I arrived in Madrid from beautiful Toledo, which turned out to be a huge shock for my tiny person, and it was not easy to get used to the crowded capital of Spain, and at first sight I felt overwelmed and I really thought Madrid was not my kind of city.
My first day I felt exhausted, I was still trying to get back on that great travel feelings and I was kind of in search for my wanderlust in the process. It turns out Spain was a tough love on my heart, and it was difficult to find a way to love this country, so close to home but different in so many ways.
I even had a small situation that scared me a little, when I was heading to the metro in Plaza Eliptica and every men passing by me would look at me in a weird way and hit on me, and I had a guy yelling at me as he called me and I didn't look and kept walking, and he started walking towards me yelling in Spanish "When I talk to you, you answer me!", which got me to walk fast in fear inside the station. Didn't feel safe over that area. Luckily, that situation didn't happen again.
My first day I felt exhausted, I was still trying to get back on that great travel feelings and I was kind of in search for my wanderlust in the process. It turns out Spain was a tough love on my heart, and it was difficult to find a way to love this country, so close to home but different in so many ways.
I even had a small situation that scared me a little, when I was heading to the metro in Plaza Eliptica and every men passing by me would look at me in a weird way and hit on me, and I had a guy yelling at me as he called me and I didn't look and kept walking, and he started walking towards me yelling in Spanish "When I talk to you, you answer me!", which got me to walk fast in fear inside the station. Didn't feel safe over that area. Luckily, that situation didn't happen again.
I dropped my heavy backpacks in my hostel, and with my camera and city map I was ready to explore a little and have a taste of Madrid. It happens that I felt confused. There was so many people in the streets I couldn't understand what was happening. I'm not talking about the typical locals hanging out in the streets during the weekend, I'm saying it was total madness, with huge lines to enter shopping stores, people stepping on me every couple of minutes and walking so close to me that made it all feel a little too scary for me to take. What the hell is going on here?
I decided to head back to the hostel. That was too much to take in, and I thought maybe I just needed to rest and the next day, being Monday, the streets would be way less crowded and I would be able to enjoy and explore and actually see the city without feeling a tiny warm in a big city.
Woke up early in Madrid, having that precious feeling of "to awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world", and I was ready to kick some ass in Madrid!
I was happy to discover Madrid is not all crowded streets, the Retiro Park and the Royal Palace. I explored way beyond that getting to discover places like the Barrio de las Letras and Las Huertas and its surroundings that started to make me like Madrid after all. I guess i'm not a fan of big crowds and big messes in the streets, specially when I'm travelling alone.
I was happy to discover Madrid is not all crowded streets, the Retiro Park and the Royal Palace. I explored way beyond that getting to discover places like the Barrio de las Letras and Las Huertas and its surroundings that started to make me like Madrid after all. I guess i'm not a fan of big crowds and big messes in the streets, specially when I'm travelling alone.
On my second day in the Spanish Capital, I had one main goal to accomplish. No matter how lost I got, or how far it was, I needed to find Mercado de San Miguel to get myself a deserved tapas experience for lunch. By the time I arrived there...PEOPLE! So, so many people. I kept thinking "don't Spanish people work? I mean, it's Monday!" and I would discover later that November 9 is a holiday in Madrid! It turns out I ended up in the middle of The Almudena festivities all around the city, and I actually liked the tiny mess I got myself into in between, and I loved seeing locals have so much fun on this special day.
If there's a food heaven, Mercado de San Miguel is just that! From tasty olives, manchego cheeses all over the place, and Jamón Ibérico, this market has any tasty thing you can imagine. Packed with tourists as well as locals, this food market was tapas heaven to me. You can even have meat in cones, how about that? The only but in here is to find a place to seat, but if you want to do it right, buy a couple of tapas from one place, eat the tapa standing, rejoice with the mix of flavours, and then keep going around the market for more and more. There's no science to do it, just enjoy Spanish specialties and get in the tapas game.
After leaving Mercado de San Miguel, I made my way to the Royal Palace, and boy did I put myself in the middle of gigantic cheerfull crowds of locals celebrating Almudena! A lady even warned me not to walk in that direction, because the Royal Palace was right next to the Almudena Cathedral, where everybody apparently was. I decided to take the risk and what I saw made me smile. Locals, from little kids to older people, where having the best time ever, just singing and dancing all over the streets and it was delightful to see a city so united in something that they charish.
By the time I went back to the hostel and I was just sitting in bed editing the photos of the day, I started to get really hitchy, and that's when I noticed I had bites all over my body.
It's got to be mosquitos. The window was open last night - I thought to myself
Unfortunately it kept getting worse. I went down to the reception and said to the guy as I showed him my arms "I think we have a problem" and he just said "Oh...Bedbugs!". He was not surprised (they had that problem two weeks before, which means I really made a bad choice of hostel this time) and changed me to another room, where I was happy and alone for two nights. How amazing is it to pay 12€ a night, and get a bedroom and bathroom all to yourself, with breakfast included and in the city center? It's too bad I need to get begbugs to have this luxury as I travel!
It's got to be mosquitos. The window was open last night - I thought to myself
Unfortunately it kept getting worse. I went down to the reception and said to the guy as I showed him my arms "I think we have a problem" and he just said "Oh...Bedbugs!". He was not surprised (they had that problem two weeks before, which means I really made a bad choice of hostel this time) and changed me to another room, where I was happy and alone for two nights. How amazing is it to pay 12€ a night, and get a bedroom and bathroom all to yourself, with breakfast included and in the city center? It's too bad I need to get begbugs to have this luxury as I travel!
My last day in Madrid was way more relaxing than the other two for sure. The only thing I had planned was to spend half my day in Parque del Retiro, which turned out to be a great fit, and again, I was able to runaway from big crowds and enjoy a very sunny day of November. Can't even tell you how lucky I was, and got to love Spain for this, because I traveled for two weeks in November, and there wasn't a day the temperatures were below 20ºC.
I left Madrid not really understanding my feelings about the city. For one hand I thought I was going crazy over the amount of people in the streets all the time, about how loud spaniards speak when they are in group. I was a little overwelmed by the size of the city as well, and the bedbugs were big, gigantic no to my visit to the Spanish Capital, but then again, I loved walking the streets, feeling like I had conquered a big, scary city, I had fallen in love with tapas and I was happy to have been around Madrid on a special day that was Almudena. I can't say I loved the city, because I would be lying, I didn't love it, no, but I was able to enjoy my time here, and I'm happy that I took this city out of my bucket list already.