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Published: September 11th 2009
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Day two began with another round of talks, this time about security abroad and things of that sort. Breakfast was significantly better thanks to what seemed to be freshly baked chocolate croissants. Molt bé. Once done with the official business, we again headed out to be tourists. First stop was food, though, since we had been obsessed with finding a Döner Kebab since arriving in Iberia. Taking Jordí's advice we found a nice little place on Calle de la Cruz near Sol. Yum. Not having much of an itinerary we then continued to wanter about the city, first passing through the Plaza de Cibeles, where the gorgeous Post Office, Bank, and Cervantes Institute are located.
A stroll down Gran Vía then took us for a bit of shopping down Fuencarral. Despite all the cheap shoes I managed to only like those that cost 99€ or more. Lame. After having our fill of that, we met up with the boys (who had separated post Gran Vía) and headed to the Reina Sofia art museum. I had been to this museum before but given that we got free admission as "students" with our Carnet Jove I really didn't mind. The museum is
most famous for its works by Mirò, Dalí, and Picasso, most importantly Picasso's mural "Guernica"that depicts the aftermath of the Fascist bombing on the town of Guernica, Spain.
Once through with all the art we took a seat outside the museum and people watched for almost an hour. There was clearly a school nearby as little by little the plaza became flooded with kids in school uniforms sliding down all the bannisters and running around playing various games. Our favorite was this girl María (we figured out her name after a while) who was running around being bossy and yelling at her friend Valeria and calling out "Código Rojo! Código Rojo!" or "Code Red! Code Red!" Precious. After that it was a quick stop back to the residencia to freshen up before our garden party back at the International Institute.
The garden party ended up being 2 hours of fun with plenty of imbibing and good eats. The hors d'oeuvres included little caviar and smoked salmon bites, various cured meets, and delicious little desserts like chocolate mousse. The waiters were honestly pushing the drinks on us with quite a bit of force, insisting that we occupy our empty
Correos
In the Plaza de Cibeles hand with glasses of champagne even though we all already had wine or beer. Molt bé. Then suddenly around 9:30 we were ushered out and into the night.
Instead of joining the group of Americans en masse, mostly to Chueca, we Andorrans went out separate way along with a girl who actually happens to be the roommate of my friend Flora (the French from Portuguese class). Small world! We ended up in Plaza 2 de Mayo which brought back tonnnnns of memories for me. Oh botellón. The plaza was hopping with Chinese men and women selling alcohol our of their shopping bags, people smoking and drinking everywhere, and others enjoying the evening at one of the many restaurants. We were eventually joined by Flora, too, so it was great to see her again!
Long story short we eventually did end up in Chueca at a bar called Delirium, where a drag queen named Nacha entertained us for a bit. She eventually grew tiresome and at around 3:30 we called it a night and cabbed it back to the Residencia. The next morning, complete with a wonderful hangover, I packed my bags and headed back to Andorra with the
Guernica
Picasso's famous mural others. See you soon Madrid!
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Bryan Fleming
non-member comment
MMMMM...Madrid
Döner makes me happy.