Luvvly-jubbly - Lovely

Hi there! Sorry I haven’t written in a while – we just traveled to MADRID this past weekend and I had to jump right back into schoolwork & projects that I, of course, didn’t work on while in Spain. Here’s a quick (nope, not so quick) overview of our trip…

Our journey started when we got up unbelievably early on Friday morning (4am) to get picked up and driven to Gatwick Airport for our flight. I think we all planned on sleeping in the car for the hour drive, but that plan died as we were all so excited to travel/giddy due to lack of sleep that we talked the whole way and rolled up to the airport before we knew it. Checking in and boarding was pretty easy, although Lauren and I got our bags basically turned upside-down and scoured for God knows what… after re-packing and some muttering we were good to go.

We all slept for the flight from London to Madrid, and Megan and I woke up in time to see the Spanish countryside as we flew over it and puzzle over some mountains in the distance (Pyrenees?).
Next we found our hostel, which ended up being in a great, central location, which allowed us to completely avoid the scary metro for our entire weekend, yay! There were a bunch of prostitutes wandering around the street, but we were reassured that they were harmless, and there was a police station on our block. No one could tell us if prostitution was illegal or not in Spain… guess we’ll never know. We quickly got on the move and visited Porto del Sol, a square right down the street from our hostel. There we found all kinds of Disney characters and street performers, as well as a Mariachi band, which delighted Reggie. The fact that there was abundant sunshine was an awesome change from London :) We ate lunch in Plaza Mayor, the biggest plaza in Madrid. While our meal was expensive and we encountered more than a few language obstacles, we enjoyed our lunches and Sangria in the sun. As an added bonus, a random man named “Marco from Gambia” (jury’s out as to if Gambia is a real place) tossed us some friendship bracelets, even though we didn’t have any euros to give him to “visit California.” Sorry, Marco.

Afterwards, we continued to the Palacio Real de Madrid & Cathedral. The palace was beautifully decorated and it was exciting that we could actually get inside and see the bedrooms, throne-rooms, and the like – au contraire to our experience at Windsor Castle. We noticed lots of shops and restaurants closing up as we walked back towards our hostel and realized it was time for Siesta! So we napped for 4 hours. Woops. We woke up and meandered around the downtown area, unsuccessful seeking a restaurant that fit our budget and had room for us. Eventually, we found a restaurant whose main appeal was it’s Italian food offerings and English-speaking host, and decided that in the future we should better plan our eating plans. We quickly visited a bar before heading back to the hostel to end our first day in Madrid. Despite the freezing room and scratchy “monkey fur” blankets, we all eventually fell asleep.

On Saturday, we visited the Reina Sofia museum and saw tons of authentic pieces by Picasso and Dali for free, as students! Then it was back to the hostel to take off on our tapas tour, which provided us tapas and free drinks at four bars for 10 euro, woohoo! Each of the bars had interesting stories that had transpired within, and had original tiling, paintings, and photographs inside that were freely exposed to the smoke and bar elements to the dismay of our tour guide. A few blood sausages and pitchers of Sangria later, we were ready for our second siesta (love them).

Later in the evening, after we had all shivered through showers without a stationary showerhead (we may or may not have been refugees), Megan’s friends from school took us to a great, real Spanish restaurant, a nice change from our faux-Italian meal the night before. I had Croquettas – ham and melted cheese stuffed into a fried ball of bread, YUM. 
Of course, more Sangria accompanied the feast, and we were all thrilled and stuffed by the time dinner was over. As Americans, we were ready to go to a bar right after dinner at around 9pm, which we forgot was far too early for the Spaniards. We learned this lesson by being ushered into a club (lured by free sangria, what else) and promptly finding that we were the only ones there. We headed back to the hostel bar to have some cocktails and wait a few hours before embarking our mission of experiencing Spanish nightlife again. After a few mishaps regarding getting into a huge discoteque called Pacha (and our refusal to pay a 15 euro cover), we decided to hang out at a smaller venue called Idioteque. I was more than pleased because I was able to convince the DJ to play some “Miguel Jackson.” We headed home around 4am (sorry Mom) and caught a few hours of sleep under the monkey blankets.

Sunday was our last day in Madrid, which we started off by heading to El Rastro, the giant market that sold essentially everything under the sun. We had been warned by just about everyone we talked to that it was pickpocket central, so none of us brought purses and we all emerged without any theft issues. After the market experience, we somehow navigated our way through the city with a questionable map, stopped at a chic café for some tostas, and went to the Prado museum. There was a slight issue at the ticket counter when the ticket ladies adamantly refused to believe we were students, but once we got inside, we were able to appreciate some great paintings and statues from different eras and origins. I’m still trying to locate my favorite painting on the Prado website… I’ll post it if I find it.
After the Prado we had to stop for some churros & chocolate before leaving Spain – a very worthwhile and delicious expedition. Then it was back to the hostel to wait for our ride to the airport. We were all so pleased with our first successful weekend adventure, and were contentedly sitting in the airport… and then learned that our plane had been delayed. For three hours. We got to know terminal 1 of the Madrid airport pretty extensively that evening, and finally we made it back to London at around 3am. Despite dungeon-like conditions, monkey fur blankets, and language barriers, we were able to survive in a non-English speaking country and have some incredible, unforgettable experiences in the meantime :) Can’t wait for our next trip!
Sorry this was accidentally a novel. Cheers!