Mad about Madrid - Capítulo Uno

Ahhhh, Spain. After ten hours of flying and sitting through "Music and Lyrics", I finally made it to Madrid.

Madrid is like any other city in Europe with their McDonald's, left hand driving and assortment of Cheetos products. Visually, it is a little like Germany, Italy and well, Spain combined all in one. I am staying at the beautiful Hotel Preciados in the heart of the Financial District (read: titty bars) and am just so excited to be here!
!

My most excellent hotel room. Hard wood floors, clean lines, frosted closet doors, bleached wood furniture, it's like every design geek's wet dream!
!
You gotta love the Europeans! Only here would they think to be green enough to tie all of the electric use in your room to this nifty little device. Electricity will flow only if you have your room key inserted in the special slot in the wall. Make sure you grab your room key before you leave for the day!
!
Cafe de Oriente - Madrid was originally an Arab city (Madrid means water that flows underneath) before the Spanish made this hard core Spain. This restaurant is very, very old and upon renovating the basement, they found the ruins of an Arab settlement. We dined here the first night and had our very first tapas! Tapas is the norm here in Spain. Derived from the word tapas (duh). In the old days, to prevent flys (Spanish I would assume) from getting in your drink, local establishments placed plates (tapas) over the glass. Someone got wise to the fact that small portions of salty foods made people want to drink more thus the Spanish culture was born!
!
It was an exciting first day and I can't wait to tell you all more about my adventures through Spain. As long as my connection holds up and I can translate everything from Blogger.es, I should be fine!
!