Last Day in Spain

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For breakfast on our last day in Spain, my family and I faced another day of not really caring about where we ate, since we were pretty tired of everything by then. We ended up at a cheap chain called Radilla, where I ordered the Aguja de Ternera. According to my brother's pretty basic Spanish, it's filled with veal and I tasted some red bell peppers. It was only ok, but I was pleasantly surprised by how flaky and buttery the crust was. Radilla served tons of sketchy looking sandwiches, filled with creamy fillings, but everyone there seemed to be enjoying them and my family said they were good.

We spent most of our morning walking around the Almudena Cathedral, which was interesting because it's one of the few cathedrals I've visited that was made fairly recently. Its hallways were filled with artifacts and different religious relics, but the actual church part was the nicest. It wasn't anything special or so outrageous that you just had to visit it. Truthfully, my family and I were running out of places to visit, so we ended up just going to sites that weren't highly recommended by tour books just to fill up our time.

Across from the Reina Sofia, there weren't many places to eat at, so we stopped by a convenience store, bought a few drinks, and asked the guy where we should eat. He was from China, so of course he recommended a Chinese place to us. Restaurant Chino was surprisingly good, considering most of my meals in Spain were pretty mediocre. We ordered Dumplings, Beef with Onions, Singapore Fried Noodles with Curry, Eggplant Stuffed Meat, and Chicken with Black Mushrooms and Bamboo, which were all pretty good. The service was friendly and they spoke alright English, alright Spanish, and fluent Chinese.

After lunch, we went to the Reina Sofia and got in for free because it was Saturday. Out of the three art museums that Madrid is famous for, I thought this one was the weakest. It might've been because it really was the weakest or that I was just tired of visiting so many art museums. I did however like the building. I loved the bold color, sleek lines, and use of glass to break up the redness of it all. It was fascinating to look at from all angles and side.

For dinner, we ate at Restaurante Asador, which is on a street right off Plaza Mayor. I had the Centra de Solomillo de cebon con Foie, which basically means steak with foie gras, I think. The food here was rather good, but overpriced, and the service was friendly too. When you're in Spain, I recommend skipping main dishes and just ordering a bunch of appetizers. The appetizers we got there were the best part, even though they accidentally gave us another guest's food and we dug into it, not knowing it wasn't ours. They served us this really beautiful, glass water bottle and I thought they were going to toss it like we do in the USA, so I stole it. The waiter came after me to explain that they actually have to return the water bottle and I couldn't take it. How terribly awkward...I don't steal things; I promise. I just thought they were going to toss it and I saw so much artistic potential in it.

We ended up at Puerta de Sol, which is supposed to be the center of Spain and the place where all roads start. We pretty much ended up here every single night because the night life was interesting and for me, there were cute boys to stare at. I'm not a creeper nor am I desperate. I just like pretending I'm a model scout. "Oh, he has a nice face, but he's too short." "He would be perfect, if his eyes were brown." Yes, I'm very critical, when it comes to my model scouting. Overall, Spain was nice, but it wasn't the most amazing trip I've had. It's more of a trendy spot aimed at college students for partying and drinking. Even though Madrid is supposed to be more historical, I found Barcelona to be more enjoyable. Would I rank this as a must see place? Probably not, but that's not to say I didn't like Spain. I did like Spain, just not as much as some other places I've been to.

PS My favorite band, Jack's Mannequin, is splitting up and I absolutely need to get tickets for their last concert. However, I don't want to give $400 to scalpers because I want the money I spend on the tickets to go to the Dear Jack Foundation, not some scumbag.