Hola Madrid!

Hello everyone! 

Our trip has been off to a fantastic start. We were able to get to our flight without any trouble and the flight was pretty smooth.

 ......for the most part. 

We arrived in Madrid around noon and were picked up by our AirBnB host's brother, who was very charming. He spoke very little English but he still amicably introduced or explained various landmarks and areas to us as we drove. 

Here's our new home for the next week!

It has a cozy, fully stocked kitchen space

A surprisingly comfortable bed and a mini TV that will never be used

And a little dining area. There are also clothes lines outside that window to dry our laundry, since it's typical for families/houses to not have dryers in Western Europe due to expense (or so I've come to believe).

After we unpacked our bags, Megan and I ran out to the supermarket two streets away and stocked up on groceries for the next few days. 

A bottle of wine later, we went out to get lost and explore!

We didn't stay out too long seeing as we were both exhausted, but we already really like our neighborhood.  There are a ton of great places to eat, drink, and people watch that we will definitely be checking out soon. 

Along with lots of prestigious art installations.

While we were wandering we noticed a HUGE building that had nothing to identify what it was, so we decided to check it out. 

I was (pleasantly) surprised to realize we had literally just stumbled upon the Atocha Station! 

The interior is gorgeous and it even has a space for a ton of these little guys. 

We walked around for another hour or so before deciding to call it a night and head home to cook dinner. Megan threw a bunch of stuff together and made this delicious treat:

Okay so I'm terrible lets move on. This was our actual dinner:

Sausage, brussel sprouts, pasta, and more! 

And that's about it for our first few hours here! Now we're going to watch a movie and head to bed. We'll BOTH be posting soon!

-Ben