We arrived mid-evening in Madrid, so we really didn’t plan on doing much aside from grabbing dinner and some shut-eye. On our way to the Airbnb, and several other times throughout our stay here, we saw these hilarious buildings under construction:

If you look closely, you’ll see that the facade of the building is no facade at all, but a canvas covering that looks nearly identical to the original underneath! So clever! Wouldn’t want to burden those Spaniards with the unsightliness of tarps and scaffolds. Tehehe.

Our apartment was in quite a hoppin’ area, with several extremely busy outdoor restaurants right outside our door. Our host, Rodrigo, met us and led us through a rather sketchy alleyway, complete with an abandoned mattress, but when we entered the apartment, we were pleasantly surprised! The space was small but cozy and newly-renovated. Rodrigo was quite the entertainer, running around and joking with us, bringing us to the balcony in our room to give us directions to all the best sights in Madrid. He also wrote up a list of his favorite food-and-drink spots, noting exactly what to order and how much it would cost, too! At the very beginning of the conversation, he started with, ‘Okay. So the rules of the house: there are no rules!’ Bahaha. He also called himself ‘the superhost’ at one point. So humble. So humble.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, an adorable little blonde boy with giant glasses, probably seven or eight years old, came running into the room to offer us a bottle of water. Rodrigo introduced him as his son, Pablo, and I honestly just wanted to pick him up and squeeze him! He was so cute! I think he had downs syndrome, and he just had the sweetest little face, and he kept trying to babble to us in Spanish. Every time Rodrigo told him that we didn’t speak Spanish, he would pause for a second before resuming his one-sided conversation. Never have I wished to know Spanish more! I wish I could have known what he was saying, because he sounded so excited about it!

He kept running back and forth between our room and his room, showing us his video games and trying to beckon us to follow him so he could show us the Minecraft game he was playing. We interjected his ramblings with, ‘Ooooh!’, ‘Wooow!’, and ‘Oh, no! Really?’ I can’t handle how cute he was. Actually so cute.

After our intros and a bit of a rest, we set off for dinner. The dinner isn’t pictured, but we had spaghetti bolognese, and it was yuuuumm-y. The wine wasn’t bad, either. (:

And then! Eep! Eep! Eep! We went dancing!

I really, really, really wanted to try salsa or bachata while in Spain, but we hadn’t had the energy in Barcelona, and when we tried looking in Madrid, it seemed that all the dances started so late! I’m talking like one in the morning! To START the dancing! Hard to believe, but we did not exactly have the energy for that. Luckily, Sunday is a big swing dancing night in a lot of cities, so we managed to find an open venue a fifteen minute walk from our apartment.

So glad we went! I was nervous at first, but when I finally decided to get up from our little table on the sidelines, someone asked for a dance the second my feet touched the dance floor. ‘Bolero?’ he asked. And he was great! He was probably one of the best dancers in the whole room. And he was Spanish, of course. I swoon.

I danced a bunch, with a lot of great people. It wasn’t a huge crowd, but it was just perfect for what we needed. I danced with a tall Irish guy at one point, and I guess he decided that we should be best friends just because we both spoke English. He asked if my friend danced, and I said, ‘Oh, yeah, she dances! You just have to ask her!’ He promptly made eye contact and beckoned her over like they were old friends. So cute.

His name was Tom? John? And he kept chatting with us the rest of the night. He said we needed to come dancing more for the rest of the week because he was trying to prepare for some sort of lindy exchange or festival, but we told him we’d only be there for one more day. He was bummed, so he asked us to join him and some of his friends for drinks after dancing. We thought about it, but…. meh. Bed seemed nicer.

Walking back to the apartment around midnight was a pretty crazy experience. Turns out Madridian like the night. Can’t blame them with the heat. The night air was the perfect temperature for walking and eating. The squares and restaurants were busier now than they had been around dinner time, bustling with friends and families snacking and drinking (but mostly drinking). We couldn’t get over how hopping the place was! And so late! When Rodrigo had checked us in and pushed the ‘no rules’ thing, he had said, ‘You come in at five? No problem.’ And I guess he wasn’t joking, because that’s probably a pretty normal thing to do in Madrid! That’s when the dancing ends! That’s when the heat subsides! So strange.

Kristina and I weren’t about that night life, as one in the morning seemed plenty late to us. We showered lots and tucked in for the night.

We had a late start the next day, sleeping in until eleven or so! Woohoo! Go sleep! When we began our search for some food around 12:30, though, it turned out most things hadn’t opened yet! The first restaurant we tried said their kitchen didn’t open until one! But…. it’s lunch time! we thought. I guess that’s just what happens when the whole city stays up so late – they sleep in, too.

We did manage to find some fuel, but Kristina was wildly disappointed in her salad. My paella was good, luckily. (:

The rest of the day was mostly spent wandering through plazas, around castles, and through royal gardens.

In the garden, we hung out a bit by a fountain, where a man with seemingly all of his personal belongings spread around him sat peacefully reading the paper with his legs calf-deep in the murky green water. He seemed pretty content with the state of things.

Then some more pretty buildings…

There was also this strange bear-and-tree figurine we kept finding in souvenir shops. We couldn’t figure out what it was, but turns out it’s just this random statue in the middle of one of the main squares? Not really sure haha. That’s supposed to be a strawberry tree, but I’m pretty certain strawberries do not, in fact, grow on trees.

And then, city park time! What! What!

This one was so big, it had a man-made lake smack in the middle of it! With row-boats for rent! We hopped on that train real quick.

Kristina said she wanted to row first, but we got in the boat and uh… didn’t really manage to move much farther than that. Hahaha. She started getting pretty freaked out because other boats were loading up around us, so she made me take the oars. Man. I was really looking forward to relaxing, but she desperately wanted me to be the Prince Eric to her Ariel. We paddled around the lake, singing Kiss the Girl. Was pretty romantic, not gonna lie.

Eventually, I gave Kristina a quick rowing lesson and gave her the reins again. And she did great!

I only took over at the very end, when we had to pull back into the dock and park again. I’m quite the boat-maneuverer when I’m not trying to drown my cousins in knee-high rapids. But that’s another story.

We finished off our park excursion with some delicious pizza, chicken wings, and smoothies. Yum! And then we wandered a bit in the twilight.

I found another possible location to say the I-do’s:

It was so dreamy and magical, this Crystal Palace. It was like a giant version of the little glass gazebo that Liesel and Ralph ran around in in The Sound of Music, singing “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” Again, so romantic! I would have made Kristina be my Ralph, seeing as I had been her Eric just hours before, but the Crystal Palace was closed for the night. Boo.

We joked about going dancing, but that just wasn’t happening. We had to leave the apartment at five the next morning, so we would have had to go straight to the train station from the party! Haha. No thanks.

We left in the morning in near-blackness, the streets deserted but for a select few post-dancing-wanderers and some trusty street cleaners.

Madrid was pretty nice, and we loved the night life. Only downside was that it was a bit too hot for our tastes this time of year. Little did we know, we were in for much worse in the days ahead. Stay tuned.

 

Venlig hilsen/ hasta luego,

Lizzy-wa