I wrote the following post yesterday, but due to technical difficulties I
wasn't able to post it until today. I don't have much to add from
today. I toured the Royal Palace and the Prado museum today, but I don't
think any post I might write about it would be much worth reading for
you all. They were great, but not really all that exciting to read about
(except to note that the Raphael and Botticelli pieces they had
confirmed for me that those two are at least among the top three to five
painters ever, in my opinion). So anyway, here is what I wrote last
night.
Today was one of those days that comes along on a trip and bites you on
those nose and says "Hey! You're lucky to be doing this!" It was one of
those days that you don't expect to have, but it never fails that I
always have at least one of them on every trip. It was one of those days
the makes the challenges of travel worth it.
I started the day in Barcelona. I woke up early and was out the door by
about 9:00 in order to catch my flight to Madrid. As I was waiting for
my flight at the airport, I wrote in my journal that Barcelona was "ok;
not great, but not terrible." And that pretty much sums up my Barcelona
experience. I saw some cool stuff, but it didn't really enthrall me. Now
I will admit that the lack of excitement was as much my fault for not
being more outgoing as it was Barcelona's, but nevertheless it wasn't
the best three days I've ever spent in Europe. So coming to Madrid I was
in a bit of a travel rut. I've come to accept that they happen. It's an
inevitable byproduct of the way that I travel, doing and seeing as much
as I possibly can with the time I have available. Sometimes you hit,
and sometimes you miss. But even the ruts add to the invaluable body of
travel experience that I am building, and the great days like today make
the ruts more than worth it.
To sum it up, I would say that I was a temporary Spaniard today. One
thing I have enjoyed about Spain is that I have frequently been mistaken
for a local, even by locals. Which is not to say that I want to be
anything but what I am. Far from it; I am happy to be an American and an
ambassador for my country. I never shy away from telling people who I
am and where I am from. In fact, the more I travel in Europe, the more I
come to love my own country and appreciate everything that we have back
home. That being said, when I travel I am just glad to be able to blend
in and live as the locals do, if only for a little while. Today I felt
like a participant, rather than an observer, in local life, and that is
all I ever hope for. It lets me know that I am really experiencing the
place I am in, rather than watching it like an exhibit in a museum.
Feeling like you belong, like you are a part of the scene rather than an
outsider, also makes traveling alone much less lonesome.
So anyway, on to what I actually did today. Like I said, I got to the
airport early and had about a three hour wait for my flight, so I spent
that time writing in my journal and planning my days in Madrid. The
journaling was cathartic, helping me sort through my thoughts and
feelings of late. Having a detailed plan before hitting the ground in
Madrid was good too. I try not to plan too far ahead because I like to
remain flexible, but given that my stay in Madrid will be a bit short,
being well organized will allow me to fit more stuff into the time
available. The flight itself was short and uneventful. I got in to
Madrid, visited the tourist information office to get a map and buy a
Madrid Card (which gives you admission to the major sights and lets you
skip the lines), and then hopped on the metro and made my way to my
hostel. Madrid's metro is probably the second best I've ever been on
after Paris. I got to my hostel quickly, although not entirely without
event, as there was a brief hail storm as I exited the metro. Checking
in to my hostel was quick and easy. Not that my hostel in Barcelona was
bad, but this one is way better. The guy at the reception desk was
genuinely friendly, the place isn't full of kids (both of my roommates
are about my age), and the whole place is just nicer and more spacious.
When I got here I took some time to settle in and organize my stuff,
explore the hostel, and prepare for some exploration in Madrid.
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| Plaza Mayor, Madrid |
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| A random street in Madrid |
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Given that I planned on fitting a lot of stuff into my itinerary over
the next couple of days, and also that it was Saturday, I knew that
tonight would be the best night for me to have a quintessential Madrid
experience: a tapeo. Tapeo comes from the Spanish word tapas, which if
you've never seen or heard of it, is a style of cuisine consisting of
small plates of various edibles. In Spain they have all kinds of really
unique, creative, and delicious tapas. One normally eats tapas by
embarking on a tapeo - a crawl through various tapas bars, eating and
drinking a little bit of what looks good in each place. So as Spanish
dinner time approached (no earlier than 8:00 pm, and usually later), I was determined to do just that.
