Wow! Madrid certainly lives up to its reputation as a great place to party! It is dangerously easy here to stay out every night until 4am. Even during a quite time of year, the bars in el barrio de Sol are full. Madrid in August is quieter than usual as the locals all decamp to the coast during the hot summer days of August. As such, traffic is much calmer and many restaurants for locals are closed to allow their employees a couple free weeks to visit with families in the pueblos (towns) or spend a relaxing vacation at the beach. So, for these few weeks in Madrid the are fewer locals in the bars and restaurants and they are replaced by tourists such as me.
For the three nights I stayed in Madrid were in two Hostels, the Mola Hostel, and the Newton Hostel. I had a great time at both places and both hostels enabled me to make friends and explore the nightlife of Madrid. My first big night out in Spain, I went on an organized pub crawl that includes many of the hostels in Centro. We stopped at 4 bars and ended at a nightclub. It was a massive crowd for a Tuesday, proving that every day is a weekend night when you are a backpacker in Madrid. I was able to find a crowd of Brits, Kiwi’s, Aussie’s, a Dutchman named jasper and a German. We danced the night away and had a great time in Madrid. I finally got home around 4am after a midnight snack at a Doner shop. Super fun but also so tiring!! The Spanish lifestyle is going to take some getting used to!
After such a late night I decided to treat myself and just sleep in ‘til two in the afternoon. I am on vacation after all! After napping and doing a bit of reading I met two of my roommates at the hostel who happened to be a French couple from Montpelier. I introduced myself in French and we immediately became fast friends. We went out to a great tapas bar (the drinks were so cheap! 2€ a glass of wine with tapas included) and had a great time sharing our travel stories and just shooting the breeze en Francais. This is a perfect example of why I feel so grateful that I speak French well and that my parents helped to foster a love of travel and foreign language. When you meet someone in a foreign country, and you speak their language well it is almost guaranteed that you will become friends. After tapas we headed over a wine bar in el Centro to meet up with a friend who works as a sommelier in la Rioja. We had a great time tasting some good Spanish wine and making plans for which towns and bodegas we’ll visit this year. We had a delicious plate of fried Spanish goat cheese! Not health food but man was it delicious. Then the Frenchies and I headed to barrio de Sol to continue the night, as the American had to get up early for work. We were exploring de sol when we ran into a crew of Germans and proceeded join them going some great bars. It is so easy here to find drinking companions here! We stumbled upon a great Irish bar called la Fontana de Oro with great live music. Even on a Tuesday it was wall to wall and just a great ambiance. After a couple hours there we called it a night and headed back for the hostel.
On Thursday my final full day in Madrid I moved hostels to get a feel for another hostel and to see a different crowd of people. I got to the hostel around eleven and dropped my bags of to take a guided walking tour of Madrid. Our guide Erika was amazing! She is a Columbian transplant who has lived and worked in Madrid for over a decade. She was funny, charming, and very informative! We toured the old part of town seeing the Royal Palace, the Plaza de Sol, and multitude of other landmarks in the capital. Among other things, I learned that one of the reasons why pork has such a central role in the Spanish diet is a relic of the Spanish inquisition. Due to the high numbers of forced converts from Judaism and Islam, Spaniards would prove that they were true Christians by eating foods that non-Christians would not eat. So interesting! You can hear about that and much more if you take a tour with Erika of WolvesTourMadrid! After excellent tour I grabbed a bite with some other backpackers on the tour and then took a nice siesta, when in Spain do as the Spaniards right?
After the wonderful Siesta I met up with a local friend for Tapas in the la Latina Barrio. We met when she was an exchange student in Cleveland and it was great to catch up. She was my tour guide for the evening showing me around la Latina. The barrio is famous for its Sunday flea market and every bar is packed to the gills on Sundays full of happy shoppers. There is even a verb in Madrid for exploring the shops and bars of the barrio, Latiner. We first went to a wonderful Tortilla Espanola bar (not Mexican flour tortillas). There we had a delicious, dried tomato Tortilla, for those who haven’t tried a Spanish Tortilla it’s like a undercooked and delicious quiche. While there we also tried a variety of Spanish Croquettes, way way way better than the Dutch varieties. Croquettes are deep friend meat and flour balls breaded then deep fried. Very tasty but not health food. After we wandered the area looking for a calm bar on a plaza to catch up on the last couple years. We found a great little bar typical of Spain in a little Plaza and enjoyed the great Spanish weather. I was also lucky enough to get an impromptu pronunciation lesson on the difference between the soft and hard Spanish g! There is nothing better than learning from native speakers over drinks!
I decided to turn in quite early (midnight) to be ready for the next day as I will be traveling to Barcelona! I am visiting a Dutch friend who is starting his MBA and I can’t wait to see the differences between the inland capital of Spain and the famous costal Catalan city.
Hasta Entonces!
(In this photo I’m snacking on tradition Porros and hot chocolate. So tasty)
Great to see you having so much fun!
wow!!! Wow!!! Wow!!!!
Such a great city! Such a great country!!