Madrid, Spain

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viernes 27 febrero 2009- I met the other CIEE students at the Hotel at 9 and after a five hour bus ride, we arrived in Madrid. I did manage to sleep and read a little on the bus, but seeing that I’m 6’4” and the bus seats are smaller here, it wasn’t the all that much fun. This whole weekend was paid for by my program and included two nights at a very nice hotel (Hotel Paso del Art), entrance to two art museums and the royal palace, two guided tours and 30 Euros to help pay for our lunch and dinners. At the hotel, I roomed with Dan, who is also doing the Camino de Santiago with me, so it was nice to get to know him better. After dropping off my bag, (I’ve learned to pack light really fast), I went with some friends to find a fun spot to eat lunch. The food and drinks in Madrid is pretty expensive compared to Alicante, but I still had my sack lunch that mi Madre had prepared for me. After wandering the city for an hour, we met back at the hotel to go with CIEE to the Prado Museum. Our hotel was perfectly located inside the ‘Art Triangle’ so we were able to walk to all the museums that we visited. The Prado was a huge museum that had paintings by Goya and Dali, two of the three largest Spanish painters, along with others. The art collection was very impressive, but a little over whelming. Also, I don’t know anything about art, so I could only appreciate it at a very superficial level. For supper, Dan, my friend Laura and I met up with Rachel (a friend from MU that is studying in Madrid) and one of her Italian roommates for supper. She had wanted to take us to a good tapas place, but that was packed, so she took us to a more sit down place, which was really cheap We all got the special, which was a three course meal and a drink for 10 Euros. This mean was a lot of fun while also being very difficult because Rachel’s roommate only knew Italian and Spanish, so we spent the whole meal speaking Spanish. Even though I’m far from fluent, I was able to hold my own and was a little impressed in how far I’ve come. After dinner, we went back to Rachel’s apartment to chill. This was a lot of fun because the apartment was a hostel in the past, so although she only rooms with two other girls from Marquette, she shares the apartment with 17 other people that are from Italy, France, England, Ireland, Chile and Mexico, who are all in Madrid to study Spanish. Her living situation isn’t as crazy as it sounds because there is two different common rooms and many bathrooms and they are all a fun group of people that although they didn’t know each other a month ago, get along well.

Sabado 28 febrero 2009- I started my morning with an amazing shower and a huge breakfast. It may sound silly, but when you are traveling, a good shower is something worth mentioning. Also, because I live in a home stay, every morning when I get up, my breakfast is waiting for me on the table; although this is a wonderful thing, it was nice to pick what and how much I was going to eat. Today, CIEE took us to the Royal Palace, an utterly incredible building. This palace has over 2,000 rooms, but we were able to only see some of the rooms that were located on the first and second floors because the Royal family still uses this palace from time to time when they aren’t at their more sub-urban palace. If you have never been to a royal palace before, you must go because it is so much more extreme then what you can perceive from a movie or television because every inch is decorated and no money was spared. There was so many priceless tapestries, chandeliers, clocks and even how the floor and walls were decorated. However, I am glad that America doesn’t have anything like this because this palace was built when the rest of the country was very oppressed and poor, while the King lived in such bliss, it is just such a waste of government resources. For the next 4 hours we had free time for lunch, so I went with a group of people to Sarah’s host Tia’s pizza place for lunch. Although, we didn’t get a discount, it was a nice place to grab a bit to eat. In the afternoon, CIEE took us to El Retro and the Museum of Renia Sofia. The Retro is a huge park that has a man-made lake in it that was beautiful, while the Renia Sofia is another art museum, but had a more modern collection with many works by the final great artist of Spain, Picasso. I enjoyed the museum, but not as much as the Prado because I am not as interested in Picasso style art. After walking around for about two hours, Jessica and I stated to make the 5 minute walk back to the hotel, however, Jessica saw a Starbucks, so we had to stop. Since I don’t like Starbucks, I didn’t get anything and instead found two comfortable seats that had a hassock with them. When Jessica sat down, we just talked while she drank her coffee. All of a sudden the three adults sitting across from us were all upset at us and finally, one of them said in broken English if we could “Stop it now.” Apparently, we had offended them by putting our feet on the hassock. I have read in my guide books that in some cultures, it is seen as very rude to allow the sole of your shoe to be pointed at someone because it is seen as the dirtiest part of your body. After we put our feet back on the floor, they didn’t have any problem with us, so when in Europe, try to keep your feet on the ground. For supper, I decided to go with some friends to a Thai place that others said was really good. So far in Spain, I have been following the rule that if I am going to go out to eat, I’m going to eat Spanish, but I have never had Thai and I figured I had earned a break. I had a friend order for me, so I don’t know what I ate, but it was good. After chilling in the hotel by watching CNN international in English (again, you don’t realize how enjoyable it is to finally be able to watch the TV in English), I went with about 60 other CIEE kids to Kapital, that was next door to our hotel. Kapital is the premier club in Madrid and has seven floors, all with their own style. I’m not much of a dancer or clubber, but when in Madrid, do as the Madridians. It was a great way to end/start the next day that I’m glad that I did went to it.

