It's been a while since I last wrote about my travel story.
Well...I was in the midst of doing my dissertation while watching some Korean variety show.
So, now you know why it took me ages to finish one assignment.
Anyways, if you have been checking out my travel stories, you should know by now that I had been to cities in Spain such as Barcelona and Seville. But the main question is...
What is the whole point of travelling to Spain if you do not visit their capital city, Madrid?
Madrid is the capital city of Spain and it is the largest city in Spain.(Surprise fact: Barcelona is not the main city of Spain). As the largest city of Spain and the residence of its monarch, Madrid is also a political, economic and cultural centre of the country. I had my hopes up high up in the sky before going to Madrid as Barcelona was a hyped-up city whereas Seville was a peaceful city to me. From what I have known since born, a capital city suppose to be like cars or any means of transportation everywhere or people in the city built their interest in shoulder punching you whenever you walked on the street. I always thought that it will be like New York-ish kind of vibe for the capital city of Spain. Well... I was wrong in many ways.
When I got down from the train station, it was dead quiet in the station and I can hear the wind blowing on the streets as well. But, this can be an exception since I reached there after 10p.m. at night. Throughout my whole trip in Madrid, I noticed that this city is not as modernised as the city of Barcelona. The interior of the trains in the subway station is still decorated in its 90's vibe and I can see people reading newspaper in the trains. Yes...Not Facebook or Instagram but authentic old traditional newspaper. Some of them even read storybooks that are as thick as the dictionary which is a scene I seldom see in the community nowadays. Whenever I was travelling by subways in Madrid, I felt like I was in the Narnia movie where the train suddenly speed out of nowhere and I landed in the world of Narnia. It is not a bad thing to be a "vintage" country as I had seen cities that are too modernised which led us into the extinction of the "vintage" world.
The people in Madrid are not as friendly as the ones in other cities but I did not mind that as different cities have their own personality. My friend and I do get the looks of " why are they here" or " what are they doing in our country". We usually ignored them unless they said something that has racism in it but we did not do anything illegal to them. What we did was just go along with them and smile at them because I did not want to cause any unnecessary trouble during our trip in Madrid. To be honest, I did not felt as safe as other cities in Spain as there are cases of pick-pockets and robberies happening throughout the city as well. There is no safe place in this world and it is very important that you take extra caution in protecting your belongings. The experts in pick-pocketing are getting smarter every day in stealing whatever you have and yes... That includes warm clothing such as scarf. Maybe they really cannot afford a scarf and they really cannot stand the cold weather, so we might just give them a break.
Without further ado, let me explain to you more about my trip in Madrid.
Public Transportation
I did not use any means of public transportation during my travel in Madrid as my accommodation is within the city. The attractions that I focused on were in the city as well so it will be a waste for me to apply any travel cards. The only public transportation that I used is for the transit between my accommodation and the train station. I travelled to Madrid by train from Seville as it was cheaper compared to airplane. I usually will check on two websites for the means of transportation which are Skyscanner (Check my Travel post of Barcelona) and GoEuro. The only difference between these two websites is that you can search either bus, train or flight tickets at the cheapest or recommended choice in GoEuro whereas Skyscanner only focus on flight tickets.
GoEuro website
Although price is important for budget traveller like me, but the time management of the trip is also crucial . If you arrive at your destination early, you will have more time to walk around whereas you will spend less time in your destination if you choose the latest flight of the day with the cheapest price. I have to admit this. It is not easy to plan a perfect trip and there is no super saving quality trips in this world. You just have to give and take in each division of your trip. As for me, if I spend less on transportation and accommodation for that particular place, I will use the extra money in trying the local cuisine as a reward to myself. This usually depends on people's preference in terms on what do you want to emphasize on.
My public transportation to my accommodation :
- By subway : Around 2 Euros
For more information, you can check out the website of https://www.skyscanner.com.my/ or https://www.goeuro.com/
Accommodation
As everyone know from my previous post that I am a huge fan of Airbnb, but I am also a selfish budget traveller that want to save as much penny as I can to enjoy other things in my travel destination. To summarize everything, I ended up using the convenience of Hostelworld.com. (If you do not know what is it, check back my travel post of Seville).
