My first trip outside Netherlands happen to be Madrid. I did plan to go to madrid but not that soon, i supposed to start my vacation on january next year but... with one wrong booking date and a free eindhoven-madrid ticket, i went anyway. And that is the 1st accident.
The 2nd accident maybe when Faby lost his 'justin wannabe' WE hat just before boarding. It really is too bad, the hat is really nice and there it goes 15 euros... I went there by Ryan Air and as this is my first journey with this airline i can say that i'm kindda shock at first. Let me give you a quick description, a half meter aisle, less than half meter space between seats, two rows with 3 seats each, no seat number 'first in first seated', not too remarkable flight attendances - i can't understand half things they were trying to said on the mic and they even stand on the seat!!! Fortunately it was only a 2 hours flight cause there are no way i can get a nice sleep, i can't even stretch my feet, for God sake! the seat is really straight! All i can say that it worth the price.
But i arrived in Madrid anyway. After spending a few minutes and dealing with some officers in Barajas airport it became clear that most of Spaniards are not very good with english and later i found out that they really are lousy, they didn't have any clue even to a simple word as simple as one, two, three. fiuuuhhhh...
My first stop in Madrid was Plaza Espana, and i was just like WOW! I was like a mouse that going out from a hole as i climbing the stairs from subway station which is about 5 bunch of escalator deeper in the ground, then i finally see the light! I was amazed by the buildings that stand so high and proud, i was like surrounded by DA VINCI store (if you are from Surabaya, then you might know what i am talking about) Unlike Netherlands, main streets in Madrid is quite wide, especially the one that lay across Santo Domingo-Plaza Espana- and all the way to Gran Via. We were staying at El Coloso hotel which is sit in a block that connected to both Santo Domingo and Plaza Espana, what a strategic place! And it also didn't drain my pocket out! We booked a double room for 2 but we occupied it with 4 people, it only cost 20 euros per person, what makes it even better is the sofa can be pull out into a bed! We actually have no clue about this 'magic sofa' but if you put 4 lucky person in one room, what else do you expect to happen?? so, we were having a very nice sleep that night without kicking each other ass, but it was the one and only nice sleep that we can get coz the following night was a whole different story...
Day 1, we went to Santiago Bernabeu stadium, home to Real Madrid FC. With 15 euros we got a non-guided tour of the stadium and i'm quite satisfied with the access that they give to visitors, now i know how the player's seat feels... well, it's quite comfortable and warm -as it is covered from wind- as if it was me, i wont move my ass off just to running around the field chasing a ball. It almost dark when we left Santiago Bernabeu and we haven't planned anything for the rest of the day... so, we went to where the wind blowed... and ended up having our first round of dinner at McD (one thing that listed in my to-do list is i have to try every big junk food chains in every countries that i visit, i'll tell you the result later...)
The second round was in the late hour in this tapas bar that i insisted to go and it turn out to be a great experience. After took the wrong block at first attempt to went there, from our Metro stop in Puerta del Sol we took the block of Calle del Arsenal instead of Calle Mayor which is where the tapas bar take place (hah! like you all know what i'm talking about! hahaha) This bar called Cerveceria 100 Montaditos which means 100 little sandwiches, yeah, they serve 100 choices of sandwich with various fillings from salty -cheese, ham, fish- to sweet -chocolate, jam- it all goes with a bowl of olives and a plate of chips as seen in the picture, with a very cheap price of 1 euro per item, which also apply to some of the drinks like beer in 'cana' size like the one in the picture.
Since we didn't know what to order (sometimes, having too many choices can be more headache than less..) we tried the 12 pieces platter, one montaditos that i can still remember is the one with blue cheese filling, actually it taste nice, salty with a little bitterness at first bite, but... i can't stand the smell when it got into my mouth, iuuuuh.... This bar is really bring the word 'full' into reality, when we arrived there - it was almost 11- it was full packed with people, some lucky people sat on the window's stool or the one near bar but most of them stood 'back to back' overflow to the street! But they still can manage an animate conversation and certainly a bluster one, because the crowd was very noisy. Most of the terrace table is also occupied with groups of young people and many of them are foreigner with their Spanish friends, that left us to be a bunch of strange people alone. Although they were busy, it didn't take long for us to got our order ready. But the closing hour is precisely at 12 o'clock, even when there still many people inside, you can't order for another round of drinks when it almost reach the hour. So precisely at 12 we left the bar and went back to hotel, and that was the end of day one.
I think i will ended this blog here.... it's been a quite long blog and there are still many to tell about this trip to Madrid but not this time.... i lost my inspiration for this moment and i will wait for another to start working on the 'Day 2'.... To be continued.
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