MADRID. Majestic Madrid: the Plaza del Cibeles, with the Palacio de Cibeles and the Palace of Communication really felt like Singapore's Padang, but ten times more feel plus it comes with a nice weather. Before anything else, let me earn whoever's reading that Madrid is mostly just about eat eat eat and eat so don't read when you're hungry! First thing we saw when we reach was a bearded gay couple kidding in the middle of the street. That about sums up the Spanish passion. Then check in and the usual; was assigned different rooms but it turned out to be not too bad for the friends we made in our respective room. The rooms were pretty awesome too! A small one but felt clean and organized.
We then headed out to walk around after getting recommendation from the awesomely friendly receptionist. First was the Sol, the heart of bustling Madrid city centre. Not sure if it's always this crowded or just because it's a Saturday but SO MUCH SOUL IN SOL! Both literally (cos, you know, humans have soul) and figuratively (cos it was really very hapz!). Trivial time: this Sol is also mean the same/have the same origin as the Sol beer we see in Singapore. Walked towards the palace district which was pretty alright from the side we walked on but much nicer from the front. Then it started to drizzle pretty heavily so we headed backwards for food. And on the way, look what I found:
Haven't had this thingy in quite a long while and this funky thingy they sell here (Ferrero Rocher flavor with caramelized macademia) is actually pretty delicious. And I chose this over llao llao (double "l" works like a "y" here, apparently; and in case you didn't know, llao llao is a worldwide frozen yogurt chain originated from Spain) that's just beside. Everywhere is so crowded on this Saturday night, we couldn't enter the restaurant recommended (or any restaurant for the matter) by the receptionist without setting at least 1hr back just for waiting, so we headed back to the hostel and got a Donatello pizza (apple, cheese, and BACON!) from the in-house restaurant bar beside.
Went back our separate rooms after dinner and that's when I met my roommates! Brazilians, females, above average even by South American standards I'm sure, AND one is a post-doctorate, the other a PhD. Pretty cool huh, and they got separated from their friend too (who would later move into the room the next day to take up the last freed-up bed). Meanwhile in Amanda's room, she also found herself a Brazilian, female, pretty even by South American standards I'm sure, AND a practicing lawyer (what's wrong with this hostel -.-). We'd eventually change our plans for the next day cos Amanda found out that she's heading for Toledo the next day, which is where we're heading for the following day. So we swapped our days around and "tagged along" this pretty 33-year old (I know, disappointing right... Jie-Di lian maybe?) lawyer to the old capital of Spain/Castile...
Lao chio really lives up to her reputation (the one I gave her, of course), drawing attention from almost every guy that walks past (to be honest, she looked 26 or so, that increased the range of glares from a broader age band of men) but she seems pretty comfortable with it, evidently gotten quite used it. Anyways, next morning started off with a chit chat with a new super friendly male receptionist who I really hit off with pretty well; we talked about how girls are always late (explains why I even have this conversation with him in the first place; and he's also waiting to go home while his colleague coming to take over from him is more than an hour late, no prize for guessing the gender); about our own girlfriends; about the different culture in Spain; and of course, how awesome Singapore is (really, social smoking aren't that bad, right?). Then the ladies came and off we go, to this:
Churros!!! Never knew Churros in Madrid is like frites in Brussels or Eiffel Tower in Paris (I'm exaggerating) until my friends told me about it and it sure didn't fail to impress (it's kinda biased since I love Churros to begin with). That crunchy outer layer with a chewy interior made from flour, without any toppings, just a warm thick chocolate as dips - heavenly (truth is, to put it in a less appealing way, it's just a little bit like you tiao with a more wholesome fill). While I'm enjoying my sinful chocolate in this quiet and surreal cafeteria, a marathon is going on outside and screams from the fats of runners could be heard whenever the door opens for more sinners to enter. On another note, you tiao with hot chocolate is a pretty awesome combination, business idea back in Singapore anyone? It's Sunday and I'm with ladies in Europe, so guess what, it's flea market time! Went to the largest flea market in Madrid and it was really impressive! Found lots of things to buy like shades and belt but sadly, impressive but expensive. And so we left after awhile. Still, it's really nice to see and be in a local market, and one thing about the Spaniards: they don't hard sell (at least not to me), and I'm surprised, considering their more outgoing nature. Found the metro and took it to the train station, got our tickets, brought some snacks, and off we go!
