Wednesday, September 07, 2011

PHOTOS: Madrid for the weekend, anyone?

I'm thrown a little of my groove right now because Blogger has changed its interface and I feel a little lost. I wonder if they added any emoticons while they were at it...

No, I guess not.

Anyway, two weekends ago, I flew alone to Madrid to meet up with Baker Jo who was there on holiday. For those not in the know, we used to work together at The Edge Publications in Kuala Lumpur.

I was pretty excited because I'd never been to Spain and I'd always heard how nice it is there. I was also looking forward to seeing an old friend.

(Besides the new Blogger interface, I'm also a little distracted by the friggin heavy rain beating down on my ceiling to floor windows at the moment. It's insane! Like I'm back in Malaysia during monsoon season.)

Here are some photos of Madrid. I don't think I'm in the right state of mind to write anyway. By the way, do you realise that the older you get, the more stupid language mistakes you make? For example, I just wrote 'state of mine' instead of 'mind'. And yesterday I wrote 'me two' instead of 'too'. I was also chatting on MSN today with Timstone and Nic, and kept typing Nic as 'Nice' and his girlfriend Jois as 'Joins'.

Okay, I'll stop rambling now. On with the piccies!


Yes, I know it's kinda tacky to take photos from the plane, but I was quite surprised by how brown Spain looks. It reminds me of Mexico (from movies and TV shows). Guess that's why the Spanish took to Mexico so much.


I checked in to my hotel on Calle de Atocha, just 15 minutes walk from the main Atocha train station. Okay, it was a bit more like 25 minutes for me because I walked in the wrong direction for a bit. I should have known that if I think I have to turn right, I probably have to turn left.

After checking in, I walked up the hill - yes, up a pretty steep hill - to get to Baker Jo's hotel, around 10 minutes away. After exchanging lots of news with each other, we walked opposite to grab some snacks from the pastry shop. I love that pastry shop.



I think most people would be sickened by what I bought. But hey, if they make it, it means people eat it, right? It was called a Trufa, and it was basically chocolate cake with chocolate cream and chocolate sprinkles. I love how they wrapped it!


Then Baker Jo and Cousin Kev (Jo's cousin, not mine!) played tour guide and brought me to Plaza Mayor up the street. They'd already been in Madrid for 3 days before I got there, so they knew the place fairly well. Nice and sunny!




Plaza Mayor overkill.





Baker Jo can't resist any yarn shop ;)



The drawings on the walls here remind me of Brussels.


Finally, a scene that doesn't remind me of anywhere else in Europe.

I think I was a tad disappointed with Madrid because it looked just like Paris, Brussels and probably a lot of main cities in Europe. The buildings looked the same and the streets looked the same. However, the people are completely different from anywhere else in Europe. I think that's usually the main difference between cities. The Madrid-ians are lovely! So friendly, so warm and so helpful.


Pretty street signs. Only in the centre though :)


Had to catch the nun in passing. I love catching these little incongruent street scenes.


Really nice shop interior. It actually reminds me of tourist cheese shops in Amsterdam. Except bigger.


Cerveza means beer. I also like snapping Spanish signs and recording how different countries design for their public.



Another one of my street snapshots.


And a really pretty shop board with an elaborate border.

Tomorrow, more photos!

4 comments:

jois said...

Madrid looks so nice! Makes me wanna go too. Can't wait to see your other pix! :)

frachely said...

Atocha station! Ahh the memories :) Did you go the flamenco show or bullfight? If no, pls read my Madrid post before your next visit to Spain :P

I agree that the city looks a little 'regular', if you want something different you shoulid visit Barcelona. It's more "Gaudi" than Europe haha

Janice said...

Your photos are making me want to travel again! I can't wait to go to Europe some day :)

shoobaba said...

I'm happy my photos make Madrid look good! I really liked it there - it wasn't eye-opening in the way cities like Rome and Paris are, but I really, really liked the people there.

frachely:
I didn't see flamenco or bullfight, but we did try to look for sufi music (if that's how you spell it). In the end, the place looked closed or something.