Day 1 in Madrid

Hey everyone!

So I spent the last few days traveling and seeing Madrid so I thought it would be easiest to split up this trip into days.

The first day I awoke bright and early at 7:00 AM to head to the Fundación to join my classmates on the trip. The one advantage to waking up this early was getting to see the most beautiful sunrise over the bluffs of Toledo. 

Our day began with a bus ride around the central parts of the city. Our tour guide noted the stadium where they hold fútbol (soccer) games as well as important administrative buildings and plazas (large courtyards in the center of a city).

After the bus tour we got out and made our way to a small café next to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia which is the famous modern art museum in Madrid. Before heading into the museum we had a short break and I grabbed a postre (dessert) from the café because the ride over had made me feel a little sick from all the starting and stopping of the bus.

Soon we made our way to our tour of the museum. It was definitely interesting to hear about the symbolism and meanings behind the art pieces. Reina Sofia is the modern art museum and Prado is the classical art museum in Madrid. My favorite part of this tour was getting to see pieces by both Picasso and Dali including the famous “Guernica” which depicts the bombing of the Spanish city during WW2. We unfortunately couldn’t take pictures of this masterpiece but I will insert an image below.

The child helps you get perspective on how massive this piece is. 

An original Picasso.

After the museum we drove to a buffet restaurant for lunch (which trust me tasted amazing because we were all very hungry!) After gobbling down some food we were free to either take the group bus back to Toledo or go off and do our own thing. My group of friends and I had already reserved a hotel apartment for the night. We somehow navigated our way to our apartment and let me tell you that it was perfect. It only cost us each 20 Euros a night and just look at one of our balconies.

The nicest part about having an apartment together was that we could buy groceries and make some of our own meals at home! We rested for most of the afternoon and went grocery shopping at a nearby place and picked up snacks and breakfast items. When we returned we spent our time hanging out and getting to know one another better. To celebrate being in Madrid for the first time we headed out for dinner around 9 PM.

Let me tell you that this dinner was one of the most interesting and funniest experiences I have had thus far.

First off, our waiter seemed to be in a very upset mood when we arrived. I tried to order something off the menu and he told us that they only had a few of the dishes. He mumbled and wasn’t standing close to me so I had no idea what he said. When he returned to take our order I mistakenly tried to order something he already told us they didn’t have (mistake 1). He then passed out my silverware along with a nice long black hair (appetizing right? Hence mistake 2). 

It is next important to note that one of my friends Griff has an allergy to seafood and fish. He ordered a salad with gulas (a small kind of fish) but wasn’t aware. When the waiter brought out the salads I mentioned that it didn’t look like cabbage or lettuce. I ended up ordering ensalada rusa (essentially Spanish potato salad) but was really craving a salad with greens. Therefore I switched with my friend Becca who had the same salad as Griff. After one bite of the gulas I realized that it was a kind of seafood. We all laughed and Griff took my potato salad and Becca took his salad (a game of musical salads going on here and this was mistake 3).

The white things in the salad are gulas. 

I told him that he could eat the potatoes in the salad but he needed to avoid the tuna which was sitting on top of the salad. I got distracted eating and talking and looked over at Griff and saw he was eating the tuna. I told him and he replied saying that he thought it was pork and Becca tested it out and then confirmed it was indeed tuna (mistake 4). We had a very good and long laugh about this.

My main course had eyes that stared at me. 

We almost got through dinner without another accident until the waiter dropped a fork on Becca and stained her shirt (mistake 5). The universe was not in our favor that night regarding restaurant service!

After that crazy experience dinner we made our way back to our apartment to hang out and we watched Interstellar on Netflix. It was the end to a very funny and satisfying day.

Worry less and smile more.