It was a hostel that is located in the city centre and the location was strategic enough for me as everywhere that I wanted to go are in walking distance. The distance between the furthest attraction and my hostel is around 25 minutes by foot. Since there was only two of us, we booked a private room with two single beds and shared bathroom. When we arrived at our accommodation, we had to carry our luggage up to the 2nd floor as there was no lift provided in the building. Our room was located at the 3rd floor as the floor below us is for dormitories and other facilities such as kitchen and a small garden. The room was so spacious as there was a living room area. The floor that we stayed in was clean and spacious and there were a common area, small kitchen as well as a bathroom-toilet on it. This hostel do provide breakfast for the guests and the breakfast was good enough for me as there were a variety of breads, spreads, cereals , hot and cold beverages as well. The perks of staying in hostel, hotel or bed & breakfast is that you do not have to worry about your breakfast as it is included in your payment for the room. Hence, remember to look and check carefully for some hostels or hotels as they might not include breakfast in your package which might confused you with the cheaper price. But on a bright side, you can have the opportunity to try out their local breakfast instead of sticking to the breakfast provided by your accommodation. So, activate your eagle eyes when you go through your choice of accommodation package.
My rating for this hostel is 7 out of 10 as the cleanliness is spot on and the location of this hostel is strategic as well. The only problem is that you need to carry your luggage up as there is no lift provided in the building. Aside from that, no negativity about this hostel as everything was excellent for me.
For more information, please visit the website of https://www.hostelworld.com/?dia=500
Food
I know what you guys are thinking right now... I am still in Spain and I am going to talk about Paella or Tapas again.
But this time it will be different as in no more Paella. (I need something else other than plain old traditional Paella). So here are my top 2 choice of food in Madrid.
1) Wok to Walk
One word to describe this restaurant? AWESOME. This is a Chinese takeaway restaurant which I found in Barcelona. My friend and I were a little homesick and we stumbled upon this takeaway restaurant when we travelled in Barcelona. We have been searching this restaurant whenever we travelled to other places because the food that they served are good in quality as well as in quantity. Although it is considered as a takeaway restaurant, but there are still limited sitting places available in the restaurant. The system in the restaurant goes like this :
i) Choose the type of base you want ( different types of noodles / rice/ quinoa)
ii) Chose any sides you want to go with it ( example: chicken/ bacon/ nuts/ broccoli....)
iii) Choose the type of sauce you love. ( example : Hong Kong sauce which tasted like sweet and sour sauce / Japan sauce which is mainly teriyaki sauce...)
The base itself came with mixed vegetables and fried scrambled eggs. The total amount that required to pay is based on the amount of sides that you choose to go with your meal. I am a light eater so my meal in this restaurant cost around 8 Euros whereas my friend who is a big eater had his meal for 12 Euros. This restaurant is considered budget for me as many Asian restaurants in Europe countries are expensive and they can cost around 20 Euros per meal which is definitely over my budget. So if you are craving for Asian cuisines, be sure to stop by this restaurant and prepare to be amazed.
This is the end product of your food
The menu of the restaurant
There are a few branches in Europe countries as well, so do check out their website to find out more. https://www.woktowalk.com/
2) Sinderia El Tigre
When I was planning my trip to Spain, I was doing some research regarding some local Tapas bar because come on! It's Spain and I am in the capital city of Spain. I have to visit at least one local Tapas bar in Madrid.
And there, it was as if God controlled my fingers to click into a travel blogger page. I found out that there is a Tapas bar that the locals love to dine in and they served FREE TAPAS if you order their beverage. As an Asian, when it comes to free stuff, you just have to go. When I went there, it was a bar full of locals and yes...we get the look of "why are they here". The bartender asked us what we want and we ordered two small glasses of chilled beer. After he served our drinks, I saw him scooped out three big slaps of homemade Paella and gave it to us. He also served us 8 pieces of Tapas with different toppings as well. We were in awed because we regretted going to the food market before we went to the bar. We did not know how to finish so much food and the bartender looked at us with a big smile on his face saying ," Don't worry... The food is free..."
