Madrid: Better Late than Never

Sorry, Madrid. I like you now

It took me a really long time to board the "Madrid is awesome" train, but I finally made it. Enjoying the city didn't come easy, but it wasn't its fault.

Gray weather = sad weather = unmotivated Noah

As I mentioned in the last Madrid post, exploring the city was harder because my apartment and the study center were far away from anything interesting, so I really had to carve out some time and plan ahead if I wanted to go exploring. Madrid is spread out and thus not very walkable so I really can't wander much. I also still had Rome hangover (which I'm now going to describe as culture shock), so I got frustrated with Madrid initially because it wasn't Rome.

Finally, I was depressed during some of my time in Madrid, mostly during the first couple weeks. The insane pace of the program and drop in quality and amount of sleep finally caught up to me. Combine that with gray, rainy weather (which already makes me depressed) and it made it hard to get out, get excited about things, and put in the effort exploring Madrid requires. Naturally, this contributed pretty heavily to how much I was enjoying myself and the city.

Once the weather warmed up and I adjusted my expectations and realized I needed to sleep more, Madrid grew on me quickly. I spent my final couple weeks in Madrid finally finding all the cool places. I'm happy I found them, but I'm sad I wasn't able to find them earlier and visit them more than once. I feel guilty leaving Madrid because I feel like I didn't really get to know the city in the same way I did Rome. Only at the end of my time there did I realize how cool the city was and I feel like there was a lot I didn't see or do because I didn't give it more of a chance early on.

Tacos from Takos Al Pastor, one of the restaurants I was
able to find in Madrid.

The biggest reason I didn't like Madrid initially is still my least favorite thing about the city: the food. It's really underwhelming. In every city I've been to, I can do some quick searches on the internet and come up with several great places to eat. Except Madrid. In Madrid, the top rated restaurants that weren't way out of my price range didn't impress me. I could tell the ingredients were quality, but my food was usually bland and unseasoned. The flavors didn't dance in my mouth and make me savor every bite and make me fall in love with life like all my favorite meals do. It wasn't necessarily bad food, it was just food--something to go in my stomach to tide over my hunger until the next meal, not a special experience. There are exceptions (I'll do a post in a few days), but they are hard to find. This was a huge letdown, especially coming off the ridiculously high standard of food in Rome. I was told Madrid was a great food town, but I can't say I agree. If you want good Spanish food, head down to Andulucía.

Thankfully, what Madrid lacks in good food it makes up for in other ways.

Parque del Oeste

The parks are my favorite thing about Madrid, hands down. For a major Metropolitan area, you wouldn't think it would have a lot of greenery, but it does. According to the internet, there are a whopping 13 parks and gardens in the city, a couple of which are Central Park-sized. Parks in Madrid were a bit like churches in Rome for me: if I saw one near me on a map, I had to go see it.

Arganzuela

You can get lost in the parks and in some places, it's so green and peaceful, you feel like you're miles from the city despite being less than a mile from a major street. Sometimes I'd go to a park, find a bench or a grassy area and just lay around for a bit as a de-stressor or a much-needed break from spending all afternoon walking around. Retiro Park is the most famous, but my favorites were Parque de Oeste, Arganzuela (along the river in South Madrid), and the lake area of Casa de Campo.

You know what rhymes with free? Dalí.
(From the Reina Sofia)

There tons of student discounts. Nearly every major museum or public service offers some kind of student discount. I've been able to get into a lot of the museums either for free or with at least a 50% discount by showing them that I'm a student under 25. The two major art museums, the Prado and Reina Sofia, are already worth a visit, but since they both offered free admission for students, there's no reason not to go. I saw the Prado in 4 separate trips because I didn't have anything to lose because of the free admission. The monthly public transportation pass is also only €20 for students versus the regular €55 price. It more pays for itself if you're there even for a week.

I will forever miss Madrid's metro. Oh god, it's so good. I know I already touched on this in the previous post, but I've only had one incident where it was even remotely slow. It's clean, safe, works like clockwork, and gets you everywhere. I'm going to be so sad going back to L.A., where the public transportation is none of those things. I took it everywhere. It's a godsend.

At a concert I went to. The
moment the frontman pulled
out a ukulele, I knew it was
going to be good.

Finally, Madrid is a city of doing, not of seeing. What I mean by that is the city is all about what you can do in it versus what you can see. You shouldn't go to Madrid to see the monuments and buildings. Places like the Royal Palace and Cibiles Plaza are really nice, the parks are pretty, and so forth, but the vibrant heart of Madrid lays in its bars, clubs, restaurants, and events.

