Spain, Has it been one year already?

In thinking about my travels after leaving the Philippines, I would have to say that Spain was a highlight, not because I love Spain (in reality, it is not that great in my opinion), but because it was the central meeting place of four girls from North Central and a lovely tag-a-long from Illinois :) It is amazing how fast time passes and how much can happen in only one year. They say that college is the best four years of your life, but I have to heartily disagree. College is the place where you commence the best years of your life. All the barriers are behind you and you are left with the complete freedom to make of yourself what you wish. Spain was an opportunity of a lifetime thus far for some North Central graduates who have maintained contact since graduation. This is our story. Girls I hope that you appreciate what I have written. I was planning to make it into a story, but I figured that the complete truth is just as good and as interesting as whatever else I could have spun. This is for you and I hope that it helps you in remembering what a special trip we all had together.

Before I begin with the interesting adventure of five women in Spain, I need to make some connections and lay out the foundation of who we are and how we are connected. Morgan, Sarah and I graduated together in 2009 from North Central, which was a small no-name college in the posh Chicago suburb of Chicago. It might not have been the most academically renowned or the most rigorous, but it brought us together, and for that, I am thankful. I have discovered on my travels that it is the people one encounters that make life’s experiences unique and memorable. Even more amazing is the fact that through this past year we have maintained regular contact in spite of our varied schedules, tasks, and locations. Steph was an NCC graduate of 2008, but she maintained excellent contact with Sarah and therefore with the rest of us too. (It is funny how in college you manage to gravitate towards certain people after some time. We cannot even identify when we all met for the first time, but somehow we ended up really good friends. Common interests, contacts and activities kept bringing us together, and all of a sudden people become really good friends. This is one of the most amazing parts of college life and something I treasure and do not take for granted.) Through various events our lives were brought together, but most significantly, last year we all took a road trip to visit Morgan in DC. That was the first of the trips we took together and Spain was the second and hopefully not last. I suppose Kendall is the odd woman out since she was a graduate of UW-Oshkosh (connection to WI!) and not NCC; however she and Steph connected really well through their studies in London and she quickly became a part of the group. So, there is the background. Hopefully everything else will be explained as the story unfolds.

We were all arriving from different countries. I was coming from the Netherlands, Morgan was flying from DC, Sarah from York where she is studying, and Steph and Kendall from Barcelona where they decided to go for a few days before joining us. Meeting all in the same small airport, four of us stayed the night waiting for Morgan to arrive the next morning. Steph had the brilliant idea to buy blow up mattresses to sleep on, which made the floor much more comfortable for the night even though the ambiance was less than peaceful. Simply living life is an adventure, but there are days when life is more adventurous than others because one decides to throw a wrench into it. That is what our trip was: a small wrench in the wheel of life.
Once Morgan arrived, we were all quite tired but ready to experience Madrid, which seemed like a lively city offering quite a lot to its visitors. Sarah, who was the self-designated tour guide because she had all the maps and the information for going places, got us to our hostel in no time without expending much money. (The metro in Madrid is 1 euro per ride and two euros for a ride from the airport to the center, so it is really affordable.) The reason we chose this hostel was for its low price, good reviews and decent location. It had a complimentary breakfast of bread and jam and cereal plus a lot of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. We were all pretty content with the hostel—its location, food and amenities—but we all agreed it needed to get new artwork, which was more like soft porn really. I am not sure who decided to put up those pictures, but their artistic eye should be reevaluated.

Sunday is the day of the big flea market/bazaar in Madrid, so we made it just in time to enjoy the endless stalls of clothes, jewelry, crafts, gadgets of all kinds, and artwork. It was a blast getting lost in the rows of stalls and the hoards of people. Without even trying our group split as we were pushed around the crowd and as our tastes for different things diverted us. Thank God Sarah and Steph had cell phones. They were smart to have their cell phones with them because who knows what would have happened. I just take for granted that people can communicate easily. I really shouldn’t. After meeting up again, we continued to explore; then we stopped at a café to grab a late lunch. Spanish food is quite heavy on the meat, for us vegetarians (I finally had a compatriot in Kendall) our options were slim and always contained either eggs or potatoes (except when we had kebaps, then we ate falafel). I ate a lot of Spanish tortillas, which contain boiled potatoes and eggs, kind of like a potato quiche, and it is served as a round pie or a portion of that round pie although there is no crust. Good thing it is really yummy! Morgan tried paella one night and there was a lot of chorizo and Spanish sausages, but in general, I have to say that Spanish cuisine is not that great. Well, I suppose it is all where you look and we certainly did not have the eye for finding the good places. (I will recount our tapas evening in a few paragraphs and you will really see what I mean.)

