#tripnumber2

Feb 20-24, 2015: This past weekend I had my second trip of the semester. Jess and I went and spent Friday through Tuesday in Madrid, Spain. We were fortunate enough to be able to stay with my friend Nicholas's house for free. I absolutely feel in the love with the city and could truly see myself living there at some point in my life. 

Friday Feb 20: Our flight wasn't until 9:30 so we didnt land in Madrid until Midnight. Our flight there was a lot better than the Paris one. Although instead of there being a horrible smell of BO we had to sit beside a girl who was tweeking out hardcore. When we arrived we had to take the metro into town. It was about a 30 minute ride to Tribunal, which was the stop closest to Nic's house. Once we finally arrived at about 1:15ish we were happy to see that Nic's street was only a block away from the metro stop. Once we were settled in (Nic oh so kindly gave us his room for the weekend) he shipped us out to go ahead and explore the city. Madrid has an amazing night life. Jess and I went out looking for food around 2 am and the amount of people out was amazing compared to Milan. It was nice because it felt extremely safe to be out that late. We ended up eating where Nic suggested which was Afgan Doner Kebab. I kid you not it was one of the best kebabs I have ever eaten and the cheapness about it made it even better. Once our bellies were full we were more than happy to head to bed. 

Saturday Feb 21: The only thing on our mind when we woke up was to go to this place called La Tierra that Nicholas suggested. For those of you who don't know it is a Spaniard version of Chipotle. A man who used to manage one in the states moved to Madrid and opened up La Tierra. We were extremely excited to be able to get our Chipotle fix taken care of! The burrito I got definitely got the job done, it tasted very much like Chipotle, but at the same time kinda made me miss the states. I made sure to stuff the heck out of that burrito and I was very proud to have finished the whole thing. At one point I looked up from eating my burrito and realized that the whole place was full of english speaking americans (of course). After La Tierra we decided that we would just roam through the city and see what we could come across. Madrid is very similar to Milan in the sense that it is not a super touristic city like Paris, but the city it self is very beautiful. We were fortunate enough to have amazing weather so walking around was very enjoyable. We had no destination, which made it a lot more fun. One thing that I enjoyed the most was the fact that as long as I was willing to you could literally walk every where, no need for public transportation. Before heading back home we ended up stopping at a random bar and grabbing a quick drink. Once we got back we ended up taking a nap before the soccer game. We had gotten tickets to the Atletico game since Real Madrid wasnt in town. We also had gotten Nic a ticket as a way to say thank you for letting us stay. We walked to the game which took about 45 minutes. The walk was really nice because it took us through whats considered to be some of the "touristic" areas of Madrid. Luckily it was all downhill but we all know what that meant for the way back (not fun). We had nose bleed seats for the game but lets be real being able to see the whole field for a game makes it a lot more enjoyable to watch the game (or maybe i'm just used to being up high because I film so many games). All in all the game was really good. The final score was 3-0 Atletico. On the way back Nic dropped us off so that Jess and I could eat before we went out with Nic and his friends. Luckily you dont go out till about 12ish so we had a solid hour and a half before we needed be ready to go. We ended up stumbling upon this cute little place called Aliño that had this great deal of a drink, first plate, and second plate for 5.50! I got a whole plate of humus (which I havent had since ive been here) and then this amazing asian pasta. So to start the night off we went with Nic to meet up with his friends at this bar called TioVivo. At first it seemed like a really small bar but the further you go in the bigger it got. For the most part it was popping. This bar also made some of the best Mojitos I have ever had. They take their time making the drink so Jess and I waited about 15 minutes for our drink but it was totally worth it. We ended up taking at this bar till it closed which was about 2 am and then decided we would move the party to a club. We ended up going to a club in the Chueca area of Madrid. We ended up getting home around 4ish and didnt go to sleep till 6 am which is completely normal in the Madrid world. All I have to say is my body was definitely not prepared to be out that late. 

Sunday Feb 22: We ended up waking up almost around 2 pm. We had plans to go to El Rastro. El Rastro is this market that happens every sunday in Madrid. It mostly sells clothes and goods, and not food. Nic said that it is normally open till about 4ish. Because we had woken up so late we missed the majority of the market. As usual the only thing on our minds was food so we ended up finding this really small restaurant that was selling Tapas for 1 euro. Out of the 5 Tapas that we got my favorite was the one with chorizo and morcilla. After we were done eating we decided to walk around some more. Nicholas took us home on a different route so that he could show us more of the city. We ended up going by the congressmen house and things like that. It was nice to get to see the every day stuff. Once we got back we did the only logical thing there is to do, take a nap. We needed to get rested up before we went out for Chinese at this place Nicholas stumbled upon one day. Once nap time was over we headed out for the Chinese place. I wish I could tell you the name of the place but it was written in Chinese letters. What I can tell you is that it is downstairs in a parking garage at Plaza España. Hands down it was the best and most genuine Chinese food I have ever had and extremely cheap! We also got some Chinese beers. Those were interesting to say the least but still yummy. To eat we each got these dumpling things, a massive noodle soup, and some chicken and veggies. By the time we were done with dinner it was about 10:30. We figured that we'd call it a night once we got back. 

Monday Feb 23: Woke up and decided to treat ourselves to a really good brunch. We ended up eating at this restaurant right below Nicholas apartment called Le Pain Quotidien. They had this great brunch option of coffee, fresh orange juice, ham and cheese, granola and fruit parfait, a soft boiled egg, bread, and a chocolate croissant type thing. After being put into a food coma from brunch we figured that we should go walk off all the food that we just ate. That's one of the nice things about Madrid is that you can just walk around and get lost but not really be lost. It is a very comforting feeling. Madrid is full of all these small cute boutiques. We probably ended up going into five or six of them. After our long walk once again we decided just to stop in this really cute cocktail bar and get a drink. The cocktail bar was called Vacaciones. I would recommend it to anyone. From there we decided to go to the Temple of Debod. It has this amazing view of the other city of Madrid. I loved being able to see the city from afar. Views like that one are some of my favorite things to look at. When we got back home we took a nap before going out with for tapas with Nicholas. He took us to the most bombing tapas place ever. It's called El Tigre (the tiger). Once you order one drink they bring out these massive tapas of delicious foods. We each had ordered a tinto de verano, which essentially is red wine with lemonade. It is the best way to drink red wine if you ask me. We each only ended up getting two drinks and the amount of food they brought us out was amazing. The best part were the wings. All in all we paid 7 euro for it all. After el tigre Jess and I had made plans with MK who is a girl from our program who was also in Madrid to meet up at a club called Independance. I'm just going to give a quick recap: We got there about midnight, stood in line till one and ended up leaving by 2 am, and that's how we ended our Monday night. 

Tuesday Feb 24: By Tuesday we had felt we had been at Nic's long enough and by now also felt bad for being there so long. Luckily we were leaving later that afternoon. We took one last walk around Nic's neighborhood, hung out at starbucks (had to get that fixed as well) and then headed off for the airport. Our flight was at 6:40. We landed in the Bergamo airport at about 9ish. Unfortunately the next shuttle back into the city wasnt until about 9:45. We figured we would have enough time to go grab a coffee or something while we waited. Well to your surprise the shuttle bus got full by 9:30 and just took off without us and we had to wait another 37 minutes (to be exact) for the next bus. Did not end up getting home till about midnight, which sucked considered I had class the next day for 8 hours.