48 hours in Madrid: This is España

Tapas! Sangria! Churros! Musíca! And Plaza Mayor! This is Madrid, the heart of Spain! I will always advocate for the sub cultures of any place, for instance, the United States also speaks Spanish, Irish culture is more than anglicized Dublin, Mexico has its indigenous languages, and Spain is also Catalan, Mallorcan, Basque, Galician, and so on. There are so many different regions of Spain each with their own unique culture and language, so I hate to be the person to say that Spain is Madrid, where the Castilian Spanish language is from. This is where the monarchy laid and therefore made its language the national one. I do think though, that if you are looking for Spanish speaking Spain, then Madrid is the place to go. For me is was so fun to finally be surrounded by Spanish and understand everything going on around me. I also adored the city with its parks, classy architecture and style, and food!

I got to spend a weekend in Madrid when I was au pairing in Mallorca two years ago. My friend Lucia was au pairing in the city, so after going to Barcelona together and her coming to Mallorca, it was time for me to see her in Madrid! I was really grateful that her host family was so welcoming and let me stay with them! They were really nice with some great kids. I bought a Ryanair flight for the end of November to visit and it was the perfect time to visit. It was the peak of fall there so all the leaves were colorful and the weather wasn’t hot, but also not too cold yet. Although I was told it was going to be chilly and I needed to bring a heavy jacket. It was probably only in the 50s so as a Minnesotan, that was a heatwave for November. Everything about the whole trip was so perfect, which is probably why it was one of my favorite memories from my time au pairing.

Day 1

My first day in Madrid felt really long. My host family drove me to the airport which I am really appreciative of because it is about 40 minutes. They thought it would be a great idea to visit the aquarium which is right next to it before my flight. It was really cool and I loved the idea but it did make for a pretty long day. I had a 2:40pm flight to Madrid, so the nice thing about being so close is I didn’t have to worry about being too early to the airport. After a short couple hours on the plane, Lucia met me at the airport and we took the metro into Madrid. We got off in Sol near Plaza Mayor.

Now please forgive me for my lack in detail because this trip was 2 years ago and I didn’t journal during my time in Spain which I am really mad about now. On our way to get some churros we stopped in Plaza del Sol for pictures of the Christmas lights going up and to watch some Salsa dancing in the middle of the plaza. It was a really fun welcome to Madrid because I love Salsa and here I was enjoying it in a circle with a bunch of Spaniards.

From here we headed from the square into the beautiful old streets of Madrid to get churros at Chocolatería San Ginés. They were amazing! In Spain they dip their churros into a thick hot chocolate and I have decided there is not better way to eat them. We also got porras which are essentially a larger version of churros. They both are good but you definitely get more dough and less crunch with the porras. Now I don’t know if I have talked much about this in my other posts, but time in Spain is something else. Everything is delayed by 3 or 4 hours. When we got our churros, it was 6pm. The sun was just starting to set but our day in Madrid seemed to just be getting started.

After a stop to see Plaza Mayor, the main square and the center of old Madrid, we headed out of the city to Pozuelo, the home of Lucia’s host family. I got to meet them and their kids. They were very kind and welcoming. I really enjoyed speaking to them in Spanish, because I had been speaking Spanish in Mallorca, but it was different. I didn’t often have full conversations in Spanish other than with the mom of my host family, so I was excited to show off my conversational skills. I also was loving the accent because it was so easy to understand, so I felt fluent in my Spanish

After some time hanging out and chatting we got ready for our night out (I told you it was a long day). We were trying to find somewhere for tapas but it was starting to get to be a bit too late for tapas. We ended up getting drinks at Filemón. Here I got the most pretty and best tasting cocktail I have ever had. It was a kind of tinto de verano, which is similar to sangria, but is fizzier because of the soda in it. I loved that the places where I ordered tinto de verano in Madrid all served it with foam on the top which makes it feel so much fancier. Now it was after 10 pm which was still too early to go out to the bars and clubs so we stopped at another place in Pozuelo. Next went to Ochenta Grados for more tinto de verano. It was here that we actually got food because we weren’t able to get tapas at Filemón. I finally got to try patatas bravas and they were delicious. I love the sauce on them. After trying a few different foods we finally headed back into Madrid for our night out.

