Madrid: “There is no path to happiness; happiness is the path”

We end our European adventure in the city of Madrid.  We have already seen the Madrid airport three times since the beginning of the trip, needless to say we're starting to know our way around there quite well.  We say goodbye to our rental car and take the train into the city.  First up on our "To Do List" is a bull fight.  The fights only occur on Sunday evenings during the month of June so we have to do it our first night there.  We get to the city, drop off our stuff at the hotel and head straight to the fight.  The stadium, La Plaza del Toros, is absolutely spectacular. You can't miss the Muslim influence on the architecture.  Once inside, Pepe loved being the center of attention.  

We grabbed some mini beers, that actually weren't so mini after all (they were the largest ones available for purchase) and took our seats.  Being that the seats in the sun were a third of the price of the seats in the shade, we opted for the sun.  Luckily, there was a good amount of cloud cover so we weren't just baking.

We tried to convince our friends, Celia and Cristina, to come join us for the fight, but they kept claiming that bullfighting wasn't really their thing.  I quickly came to realize that it really isn't mine either. For those of you who have been to a bullfight, you understand the nature of the event.  For those of you who haven't, I ask you to do some research beforehand and make sure that this is something that you can stomach.  I  do not think that it is for everyone.  I had an extremely hard time, meanwhile the lady in front of me was balling her eyes out.  That being said, I am going to tell about the parts I did enjoy and as much as I feel is appropriate to share.  I'm sure Ray will include more gory details, so if thats what your into, check back for his experience.  To start with, the entrance/ beginning, where all the matadors and picadors, along with the horses enter the stadium and parade around in front of the crowd is spectacular.

Pepe pretended to be a bull while the matador was warming up.  

Then enter the bull.  What a display of power, strength, and beauty! For me, the best part of the bullfight (if I can even say that there is a best part) was right when the bull enters the ring.  Alert, angry and full of strength, the bull begins charging at the matador.  Lets just say from that point on, I found myself cheering for the bull and not the matador.  I also spent more time staring at the empty dirt in the arena since I couldn't bring myself to watch what was actually happening.  The entire process was much more gory than I was expecting, though I'm not really sure what I was expecting in the first place.  Being an animal lover, I had to keep reminding myself that this is a major traditional and cultural aspect of Spain.  Although, I'm not really sure if I am glad I went, but I do know that I will never go to another one again.  I definitely understand why our friends didn't want to go with us.  

I was pretty disturbed at the end of the first fight, that I turned to Ray and said I was ready to go.  At this point, I wasn't really sure how he was handling it, so I didn't want to make him leave if he wanted to stay.  We stayed for one more fight (just to finish our beers).  Most of which I spent staring at the dirt again and then made our way out of the stadium, along with all the other horrified tourists.

Following our traumatic experience at the bull ring, I am in desperate need of a pick me up.  Luckily, I was able to talk to my parents for a bit and wish my dad a happy father’s day.  It was well needed to get my mind thinking about happier things. Later, we met up with Cristina and Celia at a rooftop bar.  The view was amazing! You could see the entire city. 

We had a great time catching up with them and discussing our travels since meeting them in Córdoba.  

The next day we did our last walking tour of this trip to see the sights in Madrid.  We started the tour in Plaza Mayor right in front of the “stinky statue”.  Apparently, when this was originally built, the people started to notice a foul oder encompassing the statue.  Come to find out that the horses mouth was open, allowing our birds friends a passage into the belly of the horse.  However, being that it was too dark once inside, they had a hard time finding their way out again. Fortunately now, the mouth has been sealed so there are no more funny smells. 

We stopped by the oldest continuously running restaurant in the world, Casa Botin, which has been operating since 1725. 

Then we made our way to the once tallest building in all of Europe. Can you guess which one?

We passed by the Almudena Cathedral… Totally different looks from the front to the back.  

We stopped for lunch at Museo de Jamon. What’s better than ordering a cañas and having it served with a small tapas.  Earlier we had learned the history of tapas, which I found rather interesting. Tapas means "to cover".  According to legend, King Alfonso XIII ordered a glass of wine at a famous tavern in Cádiz and being that Cádiz is a windy place, the waiter covered the wine with a slice of jamon.  The King fancied it so much that when he ordered another glass of wine, he ordered it "with the cover" and thus the idea of tapas was founded. 

After walking around the city for 6 hours or so, we were exhausted and headed back to the rooftop pool at our hotel.  

That night, we continued walking around the city in hopes to find this one restaurant we had heard about.  We knew it was located on the top floor of a shopping mall in the Gourmet Experience.  We looked and looked, and couldn't find it.  We were getting hungrier and hungrier.  We then stumbled upon a a sign pointing us towards a restaurant we had tried while in Amsterdam.  We had absolutely loved this place and were so excited to have found another one.  There is only one in the states and it happens to be in NYC so we haven't been to one since our last European trip.  It wasn’t the 3 Michilin star restaurant we had been looking for but it was still very tasty.  After we ate, we continued our search for Street XO.  Finally almost an hour later, we realized we had been in the wrong area all along and found it on  the top of an entirely different mall than we were originally.  I must admit that its strange having three places on the 7th floor of a shopping mall, of all which have michelin star chefs.  Now, that we had found it, we knew that we would be back the following day.  On our walk back, we saw the beautiful sights of the city all lit up at night.

The next day we made our way to the Parque de Retiro.  What a cool place! I felt as if I had traveled far from the city and had been planted in this beautiful park, when literally we were right outside, sometimes even hearing a car horn or exhaust go by.  

We spent some time admiring all the boats out in the water and laughing at the teenagers who managed to get stuck right beneath the fountains, unable to get away from the spraying water.  

Pepe loved seeing his friends swimming around, unfazed by all the chaos around them.

Ray even stopped to get some exercise, he has really missed riding his bicycle.  Guess this will have to do until we get home.  

“I like flags!”

For lunch, we head back to Street XO for one of the most amazing meals I have ever had.  

We take a seat at the bar and are besides ourselves by the amazing show going on around.  Pepe loved watching the food come out.

Every dish looks absolutely delicious.  We have the hardest time settling on what we want to try.  With some recommendations from the chefs, we decide to start with the razor clams… yummy! 

Next was the pork belly

Then the club sandwich, which really wasn't much of a sandwich at all.  It was a dumpling with cheese, herbs and a quail egg on top.  

And ended with the gyoza art display. 

We both thoroughly enjoyed our meal, but were disappointed that we didn't have room to try everything on the menu.  

Later we walked around a bit more to finish up our shopping.  While on the way, we crossed the very first Taco Bell we had seen since being in Europe.  We had seen plenty of McDonald’s, KFCs, Burger Kings, Subways, etc… but absolutely no Taco Bells.  Apparently it was Taco Tuesday so in we went for a taco and a large beer for only one euro.  Great way to cap off our fantastic michilen star worthy meal, with some fast food.  But who could turn down that deal? Plus, I was craving some mexican food (which this really isn't mexican but its the closest I had come since we left).  Cristina had warned us that eating is one of the main things people do in Madrid and we couldn't agree more.  

Before leaving the city the next morning, we had one more thing to try…churros con chocolate.

They were delicious! A perfect meal before getting on a plane back to the states.