Madrid

I’m back! Sorry I’ve been out of touch for awhile. Last week I was out of commission with a cold and then out of town in Madrid. Luckily, the cold is going away. It had me feeling pretty rough and exhausted. Being sick here is very different because you can’t just run to the Wal-Mart and pick up some Robitussin or NyQuil and when you’re up all night coughing or blowing your nose, you feel guilty for keeping your 3 roommates awake. It seems like everyone in the villa is getting sick though, since we live in such close quarters and are around each other 24 hours a day.

Anyways, on to Madrid…

I got back from Madrid yesterday afternoon, since we had Monday and Tuesday off for Carnevale. Madrid was awesome! I would definitely go back in a heartbeat. I loved the pace of life, the atmosphere of the city, and of course, the food. (Erin has commented on how much of my blog is dedicated to food and said she would expect nothing less of me. Really though, eating different types of food is my favorite part of experiencing new cultures.) We left for Madrid early in the morning on Saturday and spent almost the entire day traveling. Getting to Madrid was no small feat – we had to catch a bus to the train station, a train to Milan, a shuttlebus to the Milan airport, a plane to Madrid, and then switch metro lines 3 times to get to our hostel. I went with my roommates (Ashley, Catherine, and Judith), and we were very proud of ourselves for making it there, considering how many forms of transportation we had to navigate. Once in Madrid, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just walking around and exploring parts of the city, like Puerto del Sol and Plaza Mayor. Because it was carnevale, there were quite a few people dressed up. We saw a Mickey Mouse, Chewbacca, Winnie the Pooh, an overweight Spiderman, and a large group dressed up as valentines. At night, we met up with three of the grad students that live in the villa, who also were visiting Spain this weekend. The group of us went on a sort of “tapas crawl” – we stood at the bars of various tapas restaurants and tried new foods. One of the more interesting places we visted was the “Museum of Ham,” and we also tried pig’s ear and sangria.

On Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at a bakery in Puerto del Sol that had tons of delicious pastries. (We ended up eating there for breakfast the next morning also.) After apple empanadas and chocolate croissants, we visited the Prado Museum, which is an art museum that has a lot of Goya and Velazquez paintings. Just like at the museums in Florence, it was really interesting to see the paintings in real life because we’d studied a lot of the works. After lunch (more delicious tapas –mushroom crepes and sirloin and melted brie on bread), we went to Retiro Park. Retiro Park was my favorite part of the entire trip. It is a 300 acre park, and there was a lot going on there. There were people playing soccer, performing, walking their dogs, and roller blading, and there was an area where you could rent rowboats also. There were lots of gardens and fountains, but the most impressive part of the park was the Crystal Palace in the middle of it. We were able to visit it just before closing, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Since Sunday was Valentine’s day, us four girls treated ourselves to a nice dinner and dessert. We shared a skillet of paella (also delicious), and then went to a bar where we got chocolate cake and a mojitos.

Monday morning, we woke up to snow! It snowed pretty hard - at least a few inches worth – which made it unpleasant go anywhere, since we had limited snow gear with us. Despite the snow, we treked over to the Royal Palace and did a guided tour indoors. The Royal Palace used to be the residence of the Spanish king and queen, and today is still used for state functions held by the Spanish king. The inside was, of couse, really ornate and beautiful. After the Royal Palace, we ate more authentic Spanish cuisine – calamari sandwiches and patatas bravas – and then headed back to our hostel to thaw and dry out. Eventually, the snow turned to really cold rain but we still ventured out to the Reina Sofia museum, which is a modern art museum. They had a lot of Picasso. My friends and I weren’t big fans of most of the work, but we made the visit fun by trying to make up ridiculous names for the even more ridiculous paintings.

Overall, the trip was a really great success, despite the snow/rain and the fact that I was the obnoxious girl loudly blowing her nose in every museum we visited. I’m glad we spent our long weekend enjoying a new city. We were able to do a lot but still had time to relax and have fun. This weekend I am staying at the villa for the first time since the weekend I arrived. I’m looking forward to relaxing and catching up on sleep and work.