ikea mondays

mondays in madrid are the worst for tourists. most museums and other places of interest are closed, and to make up for this, susie and i would go to ikea over at san sebastian de los reyes.

to do this, we had to go to the plaza de castilla metro stop, which is just a short ride from cuzco or tetuán. plaza de castilla is a huge intercambiador, or transportation interchange, where one can take a bus or train to other parts of spain.

bus 156, which goes to san sebastian de los reyes in 30 minutes, is in dársena 23. buses usually leave every 15 minutes, and the fare is €1,65 one way. you pay this when you get on the bus. it's always best to have exact change (avoid paying in bills or the driver will not be happy).

san sebastian de los reyes is warehouse city. there are plenty of industrial stores, such as media markt for gadgets, leroy merlin for your hardware needs, and of course, IKEA! for some reason, my trips to ikea from singapore has made me equate the place with good food rather than good furniture. that's because i never miss out on their delicious swedish meatballs whenever i go there, no matter what part of the world i'm in.

on my first visit to ikea in s.s. de los reyes, i got so attracted to all the food, that i got myself a dish of meatballs, or albóndigas, (10 pieces) with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce (€4,50), and a plate of salmon (€5,50). that's two huge plates for €10,00, which was the usual price i would pay for a menu del dia in the city center. not bad, eh?

on our second trip, i knew better. i had read that ikea had a promo from 5pm until closing--10 pieces of meatballs, with potatoes and lingonberry sauce, is sold at just €1,00! being the cheapskate that i am, i timed our visit the following monday to coincide with the special offer, and we ended up having such filling el cheapo meals!

it's okay to be such gluttons in ikea, because after eating, you still have the rest of the store to walk through. i enjoyed looking at their sample houses in the premises, which had a lot of good interior design suggestions. there were so many things there that i wanted to buy, and i swore that the next time i'm going to madrid, i have to take an empty suitcase and fill it with ikea stuff.