I have settled into hostel #2 - MuchoMadrid. It's on Gran Via and I can already tell it's going to be pleasant night's sleep. Los Amigos was on the 4th floor above Calle Arenal which is a large pedestrian street - so there was noise all night long. Not that I minded too much because of my ear plugs. I was also in a large room where the last few nights people would come in at 6am from partying all night and be quite loud trying to stumble into their bed. Gran Via is a busy street but my room faces a courtyard, I'm on the 7th floor, and hopefully I won't have any roommates in this 3 bed room. The little lady at the front desk is quite adorable. She doesn't speak any English and I managed to understand most of what she said. She gave me a map and circled some of the sites for me. Nice because the map in my book isn't too detailed so I've been winging it when it comes to finding places. I was too stubborn to buy a detailed street map - imagine that. Me stubborn. Another part that's nice about this place is that there are several individual bathrooms in the hallway with a shower.
Anyways, I then went to the El Corte Ingles - a huge department store that also has a supermarket. I picked up some fresh bread, brie, and some fruit and walked to the Parque del Retiro. I LOVE this park. It's so nice. If I lived here I would come here all the time. There is a lake with paddle boats that you can rent by the hour and tons of vendors and tourists which isn't my cup of tea. But off to the side there are lots of trees, gardens, statues, and little grassy areas sectioned off where you can sit and chill out, have a picnic etc. I parked myself under a tree, leaned up against the trunk, selected some relaxing music on my ipod and enjoyed the afternoon. There was no one else in my grassy area for a while. Just me and the birds. But then two teenagers parked themselves right in my line of sight, laid down a blanket and jumped on each other. They luckily came up for air after a while and had a picnic. Too funny.
I didn't want to leave the park, but thought I should cross something else off my list, so I went to the Centre de Arte Reina Sofia museum which is free on Saturday afternoons. It's a contemporary art museum that is much less daunting than the Prado. And since it's not prime-time tourist season yet there was no line here either. Fabulous. I had a nice time wandering around, and was most excited to see paintings by Dali and Picasso. The most famous in the museum being Picasso's Guernica. People were taking photos throughout the entire museum. The art police would yell at them some of the time, but mostly they got away with it. Idiots.
Once I was done checking out the art I strolled back to my hostel without a map! I love staying in a place long enough that I can kind of get around. I basically knew that I needed to head west and hoped that I'd come across landmarks that I recognized, which I did.
As far as tonight goes, Casa Patas never got back to me which is a good thing because I forgot tonight is a big futbol night! I'm heading back to my first hostel to meet up with a girl that I met this morning. We're going to find a bar somewhere and watch the Real Madrid/Barcelona game (that starts at 10). I did meet a tourist that is actually going to the game - she paid 600 euros. So even if they weren't sold out, there's no way I'd fork over that kind of money. I wanted to ask her why she was staying in hostels if she was willing to pay that kind of money to watch a soccer game. I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Then tomorrow morning before I check out of this place and head to my 3rd Madrid home, I'm going to El Rastro - a large flea market held every Sunday. Pretty excited about that.
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