Madrid! 12/13/08 thru 12/17/08

This blog will be the beginning of my winter travel adventures through Europe! I will try to be as detailed in my descriptions as possible. So! I took a bus from Umeå to Stockholm on Friday night, the 12th. It was a night bus and took 9 hours to get to Stockholm so I tried to sleep, but it was to little or no avail. I arrived at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport around 5:10 AM, and my flight to Madrid was scheduled for 8 AM. I figured that customs and getting my luggage checked would take awhile, but it actually ended up taking around 5 minutes to check my bag (if that) and only about 15 minutes to get through customs. Since I thought it would take longer than this I thought I didn’t have time to grab breakfast so I skipped going to the cheaper restaurants outside of the customs area. Nevertheless, I bought a wrap and some orange juice at an overpriced café in the gate area that was able to tide me over for a while. My flight to Madrid was smooth and took about 4 hours, so I got in at around 12:00 PM. My friend Julia was nice enough to meet me at the airport and take the metro with me back to her apartment. The weirdest thing about the Madrid airport was that I didn’t have to go through customs after being on an international flight. I didn’t have to show my passport to anyone. I thought maybe it was because I was traveling in between EU countries but this can’t be since I had to show my passport to officials when I flew to England. In any case that was kind of nice. The metro back to Julia’s apartment took about 45 minutes, and it was great to be able to catch up with her along the way. Her boyfriend Giovanni came along as well to meet me at the airport but unfortunately he was not feeling too well and thus was not that talkative. The Madrid metro is definitely less crowded than the London underground, at least in my opinion, although it can get busy during rush hour obviously. It seems to be in better shape as well. We finally arrived at the appropriate stop and took the steps up out of the metro station to the city above. So I got my first real glimpse of Madrid . . . and it was raining. This was certainly not what I wanted or expected but I knew that it’s bound to happen in winter in this part of Europe. After dropping off my luggage at her apartment and eating a simple lunch of pasta and bread, Julia and I decided to go out and explore the city (per my request) even though it was raining. This made taking pictures harder but I tried in any case. We went to the Plaza Mayor, which is one of the central areas in Madrid and usually has little markets, vendors and performers. It was very quaint. As we walked down Gran Via, one of the main drags in central Madrid, I could not help but notice the sea of umbrellas, and since it was raining pretty heavily I ended buying one from a street vendor for 5 Euros. We also went to the Puerta del Sol, the Gateway of the Sun (not sunny this time!) which is the proverbial center of Madrid. It was a hive of shoppers, parents pushing their children in strollers and the youth getting ready for the manic nightlife that was hours away. We returned to Julia’s apartment after getting some really good pizza at a local shop nearby and started getting ready to go out for the night. Her friends Nadine and Kati came over (both Germans, but speak excellent Spanish) and we had a few shots of a rather tasty apple liquor before putting on our coats and heading out. We started our night at this really alternative tapas bar by having beers and just chatting. The fact that they were all conversing in Spanish was a little annoying but I tried to be patient, and Kati made an effort to talk with me in English which was very nice. I suppose I should have tried to refresh my three years of studying Spanish from high school before I came but oh well. One funny thing is that in Spain Coronas are called Coronitas. Typically Spanish youth start their nights at exactly these types of ‘tapas bars’ which have alcohol as well as tapas which are like the Spanish equivalent of finger food, or little sandwiches served with all sorts of different things; i.e. cheese, olives, different kinds of meat and vegetables. They then move on to the actual clubs no earlier than around 1 AM. This was our plan as well. We left the bar and went to this really fancy club called Pacha. After waiting in line for a little while the bouncer signals for the girls to go in and then stops me. The general policy is unless you’re a girl or a very attractive, well-dressed guy (think Versace or D&G model) you have to pay a cover, or won’t get let in at all. The bouncer didn’t even want to let me in until the girls told him that I was with them. I guess he didn’t appreciate my suedo business hipster look. The girls got in for free and I ended up having to pay 15 Euros, which was kind of ridiculous but I put it out of my mind. The club started really heating up at around 2 AM and started filling with a swarm of attractive, smiling, energetic youth. It was a really big club, with multiple floors and different types of music on each. The main floor was rather huge and the DJ spinned really good house music. We danced for at least a couple of hours, and it was really awesome. The young Madrid crowd doesn’t love to have a good time, they live to.It was absolutely manic. A few Spaniards told me I looked like the guy from the Killers. Exactly which guy they meant I have no idea. We didn’t get home until 4:30 AM, and even then that’s considered an early night. We slept in until around 2:30 PM the next day, and took it easy for a few hours before going out to explore the city again. We kind of went around the same places as the day before, and eventually ended up eating a really great Italian dinner at the restaurant where Julia’s boyfriend works. Some of his roommates work there too, and one of them made the pizza I ate which was SO good. The next day (Monday) was my big sight-seeing/exploring day. Since Julia had school I pretty much was left to my own devices and decided to see as much as I could in one day, which ended up being a lot. It was really quite sunny and warm that day, so I was more motivated. Some of the sights that we had seen earlier, like the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol were much more attractive, and I took pictures of them again. I went to the Palacio Real and the adjoining Catedral de la Almudena, saw the Metrópolis Building and the Communications Palace, explored El Parque del Buen Retiro and the Plaza de la Independencia, and finished off the day in the Parque de la Montana, which contains Spain’s only Egyptian monument. El Parque del Buen Retiro was really beautiful in my opinion and I definitely took the opportunity to sit for awhile and enjoy the sun and nice weather. Madrid as a city is very warm, not necessarily in terms of weather as it was chilly while I was there, especially at night, but definitely in terms of atmosphere. Everything, from the streets, to the people, to the architecture, just seemed welcoming and inviting. Beautiful Christmas lights and decorations adorn small alleys, everyone that I met greeted me with a cheek to cheek kiss which is really charming, vendors cooked fresh food on street corners and all in all it was definitely a refreshing change of pace from the more reserved nature of Scandinavia. I am very happy that I decided to visit the city and I wouldn’t hesitate to do so again! Perhaps during summer next time though . .