Wednesday was my second day in Madrid. I went on a walking tour of the city and saw more plazas than I can remember. I made it into the Almudena Cathedral but only saw the outside of Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace) because the line was extra long. Plaza de España (Spanish Square) was just a few blocks away and hosted a statue of Cervantes.Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate) was one of the busiest plazas in the city. It was under construction so I did not get to see it at its best, but I could tell that it was a central meeting place. Plaza Mayor (Main Square) was the most entertaining. On Saturday, people in the plaza were dressed up like statues, fairies and even a goat. They would slightly adjust their position or make an entertaining noise when a passerby put money into their cans. My favorite, was a couple who slowly transitioned into a kiss when someone threw change in their bucket. Plaza de Santa Ana (St. Anna's Square) was closests to our hostel, so I probably spent the most time there since I went to Lateral --what is now my favorite tappas restaurant in Madrid-- and passed through it to get to most other places in the city.
On Thursday, Cordae and Jackie, her roommate, took us to Toledo for a festival. It ended up being for Corpus Christi and we missed the procession earlier in the day, but we walked around the quaint city for a few hours and enjoyed the antique buildings and brilliant views of the city's landscape from a high vantage point. No one in my group got the memo that required lunch reservations, so we ended up getting take out and sitting on a stairway eating cold pasta, chicken drumsticks, fried calamari and croquetas. The city was bustling which made travel slow but I did not mind since almost every stone road was on an incline and I was usually going up. (I can just feel my thighs toning up :)
Cordae continued to be an excellent host, even throughout the night time. On Wednesday night we went to a hip hop club called Bash and stayed until 6am. We almost closed the club down on Friday night/Saturday morning, too. Before hitting Las Comidas and Agbar, two of Cordae's favorite clubs in Madrid, we went to an early birthday dinner (Cordae is 26!) at an Italian restaurant. I got to meet all of Cordae's friends in Spain. After struggling with my sub par Spanish skills, I was excited to have an entire night where I only had to speak English. In the course of dancing two nights away, I also got to meet several persons from Africa. When I think of Spain, I do not think of a large black population, so I was surprised to see so many people from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and even Jamaica. I overheard a story that some Africans lie, and say that they are from France or another European country. They do not claim their native country because they believe that claiming another European nation will deter discrimination. It is sad to see that even though this world is so progressive, we cannot get past skin color and oppression continues...
FYI: The best (and easiest) thing to do on your fifth and final day in Madrid, is a bus tour. Laura and I did this for 17 euros on Saturday. The ride enabled our feet (and thighs) to recover from all of the walking that we did the past week, and see all of the sights that we had missed. Still, we were so exhausted that we both nodded off on the bus tour on more than one instance. With the tour, we could get off and on at as many stops as we wanted, so we did the 21-stop tour once around, and deboarded the double decker bus at Reina Sofia. I am not an art conosour by any means, but after viewing some of the pieces there, I find some peoples judgment of what is art questionable. Still, it was great being in a gallery where they feature works by Dali, Picasso, Velazquex, Goya, and Sorolla just to name a few.
Visit Laura, my fellow travelor's blog to see her version of what happened: http://msinternational501.blogspot.com/
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