This past weekend I traveled to Madrid with five friends where we had quite the experience. We left late Thursday night, the 21st of January, by train and arrived in Madrid around eleven that night. Not only did we have a bit of a late start, but we also did not know how exactly to walk to the train station. We eventually had to take a taxi, but we were close at that point. As we headed to the train we had to put our bags through security. I have never experienced TSA type security before boarding a train, so that was very bizarre to all of us. Our tickets were on the high speed train, so we made it to Madrid in only two hours. We found two taxis right away and headed over to the hostal.
The hostal was a very short taxi drive away and on the way we had our first glimpse of Madrid at night. The buildings were beautiful and the architecture was incredible. As we kept driving I began to equate the city to New York or Paris. Madrid is much bigger than Valencia, and because of that, and since it is the capital, there is much more tourism and thus has been built up more. However, the drivers are just as crazy as in Valencia. Yet, as I continue to observe the driving here I begin to believe it is much more the taxi drivers that are crazy instead of all drivers. Regardless, I still believe driving here is much more all over the place than in the States.
Anyways, we arrived to the hostal and found a living space a little more below our standards than expected. We had three different doors to open and lock behind us and we were in one of the many rooms down a hallway with one small communal bathroom. We had also booked a room with only four beds for the six of us, but we had planned that from the start. Throughout our entire stay there was water on the floors of the bathroom from the shower. We also had to attempt to sleep through the very loud conversations of other guests in the morning around seven. Even if we asked for them to keep it down a little, they would not change the volume of their voices. From this hostal we definitely learned that you get what you paid for, and in this case it was pretty darn cheap.
However, other than that we experienced the Madrid culture every chance we got. Friday morning we got up pretty early to grab a traditional breakfast before our free walking tour. Breakfast is always a small meal here, so we got coffee with fresh orange juice and our choice of a croissant with jam and/or butter or bread with a tomato spread. I chose the bread and tomato spread with some olive oil and it was absolutely delicious. As was the orange juice. I absolutely love the freshly squeezed orange juice from Mariano’s at home, but the oranges here are so much sweeter and irresistible.
The free tour afterwards was great and very informative. We took the tour in english to ensure we understood all of the history. Our guide was Scottish and very energetic so we had a lot of fun with her. She took us around the older more historic parts of the city and stopped in some areas to go over details of the history. I had learned a lot of Spanish history last semester, so the eight centuries of Moorish inhabitants was not new information, but there was definitely new information as well. I learned that Madrid has not always been the capital of Spain, but before Madrid it was Toledo. I also did not know that once the Hapsburg family did not have any more descendants to rule the monarchy, the French Bourbon family took over the monarchy. After the French took over, they built an exact replica of Versailles in the center of the city.
And, since this palace was not affected by the French Revolution, the inside of the Spanish palace looks a lot better than the actual Versailles in France. After the tour, she left us right by Versailles and the Almudena Cathedral that took 400 years to finish. Inside the actual cathedral was absolutely gorgeous. Since it took a couple centuries to finish, there were about four different styles used to construct the cathedral: Gothic, Baroque, Romanesque, and Pop art. These styles were seen in the outer architecture as well as the inside of the cathedral.
After the tour we slowly found our way back to the hostal, stopping to eat along the way. We found a quaint restaurant made mainly of brick and sat for some time while we ate and also recovered from the cold outside. Our siesta was essential that day before dinner. For dinner we stopped at a restaurant and most of us shared a paella with both fish and meat. It was good, but like they say here in Valencia, “Paella outside of Valencia is not paella”.
Unfortunately, Saturday was a day for sleeping for most of the girls. One of our girls either had food poisoning or a weird stomach flu because she could not keep anything down for almost 24 straight hours and had to go to the hospital. Since one of the girls, Grace, and I were the only two that felt fine that day, we walked around the city and found some of the most beautiful sights. It took us about half an hour to walk to the fountain, but it was worth it. “Parque del Retiro” is very similar to Central Park in New York. The fountain was filled with people in rented row boats and the streets were filled with people. It was such a beautiful day we had to take our coats off because we were too hot. Once most of the girls were feeling better, we went out into the city, or rather into the masses of people shopping on the streets, for dinner. We first stopped at the huge department store, “El Corte Inglés” to see the city illuminated from the rooftop. After, we walked around and found a fast food place, more or less. Most girls wanted comfort food for their stomachs so it was perfect. That night we relaxed in the hostal and prepared to leave the next day.
Luckily our friend that was very ill was much better after a couple hours at the hospital and was well enough to walk around Madrid Sunday for our last couple excursions. We visited the Prado Museum since it was free for students and saw some beautiful art. We focused mainly on Goya, Rembrandt, Velazquez, and El Greco. We spent about two hours there, but we could have spent triple our time there because of the extensive collections of art held at the Prado. I highly recommend this museum to any art fanatics in Madrid. The general admission would not have been too expensive either.
On our walk to the train station we stopped at the fountain for the rest of the group that was home sleeping Saturday and spent some time sitting there before eating and then departing to return to Valencia.
Looking back on the weekend trip, it could have been better without the group getting sick. However we could not have predicted that. Reflecting upon the city compared to Valencia, I prefer Valencia to Madrid hands down. I think it was a beautiful city and it had so much to offer culturally. However, it was too busy and too commercialized for the tourist benefit. A large portion of the population spoke english, which helped at times, but most of the time I preferred to speak in Spanish because the reason I am here for these four months is to practice the language. Since it is advertised as a tourist city, it is much busier as well and that is why I believe it resembles New York City. I understand why theft and pick-pocketing is so high in Madrid now after seeing how busy the streets are on the weekends. I do not regret taking the trip one bit because it is necessary to experience as many cities and cultures as possible, and I am glad I was fortunate enough to have friends to travel with to this city. But now I can say I have been there and I can give advice to others, but for now I am content with where I am in Valencia.
Comentarios