The Spain Chronicles – Day 3

Those of you who have known me for a while (i.e. pre-Oxford) have more than likely heard about my constant battle with directions. I have a terrible fear of getting lost, just as one might be afraid of heights or the dark or whatever. So whenever I find an easy way to get myself somewhere, I stick with it.

This has been the case here. I have been taking the Metro quite a lot because I just find it a lot easier than trying to navigate all the crazy streets. Madrid is not grid-shaped like New York or Washington, DC – the streets curve and turn and change names and all that. The streets are also not easily named. There are some streets that have simple names, like Calle Goya, but there are also many streets with long names like Calle del General Díaz Porlier. And this is in a neighborhood where all the streets are named after Generals or Princes, or Counts, so it's not like that one name stands out in a crowd! Also, you may have a lot of similarly named streets in an area – Calle de las Descalzas, Callejón de las Descalzas, Plaza de las Descalzas, etc. Since many monuments tend to be near Metro stops, I find them much easier to deal with. The Metro stops tend to be one or two words, so they’re easier to remember. They’re also easier to find than street names, which are often high up on a teeny little tile and not always on every corner. (Also, as it is unbearably hot out these days, the Metro cuts down on the amount of time I have to spend walking in the heat!) So while it may be a lazy cop-out, I feel like it maximizes the amount of time I actually get to spend at places.

Whew, I did a lot yesterday. I took the Metro to Sol, as there were quite a lot of things in that area I could see all at once. First, I went to the Chocolatería San Ginés, which is in a great little side street and is the most famous place in the city for churros y chocolate. OMG, they were amazing. When they sell them in the States they tend to be very sugary, but these were not – they didn’t need to be. I found them to be very reasonably priced – a huge plate of churros and a cup of chocolate was only about €3.50.

After that, I spent a few hours in the Plaza Mayor, looking in all the shops. I haven’t been buying a lot of souvenirs as I find them to be a bit gaudy, but I bought a lot of postcards and some small knickknacks (like a magnet shaped like the blonde girl from Las Meninas). There were a lot of street performers in this area – Elizabeth, you’d hate them, it’s all the “let’s pretend I’m a statue” types! ;) I also went to Puerta del Sol, which is not as pretty but has the famous Oso y Madroño statue. From there I tried to get into the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, but it was closed until 4 pm, so I decided to go to Chueca and come back. (A foreign couple, I guessed German, tried to get in as well. I ended up meeting them again later on the tour of the Monastery!)

Chueca is Madrid’s gay neighborhood, which was recommended to me by my gay friends. I didn’t find the neighborhood very exciting or particularly beautiful, to be honest, but I did have lunch at a very good restaurant called El Armario (“The Closet”) – also recommended to me. After lunch I headed back to Sol to see if I could get into the Monasterio.

The Monastery was extremely beautiful, covered with frescoes. We weren’t allowed to take photos – otherwise I would have filled up my memory card there alone! The only downfall there was that my feet were killing me by that point, so it was hard to walk around and enjoy it since there were no places to sit along the way.

After the Monastery I reeeaaaallly needed to get to the library, so I did just that. I spent about 2 hours searching for books to request over the next few days and making lists of things to look up when I get home. I wasn’t extremely productive, but it felt like a good start. After the library closed I went to a sushi place for dinner. I thought I'd walk back to my hotel for a change, but I ended up getting very lost (and it was getting dark too!), so I just backtracked and took the Metro.

Today I’m headed for the Palacio Real and then back to the library. That’s why they’re paying me to be here, so I feel like I should make some productive use out of my time. ;) Tomorrow I’ll hit the museums.