Spain - Part 1: Madrid

The 2nd week of my travels was spent in the magical country of Spain, the land of tapas, sangria, and warm sunshine. The minute I stepped out of the Madrid airport into the hot sun, I knew it would be an amazing stay. I've missed the Georgia weather quite a bit while abroad, so it was a nice week spent in a climate that is a little nearer to what I am used to. My good mood in Spain was also a result of the knowledge that my Mom would be arriving early the next morning for a week with me! Before that, however, we had an afternoon and evening to get acquainted with our neighborhood in the center of Madrid. I checked into the room my mom had reserved while the girls went across the street to theirs, and then we met up with our friend Phoebe from England at the Plaza Mayor. The Plaza Mayor was actually a pretty awful place during the violent years in Spain's history, but today it is a lovely square with a lot of outdoor seating for the numerous restaurants that are located there.

From there, Phoebe took us for a REAL Spanish lunch. The restaurant was hidden at the top of a building with a great view of the city. We ordered tapas, or 5 different plates to be shared. I was brave and let Phoebe choose our food, which was calamari, baked peppers, roasted potatoes, chorizo, and white asparagus with shrimp. This was a very typical meal, she assured me. All of it was so delicious too! Oddly enough, the calamari was so good and very different than in the States. After this awesome lunch, we went downstairs to a streetside restaurant and sat in the sun to share the first of many pitchers of sangria. What a great way to be welcomed into Spain!

The following morning I awoke to my mother's arrival in our lovely Spanish hotel room. It was funny how normal it seemed to be with my mom in Spain. I feel so lucky that she was able to make the trip to visit me and I will always cherish the memories we made together. That first day, we spent some time napping (she had had a long journey) before getting out to explore the city. It was a lovely day and we really set out to just enjoy it, without anything big on our agenda. Here are a few pictures:

This is us at the pond and monument in the Retiro. The Retiro is the giant and beautiful park in the center of Madrid, sort of like Central Park in NYC.


This is us with one of the many cows in Spain. These cows are all over the city and each is done up by a different artist. Sometimes they communicate political ideas, sometimes they are just funny or cute.


This is one of the amazing buildings along the main road in Madrid.

We then had our first dinner on the Plaza Santa Ana, experimenting with 6 different kinds of tapas, all so delicious! My Spanish language skills almost failed us when we nearly ordered the octopus dish, but thankfully our little waiter told us what I had just ordered in time for us to change that. We shared some sangria and had a lot of fun on that first night.

The second morning, Saturday, we slept in a little and then grabbed some delicious coffee on our way to the Prado. Coffee in Spain is not like in America. If you order just coffee, you will just get a tiny cup of espresso, and cafe con leche, or coffee with milk, is espresso and milk (a latte). Drip coffee like we drink in America is not easily found, which was fine because we loved the lattes every morning! So, with our coffee cups in hand we made the pleasant stroll up to the The Prado, the famous art museum in Madrid. It houses many famous works be El Greco, Titian, etc. It was quite a nice learning experience and we even bought some snotty El Prado tote bags to prove we actually went :)

We also frequented a mall off of the Plaza Del Sol near our hotel called El Corte Ingles. This was a 7 story mall that housed an awesome grocery store beneath it. We went here to buy cheese, flan, yogurt, wine... the necessities. We also found some more cute cows outside of it!



That night we met up with my friends and had a lovely dinner at a small restaurant in the center of Madrid. I had amazing asparagus and chicken, followed by tiramisu. I could get used to eating the food in Spain all the time! The ingredients were always so fresh and it was always so delicious.

Our last full day in Spain was Sunday, which we began with a walk to the train station to buy our tickets for Granada the next day. The train station is actually really cool here, and has a giant botanical garden inside of it. The Spanish are very good with their landscaping and botany. We then enjoyed more walking around in the Retiro and the rest of the city, then had a light lunch in a cafe. Madrid was a wonderful place to just get to know the city and spend time soaking in all the culture. It was so nice to just spend time with my mom and enjoy the city. It was also wonderful to have spent a few days in Madrid so that when we left we actually were sad to say goodbye to the neighborhood that had been our own while we were there. However, it was such a treat to take the train down to the amazing city of Granada, which I will blog about next.