TOLEDO. 30 minutes and we reach the old capital of Spain: Toledo. After some chaos (my contact lens screwed up cos my eyes were too dry zzz), we took a public bus into the city centre. First task was to find lunch and we decided to go deeper in to avoid the higher prices. Walked around a bit and found a nice little restaurant with a reasonably prices Ménu del Diá (according to the Barcelona guide, it's a cheap weekday lunch-time special set menu for the labourers/workers; but this is a Sunday) so we went in. Tried the local Casterella soup (super nice!), some deer meat and pork ribs, a beer, and desert, all for only €12! Then we started to walk around to digest our food, after 2 hours of eating (probably the highlight of this day trip but sorry no photos cos too busy eating haha)! Got lost a little bit but all's well. Toledo was the capital of Castile (mostly present day Spain) until 1561 and it is world famous (apparently) for the coexistence between the Christians, Jews, and Muslims in this city. Visited the cathedral, went into the courtyard of a synagogue, and walked last a mosque (a lot of churches, synagogues and mosques here). This old city is really old but not too bad: it felt a little bit like Jiu Fen in Taiwan cos of the up and down hills (just not by the sea, nice lake though). Towards the evening, we paid €5 for a bus tour around the city that also brought us to a vantage point with a panoramic view of the city from outside the city wall; we were given a earpiece and there's an audio guide provided but half the time I'm just busy fighting the zzz monster and never really paid attention to what was said (also cos the earpiece sucks); the view was pretty though, cos the exterior walls were actually more impressive than the city within. And that's about it in Toledo!
Old capital with an old feel
Took a train back to Madrid, Denise (the lawyer) wasn't hungry so she left for the hostel while we went on to search for food. And... It's mandatory KFC time! One every trip cos Stockholm doesn't have it. Also, I realize I'm pretty crowd-shy; can't get out of my comfort zone to enter crowded and unfamiliar places (thus, KFC).
On the way back to the hostel with the chicken in hand (in the plastic bag actually), we saw a mime jesting in the middle of the main plaza square! He was really hilarious, so we spent 10minutes of our life watching it, in exchange for a really good laugh (and they say laughter prolongs your life; probably a net gain here hahaha). Went back, ate the KFC in the attics; chit chatted with this born-in-HK; grew-up-in-China; studied-in-Canada; currently-doing-masters-in-London dude about random stuff. Amanda went on to play foosball with other people (who turned out to be a staff there) while I left for my room, not wanting to embarrass myself with my lousy foosball skills. Did some workout before my roommates returned and slept soon after. Got woken up at 5am cos all my roommates (the 3 Brazilian girls) were leaving, which means I now have the whole room to myself!
Finally woke up for the day at around 8am, left the hostel and came back to the same posh cafe as yesterday for breakfast.
After which, we set out to the meeting point for the Sandemans Free Walking Tour. Learnt that the "main" concept of Madridians is "mañana" which means tomorrow (as they are great procrastinator especially with their construction of buildings); the many influences that made Spain today (the Moorish era that led to the Spanish language having Arabic root, the Golden Age during the Austrian empire, the French era which I forgot the most part of it, and the Spanish Inquisition that chased Jews, Muslims, and Protestants out of the city). There was this cathedral with all 3 Abrahamic religions represented but what's more amazing is the 4 different architectural styles the building has (according to the guide, "an architectural Frankenstein;" but I really cannot find more than 2 styles), epitome of mañana at work. There's also a saying that "the city is built on water; the walls with fire;" the former is simpler as it simply meant there was groundwater underneath the city where they will extract their water from for daily usage, whereas the latter is a little more complicated as they built the city walls with flint stones so that when the enemies try to strike the wall, sparks will be formed to make the opposing forces go, "what kind of sorcery is this?!" Towards the end of the tour the guide started to talk about something sensitive: the Pact of Silence in 1975, with all major political party agreeing to not talk about the dark memories of the Spanish Civil War. Doesn't it reminds you of something less transparent but closer to home?
Next part of the day is hunting of famous food! Went to Chocolatería San Ginés for their famous Churros with Hot Chocolate (came at the right time, the food was served within a minute; my neighbours told me they had to wait for half an hour!
And when we came back at night, there was a super long queue on a Monday night!); then went to Casa Rua which is recommended for their calamari sandwiches (still, no fight with the calamari I had in Cinque Terre);
Mercado de San Miguel next had super a lot of seafood and tapas (but we didn't try any cos, well, tapas is everywhere anyway); and on the way, llao llao~ (not sure what's the hype about it but I'm just following the crowd since this is the birthplace of this thingy, decided to make fans of it more jealous. Lol)
Walked to the other end of the main city center to Museo del Prado cos, well, it's free! Stayed inside for about 15 minutes before we left (in summary: paintings and sculptures and paintings and sculptures). Caught a glimpse of Retiro Park before we head to the other end of the city center for the much anticipated Templo de Debod!