I felt like telling him , Honey.. I know it's free but the problem is we did not know should we be happy or sad with the amount of food we have. To skip to the end, we ate them all.
Yes... All of them with the glasses of beer and we were happy with our well fed stomach. I will definitely recommend this small little tiny bar in Madrid and remember not to eat too much before visiting this bar. This is one lesson I will remember in my Tapas history.
Total cost : 4 Euros for 2 glasses of beer + FREE TAPAS
Bonus : Mercado San Miguel
Before I stuffed myself up in Sinderia El Tigre, my friend and I visited this food market which located 5 minutes away by foot from the bar. It was a food market so I was thinking that nothing could go wrong with a food market. There are a variety of food sold in the market from Japanese sushi to big pots of Paella. There are also a variety of Tapas as well as desserts such as yogurt ice-cream sold in the market. If you want some fancy booze such as Sangria or some high-end champagne, well.. You came to the right place. The only thing I will comment about this market is the price. It is like you are paying this price because you are a tourist. It is not a place for super budget people to go but it is definitely recommended if you want to experience the touristy chaos in the market.
Attractions
Palacio de Cristal - It is a stunning glass palace located in the heart of Buen Retiro's Park. The palace is made out of glass and metal structure. It is a free entrance attraction and you need to wear a special case provided for your shoes in order not to dirty the floor in the palace. And yes... That is how much they adore the environment of the palace. The park it self is huge and it was so relaxing to walk around the beautiful garden. My friend and I spend about 2 hours in the garden and we did not walked finish the entire garden. I will definitely recommend this stunning place to the lovers of Mother Nature.
Rose garden
A small lake in front of the palace
Plaza Mayor - This is the central plaza in the city of Madrid. It is surrounded by buildings in rectangular shape and has a total of 9 entrances to the plaza. It is a nice place to take your we-fie or selfie in this plaza and you should definitely visit this place during daytime and night time as the vibe of each time frame is different.
A statue in the plaza
- One of the entrance to the plaza*
Puerta de Sol - Just a few blocks away from Plaza Mayor and it is the busiest public square in the city of Madrid. The square contains its iconic statue of a bear clinging onto the Madrono tree and the famous clock whose bells marks the beginning of new year and the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes. (strikes during midnight December 31st, symbolises great lead to a year of prosperity.)
The famous bear statue and clock tower
Templo de Debod - An ancient Egyptian temple that was dismantled and rebuilt in the city of Madrid. This shrine feels magical to me as I can sense the peacefulness while strolling around the place. It felt like I was in another dimension of the world where I am at ease all the time. I went there for a spectacular sunrise moment and it was a perfect way to end my day in the city of Madrid. I would highly recommended for you to go during evening time as it looks prettier and Instagram-worth when they turn on the lights around the temple.
Scene during evening
The Light of Hope
So yeap... That is how I spend my 3 days and 2 nights in the capital city of Spain and if I had to announce my favourite city in Spain, well... The winner goes to.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE....
Barcelona!!!
Why? I just love the environment there. Or maybe I am just a pure blooded city girl.
That's all from my trip in Spain and I will move on to the next country in my next travel chapter.
A little hint for my next article : A country that starts with P.
What is it? I don't know.. Google laa...
Do not be shy to ask me any questions about my trip.
Cheers!
Not sure why you are not on my follow list. I remember saying I had followed. Anyway, had clicked that button again.
Another great travel blog, and I had catch up on your previous chapters too. Surprised to see this is not getting enough attention, there's only 8 views currently. My opinion is same as trufflepig, this should be worth 32SBD haha.
Only worry is that you may run out of firepower in the near future. You might want to break down into smaller chunks and post consistently like on daily or every other day. Spend more time on commenting others' posts with the aim to gain more followers. Then post your best works only after you had gained a sizeable followers.
Just my opinion :)
Hi there! Love your travel post about Japan by the way and thanks for the advice! :) I am currently rushing my hours in finishing my final year assignment so I will be slacking off on Steemit but I will try my best to post more often here. Once again, thank you for your advice. I will definitely plan how to work on my post in the future :D
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