Madrid

(One of the first things we saw in Madrid... though we never figured out what the name/purpose of that building...)

¡Caramba! It is absolutely amazing to me that I have already been in Spain for 3 weeks. I feel like I should be fluent in Spanish! I'm not, but the past two weeks sure have bumped me up a couple of notches. On the Friday following our final exam I took a train to Madrid to meet up with my girlfriend and one of her friends. It wasn't until I was on the train (I guess because I had been so focused on the final) that I realized three things: 1) LoLo doesn't have a cellphone 2) I don't know the name of her hotel - I had somehow misplaced that information in route to the train - and 3) Madrid is the biggest city in Spain. These thoughts, combined with the anxiousness that I was already feeling, obviously caused me a bit of worry; but "Marley and Me" was playing on the tv in spanish and that substantially distracted me for a couple of hours. Just as the train was nearing its approach I received the phone call that I had been resting all of my hopes upon - LoLo was able to use the hotel phone and from there we took advantage of Madrid's highly effective metro system to meet up with each other relatively painlessly. We walked around the city a bit - me the experienced foreigner as they were still overcome by the jet lag a day and a half of traveling can give (not to mention the 8 hour time difference).

The next day we went to the Palacio Real - the official residence of the royal family of Spain. It really instils a new idea of what "big house" means. With 3000 rooms, a dining table for 180 people and an armory the size of a football field, the massive structure structure makes those so called mansions in Aspen look like little ant hills.

(Above: In front of the Palacio Real. The Statue is a representation of King Felipe IV)

We toured the Palacio with a handy little microphone type thing as our guide - you press the numbers corresponding to the room you are in and then the microphone gives you the history of that particular room. Unfortunately, I had misread the order of the numbers and therefore was intently  listening to the descriptions of the room completely  opposite of where I was. Everything looked too similar for me to distinguish via the audio description however, and, acting as the tour guide, I relayed all of the information to LoLo and Kandace under the impression that it was factual. We would oo and ahh and it wasn't until one of them took over audio duties that we found out that we should go ahead and forget everything we had just "learned". Needless to say, I was no longer allowed to be the official tour guide and we had to go back to number 1 on the map. (Towards the end of the tour, just to put the icing on the cake regarding my relationship with that microphone, I was swinging it around on the cord when it went flying off, hit the ground and ceased functioning all together).

(Plaza de Mayor - one of the most famous plazas in Madrid, famous for its tapa bars and street performers)



That evening we waited in a line with the hope of receiving discount tickets to a ballet that night. Maybe the fact that we were the last ones in the line, the fact that we were the only Americans or the fact that it seemed as though we were being laughed at for an abnormally long amount of time should have warned us, but by the time we got up to the front they were fresh out of tickets. So much for the hour and a half wait I guess...

(Left: A picture of some of the food served at tapa bars in Spain, though this was the nicest one I have been too.  Upon pushing and shoving your way to the bar to order they heat up the food and then bring it to you.)

The following morning, Sunday, we went to the Prado - one of the three biggest art museums in the world. There we saw drawings by Vazquez (the most famous Spanish artist - born in Sevilla, my new hometown - thats my claim to fame) Goya and about 400 other artists. It was entertaining for about 15 minutes, but I did my best to feign interest for the remaining hour and a half lol. Eventually they all start to look the same to me. Its not that I'm not interested in the paintings or the history behind them, its just that I know absolutely nothing about them. If anybody has any recommendations on books I should read regarding the incredibly broad topic of "History" (particularly that of the Romans, Greeks or Christianity) I would love to hear some suggestions.

(Somewhat random picture of a church outside of the Prado... seems as though scooters are just catching on in Spain... they've been out of style for about 10 years now in the U.S.)

I don't know how I'm supposed to end a blog. If it were an email I would say "I hope Colorado isn't too cold yet!", or, "I look forward to reading any responses!", or something along those lines, but I feel like blogs don't require little sign off messages like that. Rather, I think that they just kind of end. Like I talk for a while, write everything that is on my mind, and then just kind of dwindle off. "Until next time." Maybe thats a good one. I really don't know. If anyone has any words of advice regarding my new predicament that would be greatly appreciated. Also if anybody knows how I can watch American football in Spain I will grant them with the grandest of all honors - dedicating this blog to them..... Adios! (I had to say it haha)