a weekend in madrid

Hola mis amores! Towards the end of November, my friend and I went for a long weekend to the vibrant, sunny city that is Madrid. It was four days of long walks around Retiro Park, hunting for the best tapas and shopping on Calle de Fuencarral & Gran Via. We truly had an amazing time exploring this city that was new to the both of us.

The trip started with us landing at 11:30am and taking the metro to the apartment we were staying in. Thankfully we had a very swift check-in, allowing us to settle in and freshen up quickly before heading out. We strolled around Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor before going to find food to settle our grumbling stomachs! Luckily Joana found this amazing Mexican place, a 10 minute walk from where we were staying, called Takos al Pastor. We arrived at around 2pm and the queue was relatively small- only to the door! When we passed it on other days, the lines were round the block! Initially, we were very confused, as there are no menus except a couple stuck to one wall and an array of Jarritos bottles on the other. Once we neared the front of the queue, we gained an idea of how it works. We ordered and were then asked for a name for the order but promptly told we couldn’t use the name ‘Joana’ as there was already someone using that name and so we gave mine instead. Turns out that once we sat down, not even 5 minutes later we heard one of the waiters shouting my name from across the restaurant to find our table. Once he had brought the plate of tacos, he scribbled it off our receipt and ran back (literally running) to the kitchen to grab our quesadillas. The food was delicious and so so cheap! Takos al Pastor was one of the highlights of the whole trip and we made it our mission to go again before heading home. We continued to spend our first day wandering around the centre of Madrid to get our bearings, stopping to grab some churros from Chocolatería San Ginés. Dinner on our first night was at Mercado San Miguel (if you couldn’t tell, this trip was very food focused), sharing portions of calamari, jamón, strawberries with fresh cream and Aperol Spritzes. I won’t lie, sadly Mercado San Miguel was slightly disappointing as everything we seemed to find was really expensive and not necessarily worth it, unfortunately. Nevertheless, we had a good time exploring the market and afterwards walked back to the apartment to get a good night’s rest for the next couple of days.

The next day, Friday, was my favourite day of the whole trip. We started the morning off with breakfast at Naji Specialty Coffee which was heavenly. I’m fully aware I sound slightly idiotic calling coffee and cheesecake heavenly but trust me, there’s no other way to describe it. When we arrived, Joana and I had already made up our minds on cappuccinos to go and that would be it but thankfully the lovely owner persuaded us to try one of his specialties: the pistachio latte. We then also noticed a selection of baked goods and opted for a slice of pistachio cheesecake to share for breakfast, not the healthiest option, but well worth it. Neither of us had ever tried a pistachio latte or cheesecake and oh my goodness had we been missing out! After we’d spent an hour or so relaxing in the cafe, we walked to Calle de Fuencarral to do some shopping at Brownie, Noon, Brandy Melville…etc. and then grabbed some lunch at Saku Izakaya where we had gyozas and fried chicken bites to share, and then sushi for me, and Joana had ramen. The food was delicious and a a place we’d literally stumbled upon by accident as when we left Naji Specialty Coffee and were trying to get our bearings, we’d begun walking the wrong way but ended up finding Saku Izakaya. Joana and I then took the metro to La Casa Encendida to check out their Picasso exhibition where they’d tasked a series of artists to name some of Picasso’s untitled works along with leaving a short story as to why they’ve assigned that name to Picasso’s artwork. It truly was a fascinating exhibition, my favourite being ‘Give your head a wobble’. It took us a good two hours to make our way through the 5 rooms of the exhibition and was one of our favourite things we did while in Madrid. Not only did both of us learn so much more about Picasso and his life, the artwork we got to see were some of his lesser known pieces that we had never seen before. Afterwards, we headed home to get ready for our dinner at Zuma. Dinner was incredible but my goodness we ordered wayyyy too much food. It was all amazing but there was just so much we wanted to try. My personal favourites were the shrimp tempura, spicy tuna maki rolls, wafu ribeye steak and the special chocolate (an off-the-menu chocolate fondant dessert). Joana and I then forced ourselves to walk off the dinner by doing the 40 minute walk back to our apartment from Salamanca.

Our last two days in Madrid were much more relaxed. Both Saturday and Sunday morning we once again went to Naji Specialty Coffee for the pistachio cheesecake and latte although one day Joana did try their espresso & lime drink which was also delicious. On both days we also explored Retiro Park, enjoying the live saxophone music and the Palacio de Cristal. On Sunday, before heading to the airport, we went to the El Rastro flea market which was so much fun. There were stalls filled with all sorts of thingymabobs from vintage jeans to beaded bracelets to knitwear to funky art prints. I did do some damage to my bank account: some souvenirs for people back home, prints to put on my bedroom wall, a chunky colourful scarf that is now my winter staple and then Joana and I also bought matching bracelets to remember the trip by.

Exploring this beautiful city with my best friend was an amazing trip and one I would happily do all over again. Thank you for reading about my long weekend away and to Joana- hope you enjoyed your birthday gift <3