Friday, May 25, 2007

Madrid

The weather here has been shockingly bad - its been rainy and cold the past two days which is very unsual for Madrid. Even with the weather, Madrid has still been wonderful, and I can tell it is a lovely city. Somehow it seems to simmer with energy, people out and about 24-7 (except for their daily seista, of course) and so much vibrancy. Our hostel has been fun though, we´ve made many friends - an Austrian, an Australian, and an American - who we have hung out with. The first day here I braved the weather to go to the Prado Museum which was an excellent rain choice and then luckily before dinner the rain let up, so we wandered around the city a bit and found a great tavern to have dinner. I had an exceptional dish of eggplant with a honey sauce. Everyone here has been so incredably helpful and friendly I can hardly believe it. If we look lost Spainards will come up and help us find where we are going, in restraunts they go out of their way to accomindate our poor Spanish and knowledge of the food. After dinner we ventured over to the middle of the city to churros con chocolat, a Spain specialty dessert that was delicious.

Today it rained again, we got caught in it as soon as we got to the big park in Madrid, sort of like the central park in NYC, so instead went and toured the royal palace, which was ridiculously beautiful. Afterwards we went to a restraunt one of my friends recommended for Spanish tortillas (a thick dish of potateos and eggs, nothing like Mexican tortillas!) but as it was 4:30p it was closed for seista, so we decided to go to the place next door instead where we got the royal treatment and had the best food experience of our trip! The one-man-show who ran the restraunt was so nice and friendly. We just ordered a Spanish tortilla to split and a glass of Sangria, but he brought out bread with spanish cheese and olive oil that he makes himself, then our food, and then anchovies (another Spain specialty nothing like the ones in America!) and thena mushroom dish when he found out I was a vegetarian, and then to finish the meal off, a peach digestive - all was so incredible it blew our minds. Overall an unexpected, wonderful taste of Spanish food and culture and people.

We fly out of Madrid to Rome tomorrow morning at 7:35am and unfortunatly realized when we got to Madrid that there is no way (except for very expensive taxi) to get to the airport that early. So instead we are going to the airport at 2am right before the metro closes and waiting it out! Luckily our hostel let us keep our stuff here (and use the internet :) until we head out.

I am so excited for Roma, my beautiful city I love so much! I cant believe I will be back in 12 hours!

No comments: