La Capital de España: MADRID! - part 1

Over the weekend I travelled to the capital of Spain - Madrid, to visit my friend, Danthe Menes, who I met when I did my two week exchange in Mexico 2 years ago. This was the fist time Danthe and I have seen each other since my Mexico trip, we remained good friends after my trip through facebook and msn. So when I told him I was coming to Spain for my exchange he insisted I visit him! I stayed at his apartment with his other roommate, Analilia (who is also from Mexico) and Danthe's girlfriend Lua (who is from Brazil). I even had my own cute little room to myself for the weekend :)

DAY 1:
Danthe picked me up from the airport and then we went back to his place to drop off my stuff. After his apartment he took me downtown to La Puerta del Sol, which is the center hub of activity in Madrid. Here there is a large plaza and the famous Oso de Madroño (the Bronze Bear), who is kissing a strawberry tree. I loved him he was so cute!
In Puerto del Sol I was also able to stand in the exact center of Spain :) it's called Km 0 because all roads lead from Madrid and it's calculated to be the middle of the country.
After Puerta del Sol, we walked to Plaza Mayor which is HUGEEEE. It is a set of restaurants, apartments, hotels, and cafés in a large square, and was also the set of a movie called "Vantage Point" (if you havent seen it, you should watch it, it's really good). After Plaza Mayor, we walked to Plaza de España which has a famous statue of Cervantes (famous Spanish writer) and Don Quixote. After that we headed over to a beautiful set of Egyptian ruins which look incredible lit up at night. It's called the Temple of Debod, and they're from the 2nd century B.C. .... intense. lol. I got to see the view of the city all lit up at night at a Mirador (viewing point), the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) was especially beautiful at night :) Then Danthe and I headed to Puerta de Europa, which has two famous "Torres" (towers) which lean towards each other, and a great big tower thing in the middle, with another statue near it, so it provided a beautiful background for some awesome night photographs. :) After our photo shoot we met up with Lua (Danthe's girlfriend) for a quick bite to eat before we headed back to Danthe's apartment to call it a night.
Day 2:
Friday was also another sight seeing day with Danthe. Our first stop was to visit Real Madrid's stadium. It was huge just like Camp Nou in Barcelona... but i just got bad vibes from it, probably because Real Madrid is my home team's enemy lol. After visiting RM's stadium, Danthe and I headed over to Plaza de Toros, which is a HUGE bullfighting ring. I wish I could have seen a match, but we didnt have time over the weekend, plus it was a bit rainy all weekend too :( boo. Danthe showed me the different statues around the bullring that commemorate Bullfighters who have died in the ring, or bull's that have been allowed to live after a match etc. We headed back to Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor to check them out again in the day time. Danthe and I walked through the streets of Madrid to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). So I got to see the royal palace of Spain, as well as its beautiful gardens beside it. Madrid definitely has a different vibe than Barcelona.... in some aspects they appear the same, but it's a lot bigger, and is more "city like" and busy, for example like Toronto - minus the large skyscrapers and condominiums everywhere.

After walking around for a bit, the weather cleared up and became a really nice day. Our next stop was El Prado museum, one of the most famous museums in Spain and in all of Europe. The one painting I was really excited to see was "Las Meninas" which was painted by Velázquez. It was a lot bigger in person than I thought it would be. For dinner Danthe, his roommate Analilia and I went to a place called Montaditos, which serves this appetizer sized sandwiches which are cheap, delicious and filling. They also make great Tinto de Verano, so of course I had to have some. :) After chatting over dinner, in Spanish, of course we headed back to Danthe's apartment for the night. I was both mentally and physically exhausted from speaking spanish 24/7 and touring around the city, so i was excited to sleep lol.