Halloween in Madrid

As much as I have loved living in Europe and having a grand adventure away from home, being with old friends is still one of the most comfortable feelings I know.  Luckily, I have the good fortune of living in a foreign country with one of my college roommates, Katherine, who is also working as an English teacher in Madrid.  I didn’t have to work on October 31 and November 1 because of a Spanish national holiday, so I packed my bags and went to the big city to see her for Halloween weekend!

Madrid, along with being an autonomous community (like Andalucía), is the capital of Spain and the third largest city in the European Union.  Because my budget is small, I took the 5.5 hour bus ride to the city.  Cordoba does have a high speed rail system to Madrid, making the trip only an hour and a half, but if you don’t book your tickets months in advance the prices are very high.  Luckily, my friend Emily was also traveling to see friends from home, so I had a bus buddy for my trip.

When I arrived on Thursday night, Katherine met me at the metro station and brought me home to see her apartment and meet her roommates.  She lives in the Atocha area of Madrid, which is very close to the impressive Retiro Park and other famous monuments.  We had a lovely evening of catching up over Spanish wine and tortilla de patata.  We also took a short metro ride to Puerta del Sol (literally Gate of the Sun) which is an enormous plaza in the center of the city.  Sol is actually the geographical center of Spain, meaning it is kilometer 0 for the network of all Spanish roads.  I got to have a small taste of the big city at Sol, which felt about a thousand times bigger than anything in Córdoba. 

my lovely tour guide for the weekend

a blurry but somewhat representative photo of Sol

The next morning, we slept in and then went to retrieve Keely from the metro station.  The three of us planned on spending the weekend sightseeing and getting to know the big city with Katherine as our guide, so we got started right away.  After a gorgeous walk in Retiro Park at sunset, we went to see the Museo del Prado, the Spanish national art museum.  It was absolutely fantastic and unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  Even though we only spent an hour there, I was able to see works by painters like Goya, Picasso and Velázquez.  Seeing Las Meninas in person was truly an amazing experience!

Estanque del Retiro

Katherine and I in front of El Prado

sightseeing amigas

Madrid sunset

After the Prado, we went on a tapas tour that was going on in the Lavapies district of the city.  The event was hosted by over fifty different restaurants, who all were offering a 1€ tapa portion (think: appetizer) of their best dish.  We went to about six different places, which made for a diverse and delicious meal for only six euros!

tapas beauties 

couscous with red peppers

On Saturday, we took a trip to a neighboring town called San Lorenzo de El Escorial.  The town’s main attraction is an enormous monastery palace that dates back to the early 16th century, located at the foot of Mt. Abantos.  When Katherine, Keely and I got off the train, we realized that we had very little knowledge about where the palace was actually located.  So, we decided to eat first and explore later, which led us to a charming hole-in-the-wall café for an amazing lunch, complete with two courses, wine, and coffee.  Delicious!

waiting for the train

the basilica through the forest

along the Path of the Princes

El Escorial

After our meal, we asked a few locals which direction to head in and embarked on our walk.  Only about ten minutes passed before we could see the impressive basilica looming over the trees in the near distance.  El Escorial is enormous, which makes it a site for staggering amounts of artwork.  The walls inside are like a museum, although most of the paintings seem similar with plentiful dark Catholic symbolism.

artwork viewing

amazing ceiling

For me, the highlight of El Escorial was the Pantheon of the Kings, which is a tomb located at the bottom of the monastery.  The remains of most of the kings and queens of Spain (Hapsburgs and Bourbons) reside in the Pantheon, making it an extremely holy site.  Visiting the tomb was very amazing, but also sort of eerie.  It’s strange to think about being in the same physical space as the remains of people from so much of a country’s history.  We finished our trip watching the sunset in the gardens of the monastery, which was gorgeous.  El Escorial looks over an immense valley that seems to stretch forever, even though it is only about 45 kilometers outside of bustling Madrid.

palace courtyard

Katherine with the scenery

garden

cheesing

posing with the valley

Escorial sunset

That evening, we met up with Keely’s friend Melissa, a lovely gal from Portland who showed us some fantastic tapas restaurants with her Italian boyfriend, Marco.  Melissa has been living in Madrid for the past few years teaching English at various academies.  The five of us spent the evening getting to know each other over tostas (hot baguettes with various delicious toppings) and good Spanish wine, which made for a great time.

Our final day together in Madrid was Halloween, which we spent touring the impressive Retiro Park.  We ate kebabs in the rose garden, strolled through the grounds around the Crystal Palace, and basked in the sun at the Estanque del Retiro (Retiro Pond).  That evening, we dressed up in our makeshift costumes for a night on the town.  Halloween is not really a holiday in Spain, and those who celebrate it seem to miss most of the point.  Costumes for Halloween here are always zombies or vampires, complete with lots of ghoulish white paint and fake blood.  Spaniards believe that silly costumes are for Feria, which are fairs that each province has throughout the year.  Therefore, my crude cat costume (fashioned out of a metal mask and some cardboard) wasn’t really Spain Halloween appropriate, but I decided that I get to make the rules about holidays celebrated in my country.

Crystal Palace

unimpressed by the statues

the estanque

from Eugene to Madrid!

We spent our evening at Kapital, an iconic Madrid dance club.  Its appeal is drawn from the fact that it boasts seven floors, each with a different type of music.  Salsa, hip-hop, soul, funk and Spanish hits are all readily available if you want to climb the crowded and sweaty stairs to find them.  It was a fun but overwhelming experience that really made me appreciate the mellow Córdoba way of life.  I’ll get to return the tour-guide favor in December when Katherine comes to visit me!

catwoman, mime, and vampire

happy Halloween!