“It isn’t necessary to know exactly how your ideal life will look; you only have to know what feels better and what feels worse…Begin making choices based on what makes you feel freer and happier, rather than on how you think an ideal life should look. It’s the process of feeling our way toward happiness, not the realization of the Platonic ideal, that creates our best lives.”

Madrid

Trying to get back into the blogging world- I knew my delay in journaling was imminent. But, I do genuinely enjoy chronicling my experience and sharing it with all of you, so I am going to try my best to do Madrid justice with this post.

Since my last post, I am visited the stunning city of Madrid, Spain twice. The first time was during an unexpected break from school, Sunday, March 13- Wednesday, March 16. Jemma and I flew into Madrid on Sunday evening to meet Vicky and Andy, whom had been there for a few days prior to us (and had already visited once before). Jody and Megan met us there late on Monday evening; Mary stayed in Bordeaux to spend time with her friend from home Maddie who flew over to visit for her Spring Break.

The first trip was full of sightseeing, tapas eating, and sangria drinking, courtesy of our Spanish speakers Vicky, Andy, and the Madrid native Luis.

The first night Jemma and I ventured out on our for a bit and ended up finding a delicious tapas restaurant in La Latina- we had fish stuffed red peppers in a fish/cheese sauce, grilled shrimp in garlic sauce, tortilla española (my absolute favorite thing), and, of course, Sangria. After our first meal, we met Andy and Vicky for what a post-meal and drinks at what would be our second home during the trip- Cervezas Montaditos. It is a chain restaurant which offers 1 euro half liters of beer with the purchase of a mini sandwich, bocadillo, for 1 euro (yes, you read that correctly- a sandwich and a half liter of beer for 2 euros). The sangria is a bit more pricey, 2 euros for a half liter, hahah, so we sprung for the Sangria because we were, after all, in Spain! We went to bed fairly early that night to get ready for a full day of sightseeing.

We saw so many things the first day- we went with Jemma, Vicky and Andy to Plaza de España where there was a street fair, there we also saw the monument of Cervantes and the Torre de España. Afterward we walked to the temple of Debod where we had an amazing view of the Almudena Cathedral and the Royal Palace. There we met our Spanish friend Luis that led us to the Royal Palace and the Sabatini gardens. Next, we walked to a beautiful indoor market Mercado de San Miguel and then made our way to Plaza Mayor. The architecture inside this square was beautiful, and there is a section that has been preserved for centuries.  After all the walking, food was a necessity, so we dropped into a bar that Luis recommended and ate the traditional bocadillo de calamares (fried squid on a roll), patatas bravas (potatoes with this tomato like sauce on them), tortilla española, and sangria. That one meal just wasn't enough, so we made our way back to Cervezas where we enjoyed the Spanish lifestyle over a few mugs of Sangria in mid-afternoon! After our fill of drinks, Luis took us to the other side of Madrid so we could see the Real Madrid stadium- incredible. We headed back to our apartment to wait for Megan and Jody to arrive, and we just had a home cooked meal courtesy of Jemma that evening in true family fashion.

Tuesday was another exploration day with Andy and Vicky as our tour guides. We walked through Sol, the main center of the city, down Gran Via, the major road that runs through the city, and into Retiro Parc where we stopped for a picnic. The park is huge, and it is a lovely, serene area in the middle of this huge metropolis of Madrid. There are paddle boats for rent, a beautiful stone amphitheatre type structure for sitting, and people everywhere. The city reminds me so much of New York- minus the skyscrapers- , so I instantly understood Lara’s love for the city and fell in love with it myself. We rounded out the day with a circle back to Cervezas, where we met some Finnish friends whom we ran into again later in the night and, unfortunately had to say our goodbyes to Andy and Vicky whom were heading to Portugal.  The evening led us to an Irish pub right outside of Sol. We wanted to go to the infamous “Kapital,” the seven story discotheque which I will detail later, but seeing as how it was a Tuesday night, Kapital wasn’t open for business. We had a great night at the pub, mixing and mingling with other foreigners and reuniting with our Finnish friends from earlier in the day.  

Wednesday we said our goodbyes to Madrid- or rather our see you soons- and headed back to Bordeaux. (I will make the second Madrid another entry seeing as how this one ended up a bit longer than expected.) Adios for now