Trip to Spain - Madrid

The time leading in to any trip is the most exciting part for me, even more than the actual trip. All that anticipation - trying to imagine how a place would look like, what would you do when you get there, reading about local joints, thinking about interacting with the locals, browsing the web and seeing more pictures, reading about other’s experiences - that to me, is fun. And I didn’t quite get to do any of that for Spain. I was working till the minute I boarded the plane. I was in a meeting while V was sitting in the cab, waiting downstairs, probably watching the clicking meter and the time running out on us. Our flight was leaving at 6:30 and here I was still working at 4:30. Luckily, there were no delays for the flight and us.

Our friends had sent us a detailed email of how to get from the airport to the hotel that we were staying at. So we just followed the instructions, word for word. We did have an interesting encounter with a pickpocket man on the subway; he was trying to feel V’s pockets. V confronted the guy and said he would call the authorities (like we knew how to call the authorities), that guy threw some F-bombs at us and got off at the next stop. After an eventful subway ride, we got off at our station (Callao or Gran Via on of the two, but I am pretty sure it was Callao) it was well past 2:30 in the afternoon. It was a very busy intersection and a 2-minute walk to the hotel. We saw our friend in the lobby, we caught up with him while we checked in. We got rooms on the same floor as our friends and we even got upgraded in to one of their pricier rooms!

Let me take a moment to sing praises of the hotel, Best Western Atlantico. It was amazing! Everything about the hotel was good. Wonderful staff, fantabulous rooms and bathrooms and a breathtakingly beautiful terrace. I can’t stop!

Anyway, we freshened up - a long shower plus a little nap for me – and we were ready to head out and get some grub. The street outside was bustling with activity. We didn’t have a specific agenda other than getting food. V was very keen on trying out “Tapas” (he had a mental image of that “perfect Tapa” that he will savor while in Spain). After walking around a bit, we saw a small joint that looked appealing. We started with some good smoked chorizo and Cruzcampo cerveza (beer). With that I officially kicked off my vacation!



After that decent snack, we wandered around the city for a bit. We walked to small vegetable shops, eager to try out our broken Spanish. Spending a considerable amount of time walking, our feet was beginning to hurt, so we hopped on a bus and rode on the bus until we saw a stop that was appealing. There was a huge plaza with plenty of restaurants and large amount of people enjoying drinks and food after their siesta. It definitely looked like the place we all had in mind – lot of people and out door seating. While we eagerly waited for our seats, we couldn’t help but notice that we were the only group of people looking “young”. Rest of the junta was definitely in the above 60 category. There was even an old grandmother more like a great grandmother, in her wheel chair and a beer in hand and coughing her lungs out! The food wasn’t all that great and the constant cough was no fun.







We saw a pastry shop and they had a decent display of goodies… and for some reason unknown to me, things start looking a little extra tasty when we are on vacation. The guys couldn’t just let the pastries go, so we all piled in to the shop and it turned out that the tart or the cake they got wasn’t as tasty as it looked. Anyway, we managed to get a recommendation for dinner from the pastry shop guy. We followed his directions, when we got there we found out that the place was closed! It was growing late and all of us were hungry again and the neighborhood we were at didn’t have too many options. So we hopped on to a bus homeward (or hotelward).

After walking around some more in on Gran Via and neighboring streets and not finding anything really up-to our expectations, we settled to have our dinner at a local chain restaurant called Café and Te.

Later, we chilled on the beautiful rooftop of our hotel for sometime and called it a night.
In just half a day I felt like I’ve been in Madrid for a week.

Wait for an exciting Road Trip ahead...