EATING VEGAN IN... MADRID (PART TWO)
Side note: please read part one of my Eating Vegan In Madrid series before you get in to this post. You can read part one here.
Day Four: Long Walks, Pool Day and a Night to Not Remember
It was our fourth day of our trip and tonight was the night that we had planned to go out, so we allowed ourselves to have a little bit of a lie in this morning as we did not want to be too tired to go out at night.
It was approaching 36 degrees in Madrid and we were hot, sweaty and wanted a dip in a pool. We googled pools that were close to us and found only one that was open on a Saturday and that was a reasonable distance away from where we were staying.
The pool was called Casa de Campo and it was a thirty-six-minute walk from our hotel. As we were staying bang in the centre of Madrid, we hadn’t ventured too far out of that area, except for when we visited the stadium the day before. We ate near our hotel, and most of the big attractions such as the Royal Palace were in walking distance from us. It was extremely easy to get a metro to the pool, as the stop would take us directly to Casa de Campo, however we thought why not venture out and take a walk?
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| The Hotel to Cash De Campo Image taken from Google Maps. |
We got up and ready and left our hotel at around 11am, ready to walk to the pool. We stopped off at Lidl on the way to get some bread, crisps and water, which came to a grand total of 1.80€.
The walk was really easy, it was just an extremely long road, so it wasn’t too exciting. We got a nice view of the Royal Palace on the way and we stopped once for a sit down and a sip of water.
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| The Royal Palace |
We arrived at Casa de Campo, located in Lago, at around midday. Surprisingly for a Saturday, it was not as busy as we thought. We queued for around five minutes, paid 3.60€ for the whole day and found a spot to lie in the sun and relax for the next five hours.
We both had regular dips in the pool, which to our excitement was FREEZING. I topped up my sun cream every ten minutes, as I knew if I went home with my ginger skin burnt, my mum would kill me.
Of course, we stopped off for a beer and received some olives, (Katie was not happy about it). The bill came to 6€ for two beers, so we paid and walked the rest of the way back.
As it got later in Madrid, it was only getting hotter, so the walk back was pretty rough. We stopped off at Lidl again to pick up some wine, and some breakfast for the morning. We also picked up some extra snacks, water and some fizzy drinks in order to prepare for our hangovers tomorrow. The total shop came to 11€, which included the alcohol. I was still in disbelief at how cheap Lidl in Madrid was. It was definitely worth the thirteen-minute walk to and from our hotel.
After lugging around our shopping, we finally made it back to our hotel. We showered, got changed and managed to make it out for food at 8pm.
I was posting all my vegan finds in Madrid on my Instagram page, emeatsvegan, and a woman, (username @astasiulis), commented on one of my posts saying that she lived in Madrid and had a few recommendations of her favourite places to eat in Madrid. One of these was an all you can eat vegan Chinese buffet. I was sold at all you can eat, so off we went.
The restaurant was called SHI-SHANG and it was 5 minutes away from our hotel. When we arrived, the restaurant was completely empty, and they didn’t have any music, so it was extremely quiet and made me want to whisper when I was talking. We easily found a table for two in the empty restaurant, so we sat down, ordered two beers and were able to go up to the buffet straight away.
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| The Hotel to SHI-SHANG Image taken from Google Maps. |
Everything in this restaurant was 100% vegan, which made it extremely easy to pile my plate full of food, as nothing was labelled on the buffet. There were lots of fake meats, rice, chow miens, vegetable spring rolls, sushi and noodle dishes. I only wish I got a photograph of the buffet, as the selection of food was really impressive, although I did end up putting most of the buffet on my plate.
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| Chinese Buffet Instagram: emeatsvegan |
If you are a meat eater who is curious about going vegan and branching into vegan food, this is a great place to eat. Likewise, if you are a vegan who loves the taste of meat (believe me most of us do), this is again, a wonderful place to eat. However, as someone who has been vegan for nearly 2 years now and hasn’t eaten meat in an even longer time, the taste and the texture of the fake meat was a little too real for me. I would never have guessed this food was vegan. It was amazing, but I just had it in my head that it was meat and it unsettled me a little. The food really did taste great, but honestly, I think I just prefer vegetables and wholefoods, as oppose to imitations of meat.
