I think we experienced Madrid backwards.

Assuming there is a list of the top 100 things to do in Madrid, Mara and I definitely started at 100 and worked our way up. In case you were wondering, we never made it to the top ten things to do. (If we’re being completely honest, I doubt we even made it to the top 30.) We visited the most random exhibits, casually chilled in lots of parks and ate an absurd amount of grocery store food.

This post is dedicated to traveling off the beaten path.

Park Retiro, Madrid

Ironically, my first positive experience in Madrid was made possible by a man from Barcelona. Meet Sergi: blue-eyed 23-year old that happened to be sitting behind me on the train from Barcelona to Madrid. After getting off the train in Madrid, I was struggling with buying a ticket for the metro which I needed to ride to get to my hostel. Sergi approached me very politely and asked if I would like to share his T-10 card. I was super confused (mostly because who knew that two people could share a metro pass…aka DC can we PLEASE get on this level), but it seemed silly to turn down his offer. Sergi then looked at my directions to the hostel, helped me get on the right train, got off at the same stop as me and walked me to my hostel using google map directions from his phone.

(Let’s pause for a moment to point out that I am not as completely hopeless or lost as this story implies. I would have eventually figured out how to buy the metro pass and make it to the hostel. However, it was so nice to be able to relax and just follow someone else.)

After Sergi dropped me off at my hostel, we exchanged facebook information. Later on during our stay in Madrid, we ended up getting in touch and meeting up at the park.

Shout out to Sergi for being a non-creepy, generous and fun Spaniard. You rock 🙂

After checking in to the hostel, I still had half a day until it was time for Mara to arrive. I decided to wander around until I found something I wanted to do. I ended up at a museum called Caixa Forum. There were two exhibits going on: (1) Roni Horn – Everything was sleeping as if the universe was a mistake and (2) Mediterranean – From Myth to Reason. The two exhibits were a perfect contrast of modern art and historical artifacts. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures in the museum, but in each exhibit I came across a quote that really spoke to me and made me think.

Quote 1 (from Roni Horn’s exhibit): “Never is the impossible. I like never. I also like always. What is there between never and always that links them so indirectly and so intimately?”

Quote 2 (from Mediterranean exhibit):

Sometimes I forget how blessed I am to be able to experience new perspectives that force me to think and live outside of my comfort zone. We can easily get bogged down by the routine of our daily lives, so it’s important to be able to take a step back and reflect.

The next day, after Mara had arrived, we decided to go on a walking tour of Madrid. While the walking tour was nowhere near as fantastic as the one in Barcelona, we did learn some interesting facts.

1. On New Year’s Eve in Spain, people count down to midnight starting at 12 instead of 10. Why? There is a tradition that you must eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds. If you eat all your grapes in 12 seconds then you will have a great year.

To be clear, after finding this out, I decided I will never celebrate New Years in Madrid or else I will for sure be destined for a bad year. Either that or I need to start practicing my grape eating skills now.

2. The official cathedral in Madrid is right next to the Royal Palace of Madrid. It is the shortest distance between religious and political power in the world.

The Front of the Cathedral (left) and the side of the Royal Palace (right)

Another weird fact is that the cathedral is not even historical. It was finished in 1993. Aka Mara is as old as the cathedral 🙂

Mara and I with the back of the Cathedral

3. We learned where the term “shit-faced” (aka REAL drunk) originated from. It involves actual shit in the face, so I will refrain from sharing the story in full detail on this post. However, please holla if you’re trying to learn.

That same day, Mara and I stumbled across an Egyptian temple over 2,200 years old. Yes, there is randomly an Egyptian temple in a park in Madrid.

Although it looks like a boring square on the outside, inside it was amazing how large, pristine and well-kept the temple was. Not only was it possible to see the hieroglyphics, but I could easily imagine the Egyptians praising their gods within those walls.

During our trip Mara and I spent a lot of time in Park Retiro. Park Retiro is enormous, free and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. We sat by the lake and enjoyed the scenery.

As we were leaving the park one day, Mara and I ran into a building with a line of people outside of it. The building was huge and completely made out of glass windows.

The building we later found out was Palacio de Cristal

We decided to wait in line to see what was inside. Upon entering, the first thing we saw was an RV/Camper in the middle of the room. There were tons of people surrounding this RV and peering inside.

As we looked around us, we realized that there was nothing else in the building. I started to think that this RV must contain gold if everyone was waiting in line to see what was within. We casually walk up to the crowd of people and begin to peer in. At first, all we can see is a messy RV that has some moving pieces to it. We walk up to the front of the RV (where most of the people are) and do you know what we see?

Please – just take a guess.

Really, any guess will do.

You ready?

This is what we saw:

YES THAT IS A BODY.
A BODY THAT LOOKS REAL.
EXCEPT DEAD BECAUSE SHE IS NOT BREATHING. (we know this because Mara is studying medicine and she stood there for a good minute and didn’t see her chest moving at all)

There are so many questions I have that I don’t even know where to start. What is this place? Why is there a body in an RV just chilling? What am I supposed to get out of this art? Wait, is this even art? Why is there a line to see this exhibit? And more importantly…WHY did we wait in line to see this?!?!

There is only one appropriate response to this:
sigh.

Regardless of our unique experiences in Madrid, the capital city is certainly much different than Barcelona. First, it is WAY less touristy. Second, it seems more dirty and run-down. Third, there did not seem to be that many people on the streets (tourist and residents) for a weekend.

While I still like Barcelona better than Madrid, I had an awesome time in the city and I can easily see why so many Americans move there to teach English. (FYI – Mara liked Madrid much better than Barcelona.) I do not anticipate going back to Madrid anytime soon, but I certainly wouldn’t mind a second visit if the opportunity presented itself. 🙂

Random Thoughts/Pictures of the Post:

1. Christmas decorations are already up in Spain!!! I am not sure who decided this would be an attractive Christmas tree, but behold the Christmas tree in one of the most famous squares of Madrid.

2. Puerta de Alcala

3. I am not sure who chose the colors for JMU, but clearly they were pretty genius since purple & gold are obviously an international color scheme. All I’m saying is that Madrid has great taste 🙂