¡Ay Ay Ay Madrid!

I started speaking Spanish when I was just three years old. My babysitter taught me the numbers and I would walk around the house repeating, “uno, dos, tres…” I then studied Spanish starting in kindergarten in Dallas until my freshman year in college. Needless to say, after all of my years of studying Spanish, I was thrilled to finally visit a Spanish speaking country!

The day before our trip to Madrid, our flight was pushed back two hours for who knows what reasons. This put a slight damper on our sight seeing plans, but we just went with the flow. Upon arriving in Madrid on Friday, Pam and I hopped in a cab to our hotel, dropped off the bags, and met up Noelle to grab some tapas for lunch. This was around 4 o’clock might I add, as everything has a later start in Spain. We were so exhausted that we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner with the big Furman group. We opted to get drinks in the hotel bar to kill time before meeting everyone for dinner at 9. We tried the signature Spanish drink, tinto de verano, and figured out the metro to get to the restaurant. Pam’s friend from Furman who are studying in Madrid took us to a hole in the wall restaurant that served amazing sangria and tapas, including paella! We were stuffed and could barely move after eating, but Pam’s friend Maret insisted on taking us out on the town to Kapital, one of the best and biggest clubs in Madrid. Upon walking a couple miles in our heels, we finally arrived to the seven story club. There were two disco levels and even a karaoke floor.

The next morning Pam and I got up bright and early for our tour of Madrid at 8:30am. We didn’t have time for breakfast at the hotel and had to opt for hot chocolate from the vending machine to tie us over (never again). The first stop on our tour was the Royal Palace. Built in the 18th century on the site of an ancient alcassar (Arab-fortress) in the classical Italian baroque style, it is one of the most beautiful and best preserved palaces in Europe. Each room revealed rich tapestries, exquisite china pieces, and well crafted clocks. The rest of our tour brought us by sights and squares as Monumento de la Encarnacion, Plaza Mayor, Puerta de la Operal, and Puerta del Sol. We truly got our culture fix this morning!

Gates of the Royal Palace

The Royal Palace

After the tour we were starving and had one thing on our minds: STARBUCKS. In fact, we had a Starbucks conveniently attached to our hotel! It was such a treat to have Starbucks two weekends in a row after not having it for three months! We sat outside under the palm trees (yes, there are palm trees in Madrid) and people watched while deciding what to do for the afternoon. Unfortunately the line for the Prado Museum stretched around the entire building and there was no way we were going to waste our precious time in Madrid waiting lines. So, we opted to go to the Carmen Thyssen Bornemisza Museum instead. There was an “Jardines Impresionistas” (impressionist gardens) exhibit- my favorite! There were garden paintings by everyone from Monet to Pissaro. It was breathtaking to see them all in one place!

A Taste of the Tropics

After the museum we walked back to the hotel and changed before meeting up with Maret at Sol. When Pam and I arrived to meet her, we could have sworn it was New Years Eve in Madrid. There were hundreds of people gathered in the square. When we finally found Maret, she told us a strike was going on. After a quick pit stop at the department store to buy a pair of tights (our legs were absolutely freezing- I guess that having palm trees doesn’t quite make Madrid a tropical location) we went to one of Maret’s favorite tapas restaurants for some sangria. We then met up with everyone again for a group dinner, where I had an interesting potato and sauce dish…not a fan. We then headed to Dubliners, one of the Madrid group’s favorite bars. It was very quaint and reminded me of The Little Pub at home!

The next morning we met up with Jenny and Noelle, grabbed another Starbucks for the road, and jumped in a cab to the airport. Our trip to Madrid was way too quick! One of our favorite memories from the trip; however, was our experience in the Madrid Airport. While Noelle had to check her bag at a completely different area of the airport, Pam, Jenny, and I decided to sit down on the floor and wait for her. We lasted a good 10 minutes before some airport employee came up to us and started speaking in Spanish. Supposedly we weren’t allowed to sit down on the floor, but we hadn’t seen any seats around! We stood and waited for Noelle and got into the security line, where Jenny set off every alarm possible. Walking to the gate we passed by a McDonalds, and Noelle and Pam were so tempted that once we got all the way to the gate, they went back to get their McDonalds fix. While boarding the plane, I heard the attendant say “Ellas tienen hombre. Mira las pappas fritas.” This ultimately translated to, “Those girls are hungry. Look at the french fries.” It was hard to miss the huge McDonalds bags they had in their hands!

¡Hasta luego Espana!