This past weekend I was in Madrid so that explains the lack of blog posts. I know that it has been a long wait so I will try and make this post exciting and worth the wait!!
2/18/10
Thursday I had sociology class. It went pretty quick. I keep meeting international students in that class on bridge year. I didn't realize there were so many. I just assumed they were all Spanish. After that I went on a long run with my friend Isa. She showed me this route that basically goes to the suburbs of Pamplona. It was a nice change of pace because it was definitely more rural and quiet without all the city noise. Then I did some work since I wouldn't be able to do it this weekend. I have a busy week this week. A quiz tomorrow and a paper due on Friday. Now that I say that it doesn't seem as busy as I would be at WJ. Gotta love being abroad. I went to bed early because we had a 6am bus ride.
2/19/10
Getting up before 5 was a little difficult but we made it. We had to start walking around 5:15. I slept most of the ride which was good to rest up for all the walking. When we got there we had to wait to check in to the hostel so we went to lunch. We sat around for as long as we could in the cafe and then went to a plaza that was right next to the hostel It was really spacious and open. There were a lot of people hanging out too. Once we put our stuff in the hostel and checked in we went for a walk around the city. We had a coffee and walked to towards el Banco de Espana which was huge and an amazing building. We went into the museum at the National Library but it was a let down. We really wanted to go inside the actual library but I think it is only accessible to researchers. We found el Retiro which is this giant park. We walked probably only a small portion of it but it felt like forever. We found some statues and one base seemed to be missing a statue so we preceded to climb up and pose as one. It just didn't seem right to have a line of statues and one missing. Then we sat by the lake in the park and watched all the people in row boats. The sun was starting to set and we were on a mission for chocolate y churros. It was getting late so I left to meet my friend Amy from high school at the airport. We met and came back to the hostel to drop her stuff off then we ( Angela my roommate, Alex her friend, Amy and I) all went to a late Spanish dinner. We went to a restaurant close by for paella and sangria. They made the paella just for us which is when it is best. It was better than the portion I had in Valencia. After it was time for bed!!
2/20/10
We stared our day off with drum roll please...chocolate y churros of course!! The perfect start to the morning. Then we walked to Plaza Mayor which is the main plaza in Madrid. I really liked the plaza. It was filled with people and entertainment. It was surrounded by restaurants and shops. You could sit at a table in the Plaza and have a coffee. That sounds like the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon to me! I had written down a famous bakery as a site to see from a travel book and we all wanted to find it and buy a pastry. After asking quite a few people where it was, we found ourselves at the tourist information center in Plaza Mayor. The woman told me that I was in el Real casa de la panaderia (the bakery). I was confused as I did not see any bread making in sight. See said that it used to be el Real casa and outside was where they made the meat. Next time I will look more into the sites I right down. Alex had info on another famous and old bakery which proved much easier to find. We bought some Spanish treats and walked to Palacio Real which is the palace. It was absolutely beautiful!! Each room was decorated in a different style or by culture. Sadly, you couldn't take pictures inside. After the palacio we walked to Templo Deblo I think it is called. They are these ruins that the Spanish helped excavate so as a token of appreciation, Egypt moved some to Spain. It was in a nice little park. Then we all walk to buy food to make dinner and for breakfast. Amy and I stopped to get a snack and sit for awhile before we made it to the market. When we got back to the hostel we made some dinner and sat around and digested. Amy and I just had a relaxing night in. We talked for awhile and went to bed.
2/21/10
In the morning we had breakfast and finally checked out around 10. We had wanted to get an early start because we were going to a famous market called el Rastro but the hostel only opened the reception at 10. Definitely not the best place I have stayed in. El Rastro was a group of street vendors that come out every Sunday and like I said it is world famous. I have to say though el Mercado Central in Costa Rica trumps el Rastro. Amy and I headed to the museum Reina Sofia pretty soon after we checked out el Rastro because we weren't in shopping moods. Reina Sofia is free on Sunday!! I really like it. They have an extensive collection of Dali and Picasso paintings. La Guernica is there which is one of Picasso's most famous pieces if not the most. I stood looking at it for awhile. It is amazing to see paintings like that in person after you have learned about them in class. It is almost a surreal experience. This was by far the best part of my weekend!! After Reina Sofia, Amy and I had lunch and chocolate y churros!! I am basically addicted. Then we made our way to el Prado which is another big museum in Madrid. The works in Prado were more realism while Reina Sofia was cubism, modernism and surrealism. So they were for very different tastes. Again I got to see paintings that I learned about in class like Las meninas by Velazquez, actually a lot of his work was there and some by Francisco de Goya. I will say for sure though that Reina Sofia housed my taste in art. After our tour of the museums our weekend was coming to an end. Angela and I had dinner since our bus left later than Amy and Alex's flights. We got back at 2:30 in the morning. It wasn't as bad as I thought since I slept a decent amount.
2/22/10
I woke up this morning with ease surprisingly. I went to class at noon which got out early. When I got back I did some much needed grocery shopping. I am all stocked up!! I have been studying on and off for most of the day for my quiz in Business theory tomorrow. I wanted to take a siesta but I made it through the day surprisingly well. I made it out for a run too this evening with my friend Tash. We ran around la ciudadela. I haven't run in the evening here yet but it is really pretty! My roommate Peri made dinner for us all, curry. It was delicious!! Now I think I may head to bed soon. The weekend is catching up to me!
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