Visiting Madrid

Puerta del Sol

Recently I had the chance to get a really cheap ticket on a stand-by Alitalia flight and I decided to go to Madrid to visit Letizia, a friend of mine who lived with me in Leeds, and Robbie, another friend met in Leeds.
I arrived at Barajas airport and Letizia’s boyfriend, Andrew, came to meet me.

I was impressed by the shiny metro, functional as the London Tube but nicer (if we do not consider the smell of sewage that sometimes comes up to your face and the signalling which is not excellent) but no comparison with Rome’s two awful lines…

On saturday Letizia and Andrew showed me around, the wonderful Gran Vìa, Sol, Palacio Real, Opera, Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral… I can only remember that by the end of the tour my feet hurt terribly and I was hot and dehydrated.

The plan for the evening was that we were going meet a couple of Letizia’s friends, but one of them didn’t show up and the other one, Valeria, a very nice Italian girl, had to leave early.
But before Valeria left, we went to a nice cafe opposite the Palacio Real and I went to the toilet to spend a penny. As soon as I came out of the loo to wash my hands, a girl stepped out of the loo next to mine, followed by an horrendous smell. She didn’t wash her hands and went straight off. As soon as I realized how bad the smell was, a woman from the staff stepped in with one foot, breathed, looked up at me and went “Oh la la!”, laughed at me and went out! Bloody Spanish…

Atocha train and metro station

And then we met Robbie, we had a beer and then Tom and Terry, Robbie’s friends from Newcastle, joined us. We went for a pizza, which was actually really nice (I struggle to admit) a part from the hour and a half wait. By the end of the meal we had about 15 beers in total, Robbie was starting to feel sleepy and Letizia called it a night. A very pleasant evening actually.

The day after I went to Reina Sofia to see Guernica and some of the works of Salvador Dalì, but after that it was too hot to stay around (about 39 degrees) and we went home.

On monday Robbie and I met for lunch in a nice place that served lovely food (fried mozzarella coated with something unidentifyble but nice and guacamole, pizzetta with cheese and can’t remember what else, lovely mushrooms, and the sangria that was excellent) and Robbie kindly paid for everything.

On tuesday I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza, a very nice museum that has got on exibition all kinds of paintings, from ancient to pop art, and we went around on the red sightseeing bus where Andrew and I almost got sunburnt.

Then we went to the Retiro park and had a wonder around the artificial lake where there were few boats floating around.

Letizia and Andrew in front of the Palacio Real

That night Robbie and Lucia, his girlfriend, invited me for dinner, and we had tortilla and salad with walnuts. After a lovely meal and a good chat they walked me home.

The day after I went to the Museo del Prado, which is an amaizing place although you can only find classical art (in comparison the Thyssen was a lot more varied).
We saw Titian, El Greco, Velasquez, Goya, Botticelli, Rafael, Rubens and many more. We spent hours in there but still could not manage to see everything, our feet were hurting too much!

On my last night in the spanish capital we went to a bar called Cafè Madrid (near Opera) where on weds there is an international night. And of course I met few italians (www.italianiamadrid.it) but also an Egyptian guy who is a translator. We talked about translation and it looks like that to get into the world of translation in Madrid it takes a while (just like in Italy – tutto il mondo è paese, come dicono a casa mia).

Letizia, Robbie, Tom and Terry

I enjoyed my holiday in Madrid very much and I would like to thank everybody who made it so pleasant.
Thank you guys!