Pinchos, which are like tapas but different.
I couldn't tell you the difference.

         Even the food is an event in Madrid. Tapas bars, the most popular form of restaurant in the city, are made specifically for going out with a few friends and drinking and eating the night away together.
I think that's part of the reason the food is not as good as other cities. The food is merely one part of the experience of dining out, and therefore if the service and atmosphere are good, the bar for food can be lowered because it is not the only thing people go out to a restaurant for. This also explains why there are hardly any takeout or fast food places that aren't international companies.

         All of this is important to know when visiting Madrid, and something I wish I'd known when I first got there. I spent too long waiting to find the cool sights--Madrid's answer to the Colosseum and the Vatican--that I feel like I was totally missing the point of the city.

Cibiles Plaza. I'm really proud of how good this picture looks.

Though I like other cities in Europe more, Madrid really grew on me. It's a beautiful city filled with life and culture. I definitely want to come back to Spain at some point, so I imagine I'll stop by Madrid when I do. I'd like to come back and give it a second chance and an apology, though I'd bring more friends and money than I had this time around.

So until next time, Madrid, Adiós.

Ciao, Roma / Hola, Madrid

A little self-deprecating music, because I could've started enjoying Madrid much sooner (also check out their new album. It's really good)

Ciao, Roma

Rome is one of my favorite places I've ever been. Something amazing to eat or see was always around the corner, from 2000 year old Roman monuments to a Renaissance statue to a local market to an amazing family-owned sandwich shop or pasta place. It was overwhelming in a good way. I could spend a year in Rome and still probably not see and eat everything there is. Even after 5 1/2 weeks, there were still parts of the city I hadn't explored yet.

The food and coffee culture in Rome was a dream come true for me. Chain restaurants were practically nonexistent and all the restaurants emphasized fresh, quality ingredients: two hallmarks of great restaurants in my eyes. It made finding a good meal incredibly easy. I felt spoiled by all the great food around me all the time.

Rome had also become a bit like my therapist. Whenever I was feeling lonely or a bit down, all it took was a trip to downtown and a delicious lunch and/or gelato to lift my spirits. The highlight of many of my days in Rome was exploring the city, because if there's two things that will never fail to cheer me up, it's exploring somewhere cool and eating great food (also baseball, but I had to go to Bologna for that).

I was really happy where I was and if I could've, I would've stayed another month or even two in Rome. All seemed right with the world and I didn't want my time there to end. I started missing the city from the moment I stepped on the plane.

Hola, Madrid

Allow me to throw Spain
in your face for a moment

         This is the attitude I came to Spain with. It led me to look for reasons to dislike Madrid and focus on what Rome had that Madrid didn't instead of trying to appreciate the new city. To add to this, it rained nearly every day for the first week and a half, which literally put a damper on things made it hard to go out and explore the city. Also working against me was the fact that my apartment and the study center are both a solid half mile out of the way of the center of town, so I can't just go exploring if I have a two hour gap like I did in Rome.
          All of this made me not care for Madrid for a while. I've since realized that the more I try to compare Rome and Madrid, the less of a chance I'll have to enjoy my time in Spain. The cities are so different culturally and historically that it's impossible to approach them in the same way. I still like Rome more, but I've finally started to take in Madrid and I've really warmed up to it. So, here's some notes on it:

Look how clean and modern it is!

-Public Transportation is a dream: Everything is clean, on time, fast, and you can get anywhere in city and even its suburbs by bus or train. The Metro and the bus system work like clockwork and are extremely reliable and fast. Coming from LA, where it's practically nonexistent, and from Rome where it's a chaotic, overcrowded mess make me appreciate it even more. It's hands down the best I've ever seen. It's so good that I actually don't mind taking the bus, something I try to avoid if at all possible in other cities. This is the public transportation all cities should aspire to.


-I'm less likely to die crossing the street: This was the case in Italy. I think I talked about the chaotic traffic in a couple different posts about Rome, which is why it was shocking how nice the drivers in Madrid are. If a driver sees you standing in front of a crosswalk waiting for you to cross, more often than not, they'll stop and let you go and make sure you're enough out of the way before going through. this is unlike Rome where the drivers all thought they owned the road and would aggressively maneuver around anything in their way.
          This caution extends to pedestrians as well. In Rome, you had to be opportunistic and go whenever you could, regardless of what the signal said. In Madrid, most people hesitate to go until the signal is green, even if there is absolutely no traffic.