Overall
· Food – 6/10 – personal opinion, I’m sure so many people would have loved this.
· Atmosphere 2/10
· Service – 3/10 – no one served us or took our plates away and we had to pay at the bar.
I wasn’t disappointed by the evening at all, it was really great and for 8.75€ a person it was worth it, but I doubt I would go back if I ever was in Madrid again. After our food, we headed back to our hotel to drink. We each drank a bottle of wine each and decided where we wanted to go out that night. We were keen to go clubbing, however, after looking at online reviews it seemed like most clubs were 20€ to get in, and there were many cases of people being mugged, so we thought we’d go bar hopping instead.
Our Dad’s friend recommended an Irish bar called La Fontana de Oro, and luckily, this was very close to where we had our tapas the night before.
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| The Hotel to La Fontana de Oro Image taken from Google Maps. |
The bar was packed and there were a few live bands on, so it had a great atmosphere. We ordered two “single” vodkas and orange, (the barmaid filled half a pint glass with vodka and topped it up with orange), and we were charged 16€ for both. This was really reasonable considering the amount of alcohol that was in the drink, however there’s always this expectation that on holiday drinks are cheap, so it did feel like a lot of money.
The Irish bar had a great atmosphere and unsurprisingly lots of English people were there
We spent most the night there, and I wish I could give a full review but honestly, I can’t remember half the night. I do know that we went to another bar after this for a drink, but I do not know how or when we got home, but we did have a good night. Now for some sleep and a long wait until the dreaded hangover.
Day Five: Hangovers, Lazy Days and The Last Supper
It was our last day in Madrid and we woke up pretty late after being out the night before. I usually cope reasonably well with a hangover if I shower, brush my teeth and eat something. My sister on the other hand, is the opposite. Hangovers hit her like a TRAIN.
As you can imagine, we had a pretty slow morning. Katie refused to get out of bed until 12, I threw up after eating too many crisp sandwiches for breakfast and we were both feeling rather rough. The only thing we wanted to do that day was absolutely nothing, so it seemed like our best option for the day would be to return to Casa de Campo and spend the day lying by the pool again. We had already seen everything we wanted to in Madrid, so we were both pretty happy with our plan.
If we were going to spend the day at the pool today, we decided that we were in no fit state to walk for half an hour to get there. So, we decided to get the metro from Plaza de Espana, (about a 10-minute walk from our hotel) to Lago, which would drop us off right outside the pool.
As we had already purchased our metro cards upon our arrival, the journey to the pool cost up 1,50€, an absolute bargain. We were beginning to wonder why we didn’t just get the metro in the first place.
We arrived at the pool at 1.30pm and it was definitely busier than the day before. We queued for around 10 minutes and finally we were let in. We sunbathed our hangovers off and immersing ourselves in the freezing water definitely helped too.
After spending 6 hours at the pool, we got a little hungry and headed back to Lago metro station. We arrived back the hotel at around 8pm and debated what we wanted to eat for dinner. After agreeing that we both wanted tapas on our last night in Spain and since we had already had an incredible experience at Taberno Malaspina a couple of nights ago, we knew we needed to go back.
We made ourselves look a little more presentable and with a heavy heart, off we went for our last meal in Madrid.
Katie and I were seated and ready to order for about 9pm. We went for the roasted vegetables, patatas bravas, olives, bread and 2 glasses of sangria. This time, we were about the share the food as it was all vegan.
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| Patatas Bravas Instagram: emeatsvegan |
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| Roasted Vegetables Instagram: emeatsvegan |
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| Olives Instagram: emeatsvegan |
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| Bread Instagram: emeatsvegan |
Again, the food and service were incredible. It was a little quieter than it was on Friday night, but it was still a great atmosphere. We finished up and the bill came to a measly 15,80€. Another brilliant meal for a ridiculously low price. If you are ever in Madrid, I would highly recommend visiting Taberno Malansana. You will not regret it.
