Short post!
Sam and I have been in Spain for about 12 hours now and already love it. There are just so many interesting things to see!
We landed in Madrid about 9am local, almost an hour late due to a small mechanical delay in Atlanta. Sam and I slept HORRIBLY on the plane, which is pretty normal for Sam. I usually sleep okay, but this flight was very cold, in my opinion, making sleep difficult.
Upon landing, we grabbed one of the advertised taxis, which is €30 ($33 USD) from the airport to the inner city ring...not a bad price for a 30 minute drive—and no tip is required.
We checked into the hotel and immediately set off to find the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Reina Sofia Museum), which was a short 20 minute walk from our hotel. We stumbled upon a plethora of street vendors, which was a fun little distraction while we walked. Along the way, we realized we were actually kind of hungry, so we stopped at a little cafe and ordered dos Americanos, an apple tart, and what looked like potato au gratin on a small baguette. Turned out to be a popular breakfast sandwich called a bocadillo, which was very tasty.
The Reina Sofia houses some pretty famous Picasso pieces and since Sam and I are fans, we sought out Guernica, a huge painting depicting the carnage and strife of civilians after the 1937 bombing of the city of Guernica by Franco and the fascists. It’s become a symbol of the civilian casualties of all wars. Next to Michelangelo’s David, it was probably the single most piece of art that lived up to the hype.
After Reina Sofia, our jet lag started to weigh on us. We went back to the hotel, showered, and took a 1 hour nap to allow us to power through the evening and start getting better acclimated to Spain time.
After our nap, we decided to walk to a vegan restaurant we’d read about that got pretty good reviews (and we knew we’d be able to get food we can eat—Spain is big on ”Jamon“ or ham—so it seemed like a safe choice). The restaurant was called “La Encomiendo” and was a small, dive-type bar and restaurant in an area popular with students and hostel-occupants nearby. We ordered “tofu tartar” and “patatas bbq” that had some sauerkraut mixed with yogurt. Both were delicious!
After paying la cuenta (the bill) we started to walk back to the hotel and decided to stop into a cool-looking place called The Goat on the Roof and ordered a few beers. With our beers, we got the options of olives or potato chips and decided to try the olives. I love olives, so this wasn’t a big deal to me, but as a rule, Sam avoids olives. He ended up enjoying them quite a bit. They aren’t typically found in the States (that I know of), but we found out later, the variety is called Castelvetrano olives and come from Sicilly. They were bright green (like a Kelly green) and mildly salty. After another beer, we ordered a goat cheese and pesto open-faced toast to round out our tapas dinner and headed back to the hotel. A great first day, but we’re beat!
Prado Museum, Cibeles Fountain, Plaza Mayor and more tomorrow!
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