Date : 8 – 12 August, 2011
Highlights :
- Royal Palace
- Plaza de Torros
- Getting lost in the streets of Madrid
I am probably not doing Madrid justice by just listing 2 main attraction as highlights. There are of course many things to see in Madrid, most of which are statues, monuments or churches which one will see as you walk along the streets of Madrid. I even discovered some of them when I took a wrong turn, which were always a pleasant surprise.
There were some other things which I had wanted to visit outside the city centre, which often would take at least an hour by train to travel to, but I was just too tired with all the walking to cover the places which I had visited over the last 4 days.
Safety
There seems to be always a police or a police car making it rounds on the street wherever I walk. I was told that there is more police than usual during the days I was in Madrid because of the upcoming visit by the pope next week.
I felt fairly safe, even at midnight when I walk back to the hostel as there are always quite a fair bit of people around, though I did find myself being more concern of safety and belongings as I walk past certain routes where there seems to be a higher number of people who appeared less sober than usual.
People
A lot of people on the streets doesn’t really speak English and so I had some difficulties asking for things, or even attempting to order food, since often the menu is in Spanish and thus ordering becomes a problem.
In comparison to the Greeks, they don’t seem as hospitable and warm, however, I had met many interesting people during my stay in Madrid, which helped in showing the local scenes and immersing me into Spain, its practices and of course food!
Transport
Staying in the centre of Madrid has its benefits as I ended up walking to most of the attractions and sights. Throughout the whole time I was in Madrid, I think I had only taken the metro 4 times, of which once was getting from the airport to town and another from the hostel to the bus station to Seville.
Nevertheless, the metro is convenient located in many parts of the town with about 10 different train routes, intersecting each other at some places, thus providing good coverage across Madrid. Tickets are generally Euro 1.50 per trip regardless of stops within the main city area. Good for those long journeys, but not so cheap if you are travelling about 4 stops or less. You would be better off walking and seeing more things which Madrid has to offer!
The major grub I had about the metro was that there usually wasn’t much escalators and a lot of stairs, so it gets cumbersome if you are lugging a heavy luggage.
Overall
Things are more expensive in Madrid as compared to Athens. Decent lunches can be had for about Euro 10 – 15. Beers are cheap (though I don’t take them) and so are a glass of wine in most places. Other than that, other liquor items such as mojito cost a lot more. Had 1 mojito the last night before I left and that was Euro 8 (vs Euro 1 –3 for beer or wine)!
Didn’t do any night clubbing and heard the night scene in Madrid is suppose to be quite crazy but good. Nevertheless, I had an enjoyable time in Madrid and would love to come back here again at some stage. Best would be to spend at least a weekend here, since some of the sights take place only over the weekend such as the bullfights on Sundays.
Will perhaps also take the opportunity to make some day trips out of Madrid as there are suppose to be some good ones a couple of hours away by train.
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