Our trip began with an 8 hour overnight flight from Atlanta to Madrid. We arrived to the city around 9 AM, which translated to 3 AM our time. Most of us were already starting to feel the effects of jet lag, but it didn't stop our excitement of having a full day in the city ahead of us.
At the airport, we were happily greeted by our tour guides, Carmen and Leo, who proceeded to take us on a bus tour of the city of Madrid. We picked up another tour guide, Ernesto, along our way and he brought even more life to our welcome and provided us with information about the city's notable sights.
Most of our first day was sightseeing and getting familiar with the city. On our bus tour, we drove around Madrid and saw sights along numerous streets such as Calle Mayor and Calle de Atocha. We saw places like the Plaza de Toros, the Casa de Campo (where we got an overlook of the city), the Almudena Cathedral, and The Royal Palace of Madrid. We also got sneak peeks at the places we would later visit on our trip.
After the bus tour and dropping our bags off at the hotel, we walked to the local Mercado San Anton for lunch. We all split up within the market, eating a variety of food while exploring its various vendors.
Following lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a little siesta (to recover from the flight) before reconvening for our walking tour later that evening.
On our walking tour, we explored the streets of Madrid. We visited the Mercado de San Miguel, which reminded us of a few food markets back in Atlanta. We also walked to the Plaza Mayor, Puerta de Sol (we stood in the very center of Spain!!), Plaza De Santa Ana and Plaza del Angel.
We explored these places even further with the free time we were given for the rest of the evening. For dinner, we decided to have a nice sit down dinner eating tapas in Plaza Mayor. With locals out and about, live accordion music, and gorgeous weather, dinner was truly a great way to begin the end of our busy day. In addition to the nice dinner, we had to top it off by going to the popular chocolatería, San Ginés, to get churros and hot chocolate for dessert.
