Madrid

Hello from across the Pond!

I wanted to post in Madrid, but the Internet connection there was not reliable and I was not able to make it happen. Tonight, I am in Lisbon, and I decide it's about time I post something. There are a few pictures on this post, but the main album is available here.

Nathan and I flew from SFO to Madrid (via Atlanta) with no problems at all. Jen drove me to the airport at about 5:30 am on Tuesday (I posted a picture of my last view of the Bay Bridge for a while), and I took off at 8:30 am.

We landed in Spain around 9:45 am Madrid time on Wednesday. At the airport in Madrid, we just jumped on the Metro, went to the city, and checked into our first hostel. I called Jen on Skype to let her know that we had arrived, and by noon, we were out and about.


Madrid was quite interesting. I was struck by a few things. For one, a very high proportion of younger northern Europeans speak English as a second language, but in Spain, English-speakers were few and far between. For the most part, I would have made my high school Spanish teacher proud, because I remembered a lot of nouns and basic infinitives, but I can no longer conjugate (beyond simple present tense) to save my life, so when things became complicated, I threw the conversation over to Nathan. Also, the Spaniards were not nearly as friendly as I expected them to be.

In addition, Iberians love their ham. For the Spanish, this is jamon, and if you're going to be traveling to Madrid, I sure hope you like it. The traditional jamon for Spain is Serrano-style, and it's basically Spain's answer to prosciutto. It's not like the US where you have ham, turkey, beef, and probably five other meats any time you order a sandwich. In Madrid, there is a good chance that your choice is jamon or no jamon. I love prosciutto, so I didn't mind so much, but Nathan grew a little tired of it after eating it twice in the first day. On the first day we ate jamon sandwiches for lunch, and then had a plate of jamon slices at dinner. Then the next day, I had a jamon sandwich for dinner. (Today in Lisbon my choice of sandwich was ham & cheese or toasted ham & cheese, but in Portugal the ham is like the ham you would think of in the US.)

Overall, Madrid was neat, but I wouldn't say I loved it. It's in the middle of a desert or semi-desert region, and I didn't feel that there was much natural beauty, which adds a great deal to cities for me. It was also difficult to navigate, as the streets wind every which way, but that can be kind of fun since every block or so you stumble on a new little plaza. Parts of it reminded me a lot of NYC's Soho and Upper East Side neighborhoods, and the area that most reminded me of the UES had a park with a look and feel that was very similar to Central Park--it was even home to El Museo del Prado, just like the UES has the Met right on Central Park.

After our first few hours of walking around the city, Nathan and I started wondering where all the people were. There were people around, but not nearly as many as you would expect for the largest city in and capital of Spain. What we found was that the Spanish siesta custom, which is essentially staying indoors, or even napping, during the warmest part of the day, is still going strong. Madrid was very hot and also quite humid, and we drank more than 3 liters of water each day there. After about 8 pm, when the city started to cool a bit, the streets were full and the plazas started to fill with life and activity.

After our first day in Madrid, Nathan did a Google search to find out what we needed to see on day two, and I'm really glad he did. We toured the main royal palace for Spain, and it was amazing. Right across the royal square was the city's main Catholic cathedral, and we toured that, as well (Pope John Paul II visited to give his blessing to the cathedral in 1994, and a great deal of the memorabilia in the cathedral related to his visit). I had not been in a European cathedral for almost a decade, and I forgot just how cavernous they are inside. They are absolutely massive and, often, beautiful.



After this, Nathan and I visited the site of a ruined Egyptian pyramid (in Madrid--who knew?), got some churros with chocolate, went to see the bull-fighting arena, and then got our bags and went to the train station. Eventually, we filed into our sleeping cart and laid down for the 10-hour overnight trip to Lisbon.


Again, there are some cool pictures of Madrid in the album, so please take a look. Also, I'm going to post about Porto and Lisbon separately so it's easy to follow along and look at each city individually. Porto and Lisbon were amazing, and tomorrow we are heading to Lagos, which lies along the Atlantic Ocean on Portugal's southwestern coast. I cannot wait to spend a few hours on the beach! I hope everyone is doing well back home, and I will be sure to check in again soon.

- R