Compartir es vivir

Las weekend was a "puente" (it literally means bridge) which meant that we had an extra long weekend, since November 1st is a Catholic holiday here in Spain. It's a day to remember dead loved ones and apparently the cemetery is a nice place to go during this time because there's people playing music. However, my roommate and I did not see much of this holiday because we decided to take advantage of the four day weekend and travel to Madrid.

We took an Alsa bus from Granada to Madrid which was 35€ round-trip and a 5-hour bus ride each way. When we got there, we had some difficulties figuring out the metro station, but really, the metro system is quite efficient in Madrid and we were just newbies. Instead of staying in a hostel this time (I really didn't like my first hostel experience in Barcelona), we stayed in an Airbnb. The main reason we went with the Airbnb this time is because we had a discount that made it about the same price as a hostel--next time, hostel it is.

Our Airbnb host had a tiny dog named Chispa which means "spark".

Our first activity in Madrid was the Prado museum. It was huge and beautiful, and I was so sad I couldn't take any pictures. Since it was impossible to see everything, we had a list in mind of things we absolutely had to see. For me, it was most important that we see paintings by Goya because we had been talking a lot about him in my 18th-19th century Spanish literature class. He was the painter of the time and was always hired to do important people's portraits. My literature teacher told us that his paintings are his commentaries on the subjects' characters. For example, in The Family of Carlos IV, he was not a huge fan of Queen María Luisa de Parma, so he painted her standing rather unladylike, with her legs spread in an ungraceful stance. When I tried googling this, the results were mostly debunking this theory, but I'd like to believe it's true that he really used his artistic abilities to subtly criticize people he didn't like.

After the Prado, I had my first over-priced fancy restaurant experience! We went to a restaurant that our host mom recommended to us for vermut (vermouth). We decided to get some raciones, which is a big plate of appetizer-type food that is usually sufficient for dinner, and a drink.

Everything you see here cost 40€. I remember trying not to show the heart attack on my face when I was flipping through the menu and the slight disappointment when the waiter brought us what we had ordered. We ended up going to a McDonald's later because we had spent nearly all our money for that day but we were still hungry.

Maybe splitting 40€ between three people doesn't seem that drastic, but we are poor college students. Here are some photos of other food experiences we had in Madrid for comparison:

Two huge sandwiches (we had leftovers), two cafés con leche, two fresh orange juices and free toast: 14€

And probably one of my favorite experiences in Madrid that weekend: Bar Sidreria el Tigre

One mug of beer, Coca-Cola, or tinto de verano plus a huge plate of appetizers: 5€.

This picture doesn't do it justice; I ate quite a bit from my plate before taking the picture. Plus, the fact that we ate so cheaply was only part of the reason I loved this place. When we walked in, it was absolutely packed, and there were only a few tables with chairs--most people stood around round tall tables. The floor was littered with napkins and chicken bones, something that was mentioned in my Spanish textbook in the U.S. but that I had not actually seen yet. We managed to find a table, and I noticed a sign that said,"In Sidreria el Tigre we share tables. Sharing is living." So, when a couple women walked in looking for a place, I moved our stuff and said they could share with us. It turns out they were tourists from Barcelona. It was refreshing seeing other Spaniards who didn't know exactly what was going on either. "Do we go up to pay or will he come here?" "He's going to bring the food, right?" Etc. When we told them we were from the U.S., they told us that they didn't even notice that we were foreigners, besides the accent. I'm pretty sure they were talking about the way we dressed and acted, but my roommate thought they were talking about our vocabulary. Either way, we were doing something right!

Simply walking around Madrid was interesting. I feel like it's as exciting as New York City and as romantic as Paris (I've never been to either of those places). There was a huge monument to Cervantes which featured statues of him and his characters. I thought it was way cooler than that Cristopher Columbus monument we saw in Barcelona.

I'm not sure what else to tell about our time in Madrid, except that I kept thinking how cool it was that we could travel around Spain so easily. Our bus tickets from Granada to Madrid were cheaper than the time I went from Seattle to Vancouver!