[L4L] Estadio y Mezquita

Our first amigos in madrid

28 Jan 2012 memoirs.

Hola!

Today we have a lot of place to visit.

We went out as early as the sunrise (sunrise is at 9.30am here)

1st stop, Park del Retiro.

Basically it was just a park with a lake in the middle.

There, we visit palacio de crystal or Crystal Palace.

Yes it's a palace of crystal (mirror)

Then, we went around all the famous monuments here in madrid as the museo del prado, Palacio de cibeles( well kind of),and a big gate which i dont remember the name was.

Then,

the most exciting part of the trip.

To Estadio Santiago Bernabeu!

We went there,

bought a ticket and make a tour.

Well this is the first time any of us get inside one of the famous football club home stadium.

So it was kind of exciting!

Well a trip into a foreign country where Islam is not the majority would not be completed without visiting its mosque.

So we had a gamble.

to search for the unseen mosque.
We had only one clue,

it's located in estrachon.

and thats it.

So we went there from santiago Bernebeu,

and keep on walking until we almost lost of hope,

But in the middle of darkness, comes a hope glimmering itself as we saw a kebap shop,
Not long from it, we saw many women with scarf.
So we know, IT'S NEAR.

So went to the kebap shop,

ask a direction

and voila!

here we are in the central mosque of madrid.

we met a spain-borne muslim,

and we amazed to see how fluent his arabic was.

It was like if your a muslim in spain,

you DEFINITELY can speak in arabic.

So we stayed there until maghrib and solat jumaah with them.

Then we went to the kebap shop for a chicken doner.

ahh this really reminds me of turkiye.

Then we went straight to Opera train station,

have a little walk around madrid,

went to see the Palacio Real and a huge Catedhral there,

and start preparing ourself to go to the bus station for our next journey in Malaga.

prepared half at Estacion de Autobusses de Atoche, and another half at Granada.

[L4L] Rainy Madrid.

"interesting.."

Salam,

and greetings from the Spanish land,

Our flight from Egypt boards at 0945,

takes about 5hour to reach Madrid, Spain.

at around 1300 we arrived at Madrid Barajas Airport.

Our first task is to get into a Metro (Train),

and get to Sol Station.

Its not that hard to find the metro station,
but it get quite exhausting as we have to switch train for about three times to get there.

"We're in Madrid bros!"

Next,

Our guide, Faris, recommend us to stay at Angel-something hostel,

but unfortunately,

it was full and we had no reservation,

So we start to wandering around Madrid on a rainy weather (yes, rainy) while searching for a good hostel.

And..we found one with much cheaper price, alhamdulillah.

Then,

we went to the Autobusses Estacion to buy tickets for our trip to Malaga.

As night fall,

we went to Gran Via,

They say there's a lot of shopping complex,

buttttt, we just walking around on a cold night of Europe.

It was pretty good actually,

the weather is just nice.

We search for a halal food restaurant,

On the internet, they say a halal food restaurant exist nearby named el-califa.

So we went inside,

and,....

just say we dont know how they say it was a halal restaurant.

=.=

We also manage to visit a square named Plaza Mayer.

Not sure what's there.

It's only a square.

Then,

Arif enthusiasm brings us finally to Zara's boutique.

And everyone went shopping like crazy as there's jacket, jeans and many more with half price deductive.

"Zara"

At around 10.30 pm,

we went back to our Hostel.

Make a fine sandwich of tuna and egg.

Buenos Noches!

Gotta wake up early tomorrow!