Spin the Sky: Gracias

Where in Barcelona I fell in love at first site, Madrid grew on me the more time I spent there. Sometimes it’s harder to enjoy a new city after leaving a place that I really liked, so I had to remind myself to keep an open mind. Madrid was colder (still speaking in relative terms, of course), rainier, and less obviously stunning. It was more of a city. However, though I never grew to love it, I really did like it a bit more each day.

I visited the squares Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. They were filled with tons of people shopping, eating, taking photos, or simply hurrying from point A to point B. They were also home to many knock-off Disney mascots sculpting balloon animals (personally, I found the characters pretty creepy, as they were smaller and less chubby than normal, and the women inside kept lifting off their heads to make their balloon animals). I visited Almudena Cathedral and Palacio Real. I also learned that Palacio Real is the largest palace in Western Europe. So, though up until now each palace seems to have been more and more massive, apparently from here on they’ll only get “smaller”. I visited the sprawling and crowded el Rastro flea market while keeping my hands firmly planted in my front pockets to guard my money. I watched the sun set at the Gardens of the Egyptian Templo de Debod. I went out and drank my share of sangria, and danced my share of salsa. I tried churros and was disappointed to find that I found the look of them far more appealing than the taste (much too greasy). I watched a few good movies and a few bad movies with my hostel friends. And I saw my first snow of the year. In Madrid. In Spain! Or at least, it was snow from my second floor window. By the time it reached the ground, I’m fairly certain it was just rain. However, I never expected to see snow in Spain at all.

Palacio Real

Churros looking good.

Plaza Mayor at night.

New Canadian friends.

El Rastro flea market

Almudena Cathedral

Sunset from Templo del Debod

And then Andrea arrived from Bologna. We stayed with his friend Juanjo for three more nights while we continued to explore the city together. We slept in and had Spanish lunch as late as 4:30. We drank cups of Spanish hot chocolate, which are truly just cups of melted chocolate. We visited the Reina Sofia Museum of Contemporary Art and saw Picasso’s Guernica. We drank beer and sagria and ate tapas while sitting on stage at a great hole-in-the-wall bar. And I attempted to eat the most massive half a ham and cheese sandwich I’ve ever seen. It was as big as my face and gave me very strange dreams even though I could not finish it. Andrea stuck with the vegetarian friendly plate of delicious cheese and bread.