Our Madrid Trip!

DAY ONE.

Jason arrived in Spain a few days ahead of me, so I flew solo! Which was a victory for me- I feel so pleased that I had the confidence to fly internationally alone, and with no understanding of Spanish or of how to get around after landing! I'd like to thank the planner within me for doing as much research as I could muster beforehand to avoid any potential stress and anxieties! The best part of the voyage over was that the flight was super empty- I had the entire row to myself and could spread out (as much as one can on a plane)! The hardest part was figuring out purchasing a metro ticket to get from the Madrid–Barajas Airport to the InterContinental. But I survived; and I arrived, sleepily, to our hotel room.

The first thing I did was find a bench nearby the hotel. I brought some good books with me and wanted to get some sun early in the day, so I can work on attacking that jet lag. This time reading was full of content! I got teary eyed sitting on my bench and reading... while France and Spain are obviously very unique, there was a "Europe" vibe that made me feel so reminiscent for my semester in Nantes.

After some reading, crying and recalibrating, I decided to hit the gym at the InterContinental. This was also an effort to get my body on Spain time- since I work out almost every morning at home, working out every morning during our Spain trip felt important to me to feel human! And to feel even more human, my work out was promptly followed by a shower and nap!

I woke up from my nap by the arrival of sweet Jason! Which felt like the official beginning to our vacation! We set off to explore the neighborhood we were in and to get some lunch! Which, ironically, was at a Mexican restaurant, Tiki Taco; which served up some delicious tacos and margaritas!

We explored the city a bit more and made our way to the flamenco show at Essential Flamenco! What we truly enjoyed about the show was that it was preceded by a short education on the history of flamenco. The music, dancing and sangria were amazing; Jason said that this was one of his favorite things we did while in Madrid, so we highly recommend!

One thing that was tricky to get used to during our time in Spain was the timing for dinner! While Jason and I typically eat our dinner at home between 7-8pm, in Spain, this is still early! So while I was already to feast again after the flamenco show... the restaurants were not ready for us! We killed some time walking around Puerta del Sol. We had dinner at Casa Alberto, which was recommended by a friend, who also told us we needed to try the shrimp! We also had the Madrid classic - jamón ibérico.

day two.

I feel like this Madrid blog will quickly become a "food we ate in Madrid" blog! But isn't food one of the wonderful things to experience in a different culture? So, for breakfast we had the best tortilla de patatas in Madrid at Casa Dani in Mercado de la Paz. After our delicious breakfast, we made our way south to more touristy things! This called for many selfies at...

• Puerta de Alcalá (Which was being restored at the time)
• Cibeles Fountain
• Museo del Prado ~ Which we did go in & do think the audio guides were very helpful! But no pictures allowed inside!
• El Retiro Park ~ Where we got gelato, which made my day! Jason was hoping we could go on the paddle boats, but you need a reservation! So if you find yourself in Madrid wanting to go out on the boats in El Retiro Park, make plans to do so beforehand!
• Palacio de Cristal ~ As a wedding photographer, the whole time here I was just imagining how amazing shooting a wedding in this palace would be!!

Dinner for day two was at El Castizo de Serrano, where we had more Spanish classics I utterly fell in love with - patatas bravas and croquetas de jamón serrano!

DAY THREE.

More touristy sites were in store for us for our third and final full day in Madrid! But first- churros & chocolate! My friend who studied abroad in Spain recommended Churrería Chocolateria 1902 and one of Jason's co-workers suggested Chocolatería San Ginés. Which obviously meant a taste test! At San Ginés, we ordered porras instead of churros, which we liked the texture of more! And I made a major faux pas, by drinking some of the chocolate, rather than just dipping it! Both were delicious though, and a wonderful excuse to eat twice as much dessert for breakfast!

We got to see a bunch more touristy things during the morning and afternoon, including...

• Teatro Real ~the opera house
• Plaza Mayor
• Mercado de San Miguel
• Almudena Cathedral ~ which had gorgeous ceilings!
• The Royal Palace of Madrid

More food... for lunch we went to the world's oldest running restaurant- Botín.

For dinner we had McDonald's... which to us feels like a bucket list item for any county we visit! We also noticed a bunch of people carrying bags that said "Primark" and wanted to check out what Primark was all about! It was a wild shopping center- HUGE. It felt like an H&M but on major steroids!