We had thought about going down to Madrid with some friends, and couldn't really settle on a weekend. However, the offer of a free place to stay came up and combined with crazy festivities of Gay Pride weekend, we made the decision to go.
Friday, after a few delays of errands, we set off a bit later than expected, and a little over 4 hours later, arrived in Madrid. I had already been there a few times, but it was much better having good guides to point out the sights and tell me little bits of info (which I'm horrible at remembering....).
We drove through the main part of town to get to the friend's flat we were staying at, and dropped off our stuff. By then it was already past 11pm, and we were hungry, but unsure if we had missed the good eats. Well, it was Gay Pride weekend so we figured there'd be festivities still on, and decided to try our luck anyhow.
I had been told billions of times about this fantastic place called "El Tigre" that was supposed to give you gigantic portions of tapas when you buy a drink, and so of course we headed there immediately, though we thought perhaps food wasn't served anymore. Ha, we were mistaken. The streets were packed with people for the weekend celebrations and dinner was still going strong, despite it being well near midnight, I think. Anyhow, we ordered some drinks and they gave us two heaping plates of toasts with various meats, and some potatoes and such.
Chowing down on free food from "El Tigre"
After scarfing down the free stuff, we bought some pizzas at another place, to finish off our drinks with, and give a bit of a healthier balance (there were veggies on the pizza--I made sure of that!). Then we wandered further into Chueca, the area of town where all the festivities were taking place, and came upon insanity in one of the squares:
We tried to get on camera, but weren't sure if we were successful
Apparently there were about 2 million people partying it up that night--we were amongst the insanity! The streets were absolutely disgusting with drinks, food, garbage, pee etc and we thanked the lords that we had settled on changing into shoes at the last minute...if we had stayed in flipflops, we may well now have fungus-covered toes...yuck!!
The next day, after sleeping in to recover from the long night of dancing, eating and drinking, we set out into the city centre to take in the ambience of Madrid on a special weekend. It was busy--more than usual, and sweltering hot--same as usual. The latter meant that we couldn't walk around too long without frying and we stopped frequently to quench our thirst.
Lunchtime rolled around (we had missed breakfast) and we went to a place in Plaza Mayor recommended by a friend for decent, non-touristy prices and good eats. It was called Le Pan Cotidien (yes it's French--Belgian, actually) and served yummy food, though it was still a bit pricey. At least it was healthy though, with organic produce, whole-grains, homemade bread, fair-trade coffees etc, and they had ethnic, non-greasy items on the menu. :)
Mmmm...non-white bread!!! :D
Saturday night was supposed to feature a parade all along Gran Via, the famous cinema and theatre area that celebrated its 100 year anniversary this year. We headed down after wandering around a bit, and braved the heat in the middle of the road.
Yes, I REALLY meant the middle of the road.
They had blocked off the entire street, but neglected to put up barriers so people just spilled into every little space possible and when the parade came through, the police and organisers had joined hands to help push people back. It was nuts--jammed packed and boiling hot.
The lucky people who lived on the street watched calmly from their balconies as we "commonfolk" battled it out with our elbows, to try and keep our little bubble free and catch a glimpse of parade action over the heads of others. The fortunate ones above watched us with pity and danced to entertain us, and poured buckets of water down on the crowds to calm the masses. Okay, maybe not so much calm, as frighten the passersby who were unaware of litres of water crashing down at high speeds.
The older man on the left was a star as he danced and teased the crowds--later on he gave a solo performance.....it was....weird....
We had wanted to see the floats, but when we asked someone, they said that it takes forever, and by the time it got down to where we were, it could well be close to midnight. It was about 8pm when we asked this person. Anyhow, we had dinner reservations at a restaurant in Lavapies (I love the name of this area, hahahahaha--"wash (your) feet".....we were speculating on the historical origins but aren't sure. Anyone know?) so we made our way over there.
Saturday night was Spain versus Paraguay in the World Cup, and we walked around town, watching bits and pieces of it after leaving the parade area. Near the restaurant, we joined a crowd gathered around a large tv and cheered and groaned with everyone. It was exciting to watch, even for a non-football fan like me. I liked the atmosphere and was caught up in the tension too! :D
We made our way over to Gaudeamus, another recommendation, on a lovely terrace overlooking a quiet area. The temperature was finally tolerable, and we had some yummy food while relaxing and resting our feet after lots of walking.
The beautiful terrace of Gaudeamus at night
Lots of people enjoying a nice dinner or drinks (in the other half of the terrace)--it was beyond 11:30pm and finally at a decent temperature to be out!
After dinner, we wandered around town with some more people and ended up back in Chueca, in another square filled with people drinking and dancing. We pushed our way in and out of there a bit, then tried to get down to Plaza España to see Kylie Minogue in concert. She was performing post-parade, but we missed it all by the time we made our way through the crowds. We relaxed a bit and watched people go by on Gran Via, then made our way home slowly (man the walk seemed to take forever) as we were exhausted after a long day.
Sunday was another lazy day in, as we got up late, and then met up with Oscar's cousin for some lunch in La Latina. It's a trendy area to go for tapas and drinks on a Sunday afternoon, as people go there and stay till about 6pm. We were there at various spots eating, keeping cool with iced-drinks and chilling out in the shade. By the time we got our stuff to leave Madrid, it was late and getting dark....after a bit of panic (not on my part, since I don't know the way, and don't drive here) about which highway and which exit to follow (there's more than one way to get back to Santander--a newer and faster highway that involves confusing detours, or the older route through certain towns that takes longer but is more straightforward), we made it back home to crash after an insane, fun, but exhausting few days.
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