I had my second long study break this week, and I decided that there was nowhere better to spend the time than Spain! I spent three days in Madrid and four in Barcelona, and it was such an amazing time. Full disclosure: I preferred Madrid over Barcelona (pretty unpopular opinion, i know)! Madrid felt like a Spanish city that people really lived in, while Barcelona was just so congested with tourists that it didn’t feel as genuinely Spanish. Madrid surprised me, and I felt myself sad to leave at the end of my three days. Below, are the highlights from Madrid (and don’t worry, there will be an accompanying piece about Barcelona to look out for as well).
The first night that I got to Madrid, I took some time and just walked around the part of the city that my hostel was in. It was pretty late, but everyone was still out and about on the streets, even little kids. I sat down at a park and listened to a Spanish couple sing, and watched some kids play futbol. The environment was rich in a culture I had never experienced before, and one that was really different from Danish or American culture, so it was an incredible experience.
I always start out my first day in a new city with a free walking tour (that way you learn about the big sites, see the history of the city, and meet people all in the first few hours), and so the first day I signed up to do that. There, I met two American brothers who I then went to El Rastro with after the tour. El Rastro is a giant street market in Madrid on Sunday’s, where they sell everything from leather jackets to empanadas. I scored myself a 10 euro jean jacket (super excited about that), and had fun just looking at the different clothing styles in Spain. Shocker, they wear a bit more color than Danes.
After, I split off from the other Americans and walked around to the Royal Palace and Buen Retiro Park. The park was probably my favorite place in the city, and the weather made it a perfect day to just sit in the grass and relax.
To finish off the night, I met up with one of my kollegium-mates who happened to also be in the city and we got tapas with a few of his friends from home!
My second day in the city was almost entirely spent in art museums. I am a museum girl, but trying to do both the Prado and the Reina Sofia (two world class art museums), in oneday, was wayyyyy too exhausting for me. I did try to take a break in-between and lay around in Buen Retiro park, but looking at art for 6 hours in one day is really draining on a person!!!! The Reina Sofia was by far my favorite of the two though, and possibly was one of the best art museums that I have ever been to. Walking in, you are automatically greeted by masterpieces by Picasso and Gris, and it only gets better from there. They have famous works like Guernica there, but they also have a lot of smaller pieces that were insanely cool to discover. It is definitely a must see if you are an art fan and in Madrid! Also, a huge plus to these museums were that they were free to students. This was a huge difference from places like the Uffizi gallery in Florence where I paid 20 euros to get in.
That night, I met up with Maggie (my friend from high school who is studying abroad in Madrid and who visited me in CPH). We got tapas at El Tigre, which is a great student bar that gives you plates of tapas if you order a drink. The entire thing was really good, and considering I paid less than 5 euros for it, I was super happy. I was a little bit in shock about how much cheaper Madrid was in comparison to Copenhagen, and while I would never regret studying in CPH, my wallet and stomach definitely did in that moment. The next day, Maggie walked me around the city a bit more and we got brunch together before I left to go to Barcelona.
All in all, Madrid was such an incredible city, filled with amazing food, art, and overall culture. However, that was only half of my week – check out my next post for four days in Barcelona… adios for now!!!
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Maya is a senior International Studies major, spending the spring 2018 semester in Denmark through DIS Study Abroad in Scandinavia.
Read more from Maya at travelingpapaya.wordpress.com
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