Madrid!

We first arrived in the Spanish capital of Madrid at about 8pm at night and to my absolute delight the Hostel we were staying at was serving 3 euro plates of seafood paella at 8:30pm - it was absolutely delicious! They served it for dinner several times and week and becaue it was cheap and delicious we ate it every night it was available!

On our first full day in Madrid we decided to do the free walking tour offered by the hostel, this is actually not so free because it involves you tipping the guide at the end of the tour but it was still a cheap way to see the main sites of Madrid and learn a little bit of history in the process.

We stated off in the Peurto De Sol, which is the main square in Madrid (they are really into plaza's and squares in spain) stopped by the Royal Opera House, the Royal Palace (pictured below) and the Cathedral of Madrid. The Royal Palace is covered in bullet holes from the Civil War! I didn't take many photos while we were here because we were walking around a fair bit and a lot of the places we visited didn't allow photos! The photo below on the right is of Plaza Mayor, another huge square in Madrid, lots of events are held here and a dingy little apartment here costs upwards of 1,000,000 euro!

Below is the Cathdral of Madrid. The photo with Michael in it is the church as viewed from the Royal Palace - apparently it was deliberately designed to not appear too beautiful so as not to show up the Royal Palace. The view of the church in the picture I am in is from quite a distance and from the Royal Palace you cannot see this side of the church, apparently this angle was made to be much more beautiful because it could not be viewed at this angle from the Royal Palace - sneaky!

We spent almost 4 hours walking around Madrid, learning a lot of Spanish history which was not overly exciting - although I did learn that the Jews were also run out of Madrid during the Spanish Inquisistion - they did not have much luck.

After grabbing the biggest set menu lunch ever (bread, an entree of pasta, a huge main dish, dessert, drinks and coffee for 11 euro) with a group of people we met on the walking tour we all decided to head back to the Royal Palace to see what was inside - this is where I was told I wasn't allowed to take photos!

 The view of the Cathedral of Mardird from the Royal Palace and below is the view of Madrid from the Royal Palace! We actually met a crazy American who took heaps of sneaky photos but has yet to email them to me and I'm not holding my breath!

We were lucky to be staying at a Hostel with heaps of activities and the next night was free drinking games and Sangria! This is something I am always up for! We spent a few hours drinking off of the available (and most importantly, free) Sangria and playing drinking games with other tourists. Afterwards we headed out with some other travelers to grab a few drinks. We actually stumbled upon a free concert happening at Plaza Mayor and stopped to watch for a little while - I have no idea who the singer was but he must be famous in Spain cos the locals were going nuts for him!

The next morning was very uneventful, we spent most of the day at the train station (2 hour lines to book tickets – INSANE)…. Once that was finally over and done with we went for a walk around Madrid and checked out the Temple of Debod, an ancient temple which was a gift from the Egyptions and is now also a museum. 

 The view behind the monument was pretty amazing (you can see the Cathedral of Madrid in the background - behind Michael) and we then spent some time wandering through the Park Del Oeste and having a quick lie down in the sun. 

Park Del Oeste

Later that afternoon we headed to a café that Michael had read about online, called J and J’s English bookstore. It was an awesome café, full of English speaking expats who were living in Madrid or traveling through Spain. Downstairs was an awesome bookstore which we spent a while looking for and Michael finally got a new book (which he has almost finished by now).

That evening we joined a group of people from the Hostel for an all you can eat tapas night! We headed to a local tapas place (you don’t usually get to have a seat at these places, which isn’t my favourite thing but I guess it was authentic!), which was definitely not the most glamorous place but was filled with locals eating tapas and drinking sangria. We each got a half litre glass of sangria and the tapas just kept coming. Spanish tapas are very different to what we have at home! Most dishes are just a variety of meat or vegetable cooked or dressed in some kind of oil and placed on top of a piece of bread. We had several kinds of ham, cheese and chicken on top of bread, some kind of fried balls similar to risotto balls (my favourite), croquettes (this strange Spanish dish that looks like omlette but has potato in it) and stuffed mushrooms (everyone’s favourite) - I wish I had taken photos but the place was crazy, people everywhere and we were all jammed around this tiny table! Eating dinner at 10pm is overrated, that's all im saying!

The food in Madrid was amazing but definitely not healthy; I was more than ready for a few good servings of fruit and vegetables by the end of this trip. We had chocolate dipped churros, probably my favourite food in Madrid and ate at a restaurant at which nobody spoke a lick of English – if anyone can read the menu below please tell me what it says because not even google translate was 100% sure.

On our final day in Madrid we were ready for a bit of relaxation and I was ready for some exercise after all the food (and so much bread) – we headed to El Retiro Park, which is my favourite park in Europe so far. The park is huge and full of heaps of different gardens, buildings, cafes and street performers. I did a little exercise and we spent several hours walking around. Pictured below is a giant boating lake, it served as a kind of central area in the park. It was surrounded by cafes, food stands and street performers. Lots of people had rented paddle boats and were cruising around on the water. It was actually a really beautiful but slightly crazy area of the park.

We also checked out the Crystal Palace (which is legitimately built entirely of crystal), which is very pretty from the outside (the lake is full of turtles haha!).

The Crystal Palace

Finally a beautiful day in Europe!

 Madrid was full of beautiful weather (finally) and lots of eating!

We flew from here to Morocco, which is where I am writing this post from - I will be sure to write a post on this crazy country once we leave as it's different from anything I have experienced!