Love It There Podcast Ep 13: Madrid, Spain
Welcome back to another episode of love it there we are happy to be back for another episode as always it is let’s let’s do some life updates hie what do you have for us anything new exciting okay um let’s see I had Holiday Bar Crawl at IU on Saturday so that was fun
Always a good time perfectly timed right before finals I don’t know whose idea that was but honestly a lot of people here like don’t even have finals this week so who put this on like bars they like they like collab and like do it together so it’s not like
A school affiliated thing but yeah so that was on Saturday and then since then I’ve literally just been studying for my biochemistry final which is on Wednesday by the time you guys are listening to it I will have already taken it so maybe send some good energy out that I did
Well I don’t know already be done send some good energy to whoever is grading you that to my past self that I killed it even though I’m probably not going to but that’s okay hi’s the worst this is everybody know has somebody like this in their life
That takes an exam and goes oh my gosh I literally failed that she be like no Kelsey seriously like I actually did so bad and then she’ll get a 98% okay I I really did used to be like that but I feel like now I have like a
Much better understanding of like how I’m actually going to do like I feel like now I’m pretty realistic no you still literally do that okay well yeah but another update is Christmas wish list update boyfriend got me a digital camera if you listen last week I said digital camera was on
My wish list and I also like in last week’s episode kind of gave him a hard time because I was like oh he like never listens to the podcast like whatever like he doesn’t listen and then he it is confirmed the boyfriend listens to the
Podcast yeah so sorry that I gave you a hard time he already had her Christmas gift bought and then he listened to our podcast episode and bought her a digital camera yeah so now I feel bad that’s pretty that’s other boyfriends out there taking not he’s doing a good job yeah he
Gave it to me and he was like this is proof that I do listen and I was like oh okay so we can’t wait to see all the great photos taken with this digital camera oh yes it’s going to be great I can’t wait I’m actually so excited so I
Thought that since last week we talked about Christmas wish list this week we could give you some ideas for people that you still need to buy gifts for if you’re procr fascinator like I am and like to wait till the last minute this is why you have Amazon Prime okay two
Days shipping it’ll get to your doorstep honestly now it’s like one day shipping so like you can order things so last minute and it’s great yeah so we thought in the theme of travel since that’s what our podcast likes to focus on we thought we would give some last minute gift
Ideas for people in your life that like to travel or maybe have a trip planned for the holidays so we actually made an Amazon storefront that we’re going to like put some of our recommendations in so you can have like direct links just to make it easy so we’ll put that on our
Instagram so be on the lookout for that in case you need some ideas but we’re just going to run through like some of our top recommendations real quick so obviously we already talked about in the Q&A episode a good neck pillow and a good eye mask as well as packing Cube
Other things that I thought of are like a good toiletry case or organizer there’s a good one that Kelsey actually has that is what made me think of this that like unfolds and you can hang out on a door that was first for traveling because a lot of like small little
Airbnbs or a lot of European bathrooms just have a pedestal sink so they don’t have a place for you to like set out your toiletry bag so just being able to hang it somewhere and have all your stuff like easy access is so convenient yeah the second thing is reusable
Toiletry bottles so like Min 3 o things that you can like put your shampoo in you don’t always have to go buy the like extremely overpriced mini bottles from like Target or whatever that are always so expensive also Outlet adapters I also talked about this in the Q&A episode
Briefly but I found one on Amazon that plugs in to like a variety of different outlets and for like a bunch of different year European count so it’s just like all in one place which is convenient and then the last thing that I found which I didn’t even know this
Was a thing I found this when I was like looking up links for the other items that I thought of but there’s like a handheld weight scale so you like hold it in your hand and then there’s a hook and you can attach like your bag to it
So you can see if your bag is over 50 pounds or not yeah because that’s like the most stressful thing about traveling is getting to the airport and being like ooh is it going to be over am I going have to unzip my bag and like take out
My pants and like expose my entire luggage situation to everybody in the airport around me like yeah that’s so true because I Jackson is the type of traveler that refuses to do that so if our bag is more than 50 pounds we’re paying the extra fee so if we can just
Like weigh it beforehand to avoid that embarrassment that’s good so okay the couple things I thought of so yeah on the same line as hie talking about doing like toiletry case or reusable toiletry bottles if you’re like you know we are talking about like gifts for for people
So if that’s like just getting these empty toiletry bottles is not like that exciting for people I know for at least for like female skin care like products and stuff like that they a lot of companies sell cute little like bundles of like minized things and most of those
Are going to be like travel size or like TSA approved so those would be great gifts for your Travelers another thing I thought of is a good pair of sunglasses because I feel like especially if people travel a lot sunglasses get broken they get lost whatever and people might need
A new pair of sunglasses and I especially like good the brand good because they’re like cheap and they have a bunch of different styles so if you’re like an active traveler or like that was nice when we were like hiking or doing like the Via Fara thing cuz if they like
