My trip to Madrid was a last minute decision amongst us roommates. We happened to be there the same weekend as many of our friends on our program, and some of my friends from high school! Madrid is the capital of Spain with a population of 3.3 million, and boy did it feel like it!
We began our journey to Madrid in the afternoon by taking the high-speed train from Sevilla. Being a little too juiced up from the night before, the train ride was not as enjoyable as everyone had told me.
Upon our arrival in Madrid, we went to our eighteen euro hostel, “No Name City” where we were lucky enough to get a room for all six of us to stay in. Despite the ruckus going on from our British neighbors, the hostel was absolutely amazing. We even got free breakfast!
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to begin our adventures in Madrid! We first went to La Plaza Mayor, which was conveniently located about five minutes from our five-star hotel. La Plaza Mayor was used as the place where Catholics executed the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. It is now just a major touristy area with markets, cafes and dressed up characters.
After leaving La Plaza Mayor, we headed to El Mercado de San Miguel. El Mercado de San Miguel is a beautiful two story market with the most amazing EVERYTHING! From fish to paella to desserts, El Mercado de San Miguel is always packed. Sadly we spent quite a long time salivating over each and every item. The pictures below cannot even do the food justice.
Next, we went to el Palacio Real de Madrid. El Palacio is the residence for the King of Spain, but he does not live there and it is instead used for tours of the palace and ceremonies. I only have pictures of the outside, because inside you are not able to, but the inside was even more magnificent than the outside, which is hard to believe. The palace is about 1.5 million square feet, making it the largest palace in Europe. Inside the palace, everything dated back to the sixteenth century. Every single room had a different theme, but they somehow connected and meshed together. The art seemed to be the most amazing part to me. There was art by Francisco de Goya and many other famous artists. There were so many rooms, including the royal library, which stuck out the most to me with the amazing art and high ceilings. I found myself planning which room I would want to get married in on several occasions.
After seeing the palace, I was feeling quite depressed about not being part of a royal family. I did what every girl does at that time, found dessert. Spain is known for its churros con chocolate, and we just happened to be a few minutes away from Madrid’s most famous churros place! YUMMMMY!
At the end of the night we went to El Prado, one of the most famous museums in the world. For students, free admission was from 7-9PM, which we though was perfect and gave us plenty of time to see everything. Boy were we wrong. We found ourselves speeding through and didn’t even get through half of the museum! What we saw was absolutely amazing. The museum holds over 7,000 paintings, 1,000 sculptures and more! It was very cool to see all the amazing pieces in which I have studied and read about over the past few years.
Unfortunately, we left rather early the next day, but we were able to walk through some of the parks in Madrid. Although a short trip, we made the most of every minute! I ate amazing food, saw unbelievable attractions, and most importantly, was in good company J
