Two years prior on a whim, I found really cheap tickets to Zurich and decided to head there solo for some amazing hikes through the alps.  After I booked the tickets, I realized it was also going to coincide with Oktoberfest in Munich and after realizing it was only a 4 hour bus ride, I decided to make that happen.  Long story short, my buddy Marc was also coming to Oktoberfest and a few of my other friends were in town as well which was awesome.  Marc’s friend lived in Munich and we told her we would be back to visit in two years. Therefore the one planned event on my entire trip was to return to Munich for Oktoberfest and Marc was going to join me, but he planned on stopping in Madrid first as he lived there for a year previously.  He was flying in in two days as I prepared to head to Madrid so I would be there for three days and him 2.  We would then fly to Munich together.  Anyways, I headed to Madrid with not much planned as I was going to heavily rely on Marc for his local tips.

I arrived in Madrid late so just headed to bed.  The next morning  I didn’t have much panned and didn’t know much about the city so first thing was first.  ADVENTURE RUN!

There was a huge park downtown that was near the hostel, so i decided to check out the sites in the park.  It was a nice park and there were lots of people out enjoying the weather.  After my run I decided to join a free walking tour which was very informative and showed most of the major parts of the city.

In the middle of the tour, we stopped at a convent to get some cookies.  The members of the convent take a vow of silence and segregation but make some money by making cookies.  You indicate what you want through this circular door that does not allow you to see who is on the other side.  You put the money on the one side and then they turn the door and cookies appear.  I can’t imagine living a life of complete isolation, but for some people I guess it works.

 

On the tour I met a few people from Germany and America and decided to grab some food with them after the tour.

We ended up at this really cool tapas place that had some pretty interesting presentation styles using dry ice and various props.  I thought it would be pretty expensive and for Spain maybe it was, but overall worth it.

After lunch a smaller group of us broke off and headed to the park to hang out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  We hung out in the park and got to know each other a little bit.

We had a photoshoot iwth the mom i’m ok sign.

After the park chill, we had heard that the bit art museum nearby allowed free entry after a certain time and so with a few beers to our names, we decided to see what a Spanish art gallery had to offer.  I think I have mentioned this before that I am not really a big art museum fan, but we managed to have some fun and we did see some really amazing art.

After the muesum one of the Germans had a friend in town and bunch of them were meeting up for dinner, so we tagged along.

It turned out to be 6 girls and 2 dudes, so I wasn’t complaining.  haha.

After dinner we decided to hit the town and see what trouble we could get into.  We ended up wandering around downtwon and eventually ended at a place that looked cool.  One of my party tricks when I’m in a large place is to send people a picture of myself with the caption “how you doin” with a seductive face.  I did it at this bar and this couple sitting at the bar looked over and then totally came to join us after seeing the picture.  They were from Isreal and were super cool.

Someone heard about a place that had a live band and so we made out way there where we enjoyed live music and drinks for the rest of the night.  Our new Isrealie friends joined too!!!

The next morning , Marc was arriving but not until the early afternoon so the gang from the previous day got together for breakfast.

Apparently Spaniards like the patio so much that they will pay an extra 10% added to their bill as a patio charge.  This is the first time i have ever seen this but it is apparently pretty common.  I guess it might be worth it if you are having a coffee or something small, but a full meal could be a very expensive upcharge just for sitting on the patio.

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to my friends and head back to the hostel to meet Marc.  Apparently this is the hostel he stayed at for several months when he was trying to get settled back when he was living in Madrid and so he knew the staff pretty well.  We didn’t have very much time in Madrid together, so we decided we had to make the best of it.

The theme of our adventures through Madrid would be local and cheap.  Mostly eating and drinking.

We started off at Bar La Campana for really cheap calamari sandwiches which were supppper cheap and delicious.

We then made out way to the mercado se san miguel market to get some fancy ham called Jasmon Serrano.

After the market we headed to a hapy hour which had the chepaest worst beer in Spain.  Cruzcampo!  It was REALLY cheap and really bad.

After the bad beer, we decided to wash it down with some really good beer, so we headed to the local craft brewery to see what they had to offer.  Marc told me he used to hang out there a lot and it hadn’t changed much since he was there.  We ended up trying all of the beers on their list which were much better than the beers I had been drinking in Spain, but nothing special.

After finishing up the menu we headed back to the Hostel to see if we could get any deals from the staff he knew which didn’t work as well as hoped.

After that we headed on the town to see what trouble we could get into.  We found ourselves at a local bar that was a little clubby, but we ended up having a good time.  We met some people and danced the night away.

The night ended on a high note as noted in the below photo.

The next morning we woke up and went on some more food adventures.  After showing me parts of the city he liked, we ended up at one of my favorite places in Spain.  The museum of Ham, or Museo del Jamon.  It was dirt cheap food and beer but still very delicious.  We ended up going to a few of these around Madrid for quick snacks throughout the days we were there.  The one we started with was in the major tourist plaza in MAdrid, The plaza Mayor which has random buskers.  One of the famous ones that was even around when Marc was living there a few years ago was fat spiderman.  We saw him on the plaza and when we were in the restaurant he graced us with his presence getting food.  We felt very lucky.

This was our food plate!

Super good and super cheap.

After Marc showed me around the city a bit, my buddy Jake from California also happened to be in town at the same time and was hanging out at a place across town.  We decided to head out and meet him for lunch.

We had some food at a hipster market which was a bit expensive for Spain standard but was a cool vibe and showed that Madrid was not shielded from the onslaught of upscale hispter markets.  We eventually hit up the subway and headed to a place where one of MArc’s friends were hosting a Disney trivia night.  I am terrible at Disney Trivia but we had a great time anyways and the bar was really cool.

We didn’t do very well at Trivia, but had a good time.  After Tirvia was done we met up with Marc’s other friend Pablo and coincidentally ended up at the same place we were at the night before.  Pablo was taking us to a place that he would be able to get us in for Free despite it having a cover (it didn’t have a cover the day before but i think it was the weekend now)  Pablo has a repuation for being a bad influence and his reprutation proved true.  We left the bar really late but had a great time.

The next day MArc and I had to catch a flight to Munich and because of terrible airport design and a slightly late start to the day, we almost missed our flight.  We ended up making it ok with some help a the airport and we were eventually on our way to Munich!!!!

As a note, Marc booked his flight a few months before me and paid something like 70 euro, mine came to 200 something because I waited way too long.  I wasn’t planning on taking the same flight but it ended up being the cheapest at the time I was booking.  Oh well, such is life.  Onwards to Munich!