Meeting up in Madrid

May 15th.

Slowly but surely I am getting through my Spain travels…here’s more from Madrid, starting up again right where I last left off.

I woke up early(ish) to get beautified before meeting Alene at Starbucks.  It’s so much fun meeting up with friends when you are traveling.  I love my family, obviously, but it’s especially great when both your family and  your friends want to travel together.  I’m a lucky girl – although to be honest, since Alene and I have been friends from age 4, it’s almost more accurate to call her family. 

 

Having only ventured a few blocks from our hotel for dinner the night before, we were still slightly unfamiliar with the neighborhood.  But having been to Madrid twice before, the city’s layout came back to me pretty quickly.

[Background info: my mom lived in Madrid and all of my sisters and I have previously visited the city while studying abroad in Spain, so my dad was the only newbie to Spain’s capital]

We only needed a quick google map refresher before we were re-oriented and on our way to El Rastro.  Epic fail.  We got totally sidetracked by shopping.  Several purses, rings, watches, and scarves later we emerged from the store.  Oh, did I mention what a horrible nurse person I was by ignoring the ambulancia and EMTs filing in as we were in the checkout line?  See no evil, hear no evil…(I have bad karma I think).

 

Up the street we stopped for a photo session in Plaza Mayor.  Laura bought some street art that she skillfully bartered from 30 Euro to 20 Euro.  Then, suddenly we realized it was already 1 pm and time to meet Ethel!  Her flight was due to arrive at 11, so we raced through Puerta del Sol and back to the hotel just in time for our pre-designated arrangement.  Starbucks was the official meeting point since it was within yards of our hotel and an obvious point of reference for us (I swear I have some kind of radar for the ‘bucks because I can sense the siren calling me from abnormally lengthy distances).  Ten minutes later I had to pee, my mom had to drop off her purchases, and Laura wanted to change, so we split up, leaving behind Marie and Alene to be the official greeting team.  Eventually we all rendezvoused back at the hotel and attempted to hit up El Rastro (again).

 

Success!

And nobody got mugged either!  Double success!

And we all came out with purchases!  Triple success!

El Rastro is a very well known flea market that takes place every Sunday along Plaza de Cascorro and Ribera de Curtidores (between Calle Embajadores and the Ronda de Toledo).  Things are cheap and you can bargain your little heart out (good for people like Laura who can negotiate the price of a diamond down to a dollar).  It is definitely a sight to behold.  Scarves were the item of the day though, and we all racked up. 

Such exito required a good meal to celebrate.  Being the maoz lovers we are, it was no contest.

We only got semi-sidetracked en route. 

 

First in Plaza Mayor (again) for the famous obnoxious jumping photos.

 

Then, after we were all satisfied with our mid-air pics, we forged on.  At which point I saw this cute little market and had to pop in.

It’s lame how excited I was to see yams and squash.  But I was!

My parents were equally amused by the different veggies that were local to Madrid.  I inherited their hippie ways after all…  My dad got a banana (which I’m absolutely sure he pronounced bah-nah-nah in an effort to speak Spanish).

 

If there were a way to store this tofu blando, I would have bought it!  But the Westin doesn’t have fridges in their rooms (and more importantly, what the eff would I do with a tub of plain tofu).

 

Things were labeled in Spanish and Asian characters, but I recognized bok choy, chard, and a few kinds of cabbage. 

 

But, finally we made it to Maoz Vegetarian.  I got the maoz falafel with pan integral (falafel in a whole wheat pita).

 

And packed it up with the salad bar fixins’ and extra tahini.

 

That’s the good stuff!

 

My only issue with the way these are put together is how the falafel is buried waaaay down there.  This means you have to eat through the extras before you get to the hot fried garbanzo goodness.  I wish everything could be mixed before it’s stuffed in the pita (but then you lose the on-the-go/do-it-yourself nature of the joint). 

 

We got them para llevar (times siete) and ate on the curb of a fountain in Puerta del Sol.  I was so content.  My fam.  My friends.  My food.  My (second) fave country.  My beau was the only thing missing. 🙁

 

Good thing we enjoyed the scenery then because later that night (and then for the rest of our time in Madrid) Puerta del Sol was taken over by protestors.  With all the police it had the potential to get pretty dangerous, so we steered clear of the area after this Maoz picnic lunch. 

Origen de las Carreteras Radiales en Espana.  Kilometer Zero marks the point from which all the main roads of Spain radiate. 

After lunch we did some dilly-dallying in the surrounding side streets in search of a very specific helado place.  We eventually came to discover it was actually right under our noses the entire time. 

 

If Alene had told me she came to Madrid just for this one ice cream place, I wouldn’t have batted an eye.  The girl has priorities.  And they usually revolve around food.  I like it. 

 

Caught in the act.

 

Can you see our crew in the reflection? 

The rest of the day was more mellow.  Alene and Ethel went to check into their hotel; meanwhile our family hit up the Thyssen Bornemisza museum.

 

The only way to survive museums with my family is to play games like “pick your fave in the room” or “guess the painting’s name.”  I don’t want to come across as ignorant or unappreciative of the arts, so let me just reveal how spoiled I am explain that I’ve been to the Louvre at least 5 times, as well as the Musee d’Orsay, the Prado, the Reina Sofia, the Met, MOMA, SFMOMA, the Guggenheim, the Frick, the de Young, the Legion of Honor, etc. (you get it, I’ve seen lots of paintings).  In other words, I’m pretty familiar with the art scene. 

That said, I was pleased with this museum (far beyond the medium to low expectations I had).  The Countess Thyssen knew her sh!t to say the least (the museum is her personal collection).  I mean this lady had a ridiculously complete range of works.  Obviously she had some mega dinero.  We spent 1 1/2 hours before my eyes got lazy.  Like clockwork, it was then time to meet back up with the girlies.  Rather than give in to the lull in the day we pressed on – to the Plaza Santa Ana for pre-dinner drinks.

 

To be continued…