International Tourism in Spain – Today is Sunday, April 29th and today we travelled from Alicante to Madrid on the train. Our train left Alicante at 10:20 and we arrived in Madrid nearly 3 hrs later. Luckily we had no delays! A group of us took a taxi to the hostel and the other group took the subway.

The hostel turned out to be better then I expected. The rooms are very large with 3 different balconies with absolutely beautiful views of the city. I am loving it here. Also, there is a place on our floor that you can just relax on a bean bag chair or swing on some swings, really cool spot. We all have checked it out already.

After dropping off our bags we set out to find something to eat. Peter found a restaurant online (Gastromaquia restaurant) that we agreed on and let me tell you it didn't disappoint.

 I got the bbq ribs and pototoes seasoned with garlic and some other spices and for dessert I had New York cheesecake.  It was delicious, definitely the highlight of my day. Everyone else seemed very pleased with their meals as well. After that we walked around the city until we found the hop on, hop off bus.

Unfortunately it started to hail and then rain really hard. We ended up on the top level of the double decker bus which was super wet and cold because there was no windows. Although the weather wasn't the best  I was able to get some nice pictures of the city. After we got off the bus we decided to go shopping. I was excited to go to the Real Madrid official store and find some gifts for family back home.

Another  exciting part of my day is finding a Tim Hortons  in Madrid because of the weather people were wishing they had coffees, hot chocolates etc and then within 3 blocks of us walking there it was , Tim Hortons. We all felt like we were back home in Canada in that moment.

We walked back to the hostel afterwards and chilled for the rest of the night, got something to eat, and had a great discussion with the group before bed. Hopefully the weather will be better tommorow. Overall I really enjoyed my first day in Madrid, I love the architecture! I am looking forward to seeing as much as I can tommorow before we leave on Tuesday. 

Kayla Sutton

Tourism Management Student

NSCC Akerley Campus