Madrid, Toledo and my First Impressions of Spain

After almost 40 hours since leaving for the airport in Brisbane, I landed in Madrid. Seeing the vast historic city stretching before me and the snow-capped Pyrenees in the distance brought a tear to my eye as we touched the tarmac and it suddenly hit me that my dream was finally being realised after years of planning.

There’s nothing more nerve-racking than arriving in a new country and you have to have your first conversation in their native language. Spanish language practice doesn’t compare to asking for directions at a train station and trying to keep up. Furthermore, when you speak to someone in Spanish that sounds more than basic, the Spanish speak to you like you’re a native too – like a horse race commentator! Already this week I’ve felt like an idiot for being too nervous to ask people to repeat themselves for clarity and just nodding my head saying “Vale, vale, bien!”

I arrived at my hostel and immediately the girl at the counter commented on how large my backpack is, as if I didn’t receive enough stares on the train at peak hour on the way from the airport. Now I’m super self-conscious about it and even though I’ve thrown out so much to fit everything in, I’m re-thinking buying something super light and forgetting the safety features that make y current luggage so heavy and big. After all, if someone wants to rob my dirty undies, they can go right ahead, it saves me the 11 Euros to wash them.

Day 1 in Madrid started with a walking tour around the centre of the city. The wonderful thing about Madrid is that you can walk to most of the main spots within 30 minutes. Erica, our tour guide from Colombia and now a proud ‘Madrileña’, was full of handy trivial pieces of history that I loved. For example:

3 Handy facts you may not know about Spanish culture

1. Back in the time of the Black Plague, the water source was infected with disease, so people started drinking wine. Obviously drinking wine all day sent the Spanish loopy drunk, so they needed to think of a way to dilute the wine’s strength. How did they do that, you ask? With fruit. And that is how SANGRIA was born.
2. Tapas are small dishes to share, with perhaps 3 or 4 pieces. They are grazing foods. Where did this concept come from? As the Spanish did not want flies and other insects infecting their wine with disease, they covered their glasses with bread and other types of food, calling them ‘lids’. The word for lid in Spanish is ‘tapa’. And that is where TAPAS comes from.
3. Ham is like a religion in Spain. You never want to tell a Spaniard you can find better ham anywhere else. All around the streets of Madrid there are shops with pigs strewn by their hooves from the ceilings. The best ham is the Iberian ham with black hooves. Why is it such a huge industry? Back during the times of the Spanish Inquisition, Jews and Muslims were being persecuted and either forcibly converted, exiled or executed. Those who didn’t want either of those options had to find a really good way to hide their religious faith. Unfortunately, marrying a Christian and going to Sunday mass was not enough. They needed to do something that no God-fearing Jew or Muslim would do. So they started lining up at the markets each week to publicly buy and eat ham. Ham and pork, all day, every day. This led to a huge boom in the ham industry that still reigns supreme in Spain to this day. And let me tell you, it’s delicious!

The Spaniard timetable

In my normal Australian routine, I would traditionally wake up at around 6am, do some exercise, go to work, come home at 7ish, eat dinner at 8 and sleep at 10.30. That has really needed to change since I got to Spain. The Spanish take lunch late from 2pm, take a 2 hour siesta at 4 then return to work. Dinner isn’t until 9pm and all pubs and clubs are empty before midnight. Parties go until 6am and if you still haven’t had enough, after parties in Madrid kick on from 6am until 3pm the following afternoon.

Toledo: the city of 3 cultures

Coming from Australia, a country with only 200 odd years of history, Toledo to the south of Madrid was a must on my list. This picturesque town once was home to the three cultures of Jews, Muslims and Catholics living together. Churches, Mosques and Synagogues all were constructed within metres of each other. I loved walking through the quaint Jewish sectors, squeezing myself through tiny pedestrian-only alleys where you could touch the sides and seeing the beautiful Islam-inspired arches cut from the stone buildings. My piece of advice: Toledo is loaded with tourists and therefore they make the most of the industry offering over-priced guided tours. I personally didn’t get anything out of mine. If you want the background on a place you go to visit, read up on it before you go, or look up the guide’s reviews before you book.

I didn’t do any more day trips, I wanted to sit in a tapas bar drinking sangria and acting like a local. I booked one more night at the hostel and spent my last 2 days wandering the streets browsing shops and practising my Spanish with people in my hostel from Argentina and Costa Rica. Oh, and recovering in my hostel’s salon on their comfy bean bags after a 7am finish after a pub crawl!

Madrid has a lot more to offer, but I’m glad to leave the hustle and bustle on to the more relaxed and warmer Andalusian south.

Next up, Cordoba!