Madrid Madness

We arrived at our destination again with an agenda: to find an allen wrench for my camera rig. Not words Maren remembered from Spanish class apparently. Fortunately, we found la ferreteria and llaves allen.

Before checking in we toured the royal palace. Maren let me nerd out at the royal armory.  An amazing collection of armor and weapons mostly from the 15th and 16th century.  Saw a lot of really cool ornate firearms and a couple of Negroli helms.  The Royal Palace was absolutely magnificent too.  Afterwards we took a nap in the garden in front of the Palace, which was also very awesome.

For this stop, we stayed in the Way Hostel. It is a lively place. With our own room it is just a scaled back hotel with friendly front desk staff, communal kitchen and lobby littered with friendly people en route to places all over the world. They played selection of music (Queen, ABBA, White Stripes) until the wee hours of the night.

For lunch, We hit 100 Montaditos for sandwiches (a reddit recommendation) and tinto de verano. At 1-1.5 euros per montadito (think slider sized mini-baguette sandwiches) and great variety, it was an affordable and yummy mix of ham, pork, cheese, squid and, of course, mayo.

I had emailed the owner of the hostel previously and mentioned that I would be traveling with my camera. I talked with him and his social media guy when we arrived and he offered to comp our stay if I filmed some of their activities for them. We joined Pablo and hostel guests for tapas y tinto de verano at La Tigre, a spot highly recommended to us on Reddit r/travel. Another win. It was traditional tapas so rather than ordering, they just bring them out plate by plate until you say stop.

Saturday we joined the free walking tour (with Erica from South America) and saw local spots including the royal theater and the San Miguel Market, which we visited for tapas and vino.  Below is an example of the type of b-roll I was getting for the hostel.

In the evening the Way crew offers homemade paella for 2 euros a person. The hostel lobby was a flurry of guests and great music for Jason's final shoot before we headed out on our own. We went to Casa Mingo for chicken, cider, and an empanada. Another recommendation for the win, Kevin!

Earlier we witnessed La Marcha de la Dignidad, a mostly peaceful demonstration against poverty and austerity in the city center. Walking home from dinner ~11 we noticed the city was packed with police armored up in riot gear.  We saw two big caravans of police vans (one of which was stopped at a burger king).  We got home to find out there had been violent outbreaks.

Altogether, Madrid was a welcome change of pace from Las Falles and the Way Hostel offered a great chance to talk to people (locals and travelers) and to take laid-back tour of the city. Thanks to everyone at the Way for a great stay!

Next up is a 5.5-hour train ride to San Sebastian for three nights. Time for the beach (and laundry)!