Usually after every meal we would stop off at a bar on the way home for a drink, but seeing as we were still feeling rather delicate, we swapped the drink for an ice cream. We hopped on Trip Advisor to see if we could find a vegan ice cream parlour, and after visiting several places that claimed to be vegan but only offering sorbet, we finally found one.
The ice cream parlour was called Heladeria Madrid - Gialatto, and upon looking at the allergy list, it appeared there was only one ice cream flavour that was vegan, however, I couldn’t spot the flavour on the counter.
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| Taberna Malaspina to Heladeria Madrid Image taken from Google Maps. |
The place closed in half an hour and it wasn’t very busy, so I asked the woman if she had any vegan ice cream left. She explained they kept the vegan ice cream in the back separate from the dairy ice cream, which looking back, was a really good idea. She rolled off a list of flavours including tiramisu, caramel and chocolate, all which were made from rice milk. I went for the chocolate flavour and had it in a tub. I wasn’t entirely certain if they had vegan ice cream cones, as she mentioned the cones being gluten free, but did not confirm if they had dairy in them or not. I decided to go for the safe option and get my ice cream in a tub. This was definitely the best decision, as I was so full from the meal I just ate.
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| Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Instagram: emeatsvegan |
The ice cream tasted great. It was very rich, and it reminded me of the accidentally vegan Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, (I am 100% sure it was not).
We ate our ice cream on the walk home and got an early night ready for our flight home tomorrow. After packing and catching up on a bit of Love Island, we went to sleep feeling great about the past 5 days in Madrid. Little did we know what a nightmare of a day we were about to be in for.
Day Six: The Disaster
It was time to leave Madrid. Our checkout time was 12pm and our flight time was at 4.20pm. Seeing as we had already packed last night, we were able to have a pretty slow morning. We checkout out at around 11am and left our bags in the lobby whilst we spent our last couple of hours walking around the city for the final time.
If you are planning on staying in Madrid, I would highly recommend staying at the Intur Palacio San Martin Hotel. With the perfect location in walking distance of every tourist attraction, and being 450€ for 5 nights, it really is a great place to stay.
Once we were rid of our luggage, we set off to find some souvenirs for our parents. Whenever someone in the family visits another country, we always bring back a fridge magnet to put in the family home. We purchased one for 3€ and decided to get them some alcohol at duty free.
It was around 1pm by the time we got back to our hotel to pick up our bags. We were unsure how long it would take us to get to the airport and through security, so we opted to leave sooner rather than later.
With the one change on the metro, it took us around 40 minutes to get to the airport, so we were pretty early for our flight. We only took hand luggage and we had already checked in online, so we got through security and to duty free pretty speedily.
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| The Hotel to The Airport Image taken from Google Maps. |
From duty free we bought our Mum and Dad a litre bottle of Absolute Vodka for just 14€, and after wondering around the airport, we realised we were starving.
Let me tell you this; Madrid airport is NOT vegan friendly. The only thing I could find that was vegan were some chips from Burger King. I was starving, so I could not complain. I ate up all my chips and it was time to walk to our gate ready to board our flight home to Liverpool. This is where things start to go wrong.
In the queue for boarding, my sister realised she had left her flat keys in the drawer of our hotel room. I had left a few bits and pieces in her flat in Liverpool and I was going to pick them up once we landed, however seeing as we didn’t have any keys this was not possible.
This wasn’t a major issue, as she had a friend to stay with whilst she worked out a way to get her keys back. After a quick email to the hotel, they confirmed that they would send her keys to her building’s reception and they would be with her in a matter of days. As for my things, my sister would be back home in Shrewsbury in a couple of weeks, so she could just bring them to me then. The first drama was over.
We seemed to be boarding the plane early, having gotten into our seats before 4pm. We were hoping for an early take off, meaning an early land at just after 5pm in Liverpool… or so we hoped.
