The Travel Buggers: Madrid, Spain

We arrived midday in Madrid, and after a bit of confusion, we found our small, centrally located hotel. After a short break, we excitedly headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was Casa Rua for calamari sandwiches, a specialty in Madrid. We ate our sandwiches as we walked around one of the main squares in Madrid, Plaza Mayor. Later that evening we tried small Spanish donuts called rosquillas. The donuts were surprisingly hard and extremely sweet. The next day we continued our culinary exploration of Madrid at the Museo del Jamon (Museum of Ham). We ate standing up at the counter as the locals do. Lorenzo ate a plate of cut ham and Kim tried a ham sandwich. After lunch we walked to the Royal Palace, but unfortunately, the Palace was closed for "official acts" so we were not able to tour it. Fortunately, we happened to visit Madrid during the San Isidro festival, a festival that honors Saint Isidore and marks the start of the city's bull fighting season. So, on our second night in Madrid, we attended a bull fight at Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas. We didn't know what to expect and we were both surprised when we saw that each bull is actually killed. The experience was very interesting, but between the gruesome bull killing and the cigar smoke, we decided to leave early and only watched two of the six bull fights. After the bull flight we rode the metro to Chocolateria San Gines to try a local favorite, churros con chocolate. The chocolate was thinner than we expected, but we enjoyed our late night dessert. On the way back to the hotel, we walked up a busy pedestrian street that also happens to be Madrid's red light district. The young women stand on the street in groups throughout the day and at night, often looking bored or talking on the phone while waiting for their next customer. The next day we headed to the Mercado de San Miguel to have a tapas brunch. Madrid has a wide variety of delicious tapas and we sampled a plate of olives, seafood on bruchetta, and an apple pastry. Later that evening, we toured the Prado Museum and saw a wide variety of art by Spanish artists. On our last day in Madrid, we had lunch at El Botin, the oldest working restaurant in the world. Lorenzo ordered El Botin's specialty, suckling baby pig, while Kim ordered lamb. We enjoyed our meaty meals and the ambiance of the restaurant. We left Madrid later that evening on an overnight train to Paris. Our tiny, private cabin consisted of two seats, two twin bunk beds that flip out of the wall, and a small sink. We spent the evening watching movies until we asked our cabin attendant to flip the beds out so we could go to sleep. It was a bit difficult to sleep because the train was going extremely fast to make up for extra time spent at the border stop and the man in the next cabin was snoring loudly. After a few hours of sleep, we awoke to a breakfast of toast and jelly, juice and croissants in the restaurant car. Once we arrived in Paris, we were excited to get off of the cramped train and out into the open air.