Madrid Madness

In the 54 hours I was in the beautiful city of Madrid I saw almost every major monument, plaza, , and neighborhood...at times 2+ times, slept approximately 9 hours (thanks jetlag), ate only 1 paella and tried 1 octopus tostada, drank 11+ large bottles of water, a few beers, was approached by 1 transexual prostitute, was saved by McDonald's WiFi 4 times, saw 1 fantastic sunset, made 2 new friends and re-connected with 2 old friends. I mainly I walked everywhere in Madrid and at times used the metro (which is fantastic). The metro comes every few minutes on the dot and is an affordable, safe and easy way to see central Madrid and the surrounding area. You can tell it is a popular way of travel as on


Banco de Espana Metro stop--> any given day you will run into commuters, tourists, locals on holiday, and at times the very drunk teenager like the one I saw at 7:30 am one morning (she had obviously been out all night partying and plopped herself next to a man wearing a suit checking his Blackberry on his way to work, ha!) Madrid was having a heat wave while I was there (hence the 11+ water bottles and lack of beer) and the heat makes walking around with a 46lb backpack a lot tougher. Luckily I only had to do this for one day. The rest of the time I had a day pack. The good thing about the heat and clear weather is that it makes for good picture-taking. Food-wise Madrid was good but I wouldn't say I was wowed. I'm looking forward to Barcelona and San Sebastian for seafood. I did try an octopus tostada at a great market called "Mercado de San Miguel" which I recommend to anyone in Madrid and/or Barcelona. The chorizo and mushroom paella I shared with my new Canadian friends (Daniel and Amanda) was also good but nothing to die for.


<--Daniel and Amanda the Canadians A good rule of thumb I got from my old friends from Miami/Cali (Jay and Marci) whom I also connected with in Madrid, was not to eat from places that have huge pictures of paella outside their door. The one we ate from did, go figure.


Jay and Marcy the Americans--> So yes, I did get approached by a transexual prostitute in Madrid. How did I know she was...well, NOT a 'she'? Let's just say her strong jaw gave it away. Prostitutes commonly frequent calle de la Montera and are out 24/7 waiting for johns. I would see them on my way to the McDonald's I constantly bummed WiFi from which was right next to my hostel. For the record I said no...it was just too hot to negotiate at that time of the afternoon;) Madrid truly is a beautiful city rich with history whose people love to eat, drink and just be amongst each other. I can fully relate to why "Madrilenos" are so happy. They live a balanced lifestyle working hard/enjoying time off during the afternoon, but when they play they play and party. A funny situation we ran into was when we attempted to do a tour of the royal palace. We found out it was a holiday so the palace was closed but they could not tell us what holiday it was.

Waiting at the RenFe train station in Madrid We later found out it was a "make-up" holiday as the real one had to be cancelled (for some reason) so they just picked a day to reschedule it so certain Madrilenos could have it off. Seemed pretty convenient to me that it was on a Friday huh? Next stop...Alicante!