Spain!

So of course an end of a day flight out of JFK would be delayed. We hung out on the tarmac for over an hour. During the time, I read my old Spanish notes to refresh some vocabulary. A lovely Egyptian-American grandfather sat next to me. His wife was on a different flight because she had used miles. He was chatty, but sweet. They were on their way to Marbella which is on the southern coast. A place I would love to go to someday.

On the plane and in the line to pick up the Madrid card (which I bought online and gets me free and priority access to practically everything and unlimited metro card), I noticed a Chinese girl with bright orange sneakers. We struck up conversation and she is in Madrid by herself before heading north to San Sebastian to see her mom. Graduated from White Plains high school (about 15 minutes from Bronxville) and now working at a big law firm in NYC, we navigated the metro together into central city and made plans to meet at the Prado later.

The metro was super easy and clean. You actually have to press a button to open the door! We stood at the door for a few seconds before we realized the doors don't automatically open.

I arrived at my hotel, Ibis Styles Prado, walking distance of the museum triangle and part of Novotel hotel group. I have a single bed / room with a very exposed bathroom. Something I'm used to from the Ibis in Brazil! I showered and napped and walked over to the Prado. On my way, I stopped into a bodega and bought a new blackberry charger. My blackberry adapter to my callpod died. The Chinese lady in the bodega, I believe, was amused by my Spanish and by the fact I had to check work emails on vacation. But I do use my blackberry to update the blog (and so Mama Kim knows I'm okay)!

Athena and I met in front of the Prado and went straight into the cafe for some coffee. We wandered the museum, making sure to see all the masterpiece highlights. Velázquez's La Meninas and Goya's black painting series were fabulous. The cloisters and the Romanesque chapels were great too. I didn't realize you couldn't take a photo even without a flash before I took Goyas's 3rd day in May. I knew my brother Justin would appreciate from our European history textbook. Here's a picture of my prohibited photo:

After seeing all the masterpiece highlights, we walked down to the Caixa Forum, an art gallery that is famous for a vertical garden. A picture of the garden with Athena looking up:

On our way to walking Athena to the metro, we stopped into a Museo del Jamon which my friend Nick told me about. They're all over (saw three alone today) and just serve different types of ham. It's like the Starbucks of Spain, except with ham! We've nicknamed it hambucks! We ordered two glasses of the house riojas and a croissant ham sandwich. All for three euros. 

We then parted to take our own siestas and we met again at the Chocolateria de San Gines for their famous churros at 9 pm. My masseuse, recommended by Olive by way of a gift certificate (thanks again Olive), is from Madrid and gave me a list of restaurant suggestions and this was one of them. We split churros and had cappuccinos before heading to La Latina. Here's a picture of our table and the restaurant:

Cava baja, a street in La Latina is famous for their restaurants so we headed there. We ended up eating at El Viajero and shared "broken eggs", grilled cuttlefish, croquettes, and a salad. After dinner, we walked through Plaza Mayor, stopped for some ice cream for Athena and headed to Plaza del Angel. We were trying to go to a place with live music, but the music was done for the night. So we had drinks at Cafe Central and then headed back to our hotels. We were pretty proud of ourselves that we stayed up til about 1:30 am and the streets were still filled with people.

My first day in Madrid was not what I expected, especially since I met Athena! After Facebooking each other, we realized we have two friends in common, one of which actually works at my parent company. Chris, wish you were here!

We plan to meet tomorrow as well to explore the city some more before Athena leaves Madrid!