Day #24 - OK, we've had enough of Madrid

After another sleepy morning, we got up in time for some lunch...ah the wonderfulness of being on holiday. :)

We decided to eat lunch at a random restaurant with a decently-priced menu del día, which before had always worked out pretty well for us. However...this place was not the same. First, we ordered alcochofas for one of our first courses, which for some reason we thought was peas but ended up being artichokes...gross. The server was kind of mad when we didn't eat most of it. Then, after we were finished, we waited for the bill, as usual. Here, they never bring it to you right away, so you normally have to ask. However, here it seemed like they were purposefully avoiding us, bringing the bills to everyone else around us but not acknowledging us. It was ridiculous! After nearly a half hour of them ignoring us, we finally flagged them down, asking for the bill, and 10 minutes later had to physically hand them the money so they wouldn't breeze by us again. It was the worst cold shoulder ever...we left dazed, wondering what if anything we did wrong, or if they just didn't like Americans? Frustrating to say the least.

SO, moving on to happier things. This afternoon we went to the Royal Palace, which is Spain's version of Versailles, with room after room of tapestries, fancy wallpaper, mile-long dinner tables, and too-friendly guards...haha. They also had 5 Stradivarius violins, of only 300 remaining today. Overall, pretty cool.

Before dinner, we just wandered the shopping streets a bit...the whole area is packed with common clothes stores...Bershka, Mango, H&M, El Corte Ingles, etc. It seems like a pretty common pasttime here to just stroll the streets at nighttime too - the streets are always packed.

Tonight we did tapas again for dinner - going to cute little restaurant at a square close by where we got much better service than earlier. :) We shared several plates, of croquettes (our definite favorite), empanadillas (meat-filled pastries), and potato omelet.

Back at the hostel, we had a new roommate, a guy named Killian from Ireland. He was really fun to talk to, and compare stories of Dublin from St. Patrick's Day. We also told him stories about the U.S. and what Iowa is like...which I feel we have to do a LOT. :)

Tonight, we were ready to leave Madrid. Compared to Barcelona, it just didn't have the same feeling to it. Not as touristy, not as fun, not as much culture, not as pretty. And, bad waiters. :P

Time to move on...Sevilla here we come!