Like Paris' Eiffel Tower and every other attractions, Photoshop has done too good a job at giving us false impression of all the attractions in the world, and I have learnt to lower my expectations every time I visit places I wanna go. But the photos turned out well I guess; makes you doubt your eyes and what you see as the truth isn't it. When we were on the free tour the guide actually told us to say "Potata" (potato in Spanish) cos apparently that's what they say when taking photos (and your mouth will end with the "ah" shape -.-) BUT it's real! Heard people saying it when they take photos with the Templo -.- Another weird thing we saw in the park is a very well-groomed boar and I concluded that it's a pet boar that belonged to one of the guy in the park. The boar was too busying "oinking" and looking for food on the ground to really care about us though.
One of the funniest thing on the trip then happened. We were looking at the sunset when flocks of birds flew past the orange sky in different formations and for about 5-10 minutes we're just enjoying the scene. I then decided that we had to go before we miss our next tour and proceeded to head in the opposite direction as the birds; that was when Amanda when, "are you sure this is the right directions? Are we not following the birds?" I am dead sure she's dead serious. "Do you even know where the birds are going? Why do you wanna follow them?" "I don't know? But are you sure we shouldn't follow them?..."
Hahahahaha! I don't even... It was a little annoying but super funny at that point in time and I really had a very good laugh. But thinking about it, why didn't we?... Okay yup, we did the right thing not to. HAHA
Tapas tour! Sandemans again (duh). This time round, there's only 5 of us in the group plus the guide. Javo was really very professional and pretty entertaining considering the fact that there was only 5 of us: the two of us, an elderly US couple (who looks like Hollywood stars, maybe it's just me and my bad facial recognition of Caucasians) who recently visited Singapore, and a Romanian guy (Cezar) who turns out to be a really awesome dude, and whom I "fell in love" with after just one night together. "One Night in Madrid" will be the title of our movie (the bisexual side of me showing up hahaha); I will talk about him later but first, the tour. Went to four bars instead of the usual three cos the company's testing out a new one that serves a really nice and sweet berry wine (the very berry that the bear tries to pluck on the Madrid's Coat of Arm). The guide brought us to different tapas bars to try out tapas from various parts of Spain ("tapas" as a name meant "to cover"; as a type of food it originated due to a law decreed to serve small portion of food with every alcoholic drink sold lest workers drink on empty stomach and get drunk in the middle of the day), explained the different hams (which I don't usually like but I was hungry and it was good); got to find out that Spanish are very family-oriented (skipping Sunday family lunch is almost a crime); and we even got a chance to try out drinking wine from wine skin (you know, the kind Mongolians drink from in Wuxia novels)! At this point, our dear Amanda is already drunk. So after the last stop and some chit chatting Cezar and I sent Amanda back to our hostel. Settled some admin and changed to get the same room (cos my room was vacant after the Brazilians moved out) so that both of us can wake each other up for our flight the next morning. Cezar and I then proceeded to find a nearby bar to chill out. The waitress that attended to us thought we were looking for a club and embarassingly led us out of the pub; after some explanation, she found us a sit and laughed uncontrollably while we just shrugged our shoulders and got confused with the whole situation. Her stern looking boss didn't really give it much thought and attended to our orders with the same emotionless face he puts on for our whole time there. Best night I've ever had in a long time (probably since the night I sat down under the stars with Song En) talking about our life and the different culture in our countries; he even turned out to be a basketballer-turn-handballer, what are the odds!
Some background story of why I was so impressed by him and his life: Firstly, he is a year 5 dentistry student who has a lot of practical experience operating patients. The story goes like this: his father knew a very famous dentist and he got to work as his assistant through the relationship. Working there, according to him, was kinda mundane and meaningless as the dentist did not give him much learning opportunities. There was once during a public holiday that he asked the dentist whether there's work on that day and the dentist said yes; so he sped down to the clinic and got himself a fine while on the way there. But to his astonishment, the clinic was empty when he reached! So he got on a phone and called the dentist who told him that they decided to close for the day; feeling dejected, he just went down the building where the clinic was in. Just then, he found a smaller, less impressive dental clinic at the bottom floor, so he thought he didn't wanna waste the trip there and so he went into the clinic and asked if he could just sit there and watch. The dentist in the clinic said no but asked him to head to the library instead to get a few books in particular. Cezar went to the library and got the books; the dentist asked him to read out some related materials as the dentist operated on visiting patients, and got him to explain what the dentist was doing. This way, Cezar gained first-hand practical application of what he learned in school and from the books and quickly armed himself with the necessary knowledge required to make his time there meaningful. After a few months of apprenticeship understanding the procedures and testing his knowledge, the dentist decided to give him the chance to move to the next step: practicals. Cezar would subsequently have the chance to operate on patients; not any other patients, but patients who are poor and unable to pay the fees the dentist usually charge. This way, the poor gets to keep their teeth healthy, the dentist gets to keep a good reputation, and Cezar got to keep not only the small fees the patients pay him, but also gained precious practical skills that he couldn't have gained with the previous dentist, or probably anywhere in the way. It was indeed a win-win-win situation, and all these happened because of fate!