domingo 1 marzo 2009- Although I didn’t get much sleep, I had to get up at 8 to check out of the hotel and go on a walking tour of the city. I got to see some cool statues and plazas along with some of the federal buildings seeing that Madrid is the capital of Spain. After the tour, we had a few hours to wander an outdoor market and get lunch. The market had many unique things, but I ended up only getting one small thing for Will. I explored the market and went lunch with Travis, who is in a wheelchair. He made me realize that I am so blessed to have two working legs that allow me to do so much without me even thinking of it. He is a really incredible person that has caused me to start to see the world in a slightly different way, one from a wheel chair. You don’t realize it, but he has to notice what the pavement is made of, any slopes, figure out if he will fit threw a space, find ramps to get up and down curbs/stairs while using his hands to push himself. After lunch, we had to board the bus for the trip home. Again, I was glad to arrive back in Alicante because it really is my Spanish hometown. If I was to compare Madrid to Barcelona, I would have to pick Madrid hands down. Both cities are worth visiting, but I felt that Madrid had more history and sites to see, while feeling less touristy and more Spanish than Barcelona. I hope to make it back to Madrid for a few days at the end of my studies, I liked it so much.

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Photos

Bus ride
There was a lot of windmills that looked really cool.

Sites
Prado Muesum. It had paintings from Dali and Goya.

Friday Night
Chilling at Rachel's. It was a lot of fun. Notice the sweet travel wall, I want to do this will all my maps and other travel related papers when I get home.

Sites
El Cathedral que estuve cerca de Palacio Real

Sites
Royal Amory, I snuck a phot of these, I could help it.

Sites
Palacio Real. Lo tiene mas que 2,000 cuartos (2000 rooms). The inside was so decorated, but like most cool things in Europe, you can't take pictures of it.

Dinner
Our first time eating Thai. Thanks Kelsey for ordering for me.

Dinero
The cost of the dinner. No, but between the 6 of us, we had all the paper money (minus the 200 and 500 bills) and all of the coins.

Sites
The congress building of Spain

Sites
All road lead to Madrid. From this point, all the kilometer markers in Spain are determined.

Sites
Plaza Mayor. The inquisition used to burn people at the stake here.

Dance
In Kapital, a 7 floor club.

Site
A church near the Prado that we took over for a picture

Madrid
The symbol of Madrid. Something about how Madrid used to be surrounded by these trees whose fruit could be made in liquor during the middle ages and the numerous bears that called the forest home protected the trees. I might have my facts a little wrong, but it was something like that.

Site
A walk in the park isn't complete with a picture

Sites
Cool building in El Retriro

Sites
Un largo en El Retriro

Last view
Some random street we walked down as we were about to leave Madrid.

Comments

[Robert]

Dali!
How were the Dali works?! I am jealous. I really hope you realize that we had a poster of a few of his paintings up all last semester...