Ash's European Adventures: Going Mad in Madrid

Hey all,

To sum up our final days in Spain, we could easily say – Frustrating. I think, from what we have learnt in all our travels is that the people you are with and the hostel you stay in can really make or break a city. I could never imagine how anyone could hate Paris – but met two girls who left after 2 days, absolutely hating it because of how bad the accommodation and people were. We had the same experience in Madrid – we now understand why they could come to hate Paris, as we have come to dislike staying in Madrid.

(the park we spent most of our time)

Please don’t get us wrong – Madrid is such a gorgeous city – very traditionally Spanish and such amazing cuisine. But we were unfortunate to have bad experiences with our accommodation and the people. We’ll start on the accommodation. When we arrived, we had to check in and pay – not a problem, you pay for accommodation (obviously) however, when they told us how much was owing – it was substantially more expensive than the invoice from Hostelworld.com, where I booked and paid a 10% deposit. Not only did they ask for the full amount (my deposit was apparently worthless) but they also increased the price by 10 euro each a night. So in total, we had to pay over an extra 60 euro. And then the place was just utter shit too. Absolutely tiny – 12 bed dorm, with the bunk beds lined up next to each other, if I had rolled over, I would end up in someone else’s bed. Then there was breakfast – bread. Its free and non existent. Ace. Coffee is provided – hot water, and some milk, but no coffee. If you can find bread – you can’t find spread. If you can find spread, you can’t find bread. Just shit. And then, on top of that, we were kicked out for the day – ‘lockout’ for the cleaners. So from 11am to 3pm we were locked out. Sure it’s great to go our an explore the city, but if you need anything – you can’t get it. And in Madrid, nothing is really open until the evening anyways – Spanish love their siestas.

(Adam drinking his first mohito (not sure how to spell it) YUMMO!)

So, the accommodation really destroyed Madrid for us. Then it was the people. We had a real problem with people staring at us, and hassling us, trying to sell us roses and trinkets in the street. And Spain is known for pick-pockets so we were on guard 24/7. We spoke to too many people who have had to pack up and go home cos they lost everything (poor Laurence). But we were lucky to have left with everything we came with.

(Drinking Sangria's!!!)

(adam guarding our suitcases)

But at the end of the day, we really made the most of our time in Madrid. We ate Felafels, drinking Sangria’s and just lazing in the park, watching the busy world go past us, in the gorgeous, Spanish sun.

(Eating a Felafel!!!)