These are really good and they don’t fall off your face but if they like got scratched or whatever it’s like they’re cheap it doesn’t really matter so feel like it’s good gift and that actually Segways us into the sponsor of this podcast so if you are looking for a pair
Of sunglasses you can use code love it there for 10 no I’m just kidding I like how long is she G to go we are not sponsored we’re just giving free sponsorships away right now so but gter if you hear this let us know because we
Are in the market for some sponsorship I love my good I love my gter sunglasses though they’re so great my head is small so I always have sunglasses that are too big for my head and these do not shift off my face at all so yeah if you’ve
Never heard of the brand I think it was like originally made for runners right yeah to not like bounce up and down on your face and that’s why they’re so light so if you like are active in any way like our mom plays well our both of
Our parents play pickle ball but we’ve like tried to get our mom to like get them for when she plays pickle ball cuz they’re just like really good if you’re like being active but still want something to wear okay that’s the only free advertisement you’re going to get but
Everybody will know we’re talking about those when we talk about sunglasses okay my last thought that I had was athleisure or specifically like a goto airport outfit so I have this pair of sweatpants that I pretty much wear every single time I’m flying because they’re really really lightweight thin material
But they’re pants I hate sitting on those seats the airplane seats with like bare legs or like wearing shorts or something but sometimes if you’re going to like a really hot place you don’t want to be wearing like thick sweatpants and not be able to change once you get
There until you get to like your hotel or whatever so a nice pair of lightweight sweatpants is like a perfect gift for a go-to airport outfit so yeah those are my recommendations those were good those were definitely more like gifty than mine mine were like very
Practical but but also I was going to say if you’re gifting for a traveler they probably love practical gifts because yeah they’re more about like spending money on experiences and not things and so like I personally love practical gifts so no me too and our like mom is really like she’s always
Been like a practical Gift Giver like in our stockings we get like toothpaste and like random things like that but it’s like you know what a lot of the travel appropriate size stuff that she would put in our stocking stuffers which per stocking stuffers because it’s like yeah
Like toothpaste that’s for sure is something annoying to like if you have a full thing of toothpaste that’s like too big sometimes to take yeah in like a carry-on so like travel size toothpastes are honestly such a great little stocking stuffer yeah and well I remember one year she gave us all like
Travel siiz bottles to like the like reusable travel bottles she gave us those like probably 8 to 10 years ago and I still have them and I still use them and they’re so great to have so it’s like practical gifts amazing honestly underrated so for sure there
You go all right great so now you guys can use our Amazon storefront to do your last minute Christmas shopping for anybody who likes to travel or just anybody who has a trip upcoming but okay so today’s episode is all about Madrid listener feedback did they did a great
Job um we have lots of listeners that a requested Madrid and then B gave us lots of good recommendations for what they experienced in Madrid and that really got me and hie thinking I mean it just it truly revealed how versatile a city Madrid is and how each visit can be
Distinctively individualized depending on the type of traveler you are so when we got all this feedback from the listeners and recommendations we decided we’re going to kind of divide this episode up into different categories for like each type of experience you can have in Madrid and then we’ll take you
Through each category category by category and you can kind of mix and match and create your own experience when hopefully you go to Madrid someday yeah so before we get into it I just want to do like a disclaimer we like Kelsey said we received a ton of recommendations from our listeners so
We’re going to go through a few in each category but instead of like listing every single one out first of all that would take forever second of all it’s not going to be very entertaining um so we’re going to post like a list on our Instagram by category and just like list
Out every single recommendation that we got so that way it’s also like typed out so you can like do your own research and search up the names it’s just E A lot of them are like bars restaurants stuff like that so like the names there a lot
Of them are Spanish names so they’re just going to get jumbled it’s going to just be easier for you to have them written down so check back on the Instagram that’ll be a post at some point okay so the category that we’re going to cover today are friends SL col
Study abroad heavy on the night life that’s category one and then we’ll get into relaxing SL romantic that’s another category and then adventurous and then the foodie the historian and then the classic tourist so hopefully you can kind of put yourself into one of these categories or maybe a combination of
More than one to fit your ideal vacation perfect okay let’s get into it enjoy today’s episode on Madrid Spain okay so what category what category you want to start with how um I feel like we should go ahead and just start with like the classic tourists just hit like the basic hot spots right off the bat okay good idea okay so one of our listeners gave us some
Recommendations that he referred to as C Miss so the first one is Plaza mayor which basically is this I don’t even know how to describe it it’s this big open square right in the middle of the city it’s super cool you like I I’ve been there
When I went to Madrid and it’s kind of surreal because you are walking through these like really tight narrow Alleyways and then all of a sudden it just opens up into this huge Plaza and it’s a big meeting place for like a lot of Tours so if you’re in Madrid doing some guided
