Madrid

So many of you have probably already seen my photos from Madrid. I know it was a while back (sorry!) but I am going to blog about it anyway haha.

So Madrid and Barcelona are very interesting cities. Neither of them are really "Spanish" per se. They are cosmopolitan, huge, and always have a huge influx of tourists as well as immigrants. Comparing Barcelona or Madrid to the rest of Spain would be kind of like comparing New York to a small town in the middle of the country. They're just not the same thing.

At any rate, we arrived in Madrid fairly late at night, so we went straight to our hotel, dropped our stuff, and headed out to check out the night life. After a walk and a taxi drive to nowhere in particular, we wound up going into what seemed like a not-too-promising place, but turned out to be a huge pirate bar!! So we had a couple drinks, danced, and left. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, I would up somehow not eating for 24 hours!! Literally. It was horrible. Pans saved my life. (This is a fast-food like place that can be found all across Spain.)

The next day we actually did all of the tourist stuff. We took a bus tour that went all through the city and let us stop for souvenirs along the way. We circled back to the palacio real (royal palace) to take some pictures, and we went to the Prado. Luckily, since it was after five by this point in time, we actually got in for free! I really enjoyed all of the Velazquez collection, even though I've seen "las meninas" in photographs about a million times, but his other works are amazing! Francisco de Goya held a large section of the museum as well, but I'm not a fan of most of his paintings. I like a few of his pieces, but most of his work is painting nobility, which just comes off to me as very pretentious. (Yeah, yeah, I know, everybody's a critic).

We tried to make it out to the famous seven-story nightclub, but we were too tired, so we headed to bed. We had an early flight. So now I have to do a few mandatory comparisons.

Public transportation: About the same to be honest. There is a very funny picture of the statue of liberty reaching out for the Madrid metro system in my facebook photos. But overall, compared with Barcelona it's about the same. (I don't really like the NY subway though, and DC is my favorite!)

Prices: Madrid is actually a lot cheaper than Barcelona in certain areas. Taxi rides were literally halved. Food was slightly cheaper. So were drinks. Shopping, however, was more expensive. But maybe that's because I've wandered the back alleys near las Ramblas, where they always have stores that sell everything in them for five euros, or shoe stores where even boots only cost twenty.

People: I personally have found that people have been friendlier to me in Barcelona than they were in Madrid. It could be different for other people, though, just my experience.

Which do I prefer? Barcelona. I'm glad I didn't study in Madrid. Honestly, it didn't seem like there was actually that much to do. There were only two other things that I found worth seeing that I didn't have the time for (a second art museum and a park), whereas in Barcelona there are still things that I want to do. Just wait for the entry about my trip to Sevilla, though. Sevilla is awesome. But that is a story for another day. I hope everybody reading this is well. And I miss you all!