When I went to bed in my hostel, I was the last one to fall asleep. Surprisingly, I was also the very first one to wake up. Although I had set my alarm to 9am, I found myself wide-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8am. I decided to not only organize myself for the day, but also to go on a run. I figured a run would be a great way to get a workout in and also a great way to see the city and get to know my area a bit better. By the time I had reorganized my backpack and laced up, some of the girls were just starting to get up. I then headed out the door.

I made a quick right and was running down our small, narrow, beautiful European street. I stayed right to remember where I was because the night prior I had run out of all my data (huge rip-off, as mentioned before). I ran past tons of businesses that, at 9am in Spain, were still unopened. I ran past tons and tons of restaurants and cafes, supermarkets, and trinket shops. I ran past one gas station and several small parks. I watched as more and more people began to crowd the streets. Clearly, the city was not fully open until nearly 10am.

Empty street in Madrid at 9am.

I ran without knowing which direction I was going or where to stop, but it was enjoyable. I finally hit a small park where I decided to do some airsquats and situips Finally, on the run back, I noticed a small café that was open that had bacon, eggs and juice for about 4 euros. I decided to stop because Las Musas only provided packaged pasteries for breakfast. I sat down, ate breakfast quickly and headed out. When I got back there were people sitting in the main communal room eating and chatting.

I headed back upstairs to shower and get ready. When I got up to my room, I heard from Fran who said she had just gotten up. We decided to meet downstairs in the lobby once we were both ready.

Around noon we met and we discussed our day. We talked about visiting a museum and also discussed renting bikes. Fran was a serious planner and definitely type A, because she had not only mapped out 13 stops for our mini bike tour, but she had also found a rental bike shop and had spoken to our hostel about where we could keep the bikes overnight if we rented them for 24 hours. We both reached out to Rodrigo but we did not hear from him, so we assumed he was either sleeping or was somewhere walking around without wifi.

Map of Madrid with our pit stops.

I had my computer and quickly began to book my train to Barcelona, but I continued to get error messages. I was frustrated and did not understand what was going wrong. A girl overheard me asking our front desk for help and told me that it was likely because I was using an American credit card (without a chip). She told me that if I went to the train station, it would work there, just not online. She also told me it was about a ten minute ride by Metro. Fran said she needed to get a train ticket as well, so we headed to Refe train station in Madrid. I went to a kiosk, booked my train and waited for Fran to do the same. She was having issues and needed to speak with customer service, so we headed into the main waiting area downstairs. It was large and beautiful and had tons and tons of vendors in a large open room with trees, windows and shrubbery. It almost looked like an indoor garden with tons of shops. We had a quick lunch and shopped around a bit until Fran was able to get her ticket.

Train station in Madrid

While we were sitting down, we heard from Rodrigo and we planned to meet him at a metro stop, right by the bike rental location.

We met with Rodrigo, grabbed a quick sangria and beer and then headed to the bike rental place because they reopened at 4pm after a 2 hour lunch break in the middle of the day (common in Spain). We were sized up appropriately, given our locks and we were out the door.

Small street in Madrid

Fran, myself and Rodrigo after renting our bikes.

Our “tour” that Fran had planned lasted about 6 hours. At each location we would stop, take photos, enjoy the space and continue on.

Campo De Cebada, Spain

Plaza de Cibeles

Royal Palace, Madrid.

Our final stop was a large, beautiful park on the east side of the city. We decided to have a small picnic there with sandwiches and some juice. The sun had just about set and it was now 10pm. We rode back to the hostel, were able to lock up our bikes inside and rest. I went upstairs to get my computer so that I could catch up on some writing (which I had clearly been slacking on).

From about 10pm-12am I wrote, had a skype date with my friend Steph, chatted with my roommate Paula and enjoyed some rose Spanish wine. After a couple of glasses, Paula and I decided that we needed some hot delicious Spanish churros so we walked back to the area that we had churros the night before. We found a new place, that had strawberry dipped churros full of cream and indulged in one there.

We also decided to wash that churro down with a glass of sangria (its seriously THAT good). While we were there we were greeted by a small group of tall Spanish men. We spent some time hanging with them and went home a few hours later. Paula had a flight to Paris and I had a train to Barcelona, so we needed to get at least a little rest before we headed out.

I had a quick call with my friend Maggie, climbed into my bunk bed and fell asleep.

Day two was great and completely packed. The only time I was home was in the morning when I had to shower, and in the evening when I wrote for a few hours. Other than that, I made the most of the day. One thing I didn’t mention was that I spent nearly the entire day speaking Spanish. After having studied for 4 years in highschool and dropping it in college, I was surprised at how much had come back to me and how easy it felt to speak. It makes me really want to pursue learning the language fluently.

Overall, Madrid was such a great city, so full of life, full of friendly people, things to do and places to see. I highly recommend visiting and experiencing it yourself.

Thanks for reading! My next post on Barcelona should be up tomorrow. Can’t wait to share everything I did in that vibrant city! XO

Quick things notes on Madrid:

• Bike friendly city.
• Lots of large really nice parks
• Not a ton of homeless people
• All areas seem to be safe while biking
• Super easy public transit system.
• Friendly people on the street, everyone says hello.
• Great, inexpensive shopping.
• The large city centers/shopping areas all close at 2:30 for about 2 hours so that the city can “nap”. Cafes, etc. all remain open.
• Sangria is absolutely amazing.
• Surprisingly, BBQ is popular!
• Beer is served even at fast-food places. And actually, just about EVERYWHERE, including vending machines at various places.
• People in parks sell beer to other locals and tourists… Its illegal but super normal and not really regulated
• City bikes are available for rent, but its much less of a hassle to do it through a local place.