Tours it’s probably pretty likely that they’re going to meet there it’s also the location for an annual Christmas Market that Madrid has so they set up a bunch of little like Christmas booths and it’s super festive and super cute I unfortunately didn’t get to see that
Because I was there in July but if I go back I would love to see that sounds amazing yes and Madrid if you I mean Madrid’s the capital of Spain so it’s like a big City like Callie said there’s lots of like highrises so it’s like narrow streets high buildings so that’s
When you walk into this Plaza and it’s just like this big open space it is kind of a stark contrast to like the rest of the city yeah I found a picture online that shows like an aerial view of Plaza myor and it’s really cool so I’ll try to
Get that on the Instagram at some point so you guys can see that perfect another kind of big open space is called padel soul and it’s kind of Time Square adjacent I felt it’s really busy bustling tons of people there it’s surrounded by shops but that is actually like the
Geographical center of Spain center of the country there’s a little plate on the ground that’s kilometer zero so it’s the starting point for all of the major roads in Spain that start at this point that little like plate on the ground is so small and it’s very anti-climatic
It’s just it’s not like this huge big Monument so that’s not that cool I think just the knowledge that in the middle of this square is the very center of Spain is kind of cool but yeah speaking of how this padel soul is kind of like Time Square they have this tradition that
They there’s this big clock Bell Tower in the center of this padel soul and at midnight on New Year’s Eve it the Bell Rings 12 times and there’s a tradition that everybody like gathers there and eats 12 grapes one for each chime of the clock at midnight so it’s just kind of
Funny like thinking of like the New Year’s Eve and New York like in Time Square of just like how wild and crazy it is and then in Spain they just are like eating grapes you like can’t even talk cuz your mouth is full of grap it’s just silent yeah like that’s a cute
Little tradition that is cute I feel like that’d be hard to do honestly too like a second basically down yeah yeah okay another thing that was recommended are both the Atletico de Madrid and Real Madrid stadiums um if you’re a soccer fan or football as they like to call it
Um these stadiums are like basically American football siiz stadiums like they’re insanely large it’s crazy to go to a game though if you have the opportunity do that that would be awesome I know I looked up to try to go for a game but obviously like I said I
Was there during the summer which is like their awes season so they weren’t playing which was sad but I did go to the stadium for a different occasion which I’ll talk about later okay another thing that one of the top tourist destinations in Madrid is rtio Park
Which we will talk about a little bit more later so I’m going to save that so just we’ll pocket that for now and oh and then one more thing I wanted to say is like I said Madrid is like a big city there’s lots of shops lots of shopping
That you can do and this is not necessarily like a must do tourist thing but I just wanted to mention it that when we were shopping on a bunch of like the clothes there were these English phrases that had been like Lost in Translation somewhere so like do guys
Remember I don’t know even the context but the saying fries before guys or like why that was ever a thing but so on this shirt that I saw was the design of a french fry on there on this shirt and it said fries before boys I’m like just somehow English
Phrase got translated to Spanish and then probably got translated back to English to be put on this shirt and it just like got lost somewhere there and there were several of those just like walking through these shops in Madrid and seeing like those kind of things that’s just not but I’m just like
Picturing just some like little Spanish girl being like oh this is so great and like buying this shirt that just says fries before boys like it’s just funny okay so let’s move on so that’s kind of like doing the top touristy things in Madrid let’s move to
More of like hie said a little bit heavier on the night life so if you’re going with like a friend trip or you’re in college going to Madrid or you’re going to study abroad there or something hie will be able to tell you a little bit more about these recommendations I
Did not go out and Madrid at all like I said in our alkala episode that’s where I went out I we never ventured into Madrid to do this but hi’s little bit of a wild child so here yeah we’ll get to hear we’ll get to hear her stories now
Yeah Wild Child definitely not but maybe just compared to Kelsey that’s the Baseline but um okay so nightlife experience my first first time going to any club in Europe was in Madrid so my eyes were a little bit open to how they do it over there we go to our first club
Which is Barcelo which 10 out of 10 amazing experience and to give like context to the Madrid bars basically the two that we went to it was like a $30 or 30 yo cover which is really expensive but that included that included two drinks like both places oh okay that’s not so it’s
Really not that bad right um but yeah so we get to this bar and it’s great we’re loving it the people on one side of us are from France the people on the other side of us are from Belgium the people behind us are from Israel it was like
Crazy like we’re like wow this is such a cultural experience so we’re like dancing whatever I’m with my girls and this was just like the first time that my eyes were opened to how different European Men Are from American men okay they are so like forward they
Just like oh yes they just like if they if they see what they want like they’re going to go get it and like I don’t know maybe that single at this time so even though we’ve been talking about her boyfriend this was six months ago this
Is back in time I was very single so we’re like dancing whatever like me and my friends having a good time people would just like grab our hands and just like pull them and like start dancing like we were just getting like pulled every single Direction and we were like
