{"id":279,"date":"2015-07-16T16:51:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T16:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saranoonan.com\/?p=279"},"modified":"2015-07-16T16:51:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T16:51:03","slug":"day-3-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/16\/day-3-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 3 – Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was our last day in Madrid \u2013 and unfortunately we hit a few bumps in the road related to forgetting tickets and being hangry. But we\u2019ll get to that later.<\/p>\n

James and I left the apartment and headed to el Templo del Debod \u2013 a temple that was gifted from Egypt to Spain in the late 1960s. From what I could understand (remember I\u2019m only 50% fluent in reading Spanish!), this had to do with Spain helping to preserve or conserve some artifacts. The temple is on the outskirts of la plaza de Espa\u00f1a, and is situated on a reflection pool. A man outside is screaming \u201cAGUA FRIA. TENGO AGUA FRIA.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Visitors are actually able to go through the temple, which was a nice surprise. The rooms are small and cramped, which also means hot and smells like BO. We were intending to go to Goya\u2019s burial site (which boasts infrequently seen frescoes) when I realized I had left the tickets to a cable car attraction at the apartment. We opted to take the train back, and made a quick pit stop at el Mercado de San Martin.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like ordering from butchers in America, I don\u2019t know why I thought I would like doing this in a foreign country in a foreign language. Overwhelmed by the prospect, and not quite knowing what I wanted to make for dinner, I left in a huff and headed to a MASSIVE big box store a few blocks from where we were staying.<\/p>\n

First, I found a Starbucks. This seems silly, but the coffee here is espresso and nothing is iced. Ordering meat at a market? No way. Ordering coffee and chai tea latte? Yes please. (And no this was not done in Engish \u2013 though I did manage to butcher con hielo for my coffee so it ended up being hot. This was fine; I was in a massive store with AC blasting).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s discuss this store. You walk in to a Macy\u2019s style layout \u2013 perfume and makeup counters, purses, clothes, the works. Another level is full on gourmet grocery store, another is a regular grocery store with a butcher and cheese shop. There is a pharmacy and a Starbucks, and their equivalent of a Target. Everything you could possibly need is there. We went to the grocery store and picked up provisions to make dinner. Afterwards, as we walked back through the Macy\u2019s like store, I discovered the Longchamp section.<\/p>\n

Longchamp in New England is a thing. I don\u2019t know why, I\u2019m sure it is elsewhere in the country, but it\u2019s part of being a \u201cBasic Boston\u201d and I absolutely adore my giant black bag that can hold everything from my laptop, 1L water bottle, a change of clothes, extra shoes and everything else a purse needs to contain. I\u2019ve had mine for a few years the bottom has started to wear out. I know I can pay to get this fixed, but the entire bottom is literally sprouting holes, and when pens stick through them, they write on my shirt. I also don\u2019t have a backup for when this would be fixed, and so here we were \u2013 in Europe \u2013 with access to bags that are literally half the price that they are in the U.S. because of the amazing exchange rate and the lack of importing overseas.<\/p>\n

After dropping the groceries off at the apartment, we headed to Gonzales de Queso, which is a famed cheese and tapas restaurant and a place I\u2019ve been eyeing since planning this trip. They weren\u2019t open. This was tragic. I did what I always do when I\u2019m hangry \u2013 I shut down (sorry James!). We eventually found a tapas place near el Museo de Sofia Reina and devoured patatas bravas, paella and a roasted red pepper dish with tuna.<\/p>\n

El Museo de Sofia Reina is… a modern art museum. It\u2019s interesting. We\u2019ll put it that way. There were however, many Picassos and Dalis, and some of the sections were actually interesting. Others \u2013 well lets just say I have a hard time with some modern art. I can paint a canvas blue and glue a stick to the bottom too. The museum is known for housing Guernica \u2013 one of Picasso\u2019s masterpieces. There was a significant amount of articles from the U.S. in the 60s and 70s, outlining the different museums that once featured this painting.<\/p>\n

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Afterwards, we finally made our way back to the cable car ride. We were incredibly hot by the time we found it and proceeded to load into a small, no air-conditioning car built in the 60s that precariously wheeled its way across the city of Madrid.<\/p>\n

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We were so sweaty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Out of my comfort zone? Oh that doesn\u2019t even begin to cover it. This was terrifying \u2013 but the views were pretty spectacular. I thought if I could do the London Eye then of course I could do this. I guess the difference is, I didn\u2019t fear for my life on the London Eye.<\/p>\n

For dinner that evening, I made rosemary garlic mashed potatoes, saut\u00e9ed peppers, mushrooms and arugula, and steak.<\/p>\n

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Afterwards we headed over to \u201cThe Roof,\u201d a rooftop bar in the Hotel ME. The views here are spectacular, and it was a nice way to end our time in Madrid and help even out some of the bumps we came across throughout the day \u2013 even if I did spend a ridiculous fee for a glass of wine.<\/p>\n

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It was our last day in Madrid \u2013 and unfortunately we hit a few bumps in the road related to forgetting tickets and being hangry. But we\u2019ll get to that later. James and I left the apartment and headed to el Templo del Debod \u2013 a temple that was gifted from Egypt to Spain in … Continue reading Day 3 – Madrid<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[62],"tags":[71,63,72,70],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-cable-car","tag-madrid","tag-picasso","tag-teleferico"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Zfag-4v","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saranoonan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}