Madrid - Part II

Yeah. This is really late, eh? My bad.

Anyhow, done with the first day and a half, on to the next!

Madrid

So the next day was New Years Eve, and we had planned to go the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica (among other things), but somehow we both got the open hours mixed up with the Prado's, so when we got the Reina Sofia, it was closed. We mulled around for a few minutes, plotting to break in if they didn't open up, but in the end we couldn't find a good entry point, so we moved on. Luckily for us, almost right across the street was Madrid's central train station, so we headed over to check it out.

I must say, compared to Munich's central station, Madrid's was really cool. You walk in, and it's an indoor jungle. Plus, there's a turtle habitat! How awesome is that? Sarah and I walked around snapping pictures for a while, before hitting the street again.

We stopped by el Retiro again on the way home, to get some better pictures of the Crystal Palace. When we got back to Jorge and Lola's, we were just in time for lunch! I won't do justice to what Lola cooked up for us, but it was delicious. It was some kind of vegetable pie, I think, topped with homemade mayonnaise. I thought that was all, so I ate a fair amount of that, but then there was another dish! I think it was a kind of paella, but it's been so long now I can't remember. But after that there was even dessert! I was so full, I was surprised I wasn't bursting at the seams. Lola kept saying it was nice having me around, so I could eat up all her leftovers.

So what to do now? We thought about heading out again to see a couple more sights before nighttime rolled around, but in the end we decided it would be best to enjoy another Spanish tradition: the siesta! We were so beat from running around the city, and so full from lunch, that we were out for almost four hours. It was awesome! We even saw a couple episodes of Avatar (not the blue people, the cartoon). Then it was time for the New Years countdown!

In Spain, they have a New Years tradition of eating grapes at each of the strokes of the clock. They even sell little cans of 12 pre-skinned grapes so you can have just the right amount of grapes for the big day. You would be surprised how hard it is to grab a slippery grape and eat it, twelve times in a row between the bells. I managed to get all mine down, but poor Sarah couldn't finish hers, so she won't be lucky all year. Damn shame.

After the grapes, Sarah led me up to the roof of her building where we had an incredible panoramic view of the entire city. I took my tripod with me (special thanks to the parents :P) and I got some pretty spectacular photos of the skyline.

The next day was my last full day in Madrid, but again everything was closed, so Sarah and I took to the streets, walking around and taking pictures of anything that looked awesome enough to warrant it. We ended up in the Plaza de Toros, running from imaginary bulls.

My final day was also the day that I finally tried tapas! We got some mojitos at a cool little bar near my hostel, and the deal with tapas, is you buy a drink and you get the tapas free! Normally, you just get a little appetizer, but the place we went gave us a full bloody meal with out drinks! Paella and chicken and muscles (I think, it's been a while now...) it was a pretty good spread.

Alas, it was already my final night in Madrid. Tired from all the running around, Sarah and I relaxed in a park with some beer and potato chips. We waxed philosophical, joked that we were more than just friends of Facebook now, and I dunked my camera in the drink (it survived, thank God). It was an awesome trip in an awesome city, and I really look forward to repaying Sarah the favor of being my tour guide when she comes to Munich for some real beer!