Madrid, Spain
I was so dead tired and restless on my hard bed today that I kept on hitting the snooze button on my iPhone alarm. I soon gave up trying to wake up and slept in until 14:00. So much for the plans I had for today, like seeing the Royal Palace of Madrid. Although, while I had slept, Michelangelo did some online research and he bought tickets for us to go to the palace the following day. After I finally got out of bed, showered, and dressed, Michelangelo and I decided to head out and see some of Madrid. We first walked to the Plaza del 2 de Mayo, which was a nice small park within the city. Next, we ate at a café and I had a cappuccino and a caramel muffin, along with a sports drink to rehydrate. After that refreshing break, we walked on to the Plaza de España, where we saw the Edificio España skyscraper and the monument to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra with its bronze sculptures of his two most famous creations: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. After walking around this plaza, we continued on to the Temple of Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple which was dismantled and rebuilt in Madrid; the Temple of Debod was originally built fifteen kilometers south of Aswan in Egypt; later on, as a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the temples of Abu Simbel from the threat posed by the reservoir of the Aswan High Dam, the Egyptian state donated the Temple of Debod to Spain in 1968 AD; now it stands in the Parque del Oeste, north of the Royal Palace of Madrid. Michelangelo and I walked around the temple’s structures and explored the inside as well, looking at all the different hieroglyphics still visible on its walls. After viewing the temple, we walked south to the Royal Palace and viewed a garden on the north side and the eastern façade. We then walked on to the Plaza Mayor, the central plaza in Madrid, which was built during Philip III’s reign (1598-1621 AD). The Plaza de Mayor is infamous for being the site of the “autos de fe” against supposed heretics and where the executions of those condemned to death occurred. After walking around the plaza, Michelangelo and I decided to seek out a place for dinner. We walked eastward, passed through the Puerta del Sol, and settled on a café located on a street heading out northwest of the Puerta del Sol. We then both enjoyed some cold beers as we watched the pedestrians passing through the narrow strait of buildings (shorts are really, really short this summer . . . and I approve). After our glasses of beer, we headed back to the apartment, although I stopped at the El Corte Inglés supermarket to buy some much needed sports drinks and juice (as well as some more beer) as Michelangelo continued on to the apartment. Once back at the apartment, I rehydrated and relaxed for some time. As the clock neared midnight, Michelangelo and I decided to go out and try a historic bar for some drinks; so, we walked to an old-style pub northward of the apartment and had a couple of beers and a slice of empanadas. After finishing our beers at this pub, we walked on to another bar that looked like it was connected to a hostel (based on the interior and the diverse group of people found inside and out); here, we had another beer (a small bottle) before we moved on. We looked for another place, but decided that it was late and that there was not much around this area (other than a gay sex shop and some transsexual hookers); so, we walked across Gran Via and tried to hook up with the pub crawl, which was already ninety minutes or so in to it (having started at 23:00). We ended up finding a different pub crawl at a club and weighed our options. We decided not to enter in to the loud and overcrowded club and instead walked on. Eventually, we gave up and returned to the apartment. Back at the apartment, I opened a bottle of red Spanish wine and drank its contents while watching videos on the internet. Eventually I went to sleep around 03:00.