Saturday, March 6, 2010
5:13 PM | 
Posted by
Ryś |
How to determine Madrid? How to determine any capital? Definitely this is the worse place - without it's identity - because of hundreds of thousands of external and interial emigrants who mix into the societies excluding at the same time the original inhabitants, who prefer to move to the suburbs. But because of this mixture, capitals are the best cities to find your place.La Capital
Although in the previous post I wrote, that the best way to get to know the city is to get lost there, I must add and appendix - do not apply to metropolis. Madrid is big - over 600 km2. And apart from the centre there is nothing worth seeing. Because of unpredictable weather I decided to divide sight-seeing to 2 parts. Western Centre of Madrid - firstly squares, then the rest. Madrid as every capital is very possessive so also here you have to find something special and unique. That is - the centre of Spain... if just Spain, it's the centre of Iberian Peninsula! It is attractive indeed, you walk along arcaded galleries, visit shops, when suddenly someone starts shouting at you. Nothing strange, probably you just walked into the film set of some Spanish soap opera. Tourist, tourist and one more time Japanese, and where are Japanese, there are pictures and oddly dressed people. Hence at Plaza Mayor you can see marines, knights, don Kichot, spiderman and spiderpig. Better to not to get hungry in the neighborhood of Plaza de Mayor or Plaza de Sol to not to empty your wallet. Next stop - Royal Palace and Royal Gardens - Camp del Moro. Nice architecture of the buildings which are partly open for the visitors. If palace, then few steps to the South and you are in the Cathedral. Go further more and see the San Francesco del Grande Basilica, unless it's closed. Walk back to the Sol and visit Santa Ana Square - there you can get nice tapas. When power is regained, it's worth to walk alone the Gran Via - centre of theatre, cinemas, fancy and less fancy shops something what can give you a semblance of Madrid's spirit. The best time to visit Gran Via is an early evening (9pm), and no, not because of the young South-Americans looking for customers, but to visit one of the theatres where every day there is rush because of famous guests in the audience.
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Where to eat and drink? Unless you have local "guide" - at home. My guide was Angel - friend from Erasmus, who easily found places, where una cana with tapas costs less than 2 Euros and where for few hours you can remind old good times of Hungarian parties.
Then simply take a walk on Paseo del Prado - distant with several meters Museo Naval, Museo Thyssen count, that some of the tourist will visit them. But they have completly other aim... If The Garden of Earthly Delights, Las Meninas or La Inmaculada de Soult can be called the pearls of art, then Museo del Prado is a necklace holding these pearls. I used, that EU students can enter the Museum for free* and spent there 3.5 hours. And although I never paid attention on art classes, concentrated more on war with teacher, than on analysing paintings, even such amateur as me could recognise these great works.
* Always in every place in Spain ask for the student discounts and don't be dishearted if the ticket clerk doesn't understand you**, phrase "¿Hay descuentos para estudiantes?" was the most fluent sentence ever said by me in Spanish.
**And again I have to make a digression - the language and the knowledge of foreign languages. Generally Spanish people don't speak any other habla, than their own. You can try, may not belive, but it's really hard to find someone who speaks good English, German or any other language, that I speak. When you ask "¿Hablas ingles?" and the answer is "un poco" or any other sentence in Spanish, than it means "No!". Fortunatelly all my Spanish friends who I met in this country were dealing with the language very well, giving me good tips about communicating with other people. And of course it's a shame for me that still my Spanish is very poco - ¡Mi culpa!View Larger Map
After few hours of art-treatment it's worth to spend some time outside, hence go to Botanic garden or straight to Parque del Retiro - these royal gardens were exclusive for hundreds of years, now are just waiting for your visit. The park is huge, but one thing is worth a quest. It is the only in the world, public statue of the devil. Fallen angel is a part of the fountain - unfortunately rain kept me from finding that. There is one more place which man should see in this area - it's Atocha Train Station - even if -as I adviced in the previous post - you are not going anywhere with this mean of transport - visit the station. Jungle - that's the word.
Toledo
Two days are enough to see Madrid - if you live in place away by walking distance from Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, you can go there - for 15 Euros you can touch the grass of the pitch where Cristiano Ronaldo ridicules the defenders, sit on the bench where Jerzy Dudek passes the towels to his teammates or take a picture with wax statue of Di Stefano in the Museum of Real. The same 15 Euros you can also spend on 1.5 journey to Toledo. As a rugby player I can't admit that I like football, so I went to the former capital of Castilla.Short advice to Orzech - when the coach from Madrid arrives, don't go out of the station, just find the platform of city buses (no 5,61,62) and go to the last stop (Ciudad vieja) - ticket costs 95 Eurocents.When you arrive to the Old Town - go to the information point to get free map. And no, not to plan the route, but to see on the reverse which tourist attractions are open. Then you can calmly get lost. Old town of Toledo is like a picture from Cervantes's novels. Even though it's close to Madrid, the atmosphere is completly different. Even the Japanese tourists are different. Toledo is adorable - great place for romantic date and for calm retirement. I spend just 3 hours on sight-seeing and next 3 on visiting churches, museums and galleries. But one thing is very special...
When you get to one of the lookout towers everything stops, shops and Japanese disappear, you are transferred to XVI century when the town was in bloom. It's not Spain anymore, it's Castilla - time to conquer New World!
Al final, quiero agradecer a todos mis amigos que conocí durante mi viaje. ¡Muchas gracias!: Lolek, Erik, Ángel, Víctor, Tatiana, Patricia, Elena, Sergio, Elena, Anyi, Leo, Carla, Elena, Eva María y otros ...
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