¡Madrid!
¡Hola amigos!
As I said last time, I spent the past weekend in Madrid with some other AFS friends! After some struggle of finding a place to stay, AFS found me a family outside of the city that was willing to have me with them for the weekend. Though it was a bit inconvenient to be so far outside of Madrid, the family was really sweet and accommodating and I'm glad to say it all worked out great with them.
My train left right after school so I rushed home and ate lunch as quick as I could just to make sure I caught my train. It ended up being a very short ride there. With a quick change of trains in the middle, I was there in less than three hours! I spent the afternoon wandering around the area around Puerta de Sol with another friend from the states studying in Madrid.
Saturday morning I woke up slightly earlier than normal and caught a train into the city. Once I met up with my friends, we started to explore more of the city. First a stop for churros, then to Kilometer Zero, the center of all Spanish highways! After a little more walking around (and lots of picture taking), it was time to stop for lunch. Each of us lovers of ethnic foods that have had mostly Spanish food for the past six months, we were craving something different. Mexican food. I have to say, it was pretty darn good. (Side note: anyone that saw Sophie's snapchat story, that was my food not hers).
Hunger satisfied, we went to the Museo del Prado. We walked around a bit lost without a guide and snuck photos in front of paintings that probably didn't turn out as good as we thought. Having already visited the Prado, I knew some of the paintings being kept there; however, last time I didn't pay as much attention to the paintings. This time around, after having learned a little more about a few paintings in class, we decided to track them down to "appreciate" them even more.
Trying to hit the museums in one day, we headed afterwards to the Thyssen. Unfortunately, tickets were "sold out" (we found out the next day that it was just for the special exhibition and odds are we could've gotten admission). In an attempt to kill time - and probably just desperation for "bad" cup of coffee - we went to Starbucks. In case you were wondering, we achieved both.
And now (the part I'm semi-ashamed about), our second stop for churros in one day. I would be fully embarrassed, but these churros were from San Ginés, the famous chocolateria in Madrid. We got lost a few times on the way and attempted to meet up with another AFSer which ended up a lot being more difficult than planned since all of our phones were either dead or without data. I'll just say it was an adventure and leave it at that.
If you know any of us, you can probably guess that the next thing we did was eat (in our defense it was already dinner time). First, we stopped quickly at El Corte Inglés, the biggest departement store chain in Spain. At the top of the main building, you can see Madrid's skyline and it was pretty impressive. Wanting to make it home at a decent hour, I made a quick stop at KFC before leaving my friends to catch my train. Only problem was I checked the wrong station on the schedule. A bit inconvenient considering I'd have to wait an hour in the train station and I wouldn't get back until late, but thankfully it all seemed to work out alright. Finally home at almost one o'clock, I was exhausted from the busy day.
Another morning with another busy day ahead of me. We all got up early again to make it to El Rastro, the open air market every Sunday. The whole point of waking up early was to be able to spend the morning there and let's just say that didn't work out. I stopped for breakfast while waiting for my friend. Once we met up, we needed to hunt down a bank. Now you would assume a bank would be pretty easy to find considering we were in the biggest city in Spain. Only problem was we needed a specific bank. One that didn't seem to exist in the center of Madrid. In the end, we didn't find one and just stopped at a random ATM on the way to El Rastro. Unfortunately, it just so happened that we walked the opposite to direction from Sol to look for the bank so we were pretty far away from the market. So about an hour and a half later, we finally made it to the market. There we saw a bunch of tents with people selling everything from hairdryers to Harry Potter merch (guilty to say I bought a Hogwarts sweatshirt).
We met up with the rest of the group after a nice walk through the market. And guess what time it was... food time. Time for some more ethnicity! Indian food it was.
After another good meal, we went to the Tyssen museum to see if we could get in. We realized our mistake from the day before and got to see a couple hours worth of art. I have to say I loved the style of the museum so much more than Prado. Prado was classics and Thyssen was a bit more modern. They had some really nice impressionist paintings along with some pretty cool modern art. Halfway through the second floor, it was time to say goodbye to Sophie. Her train was leaving in an hour even though Sedona and I still had another day. After some bittersweet goodbyes, we attempted to go back to the art, but just weren't in the mood. Deciding we needed the energy, we went to the museum cafe for some caffeine. We got to talking and after a little while decided we wouldn't be heading back to the art and went in search of another cafe. We got a bit carried away and walked farther than expected. Almost dinner time, I decided to head back to have dinner with the family I was staying with. Another nice end to yet another busy day.
Sadly, but surely, it was Monday morning. Still exhausted from the long weekend (and maybe the added fact that my host mom and I stayed up until two watching the red carpet show for the Oscars), I was in no rush to get out of the house. When I finally did decide to leave, it was already noon. The house I was staying at was about an hour outside of the city, the bus ride in was pretty long and I was nervous I wouldn't get to say goodbye to Sedona. Luckily, I arrived with time to spare at the Atocha station and was able say goodbye and hang out with her a little bit before she had to get on the train.
My train, however, didn't leave until 6:30 and I had time to kill. Wanting to finally accomplish reading a book in Spanish (my other tries didn't really work out, because I kept running out of patience), I ended up buying a book I'd already read to make it a bit easier to understand. I had a nice plan of going back up to the top of El Corte Inglés with some good food and my book just to relax. My plan was impeded by some obnoxious Australians, but we don't need to talk about that. Forgetting I had one more thing to do in the center, I took the metro out to El Retiro park to hopefully get some peace to read. Of course as soon as I got out of the metro station I remember I had to go back. About an hour later, semi-accomplished (I didn't end up getting it done, because the El Corte Inglés employees aren't very attentive) and I was back at the station waiting for my train.
After a short train ride back (short being two and a half hours), I was finally back home. Absolutely exhausted from the long weekend, I'm pretty sure I passed out after dinner. Though the exhaustion was worth it. I had a great time with all of my friends and seeing the city. It was definitely a trip to remember. ¡Hasta la próxima, Madrid!
Adiós
-Sam