My second stop on my graduation backpacking trip in Europe was in Madrid, Spain! My friends and I flew here mid afternoon on a Wednesday from Lisbon, Portugal, and then flew to Lyon, France on Friday morning. We had one full day + one evening in Madrid, but we definitely made the most of it!
In this blog, I’m going to shared everything we did in our 48 hours in Madrid! Feel free to use this as your own itinerary, or pull ideas from it. I’ve also included every restaurant / bakery we tried, so definitely look out for those recommendations!
Madrid at a Glance:
- Night One: Where to have dinner & dessert
- Breakfast in Madrid
- El Retiro Park
- Discovering local Spanish artists!
- The most amazing empanadas
- Night Two: Dinner + Club Kapital
- Last breakfast in Madrid
Night One in Madrid: Dinner, Wine, & Dessert
Our first day in Madrid on Wednesday, we landed around 4pm and got to our Airbnb by 5pm. Our Airbnb was about 45 minutes from the airport by metro, and the metro here was super easy to figure out. We stayed in the neighborhood of Lavapiés which was a nice area! From here, the center of Madrid was about a 20 minute walk (uphill), and El Retiro Park was about 20 minutes away as well.
Once we got to the Airbnb, we settled in for a little bit and freshened up, then headed out to the center of Madrid around 8pm to look for dinner. In Madrid, I really wanted to share tapas with my friends since when I visited Barcelona solo I wasn’t able to!
We came across this place called Tapas & Más so we decided to give it a shot. We ordered a few tapas to share here, but they unfortunately weren’t very impressive. We had the patatas bravas, fried brie, a hummus dish, grilled egg plant with balsamic drizzle, and mushrooms. The mushrooms and egg plant were actually really tasty, and those are two things I don’t normally choose to eat. The patatas bravas sadly wasn’t great.
After dinner, we had a glass of wine at a restaurant at Taberna Sidrería El Fontán in Plaza de Canalejas. It was so cute, I wish we had dinner here! They even brought out this fried dish for an appetizer for free. I don’t remember exactly what it was but it was yummy and had meat in it, so Emma and Rohini didn’t try it since they’re vegetarian. If you’re looking for a Spanish restaurant in Madrid, definitely come here!! They specialize in Asturian dishes, which comes from the Asturias region in the northwest of Spain.
Before heading back to the Airbnb for the night, we made one last stop at an ice cream shop called Bico de Xeado. It was so good! This was the perfect refreshing dessert.
Breakfast in Madrid
We started our day in Madrid a bit later than normal, around 11am, and first went to the Humana Vintage store right near our Airbnb to look for jackets since it was a bit chillier than we expected it to be. I had been to a Humana Vintage in Milan the year before and loved it so I wanted to go to one in Spain! It’s basically a second hand store with tons of good quality pieces of clothing for a great price. Emma found a really nice, vintage, leather jacket for 30 euros! I found this really cute pink/purple jacket with a Spanish horses & royalty print on the inside. I don’t know what brand it is but the jacket was perfect for what I needed it for! Rohini had found a nice blue sweater to put over her tops. We all found unique pieces that complimented the clothes we brought on the trip really well.
After shopping at Humana Vintage, we found lunch at a café on Plaza del Ángel (I don’t remember the name). I was excited to try their avocado toast but was disappointed because it was topped with a fluffy but slimey cheese that I wasn’t a fan of. It also had tomatoes and avocados, and those can both be a hit or miss for me too.
However, I really liked their tortillas, which are not the tortillas you would normally think. A Spanish tortilla is an omelette made with eggs and potatoes with a side of toast. This made up for the avocado toast! For dessert, yes dessert at breakfast, we all shared the best chocolate raspberry cake I’ve ever tasted! It was very dense and rich, and the raspberry flavor perfectly complimented the chocolate.
El Retiro Park
After breakfast, it was about 1:30pm so we made out way to El Retiro Park! This was the main thing we wanted to see today. This park was huge – definitely the biggest park I’ve ever been to, and probably the most beautiful too. You can easily get lost in there after only five minutes.
We spent a few hours exploring here and it was so peaceful! Afterwards, we headed back to the Airbnb to rest for a little while before dinner. On our way back, I was in search of a little snack, mainly an empanada, to hold me off until dinner because we were planning on eating much later around 10pm since we wanted to go to Club Kapital, and everyone goes to the clubs until much later in Europe.
Free concert!
While keeping our eyes out for an empanada, we started to hear loud music coming from a street over. We realized there was a live concert going on in this large building, so we decided to check it out!
This concert ended up being completely free to enter, so we went in to see what all the hype was! Turns out, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía was hosting a music festival to celebrate Día Internacional de los Museos, or International Museum Day. The festival was featuring tons of local Spanish music groups, so we were able to enjoy a ton of different Spanish music!
The concert was so much fun. There were people of all ages there to enjoy the music. Each band played 3-4 songs, and we stayed for a few bands so we were able to hear lots of different styles! My favorite band that we saw was Hermana Furia. They are a Spanish rock band and had so much energy! I had no clue what they were saying but their energy was amazing and I had so much fun – I even listen to them on Spotify now!
After enjoying the free concert, we decided to finally go back to the Airbnb for a nap. Right before we crossed onto our street for the Airbnb, we found this cute little (and I mean little) bakery that had empanadas! I had a chicken empanada and it was huge! It was so tasty and very filling, I was so happy we found this place. The bakery is called Levaduramadre, and I definitely recommend trying it out when you visit Madrid!
Night 2 in Madrid: Club Kapital
For our second dinner in Madrid, we found a restaurant right near Club Kapital. It was an Italian restaurant called Oven Mozzarella Atocha and it was so good! I had the lasagna bolognese and it was heavenly. I would definitely come back here.
Another thing I loved about this restaurant, is that we could see when a line started to form at Club Kapital across the street.
Club Kapital is one of the most popular clubs in Europe, and the biggest in all of Madrid. It’s known for being 7 stories tall, and each floor has a different theme! The club opens at 11pm, so we went after 12 so we weren’t the first ones there. At midnight, we were definitely still on the early end, but since we had to wake up at 9am the next day, we didn’t want to start clubbing at 2am when the club actually starts to get really busy.
Since we were there on a Thursday night, not all of the floors were open, but we were still able to bounce around between the different themes. I won’t spoil the themes on each floor because I think it’s more fun to discover it yourself! We stayed here for a few hours and maybe headed back to the Airbnb around 3:30am. The club was a lot of fun, especially for it being a Thursday!
Last morning in Madrid
Even though we were out super late the night before, we were still able to wake up and check out of our Airbnb with plenty of time to grab a quick breakfast on the go before heading to the airport.
We of course stopped at Levaduramadre again because we loved their empanadas and wanted to try their pastries this time! I had a poppyseed muffin filled with a raspberry jam. This muffin was so filling, I only needed a small snack for lunch!
After enjoying our little breakfast outside the bakery on the streets of Madrid, we went to the airport by metro to catch our flight to Lyon, France.
Even though we only spend one full day in Madrid, I loved exploring the city! I would love to come back one day and spend more time to really appreciate everything the city offers.
Stay tuned for my blog on our third stop of our graduation backpacking trip in Lyon, France!
Xx
Carmela
Under The Sun 
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