The Past Week

An Update

So I have been pretty busy over the past week. In brief, Friday we went out in Madrid, Saturday we went to El Escorial and the Irish Rover, Sunday to Toledo, Tuesday to the Prado, Wednesday to a bullfight (where the matador in the sixth match lost to the bull...), and Thursday to Flamenco, and then out in Madrid. This morning (6:30am local time) I left for London from Madrid.

So in short, that is alot. On top of that I had class, and my presentation on strategy for Ryanair was also due. From a class perspective, we went to the US Chamber of Commerce in Madrid, which was enthralling, and also went to Boeing Europe.

The Lithuanian

Friday night, after some good tapas and a few cervezas, we were headed home; that is until it started pouring and we were "forced" into a different establishment which just so happened to have Estrella Damm on tap. We hung out at this place until it closed, then headed around the corner to an Irish Pub. Enter a cultural challenge: As I order my Guinness, this somewhat creepy, ok, really creepy guy taps me on the shoulder and gives me the international signal for "let's arm wrestle right here in the middle of this bar on a barrel that is made into a table". I oblige, and a few minutes later I had lost the battle. Now, you may think I was disappointed by my loss, however when you see the picture, I think you will know why we continued to have this guy arm wrestle people at the bar, including our Chilean bar tender from the previous bar which we somehow convinved to come hang out with us. Friday was a success.

El Escorial, and what was supposed to be Segovia

Picture this: it's 7:10 on a Saturday morning after you met the Lithuanian arm wrestling champion. You were supposed to be out the door at 7:00 to catch the train to Segovia at 8:00 from a train station in North Madrid. Long story short, after several sprints through Madrid's metro system, we were at the ticket counter with 6 minutes to spare. We see our friends buying tickets, and we ask for two more. No mas. Although we overslept AND made it on time, they would not sell tickets to us. I'm still not 100% sure why this is, but that's what happened. Instead we bought tickets to El Escorial and saw the Monestary, and the cross overlooking the valle de los caidos, or the valley of the fallen. I saw an obscene display of wealth, as well as the bed where Phillip II died. El Escorial gets two thumbs up from me.

Saturday night was out to the best Irish Pub in Madrid to meet friends. Good times were had, yet we turned in around 2:00 due to the Toledo trip on Sunday morning.

Toledo

After getting a dose of facism from our tour guide (apparently she runs things on a very strict schedule, which isn't possible with 40 people and shops everywhere...), our group decided to split. I wanted to see the Alcazar and the Cathedral, and everyone else wanted to shop. The idea was to meet back at the bus at 4:00. After seeing the castle and the cathedral, which by the way, was amazing (pictures later), it was 3:40. I am in the middle of Toledo, with the worst map ever. Donde esta Puerta del Sol I asked about 100 times, but the problem is, everyone is a tourist and was just as lost as me. Cultural Challenge: use your broken spanish to find your way out of a midevil maze of streets. I learned two things: first, Toledo is not huge, because I sprinted accross it twice in a 25 minute span, and two, apparently my english isn't terrible because I found my way to the bus stop at 4:16 - exactly one minute after the bus had left (which I later found out). So what do you do in that situation? Hail a taxi, say "renfe" which means take me to the train station, purchase a ticket back to Madrid, and relax. I must say that Toledo is amazing, and the cathedral is probably one of the best things I saw my entire time in Spain.

Prado,Bullfight and Flamenco

The Prado is a neat museum, even more so if you love painting, particular goya and del greco. I myself am more into architecure and sculpting, of which they have a few interesting things. My favorite piece were eight statues of the Muse, found in 1600 in Hadrian's Villa in Rome. Very beautiful pieces, and in perfect condition. I believe they date to around 100 a.d..

The bullfight the next night was a definite highlight of the trip. There are many stages to the bullfight, none of which is more gory than after the sword has impaled the pull, and the decide to "make sure it is dead". I'm not going to be graphic, but it is gory. In a spanish bullfight, there are six bulls, one for each of six matadors. EAch matador gets their turn to fight the bull. While there is only one main matador (denoted by a red cape rather than pink), the other five help stick the bull three times, while men on horse stick the bull with a spear two times. The sixth and final matador, while doing his dance, apparently didn't move fast enough and caught a bull horn 20cm into his chest cavity. Needless to say, watching that made my jaw drop. I was told by a spaniard that this is extremely rare, and had not happened in the last so many seasons. The matador is still in critical condition.

http://deadspin.com/5272567/spanish-matador-messes-with-bull-gets-horns
That is a link to what I watched happen live.

In short, Flamenco is cool. It is a gypsy dance, that was described to me as very violent, and I have to agree with that assessment.

London

First day of London was great. Caitlin arrived and we started our touring. We watched the ceremony of the keys, toured the tower of London and saw the crown jewels, along with a 500+ carat diamond. Also took a river cruise and saw the city. We went to parliament and west minster abbey. Tomorow we are headed back that way to go inside.

Look for more to come, there is my quick update of the past week. If it doesn't make sense, then oh well, i'm tired.

---

Part of trip: Europe 2009

---