What is going on this is crazy and it’s like I don’t know it was just very that’s I feel like it it was fun like I feel like people are listening and they’re probably like oo that sounds like not okay but like no it was fun
Like yeah no I know was it in a creepy way it’s just friendly and it’s light-hearted and that’s like it wasn’t in like an aggressive way at all people were just like oh like let’s dance like we’re having such a good time like whatever it was just like fun and
Everybody was like in a good mood there was nobody like I don’t know I feel like sometimes you go to like clubs in America and people are just like standing there like observing and like don’t look like they’re having a good time like no everybody was out like
Talking and like I don’t know it was just a very different vibe so that was our first experience was Barcelo and then a couple weekends later we went back to Madrid and we went to capy tal okay this is where I had like my personal Awakening personal Awakening oh jeez I
Don’t even know what you’re about to say actually no I’m just kidding so capy tal is a club in Madrid it’s very touristy like it’s not a local Club it’s where a lot of tourists go it’s seven floors oh and that’s that’s all I need to say it’s
Like nightclub bar on every single floor it’s different Vibes kind of on each floor like there’s one floor that had like karaoke there’s another floor that had only Spanish music there’s another floor that had like pop music so it was like a different vibe on each floor but
Like I said in a previous episode when I was in Spain I didn’t have a SIM card so I relied on Wii everywhere I went well cppy Tall had no Wi-fi so we get to this club it’s crazy there’s people everywhere I don’t have phone service at
All and I get separated from my group oh no so seven floors seven floors worth of Club okay and I’m like oh I’m done for like I am never going to be able to find my friends like this is not good so I go to a bar like a little quiet section
This is the karaoke section okay to set the scene so I’m in the karaoke section there’s some like American girls on stage singing Before He Cheats okay just like you can you can get the idea what the picture is painted yes okay so I’m like standing in the corner like on my
Phone trying to figure out how to like connect to some type of signal to figure out where my friends are and this like guy comes up behind me he’s like hey like are you like looking for some and I was like oh yeah like I’m just like
Trying to figure out where my friends are like but it’s fine like I’ll figure it out like we’re good he’s like where are you from and I was like oh I’m from the United States he was like oh my gosh like I thought you were from Russia and I was
What I was like why were you were you did you have this look back bun no my hair was down the long like I mean guess myir like kind of blonde but but yeah so I asked him I was like why do I look Russian I’ve never gotten that before he
Was like oh it’s just like you’re just like tall and thin and like I don’t know you just like are giving Russian wait where was he from do you know he was from Spain oh interesting yeah but so then we like get to talking because I’m like okay I’m intrigued right right
Right yeah so we’re talking and he like I like so you get like two drink tickets when you pay cover and he was like oh like I don’t drink like do you want my drink tickets I was like yes amazing so whatever he’s like getting me a drink
We’re like catching up so I find out he’s from Spain he like Goes to School in the US but he’s like very strange but okay I’m anyways I end up getting asking he gives me the drinks and I ask him if I can use like his phone Hotpot so I can
Like find my friends so this guy ends up saving the day okay okay because then I get phone service and then I’m like able to figure out where my friends are and we like friend tickets and you ditch him you say thanks for the hot spot by yes I
Was like oh here are my friends we’re gonna go down here poor gu so yeah I know so I’m reunited with my friends and this was like very beginning of the night so we hadn’t even like really explored anything like I literally immediately got spit up I don’t understand how you
Got lost at the very beginning I I don’t either there were so many people in so many different places you could go and I just like got lost somehow gosh so I’m with my friends we go down to the first like Main and floor which is like EDM
Club like everybody’s like raging like whatever it’s great so we’re down there we’re having a good time my friend that I’m with oh this poor girl I am like dancing having a good time all of a sudden I turn around she’s sobbing I’m like oh no like I like
Whispered my friend and I’m like oh no like what happened she was like she was like her phone got stolen oh gosh yeah and this is the girl I can’t remember if I’ve told this story already or not but she had been there so we were there in
The month of July and she had been there in the month of June too so she was there for two months I was only there for one month when she went to Barcelona in June her phone got stolen in Barcelona oh my gosh and she got a new
Phone and she yeah and the thing is is when you when you’re an American and you go to Europe like you can’t get things shipped from America to Europe so like our study of broad guides like were like if you lose your phone like you can’t
Get a new phone because it’s going to take a month for it to go through customs for you to even get it so they’re like you’re not even going to get it by the time you have to leave but for some reason her dad had a work trip
In Switzerland like a week after she lost her phone so he was able to like bring it with him on the plane and then ship it from Switzerland so then she got it like super quick yeah so she got a new phone and we go to Madrid and it got
Stolen again okay so I don’t want to hear any comments about how I lose things you needed to give her your tips of padlocking your purse yes I don’t know why she didn’t honestly because we all did and like I don’t know what happened it’s not cute but obviously it
