Spain - Madrid

2022 Update

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of Madrid was its puerto de sol. Bustling with activity and patios and performers and everything you can think of. Well, it’s completely under construction right now…like completely, so there’s that.
Same old stuff is still good here.
I think whatever interesting late night stuff that used to be on montera street has been almost totally dismantled at this point. Couple shops, but it’s obvious this city has moved in a tourist direction.
Big bus tour is still one of the more lame of any big city.
Crushes:
The Anton Martin market. Not huge but indoors from the heat and authentic as it gets, with a decent amount of Asian mixed in :)
Kudos to the the Prado for having no line, being laid out logically to casual viewers, and for having English at every station. Gracias.
Just south of the Plaza Mayor, La Compana sells awesome bocadillas de calamares for almost nothing. The bread is perfect and honestly how often have you had a squid sandwich?
How about the marcado de San Miguel right off plaza mayor. Love love love. What a perfect food hall. Locals probably think it’s contrived but it’s loveable through and through.
Mercado Il Defonso was also a great find along the shopping street, Fuencarral.
I actually liked walking through the Prado a lot more than I expected to. Way less of soul crushing crowded experience than other museums of this stature.

end

Why come don’t we have ham bars? For real…why come! And I know I know, there are tapa bars everywhere in Spain (I’ll tell you what, if I order a drink and you give me some food for free because of that…I may just heart you forever), BUT, BUUUTTTT, not like this. I am talking a meat shop. Ham mostly but meat overall to be fair. Hocks hanging from the rafters. Hocks dripping into cups. Hocks as far as the eye can see…and then the bar. Standing room only. Maybe a few cocktail tables but standing room mostly, and the bar is giant, usually horseshoe shaped but whatever right? So anyway, you saddle up, people are loud, shits exciting and a little anxiety inducing because words are being shouted back and forth so quickly. Cerveza! senor! Por favor! I hand him some money and he hands me a beer…yup…it’s real beer, for 90 cents…and in Madrid. So I’m chillin’, then he starts handing out tapa in my area, what will I get I think to myself. He seems to be handing them out based on looks or impressions. What kind of tapa person am I, I ask? And he hands me the croquettes. NOOOOOO. Not the croquettes. Everyone at the bar has publicly lamented those damn croquettes! So what am I to do. I must take one for the American team. I stoically shove them in my mouth. I smile to the crowd in my area. That’s right bitches. I’m a croquette man, and proud of it. The bartender notices and commends my resolve with sausages and chips…the crowd favorite…thus, winning off the field. Point is, where are these places everywhere else. You can find one or two in other cities in Spain, none elsewhere, and on every single street corner in Madrid! Not kidding, under 1 dollar beers, 1 to 2 dollar sandwiches, everyone is standing, everyone is having a good time. The meal I order was 6 bucks, and I ended up feeding about 10 people. Very happy people indeed, but I had no idea it was going to be so big.

Which brings me to another point. When did Spain get so cheap?! I know the dollar is strong, but that shouldn’t affect it so much. It’s like the recession hit and stayed over here. I can’t even imagine how many times I consciously and deliberately chose a reasonably priced glass of wine only to be delivered the entire bottle instead. 10 bucks for a good wine IN A RESTAURANT…no joke. What the fuck.

In any case, I love Madrid, but the shit is just toooooooo big. I stayed on the Gran Via which has easy access to anything cool. The Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol were right up the street, and those places are fantastic, but man, sooo many people, sooo much “stuff”. It’s just too big. When I want old world Europe I want quaint. And Madrid ain’t quaint. I did get the hop on hop off action, but it wasn’t that interesting honestly.
That brings me to another point, what the fuck happened to “squares” in this world?!?! The Europeans already had it figured out, what the hell did we do to it? A “square” in the biblical sense, has patios everywhere, it has performers, it has hawkers, it has demonstrations, and for gods sakes, it has patios everywhere. The only use we get out of our squares is fucking marches, and even then they only either begin or end in a square. We suck. A true European square, is heavenly. Our most famous “square” in the US isn’t even a square! And until recently it wasn’t pedestrian friendly, and it never even remotely resembled a patio friendly, community friendly, world friendly “square”. WTF!

Sidebar…saw a movie, in English (The Avengers 2), but the “theater/screen” was like something that should’ve been playing porn, and not like main stream expensive porn, like porn they found in their dad’s basement or some shit. I literally felt bad for Spain…ouch.

Notes to self:

-Jamon Iberico de Bellota or Montanera is the real shit. Gotta be careful with that fake stuff, especially in the US.
-Torta de Casar cheese was the jam. Can be slightly firm or completely soft for dipping. Stinky and great and very very regional (availability wise).
-Calle Montera was hilarous! I was literally just trying to get from the main plazas back to the Gran Via and I inadvertently took this road (for it’s perfect accessibility to be sure). This road, full of families and normal shops, that suddenly and without notice begins to fill with some of the more obvious prostitutes you will ever see around dusk. It was wacky…but they were also kind of smokin

Madrid Edition - July 2022

Wow. Pretty much great everything…except…the rooms! Ouch! They aren’t bad actually, they just aren’t rad. They’re fine. The hotel is rad on the other hand. Like really rad. Great location. Great lobby. Great main bar. Great rooftop with pool. Great rooftop restaurant. Great lobby restaurant with great breakfast. Great speakeasy (though the “punch bowl” cocktail gimmick was a little meh, fun but meh). Great service. Great minibars. 24 hour room service. Truly stellar. Well done.
For reference, we got the “loft” room, which isn’t a loft at all I came to find out. Loft to them supposedly means “no walls”. Yes of course it has walls, but one wall is windows, so I guess that qualifies as no walls. Say what? Anyway this room is slightly bigger than rooms that cost about 60% as much, and those rooms have terraces or balconies! (get the terrace).
The superior room we also got was perfectly fine (as long as you have a terrace or balcony). This hotel has no views so don’t worry about that. I think the points guy rep who reviewed this hotel has maybe never stayed in a hotel before. Any traveled person would have picked up on the “loft” scam right away. Like it would be the first thing. And I have no doubt they will fix the scam once someone who knows why there’s high demand for the “loft” rooms actually takes a look at their room price hierarchy.

Not a crush:
Marriott ambassador service. What a scam. It gets you pretty much nuthin you can’t get with platinum, or by just being a decent human being and asking nicely for things.

Hotel Indigo Madrid - May 2015

Looove it. Great find. Pero! (but) it ain’t close to the train station…but it is right on a “hop on hop off” bus stop, so I just booked that shit near the train station. The lobby had a nice little bar and cool reception area. The room was very modern with a great bathroom. The room had zero view but the hotel roof top made up for that (swimming pool on one level with a lounge bar area area sort of cantilevered over it…the “laying out” view was pretty perfect). They do not have pay per view, mini bar was good, room service was 24 hours, buffet breakfast was included but it was double meh (literally in the basement), location was great but it was 50 feet off the main road on not such a great road. All things considered, I thought it was perfect (reminded me a little bit of the Donovan in DC with the seashell bathroom and all).

Notes

-$210 a night.

Hotel Europa Madrid - Apr 2006

Right on the plaza called Puerta del Sol. Very old but renovated in a Spartan European way. Good location with a fair amount of stores and action around it. Our room was big with giant ceilings. Nice base of operations.