Real Madrid (Royal Madrid)

Madrid is much like I had remembered from my brief experience here some years ago: a bustling European capital that combines old world tradition and new world modernity. Minutes after arriving in Bajaras airport, I knew I was back in Spain: a fact reiterated by the Castillian Spanish that relies heavily on the ¨th¨ sound, the ubiquitous scent of smoke (despite the warning that ¨fumar puede matar¨, and the cosmopolitan ¨metros¨ (referring not only to a means of public transport but also to a mode of fashion). My first few days will be spent catching up with a friend and enjoying the missed tranquility of first world comfort. Intense itineraries of former travels will be be substituted for a passive observation of life in Madrid... at least initially.