Works oh I came out with my phone so that’s all I’m GNA say but yeah so then we were like dealing with that but then it’s like also we couldn’t leave because the trains aren’t running so we’re stuck until 5:30 in the morning because there’s no train that goes back to
Alcala until 5:30 wipe those tears off your face girl and get back to this rager I’m like sorry for your luck girl that sucks but like we have four more hours so like you better you better either we’re going to sit here and cry or we’re going to party yeah
And then another friend of ours ended up getting lost in that club that just like shows how big this place is because literally we all kept getting lost and it was like a maze in this place but yeah so our one wait that just reminds me I saw this
Thing on Instagram that I sent to hie earlier this week and it was like me as an older sister keeping track of all my my sister and her friends on her bachelorette party and it was like preschoolers that like tied together and you’re like guiding them like a Le like
You know how they like in preschool you would like hold on to that rope and like everybody would have to walk along yeah that was me with my study abroad this story yeah this is going to be me having to keep track of hie and her friends on
Her bachelorette party the amount of times you guys lose each other yeah it was not good and it was really just the fact that like none of us could get a hold of each other because like none of us had good cell service and like so that just like added a whole other
Element to it so it literally was so stressful but I’ll get back to that other girl later because that’s an end of the night situation but so okay so we’re on this main floor dancing and one of our friends has like a digital camera like I said digital cameras fire take
The best pictures but every single picture that we tried to take these like random guys would get in the back of every single one like the like they would see like a flash go off and for some reason like every single guy would be like oh like bu G in the picture and
So we have so many pictures with these like random guys that we like don’t know who they are and so I’ll post some there’s some really good ones like I said earlier European boys a little unhinged but also me I’m a little unhinged oh jeez so we’re dancing and I
Like turned to my friends I was like I’m going to go find some guys to talk to you like does anybody want to come with me so my one friend how you get lost yes so but my one friend came with me she was like yes I’ll go with you so we
Were both so I’m like really tall obviously and then that girl that I was with is like my same height so we’re like really tall so we’re like okay we need to find two two tall guys like let’s let’s see what we can find so we
Like spot two tall guys in the back so we like walk over to talk to them they’re German okay don’t ask me why I always find my way to a German guy but without fail it always happens so I like started talking to these to one
Of the guys my friend’s talking to the other guy and we’re like talking for a while hitting it off conversation’s great and they’re like oh like who else are you here with and I’m and we’re like oh we have like some of our friends like they’re over there and they were like oh
Well like we’re here with some of our friends like how many friends do you have and we were like we have like like two other friends and he he was like well we have two other friends like go get your friends yeah so we find our friends and there’s
Like four of their friends four of our friends we like all go up to the third floor and it was just like such a funny sight because we’re like all dancing and then it’s like I look around and like each of my friends is with like one of
Their friends with the paired completely paired with the Germans so I don’t know it was so funny we I swear we were probably up there just like dancing for like two and a half half hours like I don’t think we like left like time just
Flew by it was great so yeah that was just like highlight memory I don’t even know it was just so funny and but one thing I do want to say is that I feel like I like needed that experience to like experience the European culture because it honestly gave me so much
Confidence like I feel like I’m so used to like being here like I don’t know maybe this is just a me thing I feel like my mindset has changed since I’ve come back but before I went to Europe I just felt like oh it’s like so hard like
Nobody wants to talk to me I just like didn’t have the confidence to like go up to people and just like start a conversation but when I went to Europe I don’t know for some reason I just like didn’t care like what anybody else saw I
Was like I’m never going to see any of these people again I’m just going to like go up to people start conversation like if they don’t want to talk to me whatever and then it just like made me realize that like that’s that’s all it
Takes like you just have to like go to people and just like put yourself out there fun exactly it’s so much more fun when you’re not worried about like being judged or what are these people going to think of me or whatever it’s like when you can just live Carefree it’s more fun
So it’s like yeah just bring that back to the US what’s the worst that’s going to happen they’re going to be yeah you know I don’t know yeah it totally changed my perspective because then I came back to the US and I was like okay like if I can get these like European
Boys to talk to me like I can get a random like college guy to talk to me like I don’t know it just mindset shift just really changed my outlook but another thing going on this like mindset like I don’t know what’s the word I’m trying to look for like not mindset
Shift like new perspective on life or yeah like just like Epiphany okay I had an epiphany okay oh this is very call Awakening yes my personal Awakening okay so part of this is because this summer I was listening to this podcast this is like a little bit of a tangent but bear
With me I promise I’m going to like get back to like the end the main point of this so as was listening to this podcast all summer and if you are a single girl listening to this podcast right now if you are single I don’t care if you’re
