madrid: where everything's uphill and tapas are life
okay so i've been in madrid for like three days now and my legs are screaming. it's not even that i've been doing much, just walking around but it feels like i'm constantly climbing stairs or something. i just checked and it's...there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. like 8 degrees with some humidity, feels colder, don't know how the locals deal with this. someone told me that the elevation is what gets ya, madrid's like the highest capital in europe or something. who knew that would matter when you're just trying to find a decent coffee?
so the city's on this plateau thing, called the meseta central or whatever. i tried to pronounce it to a local and just got a blank stare. the manzanares river runs through it, but honestly from where i'm staying you can barely tell there's a river at all. someone told me that back in the day, this place was called mayrit, which meant plenty of waterways. i think they're lying because i haven't seen much water around here unless you count the weird fountains in the parks.
the history here is wild. apparently this fortress was built way back in the 9th century by some emir, then christians took it over in like the 11th century. then in 1561, some king named philip ii moved the capital from toledo here. someone told me that decision basically changed the whole city, which makes sense because you can see the old stuff mixed with newer buildings. there's like this royal palace that's the biggest in western europe, but honestly it doesn't look that impressive from the outside. maybe i'm just tired.
if you get bored, toledo and segovia are just a short drive away. i haven't made it there yet because the metro's been acting up or something. also there's alcalá de henares which is apparently some unesco site, and getafe and leganés to the south, pozuelo de alarcón to the west which someone told me is where rich people live. i'm not rich so i haven't checked it out. food's been pretty good though, had this chickpea stew thing called cocido madrileño yesterday. it was heavy as hell but decent. the bocadillo de calamares (squid sandwich) is way better, honestly.
the locals seem nice enough, but they eat dinner at like 10 pm which is messing with my schedule. shops close between 2-5 pm for some siesta thing, which is annoying when you're trying to buy water. someone told me that pickpocketing's a real problem in tourist spots like puerta del sol, but so far nothing's happened to me. maybe i look too broke to rob? housing costs are insane though, heard like 1200 euros a month for a one-bedroom place. no thanks.
gonna try to hit up the prado museum tomorrow if my legs cooperate. heard goya and velázquez are there, which i guess is important. the royal palace too, though i'm not much of a palace person. the retiro park looks nice from what i've seen, might go there to recover from all this walking. someone told me that madrileños are known for being friendly but also really into their football team. don't care about sports but whatever.
overall it's an interesting place but i'm not sure i'd live here unless someone's paying me. the elevation's messing with my head, the food's heavy, and everything's uphill. the museums are probably worth it though. and the churros con chocolate. those are good. i'll give it that.
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