Sav: This morning we woke up and were craving a real breakfast. Not churros, not cake, not hostel toast. God, not hostel toast. No. We were all ready to go on this grand adventure to find a breakfast place to fit our needs, and as it happens there was the perfect place less than a block away. Looks like we’ll be eating there lots!

After a Spanish breakfast of eggs on tortillas and rich coffee, we set off towards the Puerta Del Sol, a plaza that was to be the beginning of our Rick Steve’s virtual walking tour. Ah our good friend Rick returns. We sat down on the fountain in the middle of the plaza (which locals just call Sol) and started listening. We soon realized this was just Rick talking about Madrid and spewing cool facts, but not actually taking us on a tour. We listened for awhile and decided to wander around on our own, unguided.

Meag: We pulled out our handy dandy map from the hostel – yes, a real physical map – and took off in the direction of a few sights. As we were leaving Puerta Del Sol we spotted a little sweet shop our buddy Rick had just mentioned, La Mallorquina. Not people to turn down an opportunity for coffee and a treat, we headed in and found it to be exactly how Rick described it: busy, cheap and delicious. We stood there drinking our coffees, eating our chosen treats and enjoying being together again.

Our stroll led us to the Royal Palace of Madrid. It was beautiful from the outside and we found out that you can visit for free from 4 – 6 pm! We are all about free so decided to come back another day at the right time. We went next for a romantic stroll through the gardens next to the palace where we were serenaded by a not-so-great singer.

Past the gardens we stumbled upon Templo De Debod. With free entrance we couldn’t say no. Plus, our interest was piqued by this seemingly random ancient Egyptian temple.

S: It was just smack in the middle of Madrid. An Egyptian temple. I was so confused to all of a sudden be looking at sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?) and hieroglyphs when two minutes earlier I had been looking at very Spanish sites. It was great though, to see such well preserved hieroglyphs in a setting other than a museum. Usually you get to see parts of walls or particular sections but this was the full deal!

After this quick trip to Egypt we decided to head over to the famous Cibeles Fountain, which sits in the middle of a traffic circle outside city hall. It depicts the goddess Cybele on cart being pulled by lions, and from what we could see it was gorgeous. The problem is that since it sits in the middle of the traffic circle there is no way to actually reach the edge to take a closer look. The building behind it, city hall, looked like a Spanish castle almost. All around us incredible buildings rose up to create a beautiful panoramic view, in which every direction held something worth seeing.

M: We had a coupon on our map for dinner at a little place called Rosi la Loca – a giant dish of paella and a litre of sangria. I am all about sangria, especially when served by the litre, so we hopped on over for some food. The entire meal was so delicious! Savanna was not a fan of the full mini squids in the paella, so I got to eat every last one.

S: One funny thing about this restaurant was that every time we asked for the bill they just brought us a free drink instead. More sangria? OH it’s free. Well okay then. After a few free drinks we finally said no no actually paper please we need to get out of here!

M: I am so enjoying being in a country where I at least get the gist of what people are saying! After the past few months of Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Germany and the Czech Republic, I finally feel like less of a bumbling fool when we’re just walking around. The combination of French, a couple beginner Spanish courses and living with Mavi has worked out very nicely so far. I can roughly translate plaques and I understand when security guards say “guapas” as we pass by.

S&M