Last year, i was in the mood of jolin's '布拉格的广场', this year im indulged in '马德里不思议'. The song kept humming in my mind throughout i was in madrid, n that really gv me lots of 'feel' in madrid: elegant, merry, peaceful, pretty, cheerful etc. If u realised, even photos taken by us was so much more livelier than the normal V-kinda poses..
~ Hotspots ~
1)
Real Palacio - If u picked up some spanish in the previous post, u shud rmb that real = royal. So tat's the royal palace, used to be biggest palace in europe, now biggest in western europe with 2800 rooms. It was sooo amazing that every room has its own designs and themes!
In each room, the wallpapers, curtains, cushions were all of the same design. There are separate rooms for dressing, dining, guest-serving, games, bed, drawing respectively. And smaller decorating rooms to connect each of the main functional rooms.. Omg it was so grand, beautiful and enchanting! How i wish im born royal! No wonder there's a saying that one needs 3 lives of fortune to be born royal.. Awww...
2)
Retiro park - This is a very soothing and inspiring park located at the south-east of madrid. There's a huge lake where boating activities take place, n lots of sites and paveways where u can sit down to relax or spend luxurious time with ur loved ones.
3)
Egypt temple - YES! I was shocked when i arrived this place. Expecting a gigantic temple as we usually do in msia, this is a temple? Lol. Anyway, from the postcards, i believed it's prettier at night with the aid of lights. But anyway =)
4)
Park of attractions - This is the amusement park in madrid. Similar to the ocean park in HK, u need to take cable car to go there. That's just a roller-coaster lane we saw from the egypt temple. I just dont play roller coasters, and even if i do, we dont really hv time for that unfortunately pui yee.. Hehehe..
5)
Cibeles fountain - Sorry if the fountain doesnt seem like the main object in the photo. I know there's still lots of rooms for improvement in my photography skills. But back to it, tis might be familiar to u, or maybe not. It's the place where the ppl celebrate/parade when the real madrid football club wins in their matches..
6)
The Reina Sofia museum - There're LOTS OF art museums in Madrid. We went to only 2 of the most popular one (of course, rite).. The Prado Museum is more of European arts, and the Reina Sofia concentrates on Spanish art. One of the most renowned exhibits is the Pablo Picasso's Guernica.. which i cant show u bcuz photography isnt allowed. Wouldnt say im a very artistic/museum person, but still worth going for a short walk esp in the evening as admissions' free. Anyway, if u r an EU student, u can enter the museums for free afterall.
On another note, we got special discounts being an EU student bcuz they believed that some of the Spanish wealth does stem from, thus belongs to Britain. So yupe, just FYI.
7)
The Santiaga Bernabeu stadium - This is the football stadium of Real Madrid =)
8)
Torros Plaza/Bullring - This is where bullfightings take place. Initially i thought bullfighting=making the bull chasing after u with a red cloth. Then py told me that it's making 2 bulls fighting against each other, and the one who survives is the winner. In other words, one of the bulls must die! From the tour guide, we were told tat bullfighting's quite a controversial issue in Madrid. On one hand, it's a culture. On the other hand, it is cruel. On this basis, it is becoming a political tool and the outcome? Bullfighting will be banned nx year, which personally i think is good bcuz it is really evil despite being a culture.
~ FOOD ~
1) Let's start with breakfast! We got to know a very very kind and friendly couple who owes a cafe. The husband is sort of happy-go-lucky man and the wife's naggy type. But they got really well tgt, it's so 'grandpa and grandma' feel. And they always talk at the same time! In the end, u wont know who shud u look at.. Hehe.. Ultimately, that's the typical breakfast spanish have. How to do it? Spread the tomato on the bread and top it with olive oil =)
2) This is the BIGGEST SURPRISE EVER in spain! This is called '
paros'. Guess how does it taste like. It's exactly msia's 'yau char kuey'!! Exactly! We loved it so much. Kept on ordering until grandpa indicated 'no more' in hand language.. =P I would say it's even tastier than 'yau char kuey' cuz it wont get soft even exposed to air for a long time.
3)
Pork combo - Haha.. there's an interesting footnote complementary to this meal. There was another table of '
foot tai' (rich ladies in cantonese). And when the witch-looking waitress served us this dish, they kept staring at us, until i basically didn know how to eat it anymore. We were wondering if they were curious of wat it was, they wanted to try it as well, or if they were astonished that we were eating such a meaty, unhealthy dish. LOL.. But anyway, except that the pork's bit too fattening, the rest were ok! More than enough for the two of us to share.. =)
4) Turkey skewers..
~ CULTURE ~
Not sure if i ve mentioned before, i think i ve not. Begging/Art-selling (i srsly dont know what shud i describe it as) is very very common in spain and portugal both. Ppl dress up as all sorts of figures/characters, play all sorts of musical instruments (harp, harmonica, violin, er-hu, guitar), singing or simply sitting down begging for money. By the streets, in every metro station, in metros, in buses. I dont know if it's good or bad. It's like it's better if they do that, rather than being robbers. But when it's way too much, it's very distracting and disturbing for road passerbys and tourists. Eg. when we were on of the the metro, one young fellow actually knelt down and kept asking for money, murmuring in spanish tat i dont know of. Both of us were obviously terrified hence flee to the other cubicle. It's really worst when he refused to leave even know we signalled 'no', and he's not even handicapped.
On a happier note, tis is considered the most interesting stunt in our trip so far. I managaed to figure out how he did that (yy's smartness lol). But perhaps u would like to take the challenge n make a guess as well? =P
Is madrid nice to see? Being capital of spain, it wasnt really a metropolitan as KL, but food's definitely more exp here compared to barcelona. Anyway, I ll leave it for ur own interpretations. Or maybe til u see about barcelona that will be a fairer comparison (see u in the nx post).. =)
ps: sigh, another long post, i wish i've written less.