One of the best things about Madrid is that its very famous museums all have a time of the day at which the entrance is free. To have a free period every day of the week is really an amazing thing for tourists, especially for students and budget travelers. There was no doubt that we were budget travelers as walked for hours around the city to avoid paying for the metro, with our sandwiches made from bread that we took from breakfast and cheese, meat and tomatoes—varying in combination—from the nearby cheap grocery store, with our cheap wine, which is better than most wine in the US, cookies and some fruit, and with our slightly disheveled clothing. (Sarah, Kendall, and Steph all took a knapsack with them so it would fit as a carry-on. I of course have been wearing the same clothes for three months now, and Morgan was the princess of all of us, coming from a real job where she owns real money and has the means to shop. You go girl!) I love budget travel. I mean, yes, there are some troubles along the way that you have to except, but the satisfaction of arriving in a place after having walked for hours to get there or finding the perfect shaded spot for a picnic is worth every little bit of extra exertion you might have to put into saving those few euros that quickly add up if not carefully watched.

Arguably one of the best collections of art in the world, the Prado stands on its own among two other famous art museums in Madrid, the Sofia Reina and the Thyssen. We never made it to the Thyssen because it is a private collection and therefore is never free, but we did make it to the other two and were impressed by the quantity of art at the Prado and amused by the several famous works of modern art at the Sofia Reina. When a museum is free, however, there are free expectations and all ends up being worthwhile for the short period in which you are enjoying it. I love free places because I feel no pressure to justify why I went there, but instead, I can feel amused and unhurried, appreciating what I can and laughing at what I cannot. (None of us were art connoisseurs, but Sarah did a pretty good job of indicating some nuances she observed and Steph and I were all business about checking off the famous works of art they had placed in the brochure, like a treasure hunt although I had to wonder why on earth they chose some of the works they chose.

Monday was our official introduction to the city of Madrid. We took the free walking tour our hostel offered although Morgan and I almost missed it because we were off trying to buy stamps from a post office that was in one of the most obscure places: the third floor of a department store that had so many branches we could not distinguish, so the directions we kept getting from people were so bland and uncertain. Oh, well, we made it just in time to sidle up to the group and get moving. The tour lasted more than three hours and was a great if not opinionated introduction to a little but of the history and the significant pieces of architecture of the city.
The best story was the one our guide told us about the symbol of Madrid, which happens to be a bear eating berries from a tree. What could this symbolize? Well, in his opinion, which like I mentioned was quite strong and a little grating at times, this bear symbolized the spirit of Madridians. Why? Well, in consuming these berries, the bear is actually drinking a fermented juice inside the berries; then he will take a nap and get up and do it all again. Our guide informed us that Madridians love to enjoy life and that often involves drinking a large quantity of wine and taking long siestas. So, the picture is of the calm life. I could definitely see how that is an accurate picture of the city. We never got up very early and always managed to leave late morning and go to sleep around midnight. Nothing opens early in Madrid except for a few cafes, but everyone has a slower lifestyle. This slow rhythm suited us quite well since our goal was not to see everything and to touch every corner of the city but to catch up before another long absence ensued. We managed to adopt the Madridian way of living for the week although we did not really master the siesta or the consumption of large quantities of wine.

I think we had been planning the trip to Madrid for about six months, and our friend, Esther, was also supposed to join us for a day and a half. Unfortunately for her and for us, she misread her ticket and went to the wrong airport in London where she was for her sister’s wedding. Even though she was not present with us, her idea to go see flamenco rested in the group. We decided that instead of seeing flamenco, we would go to a flamenco ballet inspired by the story of Carmen since it sounded really entertaining and had a great deal going for the night on which we planned to go. That day we returned to the places we had seen on the tour, such as the Palacio Real and the main cathedral next to it, so we were quite content to relax that evening and enjoy some theater. Getting all dolled up for no other reason than to have a few good laughs and feel like our budget evening was actually something quite fancy, we were ready for the show and the tapas we planned to get after the show.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the show, so it was anticlimactic to have to wander around to find tapas later that evening. When one thinks of Spain, he or she usually thinks of tapas, but I have to say, they are not the same as what one finds in the US. There are no legitimate “tapas” restaurants and they are not really something you get for dinner. They are very much appetizers one gets to accompany the drink he/she is having. Not only did we pick a bad district for getting good food, but also we chose effectively the worst restaurant. Our “tapas” were McDonaldized in the sense that instead of getting potatoes, we got French fries. Instead of getting a leafy salad, we got iceberg lettuce doused in water and covered with things that resembled fresh veggies. Instead of slices of gourmet meat that are appropriate for an appetizer, we got chunks of sausage in a bowl. We were all a little disappointed when we thought of how good the tapas were at the various places we had been in the US. Granted, the tapas we experienced were nowhere near as good as the American version, but the ambience could not have been reproduced in its US superiors. The night we chose to go out for this meal, Spain was playing one of the semi-final games in the World Cup, so there was a lot of cheering, hooting and hollering, but then there was also the beautiful sunset of orange and red that colored the old buildings with an exquisite hue of dreams come true. Maybe you cannot have your cake and eat it too. (What a silly phrase at any rate!)

