Our first day in Madrid, Spain began in the airport around 5am, which is 11am back home. Although it felt like nighttime to us, it was just the beginning of our day in Spain! After some time waiting at the airport, Maria Angeles, one of our API tour guides, arrived to take us to our hotel.

Once I arrived at the hotel, I decided to freshen up before heading out to explore the city with a friend. Our hotel is in a prime location, very close to Puerta del Sol, the heart of Madrid. As we walked through the city, we were amazed to see the beautiful architecture. Each building is unique, yet they all complement each other perfectly!

Instead of choosing a specific destination, we chose to wander around and explore freely. Leading up to the trip, we had learned about some of the most popular sites and areas to visit in Madrid. We came across many of these familiar locations as we explored! One of the first we visited was the Mercado de San Miguel, which translates to “The Market of Saint Miguel.” It’s an indoor food and drink market, similar to Faneuil Hall in Boston. It was packed with people (probably because it was lunch time on a Saturday) but that didn’t stop us. We made our way through the crowd to find a wide variety of delicious foods: many different types of meats and cheeses, seafood, breads, beautiful pastries, and more!

 After our stop at Mercado de San Miguel, we ventured on through the city. Soon we found a beautiful garden in front of a large, ornate building. We later realized that this was the Sabatini Gardens outside the Royal Palace of Madrid! The garden was full of people relaxing and enjoying the sunny weather. The white marble statues stand out against a backdrop of lush greenery. In the center of the garden is a long reflection pool with ornate fountains. The garden felt so quiet and still, even though it was so close to the busy city. We gazed in awe at the stunning marble statues throughout the garden, almost all of which are hundreds of years old, yet still incredibly detailed and elegant.

As we ventured on, we saw that the large white building next to the gardens was much bigger than we initially thought. It looked familiar, and I realized that it was the Palacio Real de Madrid, the Royal Palace of Madrid. The palace walls are beautifully ornate, with many statues and carvings. As we walked along another side of the palace, we passed a line of several statues of former kings and queens of Spain. It was incredible to think about how old many of these statues were and how they had stood the test of time.

I had only been in Madrid for a few hours at this point, but I was already in love with the beauty and warmth of the city. I noticed how many people in Madrid seem to be so relaxed and aren’t in a rush to get somewhere, but rather just enjoying the moment. Another thing I noticed was how fashionably dressed everyone was! Although I brought some fairly nice outfits, I still felt a bit underdressed compared to the madrileños, the people of Madrid.

After a few hours of exploring Madrid, we returned to our hotel to go to orientation and dinner. We met up in the hotel lobby with our API tour guide, Maria, and our professor, Julian Zabalbeascoa, before heading out for the orientation presentation. The presentation reviewed our exciting itinerary for the week, as well as some useful information about the culture of Madrid. We were able to ask any questions we had about adapting to the city. We were each given our own personal metro card, with unlimited rides for the month. Madrid is very walkable, but it’s nice to have another option for transportation around the city.

Following the orientation, we all went to a restaurant nearby for a group dinner! Here we also met our second API tour guide, Francisco Correa Jr, or Fran for short. For starters, we were served some amazing Spanish tapas dishes. My favorite was huevos rotos, which is fried eggs broken over ham and fries! The dinner was a great opportunity for all of us to get to talk about what we were looking forward to in Madrid and get to know each other better. After the dinner, I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep after the long and busy day.

After just one day in Madrid, I can already say how incredible it is. Every moment walking in the city feels special. I can’t wait to see more of what the city has to offer!