Week Two of Vacation ... Hola, Espagne!

Now onto the second week of vacation … I flew from Paris to Madrid with my roommate Andrea on Monday afternoon. We stayed in the Huertas quarter at a cute pensione which occupied one floor in an old building. It was actually a really cool and cheap placed to stay; you enter at the street through huge wooden doors that open into a courtyard with a huge, old wooden, double spiral staircase leading to the different apartments/hotels on each floor. I took a picture (left) because it was so impressive! Monday afternoon we just chilled and then ate dinner outside at Placa Major, a giant plaza nearby.

On Tuesday we spent the whole day walking around Madrid. It’s a really enjoyable and easy city to explore on foot, and it was a nice & sunny day, so that was great! Among other things, we saw the Puerta del Sol, National Library, and the huge Parque del Buen Retiro. We enjoyed a typically Spanish (ie: late and leisurely) lunch at a café and then went to the Museum del Prado in the evening (free entrance). Well, we obviously weren’t the only ones with the idea of going at night for free, so we joined several hundred people in line. It’s supposed to be one of the best art museums in Europe – with paintings by Velazquez, El Greco, Botticelli, and many others. Obviously I’m not an art aficionado but I’m glad we went to it. After the museum we explored a couple other quarters that we hadn’t yet visited and stopped for drinks in a really cool, cavelike restaurant. We ordered a pitcher of beer that was served in the strangest glass container I’ve ever seen; the bottom was wide and flat like a wine decanter, and then it had a long, thin beak through which you poured the beer. And instead of serving wine in bottles, it was served in rubberlike pouches; I guess that could be chic, but it just reminded me of playing “slap the bladder” with Franzia, haha. And all of the waiters were wearing t-shirts with the restaurant’s motto written in Spanish – “We don’t serve Coke here.” I have to appreciate that! So that was a really unique and cool restaurant to find. After that we were hungry and tried to find someplace to eat by walking through streets packed with bars and restaurants. Apparently in Spain it’s customary for the doormen to solicit pedestrians by offering free shots (with no strings attached), so we took advantage of that custom, haha. Seriously though, everyone offered free drinks if you came in and just looked at their menus! Finally we decided on a small cerveceria where we ate paella.

At the Parque del Buen Retiro

Trying to drink out of the funky carafe ...