Madrid - Enter Colin

In Madrid I met up with one of my best friends since High School, Colin Hopkins. Colin and I are weird together, we know that. We have a special handshake that is so cool, it has stopped people in their tracks in awe at how cool we are; twice! Having this kind of companionship in my travels was going to be a first for me, so I was really excited to do some traveling with him.

I arrived in Madrid early morning to find his flight had gotten in early and was waiting for me in the train station. A college friend of Colin's was nice enough to let us stay at her place for the week (Thank you for the millionth time, Katelyn), and we made our way over there. We spent the first day wandering Madrid; we visited Katelyn's work, ate some tapas, and in the late afternoon we made it to the Prado museum. The Prado museum houses the best collection of Spanish art from the 12th through the 19th century, and is one of the top museums in all of Spain. So we were excited - even more so when we pretended to still be students and got in for free.

Touring a museum alone can often be a very good experience if you do it right. You can take as much time as you want, or as little, you really cater your museum experience around what you want and nothing else. Well, touring a museum with a close friend is better. We played such classic museum games as Rename Each Painting Based On Absurdities Found Within and Find The Similarity Of Every Painting In This Room. Seriously, do other people not see these things? Individually, Colin and I are very responsible, fairly mature, young adults. Together, not always the same story. At one point in our tour of the museum, we broke into uncontrollable full-bodied laughter over an artist's name, that was very similar to something like Heironymous Bohner. That night we went to see the new Tintin movie, a favorite cartoon from my childhood, and then met up with Katelyn at a pub by her apartment for a quick beer.

One of the best things about Spain is tapas. Not just the tapas themselves, but the common practice of giving a patron a tapas or two with the beer they order. For instance, here's a pic of our first experience with this that night -


Simple stuff but still just a great concept. Our week in Spain we would frequently stop into places for a beer and a tapas, just to try different types of tapas. Beer may have been watery and boring, but at least the food was fun.

The next day Taylor joined our group. We decided to do touristy things and started in the center point of the city at Puerta del Sol. We learned a bunch of historical stuff, but I won't bore you. One cool thing in the square was the actual geographical center point of Spain, the marker called "kilometer zero."



Look how cool we are

From there we followed suggestions my guidebook had and checked out a confiteria Salon La Mallorguina. We stopped in and had our lives changed by their coffee and tasty treats. Exaggeration? Yes. But it was very, very good. We ate Madrid's answer to doughnuts, rosquillas. And another treat with chocolate in it, so obviously that was delicious too.



Yum. After we ate, we walked down to another large square, Plaza Mayor, a few more stops I won't bore you with, and then made it to the Royal Palace. A monstrosity of a building, it is from what I remember reading, the third largest palace in the world. Sadly didn't get a chance to go in because it was too late, but it was still a sight to see.

The day after we took a day trip outside of Madrid, to Salamanca. A small city in western Spain, its so beautiful and historically significant that it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage sight (well, at least the Old City is).

Salamanca followed right along the ideals of old, medieval european cities - cobblestone winding streets, hilly neighborhoods, churches on every corner, with the skyline dominated by the largest of the churches steeples and towers. I've developed a fondness for these kind of cities because I like the way they make you feel like you go back in time as you stroll down their streets. You never have anything like that in the States.

We loved our day in Salamanca. We toured a couple churches, ate a ton of different tapas, and enjoyed a beautiful day in a beautiful little city.



First we stumbled upon a group of older men playing a very competitive game of bocce. Later on, at a church we fooled around with some mirrors they had in their garden/courtyard area...



So artistic



See what I mean

Ok this has taken too long. Having Colin there was really a great time, and I am really lucky to have such great friends that they will travel halfway around the world to hang out with you.

Its late, I'm going to bed. Going to Bruges tomorrow morning.

Goodnight.



- Matt

Location:Madrid, Spain