Madrid - ¡hola! & first impressions

Landed in Madrid. First thing I noticed was the super modern airport terminal, something I kinda wasn't expecting. This was true of the rest of Madrid too, (and I know this sounds bad but) for some reason I wasn't expecting a modern, clean, safe-feeling, very much first-world city. The metro here is relatively quiet (e.g. you could actually listen to headphones on it, unlike in London) and air conditioned. The metro stations are likewise clean and modern.

I had only a minor language snafu when getting on the metro to leave the airport and finding out the train and metro are actually "distinto" from the man at the gate. Luckily, after a bit of mime, he let me get out and to the correct one (also luckily the airport fare is like 3 Euro not 17 pounds, because I had to pay that twice).Read more