Making it in Madrid

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As a student of Spanish, I've always wondered about Spain. Spain to other Latin countries seemed like Britain to the United States; they're the rich cousin that speaks the same language but always with a slightly snobbish air.

Thankfully, this was not what I discovered. The Madrileños we met were hospitable and down-to-earth. Their 'castellano' Spanish was pretty easy to understand, though some spoke with heavily lisped accents and the use of Spain-specific conjugations like the vosotros form threw me off at times.

Recently, Spain has received a lot of bad press because of their struggling economy and high rate of youth unemployment. Some of this was reflected in the small, scattered protests that punctuated the city streets during the work day. However, things seem to be going well here - people are cheerful, out and about, and spending vacation time at national monuments.

Speaking of national monuments, we've visited must sees like the Royal Palace, Prado Museum, and the Park of Pleasant Retreat.

We capped off our night with a couple of drinks in Hemingway's favorite haunt during the Spanish Civil War. If he weren't one of my favorite authors, I would have griped a bit more about the 12 Euro whiskey.

See you next in Barcelona!

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