Arrival in Madrid

I slept most of the flight to JFK and then had the perfect amount of time to grab a snack and hop onto the next flight to Madrid. I barely remember that flight, was so tired! I have mad skills when it comes to sleeping on any type of transit. Definitely a quality I love to have.

Anyways, once we landed in Madrid I zipped through customs & immigration, picked up my bag and headed to the metro station in the airport. I transferred to 3 trains to get to the stop closest to my hostel.

It was chilly when I walked out of the metro station at 8am. I might have to pick up another layer or two for the nights and early mornings. The street was very quiet with very few people around. Some folks walking their dogs, some on their way to work, and a few delivery trucks unloading. I found the Los Amigos hostel easily and was able to leave my bag there and wander around the city until I could check-in after 1pm.

Once I got back outside I decided to just walk a bit without a map, so that whatever I came across was a surprise.

Here is what I stumbled across sans map:
1) Plaza de Oriente - which has nice gardens, statutes, and fountains.
2) Opera House - I checked out the schedule and won't be able to attend an opera, but I do want to find some sort of show to go to while in Madrid. Or maybe a soccer game!
3) Royal Palace - I walked by a massive building with guards outside, figured it was something official but didn't want to look it up on my map just yet. When I turned the corner there was a line of about 20 obvious tourists. Still without knowing what this building was I decided to get in line. Then I noticed a small sign that labeled it as the entrance to the Royal Palace tours. Perfect! I had time to kill. So I took the 1.5 hour audio tour of the palace. A swanky place for sure with lots of great sculptures, frescoes, and amazing ornate furniture.

My two favorite parts of the palace were the armory where you could see all the elaborate weapons and armor for people and their horses, and the pharmacy where they used to make and store the medicine for the royal family.

Then at the end of the tour leaving the armory there were two peacocks just chilling outside. Random and very pretty.

Once I left the gates I sat on a bench in between the Royal Palace and the Catedral de la Sra de la Almudena to check out my book and see where else I might like to see that's not too far from my hostel. I decided to walk to the Plaza Mayor.

The Plaza Mayor wasn't as grand or large as I thought it would be with that kind of name, but it was nice. I sadly didn't want to relax there for too long because people around the plaza were selling these obnoxious little whistles that make weird sounds. It's all the rage with the teen-late twenties male tourists. It reminded me of the World Cup vuvuzela obnoxiousness. Hopefully if/when I go back there it won't be as bad. Or I might have to whip out my earplugs or ipod.

I did get a cofffe and sit in the sun for a bit at the plaza and came up with my next adventure - to get train tickets.

I walked to the Atocha train station and it took me a while of observing to figure out what was going on. There were so many different lines, numbers, color-coding and acronyms. Proud that I figured it out after some time of watching, instead of asking someone. You can either buy same-day tickets (certain lines) or you grab a ticket and wait until your number is called for buying advance tickets. I suddenly missed the ticket vending machines all over Italy. I whipped out my novel and read several chapters before my number was called.

Booked the train trips in Spain, and then I need to figure out how to get from Spain - Portugal and back. We'll worry about that in a few days.

By this point it was a little after 2pm, so I walked back to the hostel, checked-in, took a shower, and now am lying on my bed typing this blog entry. Again, love the netbook. There are two other guys in here doing the same. This is my first time in a "mixed" dorm. I haven't seen a female yet, but I'm pretty sure the pink polka dot and bear socks that are hanging on someone's bed drying will belong to a female.