So, we might not be good at the whole finding good Spanish food thing, but I would say we did a fantastic job on finding amazing things to do without spending any money. For example, we spent the whole day in Toledo and spent only the necessary money for food and transport. Everything else was an adventure and was completely free. Taking the bus from downtown Madrid, which was quite an unexpected challenge considering the metro was conveniently on strike that day, we arrived in Toledo, a beautifully historic town, and saw the whole city in the course of the day. What an extraordinary little place! It was so full of unique buildings and possessed a tranquil walkway around the river that we took full advantage of per Sarah’s request. The streets were charming and narrow—the perfect stereotypical promenade through Europe’s extensive historical eras. The day was hot and we had to be careful to stay in the shade as much as possible, but we still managed to sacrifice some of our comforts to take fabulous photos on top of the Puerta del Sol—an appropriate name for the way the sun seemed to reverberate off the sandstone onto our very white bodies. Toledo was great and was even better after we managed to find a good restaurant in which to eat before eight pm—the traditional time restaurants reopen their kitchens for dinner.

Our final day at the Fabulous Five was Thursday morning because Kendall and Steph had found cheap flights back and since they had already been traveling a few days before us, they were ready to get back to their student reality of finishing their masters theses, which they will be doing until September. The whole week we had not succeeded in getting real and good Spanish food, but we did manage on our final morning together to get chocolate and churros from a good place. Both the hot chocolate, which is like molten chocolate pudding, and the churros were fresh and delicious. So, all in all, we finished off better than we started, which is a wonderful phrase to be able to write.
The adventure continues: from five down to three, we were prepared to make the most of the rest of the trip, and make the most we did. Always the tour guide, Sarah looked at Morgan’s guidebook and searched all the remaining free things to do, which ended up being quite numerous. From the list of things to do for free, we designed our walking path that finally broke poor Morgan. Of all the shoes that she could have brought to Madrid, she brought these flats that had absolutely no support and that resembled a paper covering on one’s feet—not much better than walking barefoot. We had an emergency shopping session to get that poor girl some proper shoes for the remaining few days. It was almost an instantaneous pick-me-up, which goes to show you that proper footwear is not a joke and should not be considered lightly when packing for a trip.

Three very memorable things occurred on the last leg of our journey together as the Terrific Three: our day trip to Aranjuez, a tapas bar crawling with the hostel, and a crazy walk around the city after a morning of storms and a visit to the museum of clothing. If you only plan to stay in Madrid and not venture on day trips to the surrounding areas of interest, you can do the city in a few days, but after three days, you will certainly be bored to some extent. We were fortunate to be able to take our time with the city and make two day trips, the second being Aranjuez, which is a huge palace situated next to a massive park and nestled in its own royal gardens that were an impressive picnic site.