Not looking for a relationship or if you are looking for a relationship right now you need to listen to this podcast called Date yourself instead look it up totally changed my mindset on everything gave me so much more confidence and and yeah I like I don’t even know how to
Explain it like basically I was always so like anxious about relationships like relationships gave me so much anxiety the thought of them I was just like not like confident enough in myself like whatever I listen to this podcast and I haven’t had that problem since like it
Just like totally changed the way I think well I was gonna say I imagine it’s basically like learning to love yourself and being confident in who you are and stuff like that then you’re going to be a better version of yourself for people to want to date at that point
Basically what this girl does is she like talks about all these like horrible dating experiences that she’s had and like what she’s learned from every single one and then like how she’s had to like change her mindset after each relationship and it’s just like basically it’s this girl just like
Hyping you up and telling you what you need to hear right so if you need that go listen I’ve literally recommended it to all my friends because changed my life for real your life that sounds so dramatic I know but it literally did okay anyways that’s my that’s my two
Cents on that if you’re in Madrid go to a club it’ll give you some confidence it’s great moving away from the club scene though oh actually One More Story we leave we leave capital and my friend that was like crying because she was lost she’s like never recovered from
That like we found her but she never stopped crying and so we’re like walking back to the train station and we stop at a churo stand and she’s like ordering her churros but like still crying and the guy in the chur stand is like so scared like he was like what is
Happening cuz she was like trying to order churos but like mid soab oh my gosh that’s just the alcohol that’s making her cry oh 100% like everything was fine but she just like couldn’t recover nobody can be that sad eating their turos yeah and then we got
On the train made it back to Ala it was great everything was right in the world everything was right in the world but yeah that was copy to 10 out of 10 experience it was great amazing okay so barcel Cy great recommendations for friend trip or if you’re going in
College for a little bit of nightlife um what about hie what do you recommend for like cheap Foods if you’re Balling on a budget where should you go in Madrid to eat okay so one that I went to we went here multiple times is called tacos alpastor this is like super well known
Like pretty much if you’ve been to Madrid you’ve probably heard of this it’s like street tacos basically and then they also have like margaritas and beer and like random drinks but the tacos are literally like one Euro like it’s so cheap the line is always out the
Door it’s super popular but it moves really fast like you get up to the counter and they’re like what what do you want what do you want go go go but that place is super fun another place that was recommended to us was called badia oink so basically it’s like a
Sandwich a sandwich shop in Spain Badoo is like a sandwich to go basically okay but speaking of this place so we have hie and I have an outline that we like you know write up what we’re going to talk about for the podcast so she’s like collecting all the listener stuff and
Putting it in this outline and so she just like put this sentence that our listener like said she just puts this in the outline and I’m going through it today I’m like I don’t even understand what this means I don’t understand this jenzy lingo I’m like I thought hie
Talked like a jenzy but this is like I was like I just had to stare at it and figure it out I think I learned but okay so the sentence is I mucked a bokeo at least four times a week at oink all caps gas and I’m like
Which to me I read that and I was like I completely understood it made perfect sense reading it she’s like I what well I mean I figured out like mucked I mean context clues I could figure out he’s like getting a this sandwich at this oink place like a lot
Whatever but the gas thing and I’m I was like okay I think I like know he’s just trying to say like this is like a good place but I was like what does gas feed in this context like I was like oh okay cuz he like said it in a bunch of other
Places too in in his like recommend he was like this is gas this is gas this is gas like what yeah and so I’m like I thought this must mean good as like G good as and so I tell hie this I’m like okay I was looking at this and
She was like oh I didn’t know that’s what it meant actually like I didn’t know it was an acronym I well and I don’t know either that’s just what I yeah so we need to look it up because now I’m curious okay I’m looking it up
On Urban Dictionary right now oh my gosh it’s good ass oh good ass yeah good ass okay no I thought it was good as like good as but well closer I didn’t even know it was an acronym I just thought it was like oh like that’s fire oh that’s
Gas so now I’m like wow things about your own lingo so okay anyways well okay so that’s the Badillo oink get your little sandwiches there um okay and then hie mention one other thing that you can do for more of like nightlife entertainment in Madrid she mentioned when she went to like the
Football stadiums but she went for something else so do you want to talk about that Hal yeah so something that I would recommend is the reason I went to that stadium is because I went to a concert I saw the weekend in Madrid while he was on his European tour and it
Was amazing and the tickets were way cheaper than you could get for his tour in the US so if you know of any artists that happen to be touring in Europe I would look into their tickets while you’re there because chances are you’re probably going to be able to get to see
Them for way cheaper in Europe than in the US and it’s like the weekend’s like a huge artist like obviously any like American Artist that’s touring the world like they’re going to be big but we got floor seats it was like $170 for floor seats which is like still a lot of money
