I had studied the metro map before I went it and saw that I would have to make several line changes to get where I wanted to go, Puerto del Sol, the heart of Madrid. Now, I assumed that there would be maps inside the metro, so I hadn't memorized the exact line numbers or station names. To my surprise there were no maps inside the stations or trains that I could find. Instead, there were signs pointing towards certain line numbers with only their terminal stops listed. Luckily, the guidebook that my friend on the plane gave me had a metro map. I was able to use that to navigate my way to Puerto del Sol without too much trouble. On one of the trains, there was a man playing the accordian. This was definitely not D.C.
As I ascened the steps to Puerto del Sol, I was shocked to see the entired square filled with camping tents, an entire tent city. As I walked around, I realized that they were protestors and I remembered hearing about protests recently in Spain, but I didn't know they were still going on.
From Puerta del Sol, I decided to walk to the world famous Prado museum. While standing in line to get a ticket, I met a charming couple from Texas who took my picture and told me that they couldn't wait to tell their sons about my trip. I wasn't impressed with the museum. The great majority of the paintings are portraits and renditions of Jesus being cruxified, while I prefer more modern styles of art. There were some cool Roman statues however. I was fighting jet lag and while at the Prado, I sat down to rest on a bench in one of the galleries and woke up a few minutes later with my head back, mouth wide open, gaging on my own saliva
After I'd been through most of the Prado, I decided to head to my hostel so I could drop off my backpack. At the hostel, I talked to two Aussie girls who were about to leave for Barcelona and they recommended that I try the Reina Sofia museum if I didn't like the art at the Prado. I considered taking a nap, but I was determined to beat the jet lag and I was afraid a one hour nap would turn into a ten hour coma. So I headed to Reina Sofia and the Aussies were right. It was a much more modern gallery that included one of Picasso's masterpieces, Guernica.
I went to bed around 9:00, proud that I had stayed up all day. I woke up the next morning to the sound of people talking in the common area. When I got up and went out there, I glanced at one of the common-use computers and noticed that it was actually 1:30AM, not the next morning. Wow. Apparently jet lag had totally thrown off my internal clock. Back to bed and what felt like an hour later, the guy sleeping in the bed below me got up. I asked him what time it was and he said 10:00. Time to get up. I was about to miss breakfast! Again, my internal clock had failed me.
I started off the day going to the botanical garden with two guys from Mexico City. The garden was not very impressive. It only contained plants that are native to Spain. Maybe that was the problem. I'm not sure.
After lunch, the Mexicans were headed to the Prado, which I had no interest in going to again, so I said goodbye and headed to my new hostel. My original hostel didn't have any beds available so I had to find a new one. Given that it was a weekend, options were slim and there was only one hostel with reasonable prices left, but it didn't have good reviews online. Just as the reviews had said, when I got there I found that neither the front door or the room doors could be locked. The guy at the front desk told me not to keep any valuables in the rooms, even if they were in the lockers with a padlock. I asked if they had had a break-in recently and he said "maybe," which seemed like an odd answer. I found out later that various valuables and 1000 Euros had been stolen from the room next to mine just the day before.
When I arrived in Spain, I found that my phone didn't work at all. From my conversation with the telecom company, I thought the phone would work, but that I would be charged extra per call. Anyway, this meant that I needed a SIM chip from a local telecon. I spent a long time going to various stores until I found the right thing, a prepaid Vodafone SIM. With that taken care of, I walked around Madrid for a couple of hours going to various catherdrals, palaces, and squares, none of which I found very beautiful.
Back at the hostel, I found that I'd be put in a room with a bunch of annoying sorority girls from L.A. and a guy from Brazil that didn't speak English well. I had decided earlier that I was tired of Madrid, so I tried to buy a train ticket online for the next day, but it would only let me buy tickets for two or more days in advance. Calls to the listed phone number didn't work either. I walked to the train station and got there around 11:00. The ticket window was closed, but the customer service window as open and the guy there told me to come back in the morning. So I did and I was able to purchase a ticket to Sevilla for later that morning.
In the meantime, I headed to the flea market that is held in Madrid on Sunday mornings. A sprawling, expansive, and quite popular affair, it was like every other flea market I've ever been too in that people were selling stuff that I couldn't imagine anyone buying.
Back at the train station, I found that in the main entranceway there was an indoor jungle. As I was taking pictures of it, I noticed a bunch of people looking over the railing. I went over and saw that there were more than a dozen small turtles swimming below.
Madrid is an interesting town, but not one I find very beautiful. It's nice that it's very centralized, but it's just not a place that I would want to be in for an extended time.