left: at the hostel on the last day, we saw 2 Andis! Spot the difference.
right: Iberia airlines offered budget airline fare (what they call webfare) but the catch was that we were seated right next to the engines! I could still hear the buzzing in my ears when we landed.
The city centre of Madrid is easily accessible from the Barajas Airport via the metro system (just need to pay a 1€ 'airport supplement' and a normal metro ticket and you're set!)
At Plaça Mayor, one of the largest squares in Madrid, where we took a moment to people watch and to locate the places to visit on our HUGE tourist map available at the tourism office.
left: man in cement
The drama started early in the day when we saw a lady shouting at a police officer and gesticulating wildly. Her body language suggested that someone had stolen her wallet. A few minutes later, we saw a group of dark-skinned men carrying huge plastic bags and sprinting away, checking behind them from time-to-time. All in broad daylight. We could only gape in amazement.
In the metro, there was another episode of drama. It was really packed with people at that time so the commuters were shoulder-to-shoulder. We didn't notice anything but Jem recounted what happened afterwards. He had found himself wedged between the door and this plump fella and suddenly, this skinny shady guy with a coat draped on his forearm (such that you couldn't see his hands) started to lean towards him and the hand covered by the coat started probing into Jem's jacket. Super blatant! Be on full alert for tactics of this sort!
Football called out to us next so we took the metro to the Santiago Bernabeu, home to Real Madrid! The stadium looks pretty grand, with the words 'Santiago Bernabeu' prominently displayed, unlike the Camp Nou or the San Siro, which didn't look impressive at all from the outside.
The stadium tour for 15€ was definitely out of the question!
left: the Santiago Bernabeu metro stop
It was 5 pm after we finished with our tour of the merchandise shop but it was still bright. So we were quite taken aback when we emerged from the metro near the city centre and found that night had fallen!
Madrid by night: lights and life
For dinner, we went to a tapas bar and got smoke salmon and tortilla. We were under the impression that tortilla would be something like the snack tortilla chips that we dip in salsa sauce. That's the Mexican version I believe. The Spanish version is a pie-like dish made of eggs and potatoes.
right: tortilla (torh-tee-yah)
left: appetiser of breadsticks
right: picadillo (pee-cah-dee-yo): potatoes, omelette and chicken in some sauce (yummy!)
left: the Tapas bar we had dinner at
right: the Orchard Road of Madrid (Puerta del Sol - gate of the sun), where I witnessed a pickpocket in action. He and his female accomplice were stalking two unsuspecting tourists. One of the tourists was carrying a small lady's bag that she slung over both shoulders like a bagpack. The pickpocket kept trying to slide his hand under the flap of her bag and the tourist was totally oblivious! I really couldn't tolerate standing there and not doing anything about it so I walked up to him and stared at him until the tourists walked further away. Think he was really pissed off and he followed me for a short distance till he saw that I had my friends with me then he walked away. Scary.
Jem wanted to go to the Capitol Cinema to catch a Halloween show so we headed that way. Glad we did cos it was a party over there! A huge crowd was surrounding a group of men and women who were flamboyantly dressed (shades, loud colours, shocking hair... you get the idea). Anyway, they started running into the middle of the road and totally stopping traffic. Of course, car horns blared and drivers screamed bloody murder but they couldn't care less and invited everyone to dance on the street as well. My gosh, have never seen something like that. Haha.
right: bringing the party to the streets and the traffic to a halt.
youths in their Halloween garb. Scccarrryyy...
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