For a concert but like in America those floor seats were like $1,000 so just like a little tip maybe do some research see if you can see anybody on a budget while you’re abroad okay so moving on to our next category is like the romantic or more of like relaxing um vacation so
This was actually inspired by a listener question that asked us the best date spot in Madrid so hie you want to like run through those yeah so the first one that was recommended to us is called templ de debad Madrid um basically it’s an ancient Egyptian temple and it has
Really good views of the city so it’s really good to go like at Sunset with a glass of wine very romantic very cute um the reason it’s great at Sunset is because there’s like spaces in between the temples so like the sunlight shines through them so it’s really pretty and
The walls are lit up at night and there’s like water around it so just overall really pretty views and then another thing that I went to was a rooftop bar which would be good for a date night the one I went to was called La tavier Grand via I don’t know if
That’s how you pronounce it that was pretty good sounded a little French instead of Spanish but well I know but tavier like I don’t know how you would yeah I don’t recognize that word in Spanish yeah I don’t think it’s a Spanish word but yeah I went there I’ll
Post pictures of that as well the views were really cool but also there’s so many rooftop bars in Madrid and I’m sure they’re all really great another thing is like there’s a bunch of there’s a couple like parks and Gardens that we’ll talk about but Madrid is actually like
One of the greenest cities in Europe which is surprising because it is very Urban but they just have a lot of parks and and green spaces and it’s also which I didn’t know this it’s one of the sunniest cities in Europe so I saw on a couple different sources it ranged from
People saying it has like on average 300 to 350 sunny days per year which is like which is almost crazy every single day I mean that’s like a ton that’s so much so in the midwest we have like a hundred some so I’m like 350 days a year of sun
Amazing so these parks are like almost always just like beautiful because the sun’s just shining down so the most famous one is rtio Park do you want to talk about that one Hal yes I feel like it’s a good comparison of it as Central Park just because it’s basically this
Giant park that’s situated right in the heart of Madrid um so it’s 350 Acres so a little smaller than Central Park because Central Park is 840 Acres but still I mean it’s huge there’s like Gardens inside of it monuments there’s like trails that you can walk on there’s
A lake where you can like actually rent like little paddle boats so that would be super cute for a little date there’s this place called The Glass Palace which is absolutely beautiful it’s the architecture is crazy um it has a lot of like art exhibits there and it’s also
Free to enter so that’s a plus as well yeah when I went though it was empty so the art exhibits are temporary so I don’t know how often that occurs but when I went it was just it was this empty glass building and it was just
Really you walk in and you could almost like hear the sunshine coming through the glass and like lighting everything up you know what I mean when it’s just like so quiet and you just like it seems like everything’s just like sparkly in there and it’s just you’re just walking
Around to look at it and yeah it’s really really really beautiful on there another so there’s this other place called real Hardin banico de Madrid and so that’s just another Park it’s more of like a garden there’s like over 90,000 types of plants and flowers so it was
Origin intended for all like the acclamation of all these different plants and spices that were imported from the West it they created this Garden to allow these new things to become acclimated to the Mediterranean climate of Madrid but now it’s just a public garden for people to like walk
Through but it’s gorgeous I’m like if you were like going on a trip here with your boyfriend or something and that would be like a great like proposal spot so if anyone’s like planning anything like that it just looked beautiful I feel like the pictures there would be gorgeous yeah like slightly send
Pictures of it to your boyfriend while you’re planning the trip yeah like wow look how beautiful this Garden is yeah wow so pretty okay so yeah those are our recommendations for a little romantic or relaxing trip to Madrid um going to Pivot a little bit to our more adventurous listeners and talk about
Some more like active sort of activities that Madrid has to offer so how what do you you have some stuff to talk about there right yeah so I really only did like one adventurous Excursion while I was in Madrid but we actually went on like a kaying trip on this River it’s
Called pontano de San Juan and it’s like maybe 20 or 30 minutes outside of Madrid um but it was beautiful I got some really great pictures and it was really fun a lot of people had like big sailboats out there there’s also like a beach there like a lot of people just
Like went there for like a public beach just a sunbathe so that was great it’s where the infamous red bikini picture was taken if you remember when that was brought up a couple episodes ago um hi’s red bikini picture yeah wait did we I forget what we did we actually talk
About it we brought it up because I don’t remember anyways yeah this is when hie texted me the picture and was like can you tell I haven’t pooped in 5 days or something when she was in this red bikini that she ended up posting on Instagram yes yes my kaying adventure so
You just like K it’s like normal you like pick up your kayak at one spot and then you kayak down the river and then you drop it off and then you can like loue at the beach and stuff like that we did like an out and back but it was
Really pretty because this river is like it’s like a ravine almost so you’re surrounded by these like mountains so it’s like really pretty yeah it was cool different than White River kaying where it’s just like this random like stream yeah this brown stream like no it was really pretty it
Was cool it was worth it for sure okay and then another thing that was recommended was casad Camp let me say that not like an American park casad compo park and this park is five times the size of Central Park where the other Park the rtio Park