Madrid really is beautiful

-Siesta: Yeah, it's real. For those who don't know, Siesta is socially acceptable nap time in the afternoon in Spain, usually between 2:00 and 5:00. All the restaurants are open during siesta, but if you want to go shopping anywhere in the afternoon, it might be hard because many of the stores are closed until later. Siesta traffic is also a thing. I took a bus to get lunch in the 2-3 hour and traffic was so bad that the bus got gridlocked to the point where the driver let us get off in the middle of the street if we thought it might be faster to walk. I have yet to try siesta myself, though. My class schedule makes it hard since I have all afternoon classes. It's because of siesta that...

-Everything happens later in Spain: Most Spaniards don't eat dinner until 9 or 10 PM and the bars stay open way past I'm willing to stay up. This is probably the biggest culture shock I've experienced since being abroad. A late dinner for me is 7:30-8 PM, but a lot of dinner places in Spain don't even open until that time. It can make finding food tricky when you're hungry at 6:30 or 7. Lunch also happens later, as a lot of the lunch places don't open until 1 or 1:30. I'm actually ok with this because I procrastinate enough that I usually end up eating lunch around then anyway. Speaking of food...

Paella from the Mercado de San Miguel. Probably the best
meal I've had since coming to Spain

-It's harder to find good food: I keep hearing Madrid is a great food town, but I haven't seen that so far. I've had a couple really good meals and found a few good places to eat, but the food as a whole hasn't blown me away. I haven't had a "holy shit" meal yet, one that makes me say those words after taking a bite (AKA the best kind). Tripadvisor was my best friend for finding restaurants in Rome, but it hasn't been that so far in Madrid, as all the "top" places are the fine dining, which is not my thing, nor is it something I have the money for. Spanish culture also seems to place an emphasis on meal time as a sit down, social experience. I didn't like this for a while because I had gotten used to of Italy's cheap, quick, and quality culture when it came to food and sit down is boring if I'm on my own exploring, which I usually am. This was initially my biggest complaint about Madrid, but recently I've been trying to put more effort into finding good places, so hopefully I can in the time I have left.

My first meal out in Spain was
literally just a plate of chorizo

-Pork: There is so much pork and ham here, it's ridiculous. From chorizo to the famous Jamón iberico (it's pork that's been fed acorns, apparently) to every form of cooked pig you could possibly want, Madrid has it. There's even a restaurant chain called "Museo de Jamón," or "Museum of Ham," as the ultimate homage to ham. I think pig is the tastiest animal, so I can't complain at all. My friend who's been here all quarter told me the pork culture comes from the expulsion of Jews and Muslims in the 15th Century, since a good way to test whether they had truly converted was to see if they would eat pork or not. I'm not sure if that's true, but it makes a lot of sense. 

Take one walk down Gran Via and tell
me it doesn't remind you of New York

-Madrid feels a lot more like an American city: It's new for Europe (founded in 1500s) so it's certainly closer in time to cities like New York and Boston, and even Los Angeles. The buildings and parks also look new and clean and it makes the city feel modern. If I were to describe it in one sentence, I'd call it the Spanish-speaking European lovechild of New York and Washington DC, since there are parts of Madrid that feel like each city. It has both the upscale commercialism and style of New York and the political buildings and monuments of DC.

Yay for government buildings

         International brands are also much more prevalent here than in Rome. You'd see the occasional McDonald's or Burger King in Rome, but otherwise, everything would be local. Here, it's common to walk down the street and see McDonald's, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, etc, and this makes the city feel really American. I think this is also one of the reasons I didn't initially like Madrid, since I was expecting something that felt more different than America. 

-Madrid has money: The biggest difference between Rome and Madrid is money. In Rome, the really touristy areas were well-financed, but the side streets were often left deteriorating. There was trash and dirt in the streets and it seemed like the government either didn't have the money to maintain everything or decided to spend it elsewhere. Madrid is not like this. Everything looks really well-funded. As I mentioned, the metro is fantastic and about as clean as a metro can get, all the buildings look sleek and modern, all the public parks are well-watered and taken care of, and the city just has a very clean feel to it. It's clear that someone is pouring a lot of money into the city because it's absolutely spotless and gorgeous. From what I've learned in class, this is the only region in Spain that can afford it.

Crappy pano shot of Plaza Mayor

I still like Rome more, but Madrid is definitely growing on me. It's an absolutely gorgeous city and I feel like I've just begun to give it a proper chance to win me over. I'm sure I'll have more to say in a week or two.