The plane was actually late in taking off, but only by half an hour, so we weren’t too stressed. The flight lasted 2 hours and we watched a couple of films on the plane to pass the time. Before you knew it, the announcement was made that we were ready to prepare for landing. I was surprised because the journey went by so quickly, (thank you Netflix).
Just as we were about the hit the ground, the plane starting the move back up into the sky. This was a little unusual and we were nervous that something had gone wrong and the plane could not land. A stewardess informed us that this was purely for operational reasons and there was nothing to worry about. This definitely calmed us down.
We were flying around for about 10 minutes and we seemed to be making a U-turn back towards Liverpool airport. However, the plane didn’t seem to turn all the way round and as we were preparing to hit the ground, the captain informed us that we would be landing in Manchester instead.
I currently live in Shrewsbury which is 2 hours away from Liverpool, (our original landing spot), and 1 hour 20 minutes away from Manchester. I already had a train ticket from Liverpool to Shrewsbury and didn’t really want to spend another £17 on a ticket from Manchester to Shrewsbury, but I wasn’t really too bothered about this if it meant we could get off the plane and get moving.
At this point it was 6pm PST. We were all waiting on the plane for about 20 minutes before the captain said he was going to try and fly us back over to Liverpool, instead of letting us off at Manchester. I was fine with this, as I said, I had a train ticket to use from Liverpool and I didn’t mind waiting a few minutes to get back in the air and get home.
We were told the reason as to why we couldn’t originally land in Liverpool was due to birds being in the way of landing, so we had to quickly avoid them. Of course, I was grateful we didn’t hit the birds, but considering how much I do for animals, you think they would return the favour to me.
I looked at the time and it was now 7pm. We still had not moved from Manchester airport.
The captain then informed us that he was fuelling up the aircraft and we could be up in the air in the next 15 minutes IF we all wanted to fly.
He went on to explain that it is our right to refuse to fly to Liverpool and remain in Manchester, as he could not fly anyone who did not want to fly. This would mean waiting on the plane at Manchester airport until 8.30pm, (3 hours after we were meant to land in Liverpool), as he had to arrange for Manchester Airport security to prepare for our arrival into the airport. So, we had two options here: either leave in 15 minutes, fly over to Liverpool and get moving, or we sit on a cramped plane for an hour and a half waiting for someone to collect us.
It was obvious to me and most people around me that we all just wanted to get moving and go to Liverpool like we were supposed to in the first place. At this point we were 2 hours behind schedule and I could have been on my way to Shrewsbury on the train by now.
We waited for another half an hour for the captain to finally confirm that we were ready to go, asking us if anyone objected to flying. Of course, one woman did not want to fly. Instead, she wanted to wait another hour and a half on the plane and get off at Manchester.
If one woman was getting off, it meant we all had to get off. So, there we were, stuck on a plane; cold, hungry, tired and angry.
I have no idea why this woman did not want to fly. I heard that she was scared of the birds and perhaps she was a nervous flyer. I completely get that, but you can understand our annoyance. I just wanted to be home.
It was now half 8 and not much had happened apart from a lot of arguments and the police coming on board, but eventually we were let off the plane and ready to go home.
There was a replacement coach service to Liverpool that easyjet were providing, however, I did not want to wait for that coach and I did not want to wait for everyone to load their bags on, I just wanted to go home. So, I made the decision to get the 9.05 train from Manchester Airport to Shrewsbury and my sister got the 20.50 train to Liverpool, and at 11.15pm I finally touched down in Shrewsbury station after 10 hours of travelling.
To say this was not the dream ending to our holiday we were hoping for, would be an understatement. But right now, I am just glad I am home.
To summarise, Madrid is a beautiful city with beautiful food, people, building and attractions. I had an amazing first visit in Madrid, and I would 100% go back there. As a vegan, it was surprisingly easy to find food to eat and what made it easier was my incredible sister, who I know is so fussy and would have probably preferred to dine out at restaurants she wanted to eat at, but she did not complain once and I had the BEST time.
Thank you for reading my Madrid diaries, hopefully this year I get to travel again and explore more vegan eats.
Emma xx
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