Madrid

Europe
May 17th 2010

Published: May 17th 2010

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Cous Cous

Jason 445

Our hostel. No, I was not checking out Amit...just an ill-timed photo and unfortunately the only one of the room.

Hey Guys,

So, yes...I am doing two blogs in as many days. I guess that's what happens when you have a lot of free time on our hands. Lisbon has been fun, but 4 days is definitely more than enough. Atleast it gave us a chance to get caught up on the blog and do some much needed laundry.

Amit and I got in to Madrid from San Sebastian around 10pm and beamed straight to dinner. The smoked meat sandwiches and pizzas were even better here than San Sebastian, if thats even possible. Luckily this time we got to our hostel without so much as a bump in the road. It was actually in a great location right downtown beside 'Puerta Del Sol'...this is a square in Madrid known for its huge protests. When they protested against the war in Iraq they had the largest anti-war demonstration in the world. Something like 2.2 million people gathered in this "tiny" square. Pretty neat...

That night we just wandered up the famous (because of its architecture) street called "La Grand Via", as well as took night pictures at the famous royal palace, Palacio Real.

The next day we jumped

Jason 447

View from the hostel outside.

on another "free tour" of the city from a young guy who's lived in Madrid about 5 years. These tours have been really fun because not only do you meet fellow backpackers, but the guides know just how much history to give to the group before the group falls asleep. They are not considered "official" tours by the tourist office, but there are definitely as good (and much more affordable)!

We managed to walk through the older, less glamorous, part of Madrid, as well as the newer, more european looking part. Our stops included the Opera House, Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, Grand Via, and the Calle de Alcala. That night we went on a free pub crawl of Madrid...another awesome experience. A little different from north america, as the night doesn't even start around 11:30-12:00 and goes until 6am. We happened to meet a guy from Pittsburgh and managed to watch a little of game 6 MTL vs PIT with him and some french Canadians along the way.

The next day we took the metro to see "Estadio de Santiago Bernabeu" where Real Madrid plays. It was an amazing stadium that holds around 80,000 people. The stadium was

Jason 448

Puerta Del sol

in great shape because the Champions League finals between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan will be hosted there in a week or two. This place gives Park Head a run for its money (but not quite). Other than that, we just lived like Spaniards (taking a siesta) and took some night pictures around the some of our favourite spots from the tour.

On our final day, we toured the inside of the Palacio Real and jumped into another tapas bar, that was selling things for a great deal...1€ each. The palace was nice, but the tour only let us see a small part of the palace. They said it was the biggest palance in europe (bigger than the Palace of Versaille), but it was hard to tell. After that, we just took a 10 hour night train to Lisbon.

Overall, Madrid was an awesome stop. It had a nice mix of being a big city and a spanish city all in one. The architecture was not nearly as outstanding or gaudy as what we have been hearing about Barcelona. That is where we are heading to tonight, so it should be interesting.

My condolences to Montreal. We

Jason 452

Plaza Real

had a light night at the hostel, and streamed the first two periods of the game in the lounge. Its funny how all the Canadians in the hostel managed to congregate down there during the game.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will be back sometime after Barcelona.

Take care everyone!

Cheers,

Jason

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