¡Viva con la Roja!

So this past weekend, we all took an excursion to Madrid (well, most of us from the program). Friday was a school-sponsored type day, and then we (Liana, John, Mark, and I, plus TONS of other people) stayed in Madrid for the weekend. For my first spanish experience outside of Toledo, it was amazing :)


On Friday, we took the bus up to Madrid and took a bus tour of the city, driving along Calle de Prado for most of it. We saw the train station, Museo del Prado, Calle de Prado (obvious enough) the stadium where Real Madrid plays, just a ton of stuff. Surprisingly by bus from Toledo it only takes about 40 minutes to get here, and for half the price of the train its cheap too! If you can't tell, the bus ride was fun and informative, but not necessarily my cup o' tea if you get what I mean.


After our bus ride, we were dropped off at El Palacio Real, the royal palace. This was more like it! There were at ton of us, so getting organized enough to get into groups was interesting. Before touring we all tried to take a bathroom break, but of course the women's line was out the door and then some...not worth it. We weren't able to take pictures inside, but the patio outside was definitely a popular camera spot!


Inside the palace was very cool, but after a while it started to get gaudy, or maybe just not my style anymore...I mean, how many rooms decorated in different motifs and velvets does one need, exactly? It was amazing, don't get me wrong, just not my decorating style.


After the palace we headed downtown to eat at Museo de Jamón - thats right, the ham museum. Along the way, we passed a TGIFridays, WHY couldn't we eat there!!!????? Oh, and get this, what did we eat at the Museo de Jamón? Chicken...yeah, not even jamón, a specialty here! Don't get me wrong the food was to die for and I was stuffed by the end, it was just a little ironic if you ask me!


After comida most of us split up to find our hostels/hotels and wherever we were staying. Our group lucked out, Liana knows a girl from her synchronized swimming team at Ohio State who is from Madrid, and let us stay for the weekend! It was SO nice, and a very generous thing! We met up with Raqi and her dad near the Museo, and then headed to the apartment. After we dropped our bags off we hung out for a while, and then it was out for the night, we had to go find a place to watch España play fútbol! (soccer, for those of you who can't seem to understand my slang ;) On the bus tour earlier that day they had mentioned watching the game in the Real Madrid stadium, so we headed over there. Liana and I were looking forward to getting in to the stadium and sitting down, and really being a part of the Spanish crowd! Until we got there...when we realized that there were jumbotrons outside, and we just stood around. Needless to say there wasn't very much security, and we were both feeling nervous. It was OK when España scored their first goal, but by then we decided to leave by halftime. That was until España scored again, and someone lit a flare in the crowd - I was done at that point. Yeah, I probably overreacted a little bit, people aren't as violent here as in the US (or so they say) but I felt really uncomfortable. Good thing we left too, because it started POURING! We did get a little wet, but we found a Mexican restaurant where we could watch the second half of the game in peace, and filling our appetites too! (España won by the way, obviously because they play on Saturday...meaning they beat Portugal too! Huge rivalry, and we were victorious)


After the game we headed back to the apartment, and hung out playing cards WELL into early Saturday morning. It was interesting getting home, because Liana wasn't able to get off of the train at one stop! I called her right away and we all went to meet her at the next stop, so it was all good - she just said that a few people were laughing at her as she stood at the door, not believing she was left behind! We got home just fine though, don't worry :) When we got up (later than we first thought) we got ready and then headed to Museo del Prado, where a ton of classic art is kept. We saw the works of Goya, Velázquez, and El Greco, who painted mostly in Toledo - yeah, we're famous...OK maybe just him ;) Liana wasn't feeling the best, so we went to get some paella and then headed to the Parque de Buen Retiro, Madrid's version of Central Park. It was gorgeous! And a great time of the day to go, because it was so hot (seriously, the weather is SO hot here compared to Minnesota or Alaska, what was I thinking!?) We relaxed and hung out, before heading over to La Plaza Mayor, my favorite part of the city. When you think of Madrid, you think of Plaza Mayor, and it lives up to its name. Its gorgeous! All of these little shops and vendors in this plaza, with a cool statue and probably very expensive apartments - so amazing!


We walked around the Plaza Mayor for a little while and then tried to find a bar to watch the US play Ghana in the World Cup. We ended up going to this Lithuanian bar, and after 4 hours (and watching the US play a good but not amazing game, and losing) our bar tab was only 29€ (around $32, for 4 people!) yeah, it was a cheap night, and fun! 


After the disappointing loss we headed back to the apartment, this time going to bed a little earlier than the night before. We didn't rush getting up in the morning, we only had two main things on our list, so we weren't too worried. We went to El Rasgo, which is one of the largest markets in Europe for some street vending, and then headed over to the Reina Sofia museum, which is mainly contemporary art. The Rasgo was cool, there were definitely a TON of people and some venders were better than others, but it was definitely worth it :) The Reina Sofia was also worth it I would say, because we got to see Guernica, one of Picassos most famous if not the most famous art piece of all time, and the most famous cubism piece ever. It was AMAZING. We studied it for an entire quarter in high school, and it was cool to finally see it in person. Its HUGE too! It had its own private room, and it took up a good chunk of the wall - at least the size of 8 Christines ;) 


The rest of the Reina Sofia was OK, we didn't get to see much of Dali because it closed at 2 for siesta, but it was ok...I like surrealism and cubism art, but I'm not a huge fan of photography, and we saw a lot of it. It'd be nice to go back and spend some quality time on the second floor, but I can use that as an excuse to come back later, right!??


The trip back was uneventful, we didn't really do much on the bus ride besides chat and nap, and then Toledo was in our sights, and we were able to go back and take a nap...until dinner ;)


This weekend we're going to Andalucia, the southern part of Spain, to go to Córdoba and Granada, I can't wait! You'll hear all about that too I'm sure ;) OH and sorry pictures aren't with this post, it takes too long to upload them unless you're on an ethernet cord in the computer lab :)


¡Hasta luego!