How I Spent Two Days in Madrid

My road to Andalucía passed through Madrid, where our plane landed, so we took good use of this chance by deciding to stay for 2 nights and see a bit of the capital of Spain.

I have to say I simply loved it. I don’t know if it was just because we mainly walked through the beautiful city center, with stone paved clean streets, pretty green trees and stylish buildings, but I was pleasantly surprised by this city and wished I could have stayed for at least a few more days.

We stayed at the cutest apartment ever, a 3-beds room with bathroom in a hostel at the 2nd floor of an old building (Hostal Villamañez, we had a very pleasant, albeit short stay here), at an unexpectedly good price, right in the old city center, with a small balcony overlooking a cute narrow street.

We arrived here on Friday night, and right after checking-in at the hostel, we took a long walk through the lovely Cortes neighbourhood and ended up in a sort of pub where we had amazing food and, without knowing what else to drink here, we went for a yummy Sangria. Afterwards, we noticed it was a big thing to have cider there and the serving was a show itself, with the bartender holding the glass somewhere down and the bottle way up, so it was a challenge to pour it from up above without spilling it. 

Leaving tips was also very well appreciated, with the bartenders ringing a long string of bells and thanking the customers loudly (imagine that after seeing all this show, we were embarrassed not to leave a small tip as well…).

Next day, on Saturday, we tried to check as many interesting places as we could, so we walked around the city until out feet hurt. And we did see a lot of great stuff for just one day – including their famous statue with the Bear and the Strawberry Tree. 

Sunday brought us a pleasant surprise – after hurrying to the bus stop (where we had to catch our connection to Sevilla) and arriving 2 hours earlier, we had a nice breakfast with café con leche at one of the the bus station’s restaurants. BUS STATION RESTAURANT! It was this huge modern station, extremely well equipped, with information points, platforms and ticket offices for each of the companies, restaurants, bars, toilettes, screens with arrivals and departures, everything so well connected and the buses were pretty new and even had wifi. Might sound like a no brainer for some of you guys reading, but in Romania, bus station usually means a longer strip on the street where a few old tired buses stop. If there’s a “station” per se, it’s usually an ugly building with 1 or 2 ticket counters. Therefore, yes, we didn’t expect to have coffee and eat in a bus station.

I only wish I had stayed more in Madrid… I feel there is more about it than just the slight glimpse I had of this fancy city.

Aaand another thing I liked (beside people’s fashionable clothing), is their Spanish – I could actually understand every word they said! Unlike in Sevilla, where everyone talks unbelievably fast and shortens words, even whole sentences…

Which means that yes, I have finally arrived in Sevilla, my new home for the upcoming months. ♥