Saturday, March 17, 2012

Madrid, Spain--Day 1

Saturday 3.17.12
We left for our flight that was scheduled for 12:30pm. The Marco Polo airport in Venice was really nice and we eventually boarded our plane. Paco, the flight attendant, demonstrated safety instructions in English but he was not an English speaker so he was a little off. Luckily, a lot of high school groups of Italians were aboard. During flight they were all over the plane jumping around, sitting on each other’s laps, etc. This included their teacher. It was very strange and annoying to be in close proximity to on a 3 hour flight to Spain. Once in Madrid we were greeted by another nice airport with really helpful people and directional graphics to get us around. Our experience in Madrid was phenomenal and seamless with so many resources available to tourists and getting around easily. Very different from travel experiences in Italy where there are less resources for tourists.  We found our hostel and bought food at a nearby supermarket for meals and snacks. This included these really great zebra cakes and chips + salsa. They do not have chips and salsa in Italy so this was huge. After arriving too late to make it to the Reina Sofia Museum of Art before closing time, we went to get tapas at a restaurant called Pecado Carnal. We had an English speaking server who had just opened the restaurant and was very nice to us. We received complimentary wine and various dishes to try. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we concluded dinner and found an Irish Pub. It was a lot of fun and they gave us hats to wear. We even found a 24 hour taco place on our way home which we had to stop at because we had not had tacos or Mexican food the entire semester. It was also exciting to be in a bigger city than Castiglion with a larger variety of options and activities.  Overall, it was a great first impression of Madrid.
white chocolate frosting covering a moist german chocolate cake inside and a surprise gooey fudge center..mmmhhhmm good. Unfortunately, I could not find these anywhere else in Spain after this treat.
exterior of the Reina Sofia Museum of Art

tapas...something with cheese and meat inside??
mozzarella and tomato on toast
empanadas with mash potatoes..basically oven cooked, breaded chicken with some spice
warm brownie with ice cream, fudge, and nuts
beautifully lit building at night

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