Madrid: Day 1

Today was our first full day of the trip. We arrived in Madrid at the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez International Airport at around 2:40pm local time. The flight was… meh. It was 10 hours with what felt like very little ac. My plan had been to sleep, but I found it difficult to. When we arrived, they sent half of us up the wrong jetway (??) so we had to go back into the plane and go out the other door.
We started immediately with our bus tour and walking city tour. It started to rain when we got to the bus tour, but cleared up nicely when it was time for the walking tour. The weather has been beautiful here. We got to see lots of cool spots and learn a few new things about Madrid. Did you know that Madrids water source is underground? Or what about the fact that it is the only European capital founded by Muslims?
We walked for quite a while, and in Plaza Mayor Bex and I decided to try what is known as a tradition: eating a fried calamari sandwich in plaza mayor. Our guide pointed out the place that “invented” them, so we ate there. The price was great: 4,75 euro. There was also this very interesting shop that had these small figurines of a child pooping and I looked it up and apparently it’s a symbol of good luck and fertility. Has anyone else heard of this? The shop was called Caganer.
Next we went to the hotel and got our rooms. Alyssa and I are on the 5th (6th in america) floor. We couldn’t figure out how to work the ac so instead we are going to sleep with the windows open since 1. They open all the way, 2: we’re high up.
We went waking for dinner with a group and ended up at a local mall. Most people ate at a Turkish restaurant, but Bex and I went to this “Italian” place (they were advertising pizza, pasta, and burritos ). We both had a rather large caprese salad and shared a beer. I had seen ads for the beer all over Spain already so I decided that I wanted to try it (Mahou). It was better than the beer I’ve had before, but still kinda gross.

That’s about it, we’re headed to another city in Spain tomorrow for a full day and spending the night there.Read more