Madrid: Take Two.

November 11-13

This past weekend we had a free weekend so a few of us decided to go to Madrid on a whim. We booked our bus tickets and hostel reservations Thursday afternoon and left on Friday at 3 p.m. It ended up being a really fun yet relaxing weekend. There were five of us girls that decided to go and we booked 5 spaces in a hostel near the center of Madrid. We had a 6 person room and there was no sixth person so we had the entire room to ourselves which was really nice. Also, it was probably the cleanest hostel I’ve ever stayed in so that was a nice treat as well. On Friday we got to Madrid around 5:30 and checked into our hostel and then roamed around the city for a while. We then went to the grocery store and bought several bottles of wine and just hung out drinking our wine. After that we decided to go out and went around the area where there are a bunch of bars. Olivia, Kelsey and me decided to go to El Kapital which is a seven store club in Madrid. It was unreal. On stages and balconies around the club there were people dancing in these neon costumes. There were so many rooms you could go in and a lot of the rooms had different themes and played different music. At the very top there was this swanky room with these bed-couches. We ended up meeting a group of French guys that were in Madrid for the weekend as well. They invited us to a barbecue they were having the next day. 

We spent Saturday roaming around as well. There is a market called “El Mercado de San Miguel” that sells many different types of food so we went there for lunch. I bought some croquetas and this Japanese chicken. I also bought some orange juice. So good. It was a very laid back day.

Later on we ended up meeting up with the French guys and went to their barbecue. It was great. They made us shrimp, chicken, taziki sauce and a few other things. They also had a giant block of cheese, baquetes, and wine. So very French. It was cook because the cookout was on the terrace of their apartment they had for the weekend and it was a great view of Madrid. It sounds sketchier than it was but it was actually a lot of fun.

After that we met up with my friend Antonio that lives in Madrid and his friend Nacho. We went to a club and hung out until it closed.

Sunday morning the five of us woke up and went to the ‘rostros.’ The rostros are an outdoor market that they hold every Sunday morning. It was so much bigger than the one in Salamanca. Apparently the Madrid rostros are known for having a ton of pickpockets so everyone kept telling us to be careful. I ended up buying a pair of really sassy sunglasses as well as a pair of earrings for one of my friends back home.

I met back up with Antonio after the rostros and we got lunch and walked around Madrid for a while. We went to this little bar for lunch and got a beer and this food that was kind of like calamari but not fried. It had garlic and some other spices and was so very delicious. After that Antonio and I walked to the river and he showed me this really pretty garden near the river. It was very good for my Spanish.

I love Madrid.