Madrid, Spain

We took a morning bus from Bilbao to Madrid, which took about 5 hours. On it, I was able to see quite a bit of the Spanish countryside (which I found interesting to see – it varies greatly from region to region). We arrived in Madrid in the early afternoon and checked into our hostel, which was quite nice and new (very spacious, very clean). We then walked around the city (walked a good 10 or so miles through the entire downtown area). We saw all the major city sites, including the Bank of Spain, Metrópolis Building, Casa de la Villa (Madrid City Hall), Palacio de Comunicaciones (Madrid Mayor's Office), the Catedral de la Almudena, Parque del Buen Retiro (very neat and massive park), Banco Español de Crédito, Puerta de Alcalá, Cibeles Fountain, Palacio Real, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and more. We really saw just about everything. Once it got late, we returned to the hostel and visited a bit with our roommates (2 Koreans and 2 Canadians).

The next day, we got up and went to the Prado art museum. We had to wait about an hour in line to get in, but it was worth it. The museum has quite an impressive collection; my favorite parts were the neo-classical section and the Bosch section.. After spending 5 hours or so at the musem, we rode the metro up to the tall viewing structure that looms over the city. Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance, so we didn’t get to go up. I then headed over to the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple dismantled, brought to Madrid, and reassembled. It lies in a park that lies on the highest point in the city, so the view from up there was quite nice. It started to rain, to I started walking back to the hostel. Rather than taking the metro, I cruised down one of the main streets of the city (kind of like New York’s 5th Avenue) and got another cool viewing of the city. Once back at the hostel, I went to the lounge and chatted with other people staying there – a guy from Penn State, a girl from Brazil, a girl from Poland, a guy from Argentina, and a guy from Spain. Most of us went out after a while and ate some kebabs at a local eatery, and then came back to the hostel and played Scattegories, for a hour or two (quite a fun board game). After hanging out until quite late, we went to bed.

Madrid was my favorite of the three cities that we visited in Spain. It is the most like London or New York – numerous sites and buildings to see, lots of people on the streets, etc. I feel like we were able to see a lot in two days, but there was definitely more that I could have seen, whereas two days in each of the other cities was plenty.

The next morning, we got up and caught a bus from Madrid back to Barcelona. It was a long ride (about 8 hours). Unfortunately, the bus was running a little late, so we missed the last connecting bus to the airport (which is actually in Girona, about 75 minutes from the city). An Italian girl had also encountered the same problem, and the three of us got a ride to the airport from this random Spanish guy who was waiting there (we thought he also had had the same problem, and had offered to give us a ride with him to the airport if we paid him some money, but apparently he was an unlicensed taxi or something). We made it to the airport and were able to catch the flight back to London, and eventually reached Victoria Station. Unfortunately, most of the buses had stopped running by then (12:30 at night), so we had to wait around in the cold for a long time. Eventually, we were able to catch a bus to Oxford Circus (where we could pick up the 25 bus). The first 25 that arrived, however, was stopped because a surly (and probably drunk) man was causing problems. The police showed up and struggled with him, and after some verbal arguments, gave him a warning and let him ago. Once he got about 20 feet away, he then turned and threatened them, stating “Just wait until I see you on the street without your uniform on…. Then I’ll show you,” which prompted the police to arrest him, and resulted in more scuffling. Although it delayed our return, it was rather entertaining to watch. After that, we rode the bus back, and finally reached our rooms, after over 17 hours of travel.