Spring Break Part 2-Madrid

Our next stop for spring break was Madrid, Spain.  We had a bit of a mix up at the Lisbon airport, so Kunal and I arrived at our AirBNB apartment a few hours before everyone else.  The apartment was huge, and was located in a decent neighborhood not far from the subway.  Speaking of the subway, Madrid definitely earns the award for slowest subway trains.  The subway drivers would take a solid 20 seconds to fully brake at each station which was super annoying.  The first night, we went downtown to walk around for a bit and find someplace to eat.  Our actual dinner was at a really touristy chain restaurant which was pretty mediocre, but afterwards we found an awesome churro place and consumed 30(!!) churros dipped in melted chocolate.

The following morning, we headed out early to explore the city.  We started downtown (which had a very New York City feel to it) then worked our way over to the Palacio Real de Madrid and toured the grounds around the palace.  Next to the palace, we found the Almudena Cathedral.  I have been inside many European cathedrals by now, so I can confidently say that the Almudena Cathedral is the most beautiful church I have seen.  It was a sunny day, so the entire nave and the colorful ceiling were completely illuminated.  We meandered through the streets some more, and eventually found the Plaza Mayor.  It was here in the Plaza Mayor during lunchtime that we discovered Spain's greatest invention, the menu del dia.  A menu del dia is a 3-course meal plus a beer offered at many Spanish restaurants for less than 10 euros.  What a culinary experience!  After lunch, we walked to a huge park with tons of walking trails and dogs everywhere.  We returned to downtown Madrid, found another cool food place that is basically Taco Bell with beer, then headed to the apartment to watch Real Madrid play FC Schalke 04 in a Champions League football match. The game was actually being played in Madrid that night, and we seriously considered going, but instead took the cheaper option of drinking our own beer and watching from home.

The Real Madrid-FC Schalke match turned out to be a very close game with 7 goals being scored in total.  We were a little regretful we didn't go, but we did go check out the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium the next morning.  From here we went to Madrid's central park, again very reminiscent of New York.  There were tons of trails, a man-made lake in the middle, and gardens everywhere.  Next to the park was our next stop-Spain's national art gallery, the Prado Museum.  The Prado was absolutely massive, so it was hard for me to pick a favorite piece.  There many Goya paintings which I enjoyed, plus an elaborate monstrance called "The Lettuce" that was made of 5 kilos of gold and over 1,700 gems.  The Prado bathrooms were pretty nice, worse than the Rijksmuseum's but better than the van Gogh's. We toured a nice garden next to the museum and an interesting church called the Jeronimos Cathedral that had some strange modern art inside.  We returned to downtown Madrid one last time for some final souvenir shopping, then went out for some evening entertainment.

As they say, "when in Spain, go see some flamenco dancing," which is exactly what we did.  Flamenco is a traditional Spanish form of dance where the girls wear colorful dresses and kinda tap dance around rhythmically.  Many of the popular flamenco dancing shows were quite expensive, so we went off the beaten path and found a lesser-known and cheaper flamenco restaurant in a random part of town.  We got a decent dinner, then the show began, which I will try to describe the best I can.  The whole environment was very intimate with a 1:2 ratio of performers to audience members.  One guy was playing guitar, another guy was singing, and two colorfully dressed ladies danced.  Most songs started with the guitar guy, then the singer would start singing, and finally everyone would randomly stomp more or less in time with the beat.  Next, one of the dancing ladies would feel moved by the music, and get up and start tap dancing around and occasionally slapping parts of her body.  The best comparison to this is of course from the Spongebob Squarepants movie when Spongebob and Patrick are riding through the abyss in the pattymobile and Patrick gets in a dance competition with one of the sea monsters and he starts slapping random parts of his body.  After the ladies were done dancing, the song would end and everyone would yip "AYE AYE AYE!" or "OLE!"  The performers encouraged us to yip as well, but I felt offensive by loudly yelling "OLE!" at Spanish people.  The flamenco show actually was a lot of fun, and the owners/performers of the restaurant were extremely nice to us and grateful for our business.

We only had one morning left in Madrid, so we decided to make the most of it by returning to the Palacio Real de Madrid and actually paying to go in.  The admission price was well worth it, as the palace was gorgeous on the inside.  Each room was filled with ornate rugs, paintings, tapestries, and statues.  I can't imagine how much the entire place cost, but I don't imagine that I will be moving there anytime soon.

Madrid was a great city that offered quite a contrast from Lisbon.  I thoroughly enjoyed the food, the art, and the dancing.  Next stop, Barcelona.