A Night Walk to Plaza Mayor in Central Madrid
I've finally made it to Spain. The journey here was so nerve-wracking that I completely passed out the moment I arrived at dawn. When I woke up and looked outside, the view was completely empty. They say it's a newly built hotel, but I wonder if it's okay for it to be this isolated.
I was tired enough to just stay in bed all day, but I wasn't sent here to sightsee, so I got ready and headed out to work. My job involved constantly meeting people and talking a lot, but everyone here was so proactive and chatty that it was much easier to work than on other business trips. What really surprised me was lunchtime. We started eating around 1:30 PM, and by 3:00 PM, everyone was still chatting away over their food, making our afternoon schedule just magically disappear. Is this the famous siesta I've only heard about? I love it.
We wrapped things up around 7 PM and needed to grab dinner, so a fellow researcher, our Russian colleague Timur, and I headed into downtown Madrid for some sightseeing and a meal. It was quite far from our hotel, but thankfully, our Spanish colleague Luis drove us to the city center. Of course, that meant listening to Luis chat for about an hour in the car.
After barely making it through Madrid's heavy traffic, we listened to a brief explanation of Luis's recommended "Madrid crash course" and decided to follow it. My head had been so full of not making mistakes on my first business trip that I arrived knowing absolutely nothing about Madrid. Even with a map, I had no idea what anything was. At times like this, it's best to just quietly trust the others. Timur had chatted with Luis for a couple of hours and confidently claimed he knew everything, so I just followed him around for the day.
The Madrid local confidently told us, "If you see this area, you've basically seen all of Madrid," so I just nodded along saying, "Okay! Okay! Great!" even though I was completely clueless. In situations like this, the best strategy is to take photos first and ruminate on them later like a cow. So, I took an endless stream of pictures to document my memories as much as possible.
The route went from the large castle drawn on the far left of the map to the biggest castle on the right. It must have been great local advice, because after returning to Korea, I saw that the cast of the travel show Grandpas Over Flowers walked this exact same route. I didn't realize it while I was there, but it was a strangely satisfying sightseeing experience once I got back home.
Our first designated destination was Plaza Mayor. Located just a short walk down Calle Mayor on the map, Plaza Mayor is a place filled with as many historical incidents as Madrid itself.
At the first intersection, there was an old-looking statue and a building. The building in the back is Iglesia del Sacramento, or Church of Sacramento in English. I looked it up and found out it's a church for the military. I just snapped this photo without knowing much, but while I took it because the building behind looked unique, the statue in front of it is actually much more historically famous.
It's a monument commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack meant to assassinate King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on May 31, 1906. I searched Wikipedia and found out the attack happened on their wedding day. Still, of all the days to choose, why their wedding day?
I wrote "terrorist attack" because the named event is called as such, but from Barcelona's perspective, the perpetrator might be considered a fighter. Anyone with even a slight interest in soccer knows that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have a fierce rivalry, and this attack is one of the historical reasons behind it.
There are a lot of fun things to see while touring Madrid, and these tourists are one of them. Doing a city tour on Segways is a really brilliant idea. Plus, the guide is wearing medieval clothing. It would be like wearing a traditional Korean Hanbok while riding a Segway around Gyeongbokgung Palace—just imagining it sounds fun. I wish I could ride one of those to get around comfortably, as my legs are already hurting.