There's another story of fate: there was once he had some backaches which eventually led to him ceasing his sports commitments, and his mum, while watching the news, saw a variety show that was interviewing a doctor specializing in back problems and casually remarked that he should go consult that particular doctor; and so Cezar did. When he reached the clinic, the doctor checked his conditions and asked him what was he working as. Cezar replied that he's a dentistry student and that got the doctor's attention. The doctor proceeded to talk about a new project, in a relatively new field of science in the world, that he's currently involved in regarding the connection between dental, eyes and feet with back problems. Cezar got really interested about it and quickly agreed to read up more about it before committing. I forgot to ask him what happened to his own back problems, but Cezar has since been involved in the project and has been traveling around the world attending conferences and seminars on related topics. And once again, all these happened because of fate!
But why am I talking about all these things? Because he actually categorized his meeting with me together with all these important life experience and attributed all these to one common theme: fate. At the same time that I felt honoured, I also felt glad to have made such an impressive new friend who, until now, chats with me over Facebook and persistently invites me over to Romania (and I really want to!!! But I really don't have the time from my packed traveling schedule zzzzzz, I will definitely go over someday though!).
And to top off his impressiveness, as a student leader of a youth exchange organization, he actually came to Madrid to recce the place before bringing students over to participate in the exchange, and his entire trip (less the nights he extends over his official business) is paid for by the EU. Talk about being a leader and doing big things... I am really envious yet impressed. (He also kinda inspired me to work towards what I want to do in the future, and, together with the fact that my reservist clash with my intended summer school, I have decided to apply for another summer program related to future cities and sustainability)
Okay, enough of me romanticizing our encounter, we ended the night on a high note when the emotionless bar owner took out two shot glasses after we paid the bill and proceeded to pour us the sweet liquor we've had previously at end of the tapas tour. We downed it and Cezar then asked "you're not joining us?" And so he poured himself a shot, clinked our glasses, and cheered to a good night...
We didn't oversleep the next morning, thankfully, and found the airport transfer bus stop after a 10-15 minute walk. We didn't take the bus in the end, cos some taxi driver approached us, did some economics and 3rd-degree price discriminated us with our highest reservation price, and got us to the airport in 15 minutes (instead of 40 minutes if by bus).
One of the most heartwarming scene happened on the transfer to our plane from the boarding gate: a Spanish-African mother carrying a baby with a young boy boarded the bus without a seat, an elderly man gave up his seat for her but the young boy was unhappy that there wasn't a seat for him and became upset, a Spanish lady beside then asked if he wanna sit on the luggage deck then proceeded to carry him up and played with him while the mother attended to the baby. Simple things, small kindness and a little bit of friendliness makes the world go round...
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Greatest takeaway of this trip is that different people really have different perspective of life and this behavior; and I have been pretty lucky to have been traveling with like-minded travelers. But there's always a lesson to learn even when you have the chance to travel with someone of different traveling patterns, and I definitely don't regret any bit of this trip. Amanda likes to walk slowly through the city, absorb the atmosphere, take a photos here and there, and lose herself (at times, this is literally the case: she'd take a photo of a building she's already taken before, not realizing it's the same one). I'm kinda the opposite (well, since I have a hard time catching up with Sho and Songen, I'm probably somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and them at the other end). Also, consolation for Huihan, who's probably faster, shorter legs doesn't mean slower. Lol. So I did what Songen taught me: walk ahead, then stand and wait. (There was once I just hid behind a bush until she passed me and just suddenly appeared behind her while she's looking for me. Heh) Well the first day she told me "we can walk!" to all the places around, towards the last day I just hope she doesn't "lose" herself in the busy squares. There were many times I was just pissed off (like I always am) but it's definitely a mutual thing; towards the end of the trip when I asked her to tell me frankly how many times and when she was angry with me, she refuses to talk about it - there're probably tonnes of times she's angry, so much that she can't name them! Of course, I've also found out something about myself: I like to travel with people who are co-dependent (Qingying, Songen, or just travel in a bigger group); I don't work very well (partly because I don't enjoy it) when I'm always holding on to the map without a break and consistently have to make trivial decisions. Also, I'm slightly more excited for my solo trip after this, another new experience!
But all these aren't the point, the point is that we'll always find someone in life that's very different from us to work with, have conflicts, differing views, different ways of handling a situation, etc etc., but life is a constant lesson to adapt. And yep, I think I'm improving on my ability to handle situation, I hope! Also, not many people can still be friends with me after we travel together, so it's not too bad, she's adapting well too. Lol. And no matter, this was an awesome trip, really!
