Next in our trip was Madrid. For obvious reasons, we had to go.
The city is a big, beautiful and crazy. Be forwarded people, the MC Hammer pants are coming back.
Liquid Madrid, ain't that the truth. (Zing!)
The elevator in our hotel was once again teeny tiny. Our room itself was pretty nice though. We did however step back into the 1950's.
At least we had a nice view!
Still we saw some gorgeous building, plazas and statues all over the place. It's an understatement to say the neighborhoods are beautiful. We simply enjoyed strolling around and checking out the sites.One of our first stops was the world famous Prado Museum. There we were both in awe over the world famous paintings. We saw works by Renoir, Matisse, Rembrandt, O'Keefe, Dali, El Greco and more.
Things here are constantly be bustling. One moment you're walking to the subway and the next thing you know, hundreds of bicyclers race through the street. We still have no idea what that's about. All we know is that a the bicyclers took over the road. They were having a blast, many even wearing costumes and noisemakers. No one seemed to understand what it was all about. Being confused was sort of the norm for us in this city.The city was full of lots of surprises...like this giant baby head in the train station. No clue.
We did lots of shopping, though most of the high fashion prices were out of our range. Still, it was fun to get ideas. One thing we did buy lots of was Lays Pollo y' limon potato chips. Yep, roasted chicken and lemon chips. They were delicious! We planned on bringing a bunch back and figured we'd just get them later in the trip. Unfortunately Madrid seemed to be the only place that has them. We'd missed out on our chance. Sighhh, I still dream of them.
While the city was nice, after a while we weren't really sure what to do. There was only so much window shopping and museum viewing we could do. It was at this point, we realized we didn't need to do anything. This was a vacation! So we found a nice cafe and drank the best we'd sangria ever, while people watching for hours. The attitude in Spain is very relaxed. You can sit at a restaurants sipping on the same glass of wine for hours. They won't hand you a check until you ask. We of course went for more than one glass!
Though it was nice, the city was a bit overwhelming. Though the Spaniards were nice, not as many people spoke English in Madrid as did in Lisbon. We found this out the hard way especially when ordering food. We were getting sick of 'Mixtos' sandwiches...or ham and cheese sandwiches so we tried to order something different. What we ended up with was bread with baby worms on it. Turns out it was baby eel. Turns out baby eel don't feel so good in your mouth.What does feel good in your mouth is a 'calimocho.' It's a Spanish drink. Half rioja wine, half Coca Cola, all delicious! Honestly, try it. Corey was initially skeptical, but changed his tune quickly. It tastes like a cherry coke.
Overall, Madrid is an interesting city. It's definitely the 'big city' and not some 'quaint town' that we found we enjoyed. Still, the art, architecture and nightlife was great. In fact, as we were heading to the train on our last day at 7:30am people were still out partying in the bars from the night before.
Overall, Madrid is an interesting city. It's definitely the 'big city' and not some 'quaint town' that we found we enjoyed. Still, the art, architecture and nightlife was great. In fact, as we were heading to the train on our last day at 7:30am people were still out partying in the bars from the night before.
Though it wasn't my favorite city we went to, I'm still glad we went to my namesake. We give Madrid 3 out of 5 museums.
1 comment:
I love the accent you use when writing! It makes me feel like I'm there with you.
/wistful sigh
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