Madrid

Saturday 09/16/23

The big day: I got up early, had breakfast, finished packing and then headed to the airport. As a first-time flyer, I was of course completely overwhelmed at the airport: Where do I have to go? What do i have to do? What do I have to say? So many questions. And all in a different language. Of course I did everything in time and then sat at the gate totally nervous and waited for boarding. The start wasn't as bad as expected, a very wise person told me that it's a bit like the first part of a roller coaster, where it goes up very relaxed. Apart from a few slight turbulences over southern France, the flight went quite well, even if the dry air and the mites irritated my cough again. And I can't report on the landing yet because it won't take place for another 20 minutes. (On the way to Alicante) Landing is not my thing... After a very, very long trip to the hostel, I finally arrived. I quickly went shopping at the nearest Lidl, 200m away. I thought you couldn't go wrong with a Lidl. Apparently I did... I've never seen such a disorganized store, which is why I found almost nothing on my shopping list and therefore couldn't put together a proper meal. In general, I find it very difficult to cook in a variety of ways. I think I've only eaten pasta so far, which is very tasty but not very balanced. But it's just difficult for one person to buy food that should either be empty after 3-5 days or can be transported. After shopping I went to sleep relatively soon; it was a tiring day.

Sunday 09/17/23

I started the day with a free churros and coffee breakfast at the hostel. Afterwards I set off straight away to explore the city. On my way to the famous El Retiro Park I got stuck in the Botanical Garden. My first Spanish conversation at the ticket counter was very awkward, I didn't realize how much my Spanish had suffered from the 6 month break. That was a bit uncomfortable considering I actually had three years of Spanish at school. In any case, as soon as I was in the garden it started to pour... at the beginning it was really nice to wander through the garden, admire the dahlias and listen to oldies. But at some point it got really wet and really cold. There was a bonsai terrace in the botanical garden, which was very impressive and inspired me to grow my own bonsai at home and challenge my absolutely not green thumb. It runs in the family to be good with plants, so I just trust my genes and in 60-80 years I'll have my own super great bonsai. After the botanical garden, I continued through the city, soaking wet, where I found out that the final of the biggest Spanish cycling race "La Vuelta" was taking place in Madrid that day. With the aim of finding the destination ;) I continued walking through the city for another three quarters of an hour, in the meantime my rain jacket was slowly giving up and my shoes were soaked from a puddle I overlooked in the botanical garden. So I decided, just to avoid getting sick any further, to go back to the hostel and dry my things. Since my shoes just didn't dry, I stayed in the hostel for the rest of the day and unfortunately missed the race. I then made a bit of a phone call on the roof terrace and later had a long chat with an Italian woman and a Canadian man. It's always very interesting to hear other people's stories.

Monday 09/18/23

On Monday morning I just walked around, checked out the area where my hostel was, looked at a lot of shops, and bought two very cool shirts secondhand (segunda mano). At some point I just came out to Plaza Mayor and watched people there for a bit. Afterwards I went back to the hostel to grab something for lunch at a street food market nearby, but when I got there all the shops were somehow closed, very strange... I ended up having a very tasty (vegetarian) a few streets away !!!) Wrap eaten. I was really surprised that there was a vegetarian alternative, very unusual for Spain, even if it was even more common in Madrid than it is now in Alicante. Afterwards I went back to the hostel because I was very exhausted, took a siesta there for a few hours and then quickly went shopping before walking to El Parque del Retiro. I sat there in the sun in front of the water for a long time and enjoyed the beautiful ambience, listened to the street musicians and relaxed. What I found really crazy was that there were parrots flying around in the park like pigeons. I then looked at the Palacio de Cristal, a very impressive glass building in the middle of the park. I made it back to the hostel just in time to watch the sunset from the roof terrace there. I had a nice chat with a Greek woman until I was really hungry and quickly made some pasta with pesto.

Tuesday 09/19/23

On Tuesday I slept in for a long time and then, after a cappucino in a nice little cafe, I strolled through the city again. I went to a lot of second-hand bookstores and actually found German books in one and then bought Fight Club for 4 euros. After a month, I finally got tired of reading on the tablet or listening to audio books. And for the beach we just had to get a real book. The plan is to read the book through and then exchange it for another book in a hostel somewhere. Let's see if I can even part with the book after reading it, save everything that is worth remembering. Around lunchtime I started to get hungry and spent a long time looking for food. I noticed that I'm very picky when it comes to food... At some point I found a small empanaderia and had my first ones there !!! Ate empanadas, luckily there were enough vegetarian options. I once had eggplant with parmesan, once spinach and cheese and a very special one, I can't even remember what was in it, definitely cheese and corn and much more, very tasty!! Afterwards I went to Retiro Park again because I was very close there. I read there, walked around a lot and made phone calls :). I ate dinner in an Asian street food market, there was duck (not vegetarian but very tasty) with noodles and egg.