For a foreigner alone in a place like Madrid, tapas is intimidating to
say the least. Tapas isn't about friendly, cheery service, nor about
everyone being polite and courteous to one another. Not that the service
is rude, nor are the people inconsiderate, but Spanish culture, which
is a subset of the broader European culture, is evident. In Spain, as in
much of the rest of Europe, you have to be assertive or you'll get left
in the dust. It's very much like Italy in that regard. For instance, as
I was getting off the plane today, if I hadn't muscled my way out of my
seat as we were deboarding I would have been the last person off the
plane. If you don't make your way into or out of the subway when it's
crowded, you'll wait all day to ride (or never get off) That's just how
it is here. It's not good or bad, it's just different. And that's kind
of what tapas is like. It's not that anyone is going to mistreat you,
but the phrase "sh*t or get off the pot" comes to mind (pardon my
French). And I knew that going in, but after my experience in Barcelona I
was determined not to let myself settle for what was easy (i.e. dinner
out of a grocery store). As intimidating as I knew it would be, I really
wanted to have the authentic Spanish tapas experience. So that was what
I set out to have.
I consulted my guidebook and selected an area in central Madrid that was
supposed to have a good collection of tapas bars. I decided to start a
bit later, after 8:00 pm, so that I would have a better chance of
mingling with locals rather than tourists. I took the metro to the area
of Plaza Mayor and then walked a short distance to the street where the
good tapas places were supposed to be, and lo and behold,
excellent-looking tapas places were to be found there in abundance. I
walked down the street, peeked into each bar...and by the end of the
street I hadn't gone into a single one. I walked back up the
street...and had the same result. It just looked so dang intimidating.
Grocery store dinner was starting to sound more and more appealing. I
started to make excuses for myself. "I picked the wrong area" I thought,
or "maybe tomorrow night," but deep down I knew that it was now or
never. This might be the only time I ever got the opportunity to do a
tapeo in Madrid. It would be criminal not to just nut up and do it. So I
took one more trip down the street. I told myself that if I didn't make
my way into one of those bars I'd just keep walking to the subway
station and go back to my hostel. I stopped at the place that looked the
most inviting, peered into the bar to look at the menu, hemmed and
hawed...and finally, thank God, I just walked in.
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| Tapas (in this case pinchos) in Madrid |
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| A tapas bar in Madrid |
The rest was easy. I stepped in, approached the bar, ordered "una caña"
pointed to a tasty-looking pincho and said "y tambien uno de esto por
favor," and lickity split, I was having tapas. It was all so easy after
that. The bartenders were patient. My fellow tapas-goers were friendly. I
talked and laughed with the people around me, ordered more cañas
(little beers, I'd estimate 6-8 ounces depending on the place) and small
glasses of wine, and had more pinchos, tapas, and raciones (all
different sizes and styles of tapas). I had just a drink or two and a
plate or two in each place, and made my way through a few different
bars. I had some of the most interesting and delicious little bits of
food I've ever had, including my first ever taste of foie gras
(surprisingly kind of sweet), and also some really good Spanish wines.
Grand total I spent about 25 euros, ate and drank what would have been
about 50 euros worth of food and wine in any other setting, and left
almost two hours later with a happy stomach, a light head, and a smile
that would not come off my face. I knew immediately that it was one of
those signature travel experiences that I would not soon forget.
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| Tapas (jamon and foie gras) and an excellent tinto (Spanish red wine) |
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| More tapas (spicy little sausage things wrapped in jamon with a little fried egg) |
After my tapas crawl I joined the evening paseo, a nightly tradition
wherein folks just stroll around town and eat and drink and visit with
one another long into the night. I eventually found myself back at my
hostel and noticed that the time was approaching midnight. I knew I had a
busy day ahead of me tomorrow, so I decided to get myself to bed. But
not before writing this post; I had to share what was easily the best
experience of this trip so far before the happy memory began to fade.
Finally, while I´m at it, here are a few photos from what I saw and did today:
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| A big cathedral whose name I can´t remember in Madrid |
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| A neat little building and square in Madrid |
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| Another view of the same cathedral whose name I can´t remember from the Royal Palace in Madrid |
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| Royal Palace, Madrid |
