Exploring Madrid

Blog post

We took a walking tour of Madrid today and saw some interesting sights!

> The oldest restaurant in the world, where Spanish royalty has eaten
> A working nunnery
> The only public statue of the Devil in the world
> A bar made entirely out of ice , including everything inside - cups, chairs, etc (we didn't actually see this one)
> Madrid's main square (Plaza Mayor)
> Kilometer zero - the exact center of Spain
> The outside of the royal palace
> Statue of Miguel de Cervantes, writer of Don Quixote de la Mancha

We also heard some cool stories about Spain's culture and history along the way. 

One thing that I forgot to mention yesterday was my experience with Customs at the airport. I had to fill out an information card similar to the one I did in the UK, but when I gave it to the officer, he glanced at it and stamped my passport. It was a much more subdued process than the rigorous series of questions in England. 

The room we slept in last night had a number of Irishmen in it. They came into the room very drunk at 4am, turned on the lights, and started talking loudly. Luckily I mostly slept through it :D but I guess you can expect to meet a few of those types of people at hostels. 

Spain is interesting in that the streets are buzzing with people until 12 or later, and the true nightlife doesn't start until 1 in the morning. 

EDIT: It has been a day or so since I wrote the first part of this. Our new roommates (to replace the Irishmen) are some cool American kids in a Study Abroad program at a school in Toledo. 

We also went to a modern art museum and saw Guernica, a very famous painting of a the chaos and pain in town being destroyed by bombing during the Spanish Civil War. No photos allowed, so you'll have to Google it. 

Churros here are very different from the American version. At home they coat the churro in cinnamon and sugar; here it's just sticks of fried bread, but they serve it with a container of hot melted chocolate. Mmm!

< Derek >

*because of lack of computer access this post was intended to be added yesterday, so time referances are
a day off for the first half of it.  Also this is David, even though the post will be on Derek's account


Have you ever been woken up at four A.M. to a pair of drunken Irishmen in your bedroom?  How about four of them?  Because that's how I woke up in the early hours of the morning.  Not an experience I'd like to repeat.

Thankfully they checked out this morning, though they lost their deposit after leaving late due to intense hangovers.  Other than those four nuisances, Derek, and myself, there are two other people share room 25.

One has yet to leave the bed, so far as I can tell, save for once when I saw him heading for the bathrooms.  He sits on his bottom bunk on his netbook all day.

The final roommate is the polar opposite.  I have only seen him once; early this morning while he was still asleep.  He spends his time out.

I have a tip for anyone visiting Madrid; watch out for cars!  It can be hard to tell sidewalks from roads at times, and they are often the same thing.  We've been in the middle of a plaze when we realized we were also in the middle of a road.  And drivers here don't stop unless they have too.  Mopeds and motorcycles are far more common than cars, since pedestrians and traffic make driving a car impossible.  Also, police vehicles are everywhere, even places where there are no roads.  They have trucks, cars, mopeds, and even dirt bikes to reach every part of the city.

We went the plaza mayor yesterday.  It's this cool courtyard-type-plaza with lots of markets.  It's also filled with street performers, who are often just people walking around in costumes with jars for the coins they collect.  Winnie the pooh, Mickey Mouse, and the fattest spiderman i've ever seen made an appearance.

Last night Derek and I decided to head out in a random direction until we found something interesting.  We ended up in front of the department of justice or whatever it was called.  We then succesfully navigated back to the hostal without incident.  We went out at about midnight, but you wouldn't have known it was past 8.  All the bars and restaurants were open and full, and there were people out walking everywhere.

After a rude awakening, we had a free light breakfast of corn flakes and orange juice.  Then we went on the hostal's free walking tour of Madrid. Though it was free the guy said he was open to tips, so we each gave him a couple of euros at the end.  It was a good tour, and I highly reccomend It if you happen to stay at a Cat's Hostel.  On the tour we saw tons of Madrid's best sights.  Palaces, cathedrals, the world's oldest restaurant, prostitute hangouts (it's legal here, though pimping is not), markets, and lots of other cool things.  We also saw key couple spots, which me really miss my girlfriend.

After a very light lunch, which for me was a hotdog-looking-thing and a weird green strawberry-like-fruit, we had a brief siesta before heading to Madrid's famous park.  We spent most the time there looking for the infamous devil statue, which is the only statue of the devil openly displayed in public.  The park was filled with statues, flowers, and couples, which made me miss Michelle even more.  Eventually we succeeded in our task.  It took us a a long to find it.  The park is massive, 400 acres or so I'm told.  I'm pretty sure we walked most of the perimeter.

Ok so now time has magically moved forward as you were forearmed it might.  We met our new roommates last night.  They are a group of American students studying in Toleada.  There are 2 boys and 4 girls.  They're all nice and cool people.

This morning we went to raino Sophia or something... It's some bug museum.  I'm not the artsy type.  The museum is massive.  We were supposed to meet our roommates there, but we only found half of them as they had split into smaller groups.

We had a brief siesta.  For lunch I bought a heaping handful of cherry tomatoes and like 8 of the wierd green fruits.  It cost me €0.68.

We just got back from a brief outting.  We had some delicious chouro i think it's called.  It's this fried dough thing that you dip in hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate is more like chocolate fudge.  It's delicious.

Tonight we have a paela party.  I have no idea what it is.  We'll ne sure to tell you all about it tomorrow!

Bye for now!
David out