morning waiting for our second bus.

The trip to Madrid was rather painless, we all slept on the bus and plane and the hostel we stayed with gave very exact directions to its location. We flew into beautiful weather, a wonderful change from the dreary Parisian weather we had been suffering though for weeks. It was sunny every day and even reached into the 70s during our stay. We could not have asked for better conditions to visit. Our hostel was a great place as well, very clean and bright; it was also located in the middle of the historic area of Madrid. We switched rooms for our second night, but our first had a great view of a main street in Madrid.

Our first day there was rather mild, we were all exhausted from traveling and wanted to save our energy for the next day. We spent most of the day walking around the neighborhood we were staying and all took a good nap that was much needed. Thanks to Suzanna's presence one fun thing we were able to do was visit the park named "Retiro," the largest park in Madrid. It was nice to be outside in the good weather and we were even motivated enough to rent boats to row around the pond in the center of the park. We got two boats for the group, but luckily all took turns rowing. The park had a beautiful fountain situated to one side and people were out in droves enjoying the good weather.

That evening we went out to tapas with Suzanna and her cousin Alberto; they are both orginally from El Salvador and are only in Spain temporalily. In fact, Alberto had just quit his job with Airbus to go home and pursue work there instead. As for the tapas, they were amazing. We got about 12 to 15 small dishes and shared them as a table. One great benefit of Spain is that it is much cheaper than Paris, our meal only cost us $15 euros each and that was inlcuding sangria for the table. After dinner we went to a local bar that Suzanna frequents with her friends. It was a very laid back lounge and we stayed for a while. Our downfall was that the lounge atmosphere caused us all to get embrace our tiredness and we decided to go back to the hostel for a decent night of rest.

I am a much earlier riser than the other girls, so I was showered, dressed and ready to go by the time they were just waking up. Once everyone was ready we headed out for our long day of sight-seeing. The first place we went to was the royal palace. It was a beautiful building and interesting to contrast with the overdone styles that are in Paris. Sadly, we weren't able to take any pictures inside the palace.

Across the street was a church, whose name I cannot remember. It was a beautiful place. The colors and style were much different than the churches I have seen thus far in Paris, they were brighter and more distinct than the mostly somber versions I'd seen. We were even given more freedom to walk around in this church, able to walk up to some of the alters that in the past were roped off from the public.

After that we went to the Prado, which is Spain's version of the Louvre. We were all pretty tired, so we only saw a portion of the museum. Suzanna was perfect for taking us through it as she has an art history course that meets there once a week. She was able to tell us the significance of certain images and background on some of the famous pieces. The museum is focused on Spanish artists, there were large numbers of pieces by El Greco, Goya, and Velazquez. The picture is of one of the most famous works in the museum; it is Velazquez's "The Maids of Honor."

That evening was our most exciting portion of our visit. It began with a bit of shopping, as some of the girls wanted clothes for going out later that evening. I didn't find anything that struck my fancy, but it was nice to see that clothing was cheaper there than in Paris. Afterwards we went out for the traditional Spanish paella, which is rice cooked with different seafoods or meats and some vegetables. The food was a complicated mess, one of us is vegetarian, one doesn't eat seafood, etc. Luckily we all turned out happy, even though it took visits to multiple restaurants to do so. The paella was quite good too, not my favorite dish of the visit (the tapas win my vote), but a fun dish to try none the less.

This is where the real adventure began. In Suzanna's studies in Madrid she is also taking a dance class in flamenco, a traditional Spanish dance, and that evening her teacher was going to be performing at a local flamenco club. Somehow they had a few available seats and my friends and I were able to join Suzanna's class and watch a flamenco performance. Getting there was the challenge. We had to be at the venue at 11 or we would not be let in; with our dinner complications we were not done until 10:45, but to make matters worse Cara had walked down the street as we paid to get something else vegetarian that she could eat. We literally had to run through the streets of Madrid to find this venue and hopefully make it on time. As rushed as we were it only made it more exciting. Magically, we made it with barely a moment to spare. A minute after we sat down with Suzanna's class the lights dimmed and the show began.

The show was spectacular; there were two guitar players and two male singers who provided all the music for the evening. The dancers, three women and one man, each took turns performing and each had a very different style than the other. Flamenco was not what I was expecting, although I did not really know what it looked like in the first place. It was sharp and heavy movements with a lot of leg work, you could tell that form and posture were very important details of the dance. The clothing was also very beautiful; long skirts on the women that flowed as they spun and had very interesting patterns to catch the eye. The performance lasted about an hour, but I felt so lucky to have seen it. Really a once in a lifetime experience. The final moments of the show an older woman was pulled onstage to dance. We were all slightly confused... but it ends up that she is a famous flamenco dancer from years back and a mentor to some of the performers that evening. It was a cute way to end the show as all the dancers circled around her and danced.

I have a video here of the male performer; you can hear the guitar and singers in the background.

After the performance we ran back to our hostel to change for our night out with Suzanna and her cousin. We met up at a friend's house and met a great group of Spainards who were our hosts for the night. We were welcomed into Javier's apartment and surprisingly most everyone spoke either English or French so we were able to make good conversation. Eventually our hosts took us to a bar called "La Botilleria," it was a very Spanish place. I think we may have been the only non-Spainards there. The music was mostly modern hits on the Spanish charts; I tried to learn the words to a few but it was definitely difficult to pick up over the other voices screaming the lyrics.

The following morning was our last in Madrid. We packed up our things, checked out of the hostel and met up with Suzanna one final time for a good-bye treat. I think she saved the best for last. Suzanna took us to a gourmet food shop called Mallorca; it was filled with small sandwiches, cakes, tarts, and treats of every form. We were thrilled to be getting this as our final stop in Spain. They had a huge gigantic case of small pasteries that were paid for by the kilo, this meant I was able to get five of these tiny treats for less than three euro! They were by far the most delicious thing I ate during our entire trip. Here's a picture of our entire group enjoying some of our treats at Mallorca (myself, Pamela, Cara, Lauren and Suzanna) and some of the treats that we ordered.

Once we finished eating it was time to hop on the metro to the airport. I felt like I could have stayed an entire week, but those three days gave us a great taste of the city without wearing us out too much (although the siestas helped too). Returning to Paris was bittersweet, it was great to be home but I missed the relaxed atmosphere and wonderful weather we were blessed with in Madrid. Now I'm even more excited for my trips in the future, hopefully they will be just as good.

Adios!