Week 4

I survived a week in Spain! Before I start to talk about my trip I just want to say the 3 best things about Spain is the FOOD, sangria, and hospitality. My friend Andy and I took a week long trip and spent time in Madrid and Toledo. I was so excited to get out of Denmark to go somewhere with warmer weather. After our plane landed and I stepped off into the airport in Madrid I experienced culture shock all over again. Luckily Andy speaks fluent Spanish, well what us Americans would consider fairly fluent Spanish. I on the other hand can only speak the basics. Spanish is definitely easier to read and try to comprehend compared to the Danish language. I also like to call it Spainish in Spain and then there is Spanish which is spoken in Mexico. This trip was extremely a go with the flow trip. No transportation methods booked and we had only booked a hostel for the first two nights. We took a cab from the airport to our hostel. The cab driver did not speak any English therefore Andy's Spanish was put to the test. We arrived at our hostel around midnight and we were starving! We dropped our bags off and headed to find something to eat. There was a pizza shop within 30 seconds walking distance that had large slices of pizza for only 2 euros! We ate as much as we could then went back to the hostel to try and get some sleep. As we walked back to the hostel we were harassed by people begging for money and club promoters.

 

In the morning we participated in a free walking tour of Madrid. Our tour guide was awesome! He took us to see several historical buildings and monuments without making it your average boring historical tour. We of course started out taking a shot at a local bar. The shot came in a chocolate waffle type shot glass. Take the shot and then eat it too! We got to visit the oldest restaurant in the world! Sobrino de Botin was founded in 1725 and is still open for business. Inside the restaurant there was room filled with pigs that were being prepared to cook. It was definitely a sight some may not want to see but I found it extremely interesting. We also visited the Almudena Cathedral which was amazing! This cathedral is a place that is hard to describe with words. The prettiest part of the building was the ceiling! The Palacio Real de Madrid is the residence of the Spanish Royal Family. The building has 3,400 rooms! The next day we visited the Botanical Gardens. Being in the garden and seeing so much green life and flowers and the warmth of the sun on my skin was just what I needed after being in Copenhagen for a month of wet, windy, and cold weather.

The night life in Madrid is wild! The hostels we stayed in had pub crawls each night for around 15 euros. These pub crawls included free shots, discounted drinks, and entrance into all bars and nightclubs. The pub crawls were fun besides the fact that people in Spain do not go out until around midnight and then stay out till past 5 AM. I did not like the fact that people stay up so late.

After a few late nights in Madrid it was time to head to Toledo. We made the decision to go to Toledo on our second day in Madrid. We used an app called BlaBlaCar which is similar to Uber but much cheaper. It cost us only 10 euros from Madrid to Toledo. Toledo is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It was nice to have a break from so much city life and to see more scenic views. Hospitality, food, and sangria were still the best parts of Toledo. Toledo is a small city so it is easy to see everything within a day or two.

Of course the morning of the day we needed to get back to the Madrid airport to come home to Copenhagen, I got extremely sick. Our BlaBlaCar driver was on his way to pick us up when I got sick in the middle of the street. Luckily I started to feel much better after getting sick and was able to tough through the car ride to the airport. Flight home went smoothly. Crazy to think that while I was in Spain I got homesick. This homesick wasn't for my home in the US but for my new home in Copenhagen.