We talked about that’s more like quaint and beautiful is smaller than Central Park this one’s enormous but it has a zoo it has an aquarium it has an amusement park with roller coasters it has a big lake for boating and other like recreational activities there’s tons of like running and mountain biking
Trails so there’s like a ton to do there which I had actually not even heard of when I was in Madrid because I think it’s a little bit further outside the city but yeah that’s like kind of The Adventurous fun things to do in madri okay so the next category we’re getting
Into is if you are a foodie so Kelsey do you have any of the recommendations for restaurants or good Cuisine yes well the first thing I wanted to say was Madrid is interestingly known to be really really have great Seafood despite it not being a coastal town so Spain in general
Has a lot of good seafood and um so like Barcelona’s right on the coast so that makes sense for their Seafood to be really good but Madrid still don’t like doubt the seafood even though it’s like literally right in the center of the country yeah hi why don’t you talk about
The churos place both of us went here but yeah that so Kelsey and I happened to go to the same exact churos place when we were in Madrid because I think it’s like pretty well known yeah which is probably how we both ended up there right um it’s called choco Laria sanin
It’s really cute on the inside it’s very old timey aesthetic green velvet seating with like marble floors it’s like you’re going into this like old chocolate shop is what the vibe is it’s great right next to PTO Del Soul the like main Public Square so super convenient
Location too if you happen to find yourself in that area yeah the thing about so when you order like churos and hot chocolate at this place which is like the thing to get they have other stuff but definitely that’s what you want to get there the chocolate when you
Think of hot chocolate you think of like a drink but hot chocolate in Spain is like literally a bowl of melted chocolate so you’re just like dipping your churo in melted chocolate and it’s the best thing ever so good yeah okay and then I’m just going to run through
The next like few recommendations for like the foodie category because it’s just names of restaurants these were all s in yeah from yeah listeners so um again these will all be listed on the Instagram but brunch recommendation buolo somewhere to go for traditional Spanish food fatigas Del
Paa go to Restaurante laara Tapas go to Casa Julio coffee go to Feliz coffee and Cocktails go to Salmon well this is I say salmon Guru because that’s Salon yeah I’m like I don’t mean to say that Spanish right it’s just it looks like salmon anyway salmon Guru for cocktails
Which apparently this is like a top 10 bar in the world so I looked into it a little bit it looks just like really cool funky inside so I’m sure their cocktails are really good so yeah we’ll have those all listed in the podcast description we’ll have all this stuff
Listed as well and then yeah more details on the Instagram so perfect okay and then okay this is getting into our last category so one of our listeners said that museums in Madrid are a must do so we have our little historian category for those that
Are into art and learning about all the culture of the place that you go so hi’s going to give us a couple examples of some recommendations for things to do in that category yeah one of the most famous museums in Madrid is the Raina sopia Museum this was actually like an
Excursion that our school my school did when I was in Madrid I personally didn’t go but a lot of my friends went and they said it was really cool it has a lot of 20th century Spanish art so like pabl Pablo Picasso Salvador Del those are probably some names that you’ve heard of
So if you’re into that that would be cool to check out and then another really famous museum is the Museo National Del PR um this is like probably the most famous Museum in Madrid and it has paintings by Diego Velasquez so Las me Nas if you’ve heard of that if you’re
Into art and the thir May the 3 of May 1808 by Francisco Goya those are both like really famous art pieces so those would be cool things to check out as well perfect okay so I think that’s our Madrid episode so Madrid’s an awesome place I know this was a lot but
Hopefully yeah you guys can find something that inspires you to stop by there I know we have listener going on her honeymoon there so hopefully we helped you guys out for that perfect yeah so anything else Hal anything else we’re missing I don’t think so if you’ve been
To Madrid please let us know I feel like we covered so many different things but the city is giant so let us know if we miss out on anything because I definitely want to go back at some point so I would love to hear the best places
To go well thanks for listening you guys um if you haven’t left us a review please don’t forget to rate US and leave us a review on Apple podcast it really helps us out and subscribe to our YouTube make sure you hit subscribe or follow on the podcast platform so you
Don’t miss another episode but yeah that’s all for today and we will see you guys next Thursday Bye
Your favorite sister duo gives recommendations for every type of traveler that may venture to Madrid. They discuss what to do if you are in college traveling with a group of friends, a classic tourist, a foodie, a historian, or on a romantic / relaxing vacation.
Madrid Favorites (see our Instagram for a more extensive list):
“Can’t Miss Spots” – Plaza Mayor, Puerto del sol, Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid stadiums, Retiro Park
Bars – Barcelo, Kapital
Romantic spots – Templo de Debod Madrid, La Tavernier Gran Vía, Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid
Adventurous spots – Kayaking at Pantano de San Juan, Casa de Campo park
Churros – Chocolatería San Gines
Brunch – Bucólico
Traditional Spanish food – Fatigas del Querer
Paella – Restaurante La Barraca
Tapas – Casa Julio
Coffee – Feliz Coffee
Cocktails – Salmon Guru
Museums – Reina Sofía, Museo Nacional del Prado
New podcast episode every Thursday, wherever you listen to podcasts.