June 8, 2022

Today started off a little slower with a stroll around the nearby streets to find a coffee shop and an ATM. We managed to find both with minimal trouble and then got back to the hostel in time for a free 3 hour guided tour of the old city that is offered daily. Our tour guide, Erika, did an amazing job and taught us a lot about the city. One fun fact was about their iconic bear statue, El Oso y el Madroño, which shows a bear climbing up on a Madroño tree to eat its (fermented) fruit. She told us that this is very symbolic of Madrid because the bear climbs the tree for the fermented fruit until it becomes too drunk, so it takes a nap and then wakes up for more fruit. She also pointed out that the bear is a female which means that their icon is essentially a party girl. 

After leaving the bear statue and the main square (which is not only is in the center of Madrid, but is also in the center of Spain), we continued to explore the city and learned about where to find the best (and oldest) churro spot, the best squid sandwich, and the best paella. We also learned a lot about Madrid’s history including details about their civil war which left bullet marks in all of the buildings, the Black Plague, and about the origin of sangria and tapas. The tour also took us to see a few of the most famous plazas, the Royal Palace (which the king was inside of at the time), and amazing views of the mountains. 

When the tour ended, we took the suggestion of our tour guide and went to a nearby tapas restaurant. It ended up being more expensive than we expected so we only ordered 2 tapas to share. The first was a smoked burrata and the second was a pastrami sandwich. We both preferred the burrata, but they were both very good. After lunch, we were still a little bit hungry so we headed back to the best churro restaurant in the city and ordered their churro with chocolate special. It came with 6 churros and a glass of very thick hot chocolate to dip in. We loved it and could understand how they made it to be the oldest churro shop in Madrid. 

Our next stop was to Primark, a huge department store that we were told has excellent prices. It was something very different see and we had fun wandering through 5 floors of clothes and other things, daydreaming about how much we could get if only we had an extra empty suitcase to fill. 

We took a quick detour to the hostel to drop off the few things we did buy before heading back out to the Prado museum. The museum was a lot of fun and we had a great time looking at the art that we saw, but we didn’t quite get through everything before they started getting ready to close. It ended to being for the best because we were very ready for dinner. We decided today was the perfect day for a casual dinner so we stopped at Lidl on the way to the hostel and picked up some bread, cheese, salami, raspberries, garlic spread, lemonade, and yogurts that we ate back at the hostel. 

We had limited time this morning before our train to Madrid. Our first destination was Park Guell which we really enjoyed. It had more pretty purple flowers which made it even more exciting. We also got to go into Gaudi’s Casa del Guarda, which was fun to walk through and see the interesting architectural decisions that he made. After the Casa, we wandered through the gardens to admire the flowers and other buildings. We really enjoyed the lizard fountain, the caves, and the mosaic platform with a view overlooking the city. We both had a great time in the park and were sad to leave, but we also wanted to have time to (try for the third time to) go to La Boqueria. 

This time, we were very excited to find the market open and wandered through aisles of meat and fruit and fish and spices and tapas and everything else you could imagine. Eventually, we each found a few small things to try which became the perfect lunch. 

After a little more wandering, we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and get ourselves ready for the train. We gave ourselves plenty of time and even got to sit on the couches for a bit to relax before walking to the train station.

The train ride was relaxing and uneventful. The train was nicer than the other ones we’ve been on and we made it to Madrid right on time. We quickly bought metro passes before catching a ride to our hostel. 

This hostel is definitely the nicest (and best location) for all of the hostels we’ve stayed in. We are in a 6 bed female dorm with a private bathroom. The hostel has a lounge, game room, bar, and even offers walking tours of the city. On top of all of that, they also offer a 3 course meal and open bar every night for only 12€. It started about half an hour after we arrived, so, of course, we decided tonight was the perfect night to try it. The first course was a salad which included pickles; it was very interesting and ended up being really good, but it was also a little surprising. The main course was chicken wings and potatoes and then dessert was carrot cake. Overall, everything was good even if it wasn’t very local and it saved us the pressure of trying to find food so quickly. The open bar was also a very nice bonus- their sangria was delicious! We ate at a table with 2 other girls staying in the hostel and had a really great time getting to know them. After dinner, we got ready for bed so we had some time to plan tomorrow!