So, it's been a few days since I finally arrived in Spain! I've been having an amazing time so far and Madrid is such a beautiful city.
First off, the flight over here was really enjoyable and exciting. I could not believe that I was finally going to be in Madrid. Lufthansa is a great airline! It has wonderful service and really good food! The flight to Frankfurt has actually been one of the highlights of this trip thus far, haha. However, I didn't sleep at all because I couldn't get into a comfortable position. Anyway, when we flew into Frankfurt, I couldn't see much of Germany because there was low cloud cover, which was a bummer. But, I'm sure I'll go back at some point during the semester, which is exciting to think about! We had a three hour layover and then we flew out of Frankfurt to Madrid and arrived at around 3 in the afternoon. The flight was a bit turbulent, which made it difficult for me to fall asleep. As soon as we got our luggage, we took a bus into the city and got to our hotel: Hotel Tryp Gran Via! It's a pretty nice, quaint hotel overlooking a busy street, Gran Via. My two roommates, Rebecca and Laura, are really sweet and fun girls.
Seeing Madrid was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was super crowded and people run in front of buses and cars all the time. Spainards are very trendy and they dress so well! Everyone is stylish and modern--I LOVE it! There are so many amazing and beautiful buildings and fountains. I just can't get enough of them.
The first night, we had dinner at 8 in the hotel and went out to a bar called Muceo Concete, which was a few blocks away. We went out pretty early considering how late everyone goes out for drinks in Madrid. Usually, people head out around 11:30 and we arrived around 10. Needless to say, there wasn't much going on at the bar, but we decided to stay anyway for a few drinks. A little while later, a few girls and I walked around the city to see if there were any fun-looking discotechs, but we didn't have any luck :( We had trouble choosing a place to hang out because everyone wanted to go somewhere different, but we ended up at an Irish Pub near La Plaza Mayor, which is a busy square in Madrid. Very ironic that we chose an Irish Pub our first night in Spain, haha. We hung out there for a while and a few of us decided to head in around 1 and get some sleep, which was VERY much needed.
The next morning, the entire group had breakfast in the hotel (there are about 40 of us), and we headed out with one of our Spanish teachers to explore the city!! It was a sunny, cool day and I took a ton of pictures. Needless to say, there won't be a shortage of them, which I'm very proud of because I'm normally really bad at taking pictures. Some of us got left behind on the tour, but it wasn't a big deal because we decided to roam around and check out different restaurants and popular areas. There are so many neat places in Madrid, especially small, cute cafes. We went one next to La Plaza Mayor, which by the way, has street performers of all kinds. Some are really weird yet crazy and creative. There were men painted in silver and gold who are frozen in poses like statues. Anyway, this cafe we went to had the most amazing chocolate con churros! You're supposed to dip the churros in this syrupy hot chocolate...it was so delicious. They also had cafe con leche, which was amazing as well.
After our little morning snack, we decided to walk to el Museo del Prado, which is a really popular museum in Spain. It has paintings and sculptures by artists such as Goya, Rembrant, and Madrazo. Before going to the museum, we were hungry so we tried to find a cheap, lunch place around 2:30. We were originally going to get a baguette to-go, but unfortunately we couldn't find a street stand that sold them. It's interesting because Spaniards have their siesta from 2 to 5 and all businesses close down during this time. So that made it difficult for us to find a lunch place; but we ended up at a great hole in the wall spot that was so good! It was 10 euros for a first course, a second course, wine, dessert, and a coffee! I was extremely full even before we finished.
After our satisfying lunch, we went to El Prado. The paintings were beautiful and I saw some of the popular masterpieces that I've read about and studied before such as Las Meninas and The Naked Maja. We spent about 3 hours exploring and reading about the works of art. I bought a postcard of a gorgeous painting by Madrazo in the gift shop! I can't wait to send it off!
We walked back to the hotel just in time for dinner. By the way, the dinner that the hotel serves is pretty decent. They have a few traditional dishes such as jamon and cheese, but they also have salad, vegetables, and fish. Jamon and cheese is really popular..it's everywhere you look practically!
