Day 2 (13th of Jan)
So the plan to get our residency cards didn't exactly happen today. What did happen was quite a bit of walking and sightseeing. Our day began by picking up a fellow student from her apartment and walking the streets of Lavapiés until we eventually found ourselves in Sol. We then set off on a mission to find the famous Plaza Mayor, which at 9:45 ish on a Saturday morning is practically empty making for good photo opportunities.
it's quite hard to get a selfie with things in the backround as the angle isn't good... perhaps I should invest in a selfie stick and look like a complete tourist ;)
In Plaza mayor, there are lamp posts with murals about the history of the area as well as locks all round their bases, similar to the bridge of love in Paris
After taking numerous photos we then made our way through the city to pass the time while we waited for the last member of our group to get ready. We literally stumbled upon our next location after passing many beautiful old buildings and churches and were amazed by the sheer size of it.
This is a Cathedral called Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena and just so happens to sit directly across from the Royal Palace.
Once all four of us had all arrived we then had lunch at a small cafe/restaurant just up the road from the palace, I successfully ordered a bowl of bolognese pasta and tucked in. While we were eating it started to rain and so after lunch, we made our way back around the city in the cold getting our shoes, socks and coats thoroughly soaked. We stopped off at Atocha train station once again to get another SIM card. In order to get out of the rain as soon as possible, we entered the first door available and where shocked by what we saw. inside the giant building were heaps of palm trees and other tropical plants as well as a big man-made pond where probably close to 50 turtles were resting.
Eventually, we made it back to the apartment and rested for a few hours (I fell asleep finally) before then setting out to find a place for dinner. We found a tapas bar and ate there the total coming to 16.60 euros for the 3 of us. Lastly, as it was drawing close to 11:30 pm we made our way up through Sol once again and walked along Calle Gran Vía on the hunt for the metropolis building which appears in almost every Spanish tv show as well as all the google image results of Madrid.
There are so many buildings with these gigantic black statues of either angels, saints or animals. the one pictured on the left has two chariots drawn by gigantic horses. They're actually kind of spooky.
words of wisdom: I haven't seen any public toilets just randomly on the streets but there have been toilets in the restaurants and bars and you can use those so long as you're a paying customer of the place.
This is a Cathedral called Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena and just so happens to sit directly across from the Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace
Eventually, we made it back to the apartment and rested for a few hours (I fell asleep finally) before then setting out to find a place for dinner. We found a tapas bar and ate there the total coming to 16.60 euros for the 3 of us. Lastly, as it was drawing close to 11:30 pm we made our way up through Sol once again and walked along Calle Gran Vía on the hunt for the metropolis building which appears in almost every Spanish tv show as well as all the google image results of Madrid.
There are so many buildings with these gigantic black statues of either angels, saints or animals. the one pictured on the left has two chariots drawn by gigantic horses. They're actually kind of spooky.
words of wisdom: I haven't seen any public toilets just randomly on the streets but there have been toilets in the restaurants and bars and you can use those so long as you're a paying customer of the place.
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