madrid; part dos

"Kite jalan jer la aisamuddin.." suggested Anies as soon as we reached Sol again. And so we did. We partly put our itinerary away and just explored the backstreet's of Madrid. I remember walking up a small hilly road and the sun was shining brightly on us. The heat from the sun brilliantly radiated our bodies and we gladly welcomed it. Or at least I did. Anies squinted and shielded her face from the sun's glare. At times she would duck behind my back for cover. I just smiled and thought it was cute.

Through the backstreet, we ended up at Atocha Train Station.


The center attraction of the station is the man made 'jungle' in the middle of the station. But sadly, like most places we visited in Barcelona, it was also under maintenance. The exterior of the station looks like it came from the early 1900s, a total contrast to the interior which was filled with glossy floor tiles and stainless steel rails and columns everywhere. It looked more like an airport than a train station to me. Then again, it is the main terminal in Madrid.

From Atocha, we strolled through Parque del Buen Retiro or Park of Good Retreat which housed Placio Crystal and the Monument to King Alfonso XII which is in front of a small man made lake where a lot of couples rode on row boats.

It was dusk when we came out the other end of the park and so we decided to head back to our hostel. But it seemed like we were the only ones heading in. The rest of Madrid were all out and about in the streets. Sol was particularly filled with a sea of people that we had to skillfully navigate through them all. *Cewah!* =p We later found out that the night life in Spain is just crazy and that Spaniards are notorious for partying till the morning. But the both of us were exhausted that we called it an early night.


The next day, after our much deserved Zzzz's... we headed out again. We didn't have any particular places we wanted to go as we managed to cover our whole itinerary the day before. So we spent the day taking more pictures of the places we went to and bought souvenirs for the people back home. Or Anies did at least.

We thought of trying Spanish food for our dinner, just for the sake of it, but we ended up eating Morrocian (btul ker?) food instead. How that happened is a whole story on its own which involves us taking a train to an uncharted place in Madrid, me unexpectedly using what basic and broken Arabic I learnt in the States, and lots of fun getting lost and found along the way. It ends with us spending a whole night at Madrid airport where we did some bizzare things to pass time. And of course, taking turns sleeping. Remind me when we meet and I'll gladly tell you the story.

p/s: I'm looking at some websites as reference to the places we've been to. Looks like there's much more of Madrid than the places we went to. Hurm... I love Spain and it seems like a good potential reason of us going back. Plus, we haven't explored Granada and the other Andalusia states. What's say you miss Anies? =)