Why I love Madrid

sooooo.......

I have always wanted to start my own blog but it's hard considering that I don't have too much spare time ( I know that's everyone's story) but anyways I thought that my first blog should be about my trip that I took during the summer to Spain.When I went there I fell head over heels in love with Madrid, the people, the food, the art, the culture, anything and everything about it.
soooo...instead of telling you all of the fabulous places I went to I thought that I should first tell you why I love Madrid so much....this list could go on forever, but I thought I would give you some insight of my favorite things about this city.....

• The Food! Yes I know that's such a typical answer but it's so true! First off, let me say this: I am a picky eater (I wish I was not but I am unfortunately) so I was a little scared that I was not going to enjoy the food at all (especially the sea food) But as it turns out the food is not only amazing but comes in a great variety!It is virtually impossible to get bored of eating traditional Spanish food.From Tortillas españolas (basically an omelets with potatoes), paella (a rice dish with different meat, traditionally made with seafood, but can be made with chicken and/or chorizo), garbanzo beans (a dish basically with garbanzos and veggies…I love it!) and Patatas bravas (one of my favorite tapas) which is basically fried potatoes covered with spicy tomato sauce .Of course there is dessert, my favorite! There are all several different types, usually a pastry, flan, or arroz con leche (rice pudding), but a traditional dessert in Madrid is the chocolate con churros…which is AMAZING! Basically you dip churros in a thick hot chocolate.
  

Some things that I thought were interesting about food/drinking
-When you go to a tapas bar (a bar that serves appetizers) it is cheaper to order beer than water
-the dining schedule is quite different from most American eating habits. Breakfast is around 9:30; lunch at about 2:30-3 followed by a lengthy siesta(a resting period during the day where most business close for a couple hours), and finally dinner no earlier than 10p.m.However, it is not uncommon to have dinner reservations at 11pm
-Another thing that I thought was interesting was the fact that it is very common for students to go out and have a drink with their professor after class.
-It's a common tradition to give an American tourist a Coke a Cola as a welcome gift.

• The People!The people never cease to amaze me while I was there! Like people everywhere, there are the nice ones and mean ones, but for the most part I really enjoyed the Spaniards. The mentality is very lax here, and people are not always so rush, rush. Honestly, come on they have siesta…a three-hour break from 2-5pm where smaller shops close down for lunch and nap time. That is the life! Going out to coffee is also very common for a group of friends there, especially the older crowd. However, when I say go out for coffee I mean that you sit down at a cafe or restaurant and have your cafe and stay for a long chat with your friends and/or family (sorry there is no to go)

Some things that I thought were interesting about the Madrileños
-The way they greet each other is by a single kiss on each cheek.
-I know this one is a little out there and off the subject, but it seems the stork myth (the big bird that delivers the babies ) is universal however, according to the Madrileños the stork comes from paris. Why Paris? I don't know, in fact nobody seems to know.

• You can walk anywhere! There are tons of cute little shops, cervecerías, and cafés all over. You can literally walk,and walk, and walk all around Madrid without a dime, because you just want to walk around and look at everything!There are parks all over the city, the most common is the El Parque de Buen Retiro. There are also several statues and amazing buildings on every corner. Most of my pictures are just from walking down the street and seeing a fountain in the middle or an awesome building. The plazas are pretty as well, usually just a square surrounded by apartments and shops with a statue in the middle. Plaza Mayor (my favorite) is the largest one in the middle of the city and there is usually patio seating on the plaza for all the cafés and restaurants.Here you can taste/ drink amazing wine for a great price! (usually about 5 euros= about $9.50 American dollars.
  

• The nightlife is truly one of a kind. In fact, I just learned that Madrid is one of the biggest party cities in the world!There is a reason they have siesta time, it's because they don’t sleep at night. There is something to do every night of the week…anything from flamenco dances and salsa clubs to wine bars. Most nights do not start until around 2-3am and usually continue until 7am. The metro is closed from 1:30-6:00am, so unless you want to pay for a taxi to get home…you might as well stay out all night until the morning (which we always did). Drinking is also very different as well…in the States it is very popular to binge drink, where there it is a social aspect as well, but nobody really gets drunk.I mean there is always someone drunk, a couple here and there but nothing compared to the young crowd back in the states. I don't know if they are immune to the alcohol or they just don't drink as much in a shorter amount of time, this still is a question to me.

Some things that I thought were interesting about the night life
-Everyone brings their own roll of toilet paper to night clubs because there never is toilet paper available
-Public urination is very common (no I am not kidding).It is not uncommon to see a couple of cops peeing right outside of a night club on the job.And it's not just the men it's the women as well. I have to admit this took a while for me to get use to.

Alright…that turned out much longer than I expected…sorry, but I hope you have a little better idea about life in Madrid! I will post some of the great places I visited as well in the next couple days as well =)


Thanks for reading!