Hola, Madrid!

Okay, I promise I'll try to do a better job of shorter, more frequent updates. A couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend in Madrid with my friends Aldo and Mat (Aldo is one of my 3 roomies!). They were going to a concert and crashing with a friend there, and they invited me to tag along and explore the city with them :) 

If I were to compare Madrid and Valencia, I would say Madrid is the Dallas of Spain while Valencia is the Austin. Well, maybe Barcelona is the Austin, but since I haven't been there yet, I couldn't say. Regardless, Madrid seems much more metropolitan than Valencia. More intricate government buildings (it is the capitol, after all), a more complex public transportation system, lots of museums, and a lot more money than Valencia.

For those of you who aren't too familiar with the geography of Spain. Here's a map:
blue = Valencia, orange = Madrid. So ya know!

We hit up as many museums as we could while we were there, and also checked out a really cool market. At the market, a lot of the stands were selling tapas for 1€  (about $1.28 in USD), so we just had one at all of them! Definitely some of the best tapas I've had so far. SO good. 

used book store inside the market. pay by the kilo!

Also, the interior of Spain is MUCH, much colder than the coast. I was freezing all weekend.

The Parque del Retiro in the center of the city is gorgeous. And with a really nice pond in the center! 

Those of you who keep up with any international news might have seen some of the strikes that have going on all over Spain. We ran into one of them while we were there - we were trying to cross the street to get to a museum, and the police blocked our path and told us we had to go another way. Really, if you think politics are messed up in the US, they're messed up in Europe, too. 

Anyway, I'm so glad I went, but I can't say Madrid would be the first place I'd go back and visit in Spain. I definitely preferred the cities we visited in Andalucia (a region in southern Spain), which I'll update you guys on next!

Also... side note, if I make any grammar mistakes, please forgive me. For every word and grammar rule I learn in Spanish, I swear I forget one in English.

I found this in a store in Madrid. How funny!