Great Expectations - Spain

We had great expectations of Spain.  We were familiar with the language, love tapas and seafood, and heard wonderful things about it from many of our friends.  With high hopes, we arrived in Madrid on a one-way flight with no set departure date.

The city of Madrid has a lot going for it.  A wonderful transportation infrastructure would deliver us anywhere in the city quickly and affordably.  We were impressed with the parks which were numerous, vast, and well kept.  And overall, it seemed pretty safe.  Sadly though, we never quite "clicked" with the locals.

We wore our most congenial smiles and used our best Spanish language skills.  We also observed the local behavior and tried our best to emulate it.  Unfortunately, nearly every interaction was met with frowns and seemingly unnecessary complexity that made us feel exhausted and a bit unwelcome.

We hoped things would lighten up in the seaside town of Malaga, anticipating the soft sandy beach and fresh seafood.  The seafood didn't disappoint; it was some of the best we've had in Europe.  The beach was vast and had a lovely and lengthy boardwalk, but wasn't as picturesque as we were led to believe, and while we encountered a few welcoming souls in Malaga, we again ran into several more challenging personalities.

Most trains out of Malaga head north, so we decided to spend a few more days in Madrid to determine if we were being too quick to judge.  We thoroughly enjoyed a day taking in the expansive collection at the Prado Museum, but when things got difficult once more, we sought out the most familiar and comforting thing we could think of...an American language movie theater.  Here, we received a warm welcome from Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in what could be described as the least mentally taxing movie of all time, 'Dumb and Dumber To'.  We ate popcorn, drank a few beers, and suspended reality for nearly two hours in our cocoon of ignorance...It was divine!

After day-trips to the beautifully fortified cities of Toledo and Avila, we decided it was time to move on.  Perhaps we had set the bar too high.  Perhaps we shouldn't have held preconceived notions.  But in the end, we can't help feeling just a little let down by our Spanish encounters.