CIty Street Architecture
Trip Start
Feb 19, 2010
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26
257
Trip End
Jan 31, 2012
Madrid, Spain
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Lot cleaner than Cairo but lots of the architecture seems similar. Guess Cairo got redeveloped by Spanish architects. After wandering around a bit went back to the hostel where I crashed for a bit before I could check in. Spent the evening wandering around but ws tired from the previous night so had an early one.
Next day decided to get some info on my walk and check out the bus station. Once again lots of nice building around the place. Hadnt realised it was the easter weekend until the guys at the hostel mentioned it. Thankfully the bookshop was still open even though it was a public holiday and I was able to get a book with maps and info about the Camino De Santiago trail I plan to try walking (knee willing).
Spent the afternoon wandering around the Park Retiro which was quite nice. Lots of Spaniards around the place joing the holidays and the park. When catching the metro had some guys play acordians jump on. Guess they were trying to busk on the metro to make some money. Seems like a lot a people begging on the streets. Guess its due to the high unemployment rate in Spain.
Also Madrid doesnt seem to have a lot of places to go. You basically have the interesting building on the streets, the parks and museums. Get the impression its more of a night town but in order to properly appriciate it you really need a local to show you around.
That night decided to do the pubcrawl organised by the hostel. Met some Aussies on holidays while doing a study exchange in the UK and a couple of guys who was travelling from Argentina and Brazil. Ended up pretty drunk given I had a third of a bottle of Vodka before heading out in order to save money (8Euro for bottle). Pubcrawl basically cost 10Euro which covered entrance fees to the clubs and a free drink upon entry. Were suppose to visit 3 pubs and a club. The pubs seemed very much like small clubs to me and since we ended up at a Salsa bar rather than a club, not sure what the difference is between a pub and club. Ended up wandering home at about 5am. Still lots of people out and about.
Didnt really sleep in the next day (9.30am up). Tried to book my ticket online but it wouldnt accept my card so ended up having to hed back to the bus station for a ticket. Ended up catching th emetro back across town and walking back to the hostel. Ended up visiting the Temple, palace and a number of churches and plazas along the way....
Spanish defintely like their plazas. Head any any given direction and your going to run into a plaza within few hundred meters. Also unlike the day before lots of people out and about and some drinking and eating in the plazas. I guess in summer its a lot more common to hang out in the plazas since the weather is warmer and its not so cold to just sit.
That night I decided to do the Tapas tour. This again involved 3 pubs. Basically at these pubs, when you buy a drink you get selection of tapas. Given it was a large group these disappeared quite quickly. The pub represent food from Madrid region (with beer), Second was southern Spain (Sangrea) and third was northern spain (apple cider). Ended up having a later night than expected because I wanted to finish writing up the Egypt part of my trip.