To get to and from Pozuelo we had to take a bus into Madrid and then take the metro to the intended destination, which takes about 40 minutes. We ended up at a bar that I can’t remember or find the name of, but it was a little funky. It had a bit of a 90s feel. It was really crowded and we had to wait for maybe half an hour to get in. It was ok though, because we were entertained by the Europeans in line who were speaking English. I was starting to wish I had brought a jacket though. I usually don’t bring a jacket going out to the bars back home in Minnesota, but between going to dinner, taking the bus, and waiting to get in, I was outside for a long time. Do Spaniards wear coats to the bar?

We had fun although it seamed that Lucia thought they would have played more pop music. It was a lot of stuff neither of us had heard before, but I still enjoyed the night. The journey back to her host family’s home was intersting. It’s not that much happened, but I think there is something so weird and surreal about leaving a European city at night when there is no one else around. I don’t know how to explain it because it was the same feeling I had walking through Brasov on my travels in Romania. Its like you are living in a fantasy. Nothing is real, but it is and you are there. It was 3 am when we got back to the apartment. The bus was nearly empty except for a guy slightly younger than us who needed help getting home. At a stop where we had to switch buses: no one. It was so strange. But this feeling could also be that I really liked it here. Does it feel surreal because it feels unreal or is it because I was enjoying being in a foreign city that felt so comfortable and where I can speak a foreign language that I understand.

Day 2

My full day in Madrid was the best of the weekend. I completely fell in love with the city. We didn’t do much in the morning because we slept in and ate breakfast at the apartment before going back into the city. This was the day to explore and see where the day takes us. We started out at Gran Via, one of the most famous streets in Madrid known for its nice stores, theaters, and hotels. It is the place you have to go in Madrid because of its architecture. It is the is the epitome of Madrid’s beauty and class. We went into Primark which you may have figured out by now is my favorite store, but I didn’t buy anything, because Spanish Primark just didn’t seem to be it for me, but it was still fun to look through its many floors as well as other super well known Spanish stores like Stradivarius and Zara. Again, I didn’t buy anything because not only did I need to get it back to Mallorca, but then in my luggage to take back home and I had done quite a bit of shopping in Mallorca already.

At the end of Gran Via we were met with the Madrid City Hall. It literally looks like a castle. We then grabbed lunch at Patio de Leones which while on the pricey side was very aestetcally pleasing. It had the coolest bathroom I have ever seen! We only got small things here for lunch before continuing our tour of Madrid. Lucia was showing me all the best sights. Our next stop was to Madrid’s central park, El Retiro Park. Before becoming a public park in the 1800s it was the the garden and park for the royal family. It is quite a big park and there is so much to enjoy here. As you can see in my pictures, we took advantage of every single photo opp from the pond where you can rent a boat to take out to the glass palace and its beautiful surrounding fall leaves. There are lots of walking trails with monuments scattered throughout the park. Luckily we came on a nice day so it seemed all of Madrid was hanging out and enjoying life at the park.

Afterwards we walked around the city some more with a stop for gelato in there. Was it too cold for gelato? Maybe. But did we get some anyway? Of course, we are Minnesotans. We hung out at the gelato place for a bit and as the day grew darker and chillier we decided to check out the nearby park, the historical Cuartel de la Montaña Park. This was one of the best decisions we, or should I even say I, have made on a trip. It has become my core memory from this little weekend trip to Madrid. This park is located on Príncipe Pío Hill in the middle of Madrid, close to Plaza de España. It is a historical site that it is now a joint park with Oeste Park. Here you will find the Egyption Temple of Debod as well as walking trails and the rose garden.

