Learning to fly: Madrid. A more western "Bucharest"

Because David's flight back to Budapest was almost at the same hour with our flight for Madrid, we said good bye on the terminal. We flight with Vueling, o Spanish low-cost which are late every time, always. When I had a flight from Barcelona to Lisbon they had one hour delay because the car with the stairs was stuck in the plain and it took a while to move it...

This time they were late only a half of hour so nobody was complaining. We arrived at Madrid around 10 a clock, glad that we gain an extra hour because of the one hour difference between Portugal and Spain.

Barajas airport is the 4th and in the same time the newest terminal from Madrid. It's a several Km construction, with a new design. What is very nice here is that from airport there is a metro line to the city, actually you can say that you can go anywhere with the metro in Madrid. It's fast, cheap and efficient. We bought turistic tickets for 2 days, unlimited travels.

We stayed at some friends of Alberto, our ex-flat mate. The girl in the picture is from Greece, she was the only one in the flat speaking English, the rest of the guys spoke Spanish or Portuguese. We spoke with them with Diana's basic/good Portuguese skills and also trying to remember some Hispanic soap operas :)... it was interesting to find there a Brazilian with Moldavian grandparents from Tighina. They were very nice these guys, I felt sorry that we can't stay with them for a longer time. They promised that they will visit Alberto in Lisbon, so it would be possible to see them again.

Ok... let switch to the visit:

Don Quijote de la Mancha (I am there, hardly visible between horse and donkey :P)

Sabatini Gardens... in back the Royal Palace

Calle Mayor, one of the most important streets in center and Plaza Mayor, the main square in Madrid.

I wrote in the title that Madrid is for me a more western Bucharest because people attitude was pretty similar, not to mention that I heard Romanian language spoken everywhere.

For example, we were sitting on a terrace in Plaza Mayor when a band was making noise, whistle to gain some attention! Diana told me then: These guys are looking like ours! And it was so... there were several groups which were singing to the most crowded terrace, sang some western songs with gypsy rhythm (I cannot understand how they can sing and smile that way in the same time) and after they received some money they were yelling quickly "thank you to everybody!" and they went to the next terrace where the circus started again.

There are not only from Romania, there are loads from South America and Mexico. I can say that the Hispanic immigrants have a very aggressive asking for money style. It is very simple: do you like it? Pay! You're not paying? Go away!

Puerta del Sol, Spanish zero kilometer

A curiosity... Spanish Communist Party! :))

The second day in the city we started with Santiago Bernabeu, where Real Madrid is playing.

Unfortunately we could see it only from outside, we didn't had time for a visit, it would take too long. We manage to visit another arena, "Las Ventas", where are the bull fights. Is not the biggest (that one is in Mexico), but is the most important in the world.

That was interesting, the workers at the arena said hello using Romanian "buna ziua" :)) We also had a good guide, who stayed at the end to speak with us, she told us the difference between a Spanish bull fight and a Portuguese one. In the Spanish version the toreador is fighting on the feet, the Portuguese are fighting on the horse and when the bull is weak they are trying to put it down with their own hands frontal pressing on its horns. Also at the Spanish the only way the bull gets out from the arena is dead, at the Portuguese sometimes survives and they are killing the animal afterwards. She also confirmed that the bulls don't see the red color, it is used just for show. They let us to play a little bit with the logistics :) We also founded details about toreadors, how their performance is measured in the arena, with the bulls ears (that's the symbol of the white handkerchiefs) and by tradition the toreadors are eating the tail of the poor animal after it is defeated.

OK... we finished with the bull fights so we had time for some visits, we saw "Puerta de Alcalá", a kind of Triumph Arch, the huge green complex "Parque del Buen Retiro" and "Calle de Alcalá", the second important street in the center.