MADRID

I'm back after 10 days of traveling!!! :) It was so much fun! While I was gone I decided to journal so I would not forget the amazing things I did and saw & could tell you all about my trip! Lets start out with Madrid...

Day One of Madrid

We love early flights. It's true. All of our flights but one, were at 6-7 in the morning. Nice. Erin, Selin and I flew out of Alicante at 630 and arrived in Madrid around 730. We hopped on the metro and made our way to the hostel. We checked-in and had some free breakfast (we're pros at finding the free stuff.) and decided to go exploring since we weren't allowed into the rooms until 3. We saw Puerta del Sol (like a plaza), Teatre Real (theatre), Palacio Real (the palace - which we were going to go in, but the line was ridiculously long), Plaza Mayor (another plaza) and eventually back to the hostel. We had lunch then went back to the hostel for a nap. 

The city is so much bigger than Alicante and it's also older. I really liked all of the buildings- they're so old and pretty! They're more of what I pictured coming to Spain. There's also a lot less graffiti which makes everything look a lot nicer. 

After our little siesta Erin and Selin wanted to go check out the Real Madrid stadium (futbol for those of you who might not know). So we headed over there, but the line was realllly long, so they decided to try again the next day. I'm not a huge futbol fan, so I decided I wanted to spend that 15euros on something else. We took a rest at Starbucks (i love big cities because they have Starbucks. yesss), waiting for the rain to pass. It didn't, so I waited in the rain for us to get into the Reina Sofia Art Museum. There was a line because from 6-8 you could get in for FREE! Yes, please! Told you we're all about that free stuff! I don't know a whole lot about art, but it was a really neat museum. We were able to see work by Dalí and Picasso (basically the only ones I could recognize) which was really cool! 

We were very tired at this point but we settled on a kebabs place for dinner. Our waiter tried to rip us off which was not fun but Selin set him straight informing him the correct price we would be paying. People can be such jerks. Then we went back to the hostel to finally go to sleep! :) 

Day Two

One of my favorite things about hostels is that some of them have free breakfast. I actually only book the ones that include it in the price. Even if its just cereal, toast and coffee like this hostel in Madrid, it just makes me happy. :) So after our free breakfast we left and went to the Royal Palace. I loved it!! I love history and old stuff like that, so I was super content. It kind of reminded me of the Biltmore House, which if you haven't been - you should go. My favorite part of the palace was the ceilings. Each one was so intricately painted with so much detail! Plus it was built after Versailles which is my dream place to go to one day. So naturally I loved it! 

Pretty ceilings!

Afterwards, we went to Starbucks and hung out for a while (duh). Then Selin and Erin went back to the Real Madrid stadium and I headed to the Parque del Retiro. B-E-A-UTIFUL!! The sun had come out and I really enjoyed walking around. The flowers were blooming, everything was so green, there were fountains everywhere and it was a great people watching spot. 

I hung out there for a while then headed over to the Prado Museum. It was so big! I enjoyed it more than the Renia Sofia because they were paintings that had a story versus modern art which I don't get. I saw Goya, Rembrandt, Velázquez and more! I met up with Erin and Selin there and we also met up with Devin! He got to go home early, so he was in Madrid for his early morning flight the next day. 

Erin joked (but also serious haha) that she only wanted to do 2 things in Madrid- churros and cave bar. So we had to mark them off the list. There is a famous chocolatería called Chocolatería San Ginés that has the best churros that you dip in chocolate (that is hot). World famous. It did not disappoint. Soooo good!! Devin chose an Italian restraunt called Gino's for his last meal in Spain (of course, Italian). We bid adieu to Devin and went to find this bar Erin really wanted to go to. Its called the cave bar because the inside of it mimicked the inside of a cave! It was pretty neat! 

The flight to London left at 6am, so Erin and I decided to pull an all nighter since we would have had to leave the hostel at 2am to catch the night bus to the airport. We were so so exhausted, but it was worth it. 

Overall I liked Madrid. I think I was ready to see something other than Spain though at that point. But I really enjoyed my time there. A very beautiful city :)