Madrid

"Fai un cutu que escarabaya el pelleyu"

Aida, the sister of Aique teached me this asturian sentence, since I will use it a lot here, because it’s becoming colder and colder. But not last weekend, because i lived in a house where it was always 25 degrees. It was a warm welcome to Madrid!

We left on wednesdayevening, immediately after dinner, because our plain was leaving at 11 o’ clock. After an hour or so, we landed safely in Madrid. Aida was waiting for us here. I already liked her when I saw her, and the rest of the weekend we had lots of fun together.

After meeting each other we drove to her and her boyfriends apartment in a neighborhood in Madrid. There I met her boyfriend Javi(er) and Fu her cat, whom we had a lot of fun with. He was still very young, so full of energy and I had a great time watching him playing with all kinds of stuff.

The next day we woke up around 11 o’clock and had a typical Spanish breakfast with tostadas and some kind of tomatomixture which you could put on your tostadas. It was very nice so I’m definitely going to make that in Holland as well.

After breakfast we took the bus to the centre of Madrid and stopped at Parque del Retiro. We almost were blown away by a herd of runners which love to do there parcours there. The parque has a surface of 1,4 km2 so it’s big enough for everybody.

We saw Palacio de Cristal, which was very beautiful and I saw the first statue of the ‘devil’ ever. Actually it is a fallen angel which becomes later the devil, but the statue is so remarkable because in Spain, especially in Madrid, de people are very catholic, so why put a statue of the devil there?

The rest of the day we continued our route through Madrid and saw several things:

- Museo del Prado, one of the greatest artmuseums in the world with artists like Velazquez, Goya but also Rembrandt and Rubens.

- A square with two luxe hotels; Palace Hotel and of course the Ritz Hotel.

- Nice statues, like the fountain of  Cibeles (roman goddes), which is the symbol for Madrid and ofcouse famous for the victory of Real Madrid, and Don Quijote on Plaza de Espana, who was the main character in a Spanish novel, written by the famous Miguel de Cervantes.

- Nice Buildings, like the opera building (in the shape of a coffin), the townhall, the bank, Palacio Real and The Cathedral Almudena
- The temple of Debod, an Egyptian monument as a gift from Egypt to Madrid

- Puerta del sol; The central square in Madrid where we ate delicious tapas, the centre of Spain; point ‘zero’ (looking at the highways) and on that square is newyear celebrated guided by the clock Casa de Correos, who tells you when to eat 12 grapes.

I also saw her some strange figures like Hello Kitty en Spongebob, who earlier that week had a fight about there territory. Watch and enjoy:P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IbHDYWeEuY



That night we walked over the Gran Via and saw lots of theaters and cinemas. Then we ate churros con chocolate in San Gines, the first Chocolateria in Madrid.

Finally we walked through the gay neighbourhod Chueca and then took the underground to Aida’ s home.

The next day we went to Parque the Europa, so I got so see al the important monuments of Europe from Spain. The park was new and very big, so we had a nice time there. That evening we went out in Madrid and I had an awesome time in the Club Cats;)

The next day we went to an unique village called Alcala de Hernares. This village posseses the oldest university of Spain and is the birth place of the famous writer Miguel de Cervantes. We visited his old house and an archeological museum. That day was very cold and rainy but we still had a nice time.
In the evening we went home to pack our things and go to the airport.

Around 12 oclock in the evening we arrived again in Asturias. If I look back on it now I had an incredible weekend, where is saw lots of new things, walked a lot and had a lot of fun with Aida, Javi, Aique and Fu.

I enjoyed everything very much.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my story!

Besos Marieke