Thursday February 22...Due to the night train from Lisbon, I arrived in Madrid around 8AM. I found a room at
one of the hotels that was full the week before. I dropped off my stuff, took a shower, and then walked around
Madrid.
I found a really good restaurant, Casa Ciriaco. It was founded in 1917, has some history with it, and it was
quite excellent. The waiter brought me the menu and recommended some food. I did not really look at the menu
and just said "Si" to his suggestions and he was quite happy that I just trusted him. The food was quite excellent.
And then he brought out the dessert menu. I was about to order the Rice and Milk dessert that I knew. But
he said "No" and told me he was going to order something off the menu, which he said was "authentic Spanish".
It was some donut like thing with cinnamon that was quite good.
Afterwards, I went to the Palacio Real (The Royal Palace), which was quite impressive. The King of Spain was actually there the day
before. I walked around Madrid some more and had KFC for dinner. I was feeling like I wanted something familiar.
I am a big fan of KFC in the US.
I had also decided earlier to see a movie in Madrid. I saw that Traffic was playing, and I wanted to see it
since I heard good things about it. So I found a VO (English with Spanish subtitles) theater so I could understand
the movie. I got to the theater about 5 minutes late and walked in. I was completely confused as the movie
was in Spanish. I became worried that I went to the wrong movie. Then the movie went to a scene with Michael
Douglas with Spanish subtitles. As those of you who have seen the movie know, the parts of the movie in Mexico
are in Spanish with English subtitles. Of course in Spain, they do NOT need the English subtitles. So I watched
Traffic, where I could only vaguely understand the Spanish speaking parts of the movie. I still liked the movie though.
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Palacio Real
Plaza de Espana
Puerta de Alcala
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