It was here that we danced with strangers as the most beautiful sunset ever fell over Madrid. My instagram caption was “thinking about how I will never again be young dancing at sunset in a park in Madrid with a bunch of strangers”. It seriously was the most magical moment of my life. We came to the edge of the park where a man was singing and playing his guitar in the middle of a group of people. I still follow him on Instagram, Situasound. He really had a way with people. He played music from all of the world, but somehow it connected everyone in that crowd. Before I knew it we all began to dance in a circle spinning arm and arm with friends and strangers. It was amazing. Eventually we walked away to catch a better look at the sunset as it grew darker and darker in Madrid. From the hill you could not only see the lights of peoples homes, but also the palace and cathedral glowed above them.

Afterwards we took the bus back to Posuelo to go to the evening Sunday mass at the church Lucia liked to attend. This was actually life changing. It was a simple church, nothing fancy, but it was the people that made it spectacular. I have never seen a church overflow quite like this. There were so many people there to worship and there were definitely not enough seats. We ended up in a corner by the door with a lot of other people. Then when it was time to kneel, they all knelt on the floor. I have bad knees, so I have always struggled when there aren’t kneelers in church. When I was in Mexico I had to use my jacket or backpack for padding, or I would just sit and bow. I was truly impressed by the dedication because it was people young and old kneeling, so I felt like I didn’t have much a reason not to if they could.

The rest of the evening was spent at the home of Lucia’s host family. We hung out watching tv and eating tortilla in the living room. If you are unfamiliar with tortilla, it is my favorite Spanish food, that I still haven’t been able to recreate quite right. It is fried potatoes and onions mixed with egg. It is basically a potato omlette, but it isn’t necessarily a breakfast food. We had a really nice time and it was great to see that Lucia had such a great host family.

Day 3

This was my final day in the amazing city of Madrid. The thing I will say about Madrid is it isn’t really one of those site-seeing cities. I think it is one of those cities that is really appreciated when you live there. This is how I felt about Milan too. It is a homey city, versus a touristy city. I think that is why I liked it some much. I prefer the simpler things. I don’t need to be go-go-go all the time. I like a place where people take time to enjoy life. That’s why it was really hard to leave. I felt a sense of peace here that I never quite found in Mallorca.

Our only plans for my last day was to go to Almudena Cathedral and the Royal Palace of Madrid in the morning. We wanted to tour the palace, but in the end it didn’t work out because of the timing. I had to be at the airport around 1 pm for my flight and it was a bit of train ride from the city to the airport. That meant we only had a couple hours to explore the cathedral and see the palace before I would need to leave. In the end we just decided to go into the cathedral, which was beautiful. I had to settle for only seeing the palace from the outside.

Afterwards we explored some Madrid hidden gems. We walked over to Jardines San Fransisco el Grande in La Latina neighborhood. The area has a bit of a boho feel, but it was still uniquely Madridian. This area is very close to the cathedral and palace and also has its own Real Basilica de San Fransisco el Grande. We saw the outside and its gardens which I really loved. The sun was shining and the view was just perfect. It wasn’t that grand or really anything that special but I adored its simplicity. From here we checked out the local market, Mercado de la Cebada. I didn’t buy anything but I love checking out markets. This one wasn’t just food as it also had jewelers and other artisanal goods.

Before I knew it I had to head to the airport to return to Mallorca. We stopped into a cafe real quick so I could grab a little lunch and then Lucia walked me to the metro stop. This was a tough goodbye because it was our last adventure together in Spain. I wasn’t going to see her for a long while, because I would be heading back home in a few weeks, but she still had at least 6 months left in Madrid. I really enjoyed getting to see her in her new home though. Madrid really suited her and she seemed really happy which made me happy. She is the one who inspired me to be an au pair, so I was glad we could have these adventures in Spain together. It was special to share this first post-grad with someone. I will cherish all these memories together.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my weekend in Madrid. I know it is really lacking detail compared to my other blog posts. I am so mad at myself for not journaling, but I hope that at least the pictures were enjoyable! Madrid also is a much more chill city compared to other tourist destinations in Europe or Spain. If you want to see more of my adventures from when I was in Spain, check out my Spain page!