City number three takes us to Madrid, Spain’s vibrant capital filled with gorgeous architecture and parks. We ate some incredible food here and I was also able to explore my other great passion, football, with a visit to Legends Museum- more on that later. However I want to start the blog by thanking my friend Raquel, and her family, for letting us stay with them in the beautiful region of Pozuelo de Alarcon.
From the enormous royal palace to the grand buildings dotted all over the city, Madrid feels very regal and grand. But also dotted around are tranquil, green parks. It felt very relaxed for being a capital city, which I really enjoyed. I loved exploring outside but my highlight has to be the football museum I visited called ‘Legends’. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m a bit obsessed with football (my housemates from university can vouch for that after being forced to watch a lot of it over the years!). I also love football shirts and, with this museum having so many, I knew I had to check it out. So I left my friends to explore a bit more of Madrid and headed there. I was sporting my new football shirt that I’d bought the day before- a retro style design which was the result of a collaboration between the Real Sociedad goalkeeper Alex Remiro and the brand Cooligan- with the focus of the shirt on the importance of mental health. This prompted a conversation with one of the staff members who then talked me through how they produce the high quality replica shirts in their store! After getting goosebumps during the intro video in the cinema room, I knew I’d made the right choice to come here! There were interactive films about stadiums around the world and the history of the World Cups along with rooms and rooms full of football shirts worn over the last century. They had an icons room in which the shirt of Alexia Putellas, also known as La Reina (the queen), was front and centre- just where it should be! If you’re a football fan I definitely recommend checking this out! Plus it gave my friends a break from me which I’m sure they appreciated ;)
We didn’t eat out as much in Madrid because we had some delicious food that Raquel and her family very kindly made us- from fresh, homemade gazpacho which was super refreshing on a hot day, to tuna empanadas with crispy, flaky pastry. We also ate more tortilla- aka one of the best things to come out of Spain. In terms of the with or without onion debate- for me there is no debate- with onion is superior and I’m happy to argue against anyone who thinks otherwise #concebolla! The most memorable place for me was TKO tacos- where the tacos were 1 euro each- yep you read that right! I went for the pork variant- juicy pulled pork with fresh coriander, onions and the sweetness of pineapple. All washed down with a Jarritos- a Mexican soda brand that are insanely god and have an almost sherbety taste. The guava one is my absolute favourite.
We also visited Mercado de San Miguel, an indoor food market offering a wide selection of eats like fresh seafood, paellas, tapas and much more. I went for a soft roll filled with crispy, salty calamari and a punchy garlic aioli. It was on the pricier side but was worth it for the quality of the squid. Of course we went to other great places too which I’ll list at the end of the blog :)
We laughed a lot during the whole trip (apart from when I lost for the 12056th time at Cambio or when Ella wanted to take ANOTHER photo), but one of the funniest memories came when getting an uber back from the station to Raquel’s house. We had a long day so were naturally pretty tired and then ended up having a little disagreement before our uber arrived (I won’t bore you with all the details) so the atmosphere was a little frosty. When it did arrive, I adamantly declared that I would sit in the front and, as I was still quite angry, swung the car door open with some vigour. The embarrassing thing was that I forgot that the driver and passenger seats are the opposite in Spain so I actually ended up angrily opening the driver’s door instead, with him looking up in shock and, quite honestly, fear when I was stood over him. I apologised profusely, in Spanish, and explained to him that I got confused as it’s the other way round in England. Luckily, he also found it as funny as the rest of us and we all ended up chuckling away pretty much the entire journey back, despite him telling me that he thought I was about to mug him when I originally opened the door causing him to then jokingly say ‘please don’t hurt me’!
I’d never visited Madrid before this trip but I would definitely love to return! I’ve listed below some of our favourite places that we visited and where we enjoyed eating out. Just as I started this blog by thanking Raquel and her family, that is also how I’m going to end it. We truly felt like part of the family when we stayed there and hugely appreciated the generosity they showed us! Gracias por todo- son los mejores!
Food/Coffee:
Pinks (in Pozuelo) - amazing smash burgers , really good value €13 for burger, fries and drink.
Federal cafe- great brunch
Hermanas Arce- great coffee spot
Panod bakery- affordable impressive bakes like pistachio and raspberry cruffins
Acid coffee/bakehouse
HanSo Cafe 2
TKO Tacos- Mexican near Mercado de Anton Martin. €1 euro tacos that are genuinely really tasty! Also do frozen margaritas and jarritos !
Mercado de San Miguel
Attractions:
Legends: Football Museum - absolutely incredible for football fans- lots of movies to show the history of football and lots of super cool match worn shirts. £13 entry for students well worth the price !
Royal Palace
El Retiro Park
Musuo Nacional de Prado
Plaza Mayor
Cooligan- cool shop for anyone who likes retro football shirts
Parque Infantil Montana de Principe Pio
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