Too Much Art and Walking in Madrid

As the title already has implied, this post will contain a lot of pictures from some of the most prominent museums in Madrid, including the Prado Museum, Reina Sofia, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and National Archaeological Museum.

Despite having visited Barcelona two times already prior to this trip, I haven’t had the chance to visit Madrid until this recent trip.  After visiting Madrid, you could definitely feel a certain difference between Barcelona and Madrid.

For one, there is way more people in Madrid.  The metros and subways are crammed.  Then there’s the feeling that it feels more “Spanish” in Madrid, which I don’t know how to explain but it just is, possibly with the colors and the whole vibe.  Then, perhaps being influenced by the crammed situation in the metro, there appears to be more people who are more poor as compared to Barcelona.  Anyway, Madrid feels more busy.

While I will be posting about the different restaurants I had in Madrid, I specifically created a separate post for the three star Michelin restaurant we had on the first day, DiverXo.  (Also, I decided to make a separate blog post about Madrid’s food considering the amount of text and images in this blog already, which you can find in Food in Madrid, with the Oldest Restaurant in the World)
Continue reading Too Much Art and Walking in Madrid

Roaming In Athens

Unlike the city of Dubai, Athens is a city to walk around in.  In fact, I would say Athens is a city where you’re supposed to roam around in.  Pretty much everything around here is centered around the Acropolis.

If you’ve never been to Greece before, you may feel a bit nervous or worried; after all, it’s a city that’s been in the news for it’s near bankruptcy, for its austerity measures, for always needing bailout money, and for its high unemployment rates.  I remembered back when I was still working in a brokerage department, markets were falling because of the potential for Greece to default, because of the future that if Greece left the Eurozone, a lot of countries would follow suit, and because of the fear that it would create a domino effect of defaults in Eurozone.  This was back in 2011. Continue reading Roaming In Athens