Madrid, Spain
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The heart of Spain! We found a cheap flight so we got there late on a Thursday night. It was our first hostel experience too, so we were a little nervous, but it turned out fine. Our hostel was right in the heart of downtown too so that was nice. We had a room with bunk beds and stuff and we felt like we were at camp. But everything was really clean and safe. Although because there were only 5 of us and we were in a 6-bed room we knew we'd be getting one more roommate. However, the first night she came in so late and left so early we didn't even see her, Friday night we lucked out because the person didn't show up and Saturday night the guy showed up early but left and then he was gone the next morning when we woke up. So it was pretty much like we had our own room. So on Friday we began our tourist stuff. We were so ambitious we did most of the big stuff the first day. We walked through el Parque del Buen Retiro (big park and gardens), which was pretty even though it wasn't really spring yet. One thing about
Madrid that we didn't like was the weather. Since Madrid is 6 hours north of Sevilla it's usually about 10 degrees colder there and we were just not used to it coming from Sevilla. Anyway, at the back of the park there's their Plaza de Espaņa and a little body of water in front of it, which is really pretty. You can rent little rowboats for it but we decided not to because it was pretty chilly. So we hung around there and took some pictures for awhile and then headed down to the really famous Museo del Prado (Prado Museum). This has one of the most important art collections in Europe. It's mostly old stuff by Velazquez, El Greco, and Goya. It was really cool to see the paintings we had talked about in class in person-it's definitely a different effect! So we spent a good amount of time in there. Next we went to the modern art museum, Reina Sofia, where the Picasso and Dali collections are. I have to say though, I just don't understand some modern art. There were pictures with just random lines and dots and we were like how is this art?! The Dali stuff was cool though and Picasso's giant "Guernica" is there so that was neat to see up close. So that was all the tourist stuff for Day 1 but then later that night I got to see my friend Sarah from home who was studying abroad in
Madrid. It was so good to see someone from home and her parents were there visiting too. The next day we went to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), where Spanish royalty lived and conducted business around the 16-1700s I think. The building is huge, but you can only tour part of it. First we went to the Royal Armory which was awesome because it had all the elaborate armor from the actual kings and soldiers. Some of it was so elaborate and they even had a collection of child armory. Then we went inside the palace and walked around all the rooms. It's definitely more modern than other things we've seen, but the history of it is very well preserved. A lot of the ceilings were these gorgeous religious paintings and most of the decoration was gold. There were also giant Perisan rugs all over. Almost all the rooms had giant chandeliers too, they were amazing. So after the Palacio Real we walked around downtown
Madrid and went shopping for the rest of the day. That night I got to have dinner with Sarah, her parents, and her aunt and uncle, so that was really nice. Then on Sunday we didn't have anything specific planned so the other girls wandered around the city and I went off with Sarah. She showed me around downtown more, and it happened to be the only sunny day. Then I got to see where she lived and goes to school and I met her host brother. So after that we had to head back to Sevilla, but
Madrid was a good trip overall. However, we definitely all decided we liked Sevilla better because it felt more Spanish. Since Madrid is so big it doesn't quite have the relaxed atmosphere and I don't think it's as pretty either.
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