The day started out a little dreary, but we hoped that we would avoid the rain, which would have completely ruined the experience. We were fortunate and were able to promenade throughout the day without one drop of rain, but as soon as we left, it started to rain. How lovely! The palace was lovely, but it was too bad that we could not take pictures neither could we take pictures at the Palacio Real. I am not used to places where they completely prohibit picture taking. Oh well. We had to enjoy it for what it is: an elaborate palace that exists only to awe tourists but once served to demonstrate power and wealth. Interesting how being in a certain era can change everything. We were happy to go see this palace because it was cheap to get to and was relatively inexpensive. Sarah and I have seen enough palaces and castles to keep us happy for the rest of our lives, and Morgan was kind of cool and up for anything.
Of the three, I am probably the most daring and consequently the risk taker. The girls were good for me and prevented me from doing some illegal stuff (not like seriously illegal stuff, but you know, pushing the envelope that probably should not be pushed) but I was able to persuade them to jump a few locked fences, which was really fun! First, when we were done with the palace, we were all quite hungry and decided that the palace gardens would make an unbelievable spot for a picnic. I noticed that the palace gardens started where we were standing, but for some reason there was a big locked gate, keeping people out. Well, I didn’t see the need to walk all around just so we could access the area that was right in front of us. The gate was not that secure and we could manage to shimmy around the iron and spikes. It was thrilling if only for a short while :) Our picnic was perfect, right next to this fountain of a man picking his feet, which is quite odd, but I suppose realistic? Second time we hopped a fence was in the big park in which we walked for a few hours. We passed this really lovely pond with a very pleasing gazebo and we thought it would make a fantastic spot to take pictures, so I suggested that we enter despite the locked gates. I mean, the wall could be easily scaled, so I figured no one was too concerned about keeping people out. That is good logic, right? If the wall is small enough to scale, they really don’t want to keep people out, they only hope to dissuade :)

That night was our tapas tour. Like you have read, we completely botched up our first attempt at finding good tapas, so it was really fortunate that we were able to have another go at experiencing our overly idealized image of Spain. Our hostel had these events for its guests, some free and those where you had to pay a minimal fee to enjoy. On our last evening all together, we participated in the Tapas Tour: three bars with three tapas and three drinks, all for 9 euros! Our guide was the same dude from the free walking tour, and for some reason he remembered me (I counted the members of the group for him on that day), so I had a good time teasing him and giving him a run for his money. We three had a grand time finally getting our tapas experience, going from one small place to the next, drinking our beer/wine, sangria (which was hands down the best sangria we had while in Spain), and cider. It was perfect!

Our final day was a little bittersweet because it was the final day for all of us. Sarah was going back to York to finish her graduate thesis and Morgan was returning to DC to continue her life as a big working girl and me, I was off to continue my European adventure. I was refreshed by the common bond we had during that week, but the reality is that we are all in such different places in our lives and must accept that these moments of coming together must suffice to keep the friendships ignited. Since we had really done everything there is to do in the city itself, we really did not know what we wanted to do for our final day, but we decided on relaxing in a park, which was a main theme of our week, and maybe renting out some boats to enjoy the lake inside of the biggest park in Madrid, El Parc del Campo. Unfortunately, when we woke up, it was pouring, so we had no choice but to find a cheap museum and try to wait it out. We found the most random museum in Morgan’s book that sounded interesting: El Musee del Traje or the Clothing Museum. It actually was quite fun and interesting to see the different period clothing and to spend some time thinking about how clothing has formed identity over the years. By the time we exhausted the museum, it had stopped raining and we were able to sit in the beautiful museum garden next to the fountain for our final picnic lunch together. This is where the real adventure begins and is a testament to the power of the will to keep trying even when failures abound.

Our maps were not that great because they were not as detailed as we would have liked. Plus, we were consistently unable to find the street signs at the point at which we needed them. This resulted in a lot of wrong turns that kind of turned into a debacle of trying to get to this park that was so close yet so far. Sarah was the tour guide like much of the trip and she was really good about keeping on even though Morgan was confused as to why we did not just take a metro or something. I was all up for the adventure. In fact, it really made me feel good to know that I am not the only one who gets lost. I love seeing that my condition is not such an anomaly. Finally, we made it to the park with enough time to eat some ice cream by the lake and take a little rest before making our way back to the hostel for Sarah, who had an earlier flight than Morgan and me.

After taking Sarah to the metro, Morgan and I were the only ones remaining. I discovered that Morgan had not spent all the money she had exchanged and I convinced her that we needed to spend it, not on food, but on fun things like clothes and jewelry. I love to spend other people’s money :) We made a quick job of getting rid of the money on new dresses and pearls. What fun and frivolity! We were ready for a good dinner and chose one of the places to which we had been introduced the night before. We got our final pitcher of sangria, a Spanish tortilla and ham croquettes. It was the perfect way to end the evening, so with a stroll around the busy streets of Madrid and showers at the hostel, we were ready for our final night together, which we spent at the airport. We blew up those mattresses again and tried to sleep in the noisy terminal. Upon waking at a very early hour, we had enough time to grab some coffee and eat our sandwiches I had prepared the day before. It was a great end to a fabulous trip. I wonder where we will meet the next time?