Spain Is Prettier Than Portugal But Not As Friendly…

After a day of wandering around in Madrid, we’ve come to the conclusion that Madrid is definitely beautiful and a more well-kept city than Lisbon or Porto, but the people here seem cold, snobby, and completely unwilling to help if you don’t speak Spanish!  Even the girl at the McDonald’s counter wouldn’t acknowledge my attempt to order a Quarter Pounder with cheese until I made a mangled attempt to pronounce it in Spanish (which FYI is Cuarto di Libra) and I ended up eating my McNuggets with BBQ sauce because I had no clue how to say Sweet-And-Sour in Spanish (editor’s note: Maybe she’s originally from France?)

So far we’ve walked over to the rather large Retiro Park built for King Philip IV, checked out Plaza Mayor (Madrid’s most central Plaza), and walked around the Puerta del Sol, the heart of Madrid’s historic center.  Since arriving yesterday, we’ve mostly stuck with fast food and fruit and stuff from the grocery store because Paul is still feeling the effects of the food poisoning and isn’t ready to be adventurous yet.  The other problem is that we don’t have a clue how to read the menus and order stuff here – I’m actually dying to try tapas but none of the menus we checked out while wandering made any sense and after struggling to order McDonald’s, I don’t know how I’m going to get stuff at a restaurant that doesn’t seem to have a full menu – just plates of pre-made tapas behind the counter!

There’s also a possibility that people keep speaking Spanish to me because they think I’m part of the large Filipino population here – so far two Filipino people have asked me if I’m from the Philippines.  In Portugal, being Asian made me an obvious tourist so people would try to communicate with hand “guesstures” and pointing, but in Spain there’s quite a few Asians around who do speak the language!

I just hope we will find somewhere to eat and be able to get by with just English.  At this rate, I am going to do a little dance for joy when we reach the UK and people speak English again!