Sooo las aventuras (the adventures) began early on a rainy (surprise?) Friday morning. Laura, Abby, Robin, and I booked our billetes (tickets) in advance, and it's a good thing because the bus was packed. This weekend was an Andalusian holiday, which is why we had Monday off, so it was a popular time for Sevilla to empty out. We liked that the whole system was organized: everyone had an assigned bus (there were a few) with an assigned seat, so we were all juntas (together). The actual ride wasn't so awful... it took about 6.5 hours with una parada (one stop). When we got there, the four of us made our way out to where the taxis were and hopped in. The bizarre thing was that this one guy-- NOT our driver-- swooped in and lifted our maletas (suitcases) into the trunk. And then after we got settled into the car and shut the door, he knocked on the window and screamed "PROPINA!" which means tip. And we were kind of confused and delirious at the moment... and then he physically opened the door and stuck his hand in and screamed "PROPINA" again. So we threw him a euro and went on our merry way.
Our hostel, El Pilar was only about a 10-15 drive from the bus station, located RIGHT in the heart of the city. LITERALLY a 2 minute walk from the Puerta del Sol (The Gate of the Sun) and Plaza Mayor-- two of the busiest scenes in Madrid. It's also only a 10 minute walk to the main museums, so there was no need for taxis or buses. And it was complete suerte (luck) that we even got this hostel because we had booked so last minute, but we couldn't have asked for a more convenient, fun spot to be! We checked right in, and our cuarto (room) was perfect for our purposes-- Abby and Robin shared a big bed and Laura and I had our own. The bathroom was nice and the room had wi-fi (Weeeee-feeeee). I don't remember if I told you what happened with the wi-fi in our house here, but one of the really expensive, colossal paintings hanging in Ana's den fell, conveniently chopping the wi-fi cord in half. I'm happy to report that it's back in action.
For lunch, we ate the bocadillos (sandwiches) that Vicki prepared us: atún y aceitunas (tuna and olives) and pollo con tomates (chicken and tomatoes). If you asked me a month ago if I ever thought eating 2 sandwiches and crackers and fruit all in one sitting was ever acceptable, I would be making vom noises. But now I'm so used to the big lunches-- loving every minute! Even though the weather wasn't ideal on Friday (cool, had rained earlier), we weren't about to malgastar tiempo (waste time). We strolled through the Puerta de Sol, noting all the great little shops and restaurants close by. There was also this funky mirror-bubblying looking structure, which we later found out was a main transportation hub. We followed the signs, which took us right to the outside of El Museo del Prado, and it's neighbor El Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. We also walked through a little market with fun crafts and artwork. Our best friend that entire trip was definitely the big directory-- we all have our own spatial-relations issues (it was harder to locate places than we thought, regardless of knowing that UD. ESTA AQUI (you are here!)). I felt like the architecture, overall, had a much more grandiose and modern effect than that of Seville. Everyone was hustling and bustling about, so I guess the buildings make the perfect backdrop. SO many people fumaban (smoked), which made walking in close quarters kind of challenging, but it's just accepted as a norm. I do draw the line at sitting near people in coffee shops that can't resist the urge.
We found a little cafe on our walk back, where we stopped for some café con leche, which is very latte-esque. Don't worry, la lactosa brought her pill. Coffee, overall, is just so much better here. It's also really rare to come across people on the move with coffee in Spain-- people like to take their sweet time-- no vale la pena la prisa (rushing isn't worth it to them). The waiters also don't hover over you waiting for la cuenta (check), so it was up to us-- like an hour later-- to flag ours down.
We had the BESTTTTT dinner experience yet, I would say-- While Madrid doesn't quite do tapas in the same style as Granada, the food was outstanding. We went to this very chic place, called 4 de Tapas and had more than enough food: tortillas (the egg/potato combination), tostadas con queso (it was more like Brie), tostadas con pollo (chicken on toast) in a raspberry sauce, and a big mix of salad and pasta. The cherry on top: it cost us about 10 euros each. After dinner, we wandered through the people-filled streets and went in and out of a few bars. We naturally gravitated to an Irish pub, but didn't stay for that long... we had an EARLY morning planned.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but our 8:30(ish) wake-up was supplemented with Dunkin Donuts! I don't feel AS bad because it was authentic café con leche! Interesting seeing how the menus differ-- I guess they don't offer a million kinds of latte flavors because that is essentially what their normal coffee is like. Anyway, we grabbed our caffeine to go (qué americano!) and got to the El Museo del Prado just as it was opening-- therefore NO LINE!!! [huge relief because it wrapped all around the plaza when we saw it yesterday afternoon]. This museum is really the largest art gallery in the world, with 4 floors and more than 8,600 paintings! It houses paintings from all different schools, including Spanish, German, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, and British. And once again, here I am being thankful for that once dreadful Art Design and Visual Thinking class I took at Cornell because I was able to appreciate the work SO much more-- I actually recognized artists and their particular obras (works) that I never would have otherwise! What resonated with me most was the work of Velazquez, a native Sevillano-- his painting, Las Meninas looked so much more amazing up close than it had in my text books. We also saw the work of Murillo, who now has an exhibit in Sevilla, Goya, Rembrandt, El Greco, and Raphael, to name a few! Seeing Goya's two paintings, The Second and Third of May, particularly after passing the 2nd of May monument in the Plaza, gave me the chills. These paintings are based on Goya's witnessing of French occupation of Spain, when Napoleon came in to seize Madrid and caused a huge rebellion in Madrid (May 2, 1808). The Third of May really grabs you emotionally (described by our art teacher as having Garra: the power to grip you), because you see the horror of the Spanish rebellion being repressed. Wow.
Después de pasar más que dos horas (after spending more than 2 hours) in the Prado, we made our way over to our next site: El Palacio Real de Madrid: The Royal Palace. The Palace was constructed in 1734, begun under the reign of Philip V and completed during the reign of Charles III. It is the official residence of the King in the city of Madrid, only utilized for official State ceremonies. The palace is decorated ornately and houses paintings by Velazquez, Goya, and others. There were SO many rooms to tour (it was very organized-- signs in English pointed you where to go and explained what we were seeing in each room). The featured rooms were the Royal Chapel, The Room of Porcelain (breathtaking), and The Dining Room (with SUCH a long table and Velazquez ceiling paintings). It was interesting that Charles III had a separate room for "dining" and "lunching," getting dressed and writing. Laura melted at the site of the world's only complete Stradivarius string quartet-- In those 10 minutes, I wish I had been as passionate about my violin. We also saw La Real Amería, the Royal Armory Museum. The pictures don't do it justice!
It was pouring rain at this point, and I had to buy a new paraguas because I conveniently lost mine. So after a great lunch at a kebab place (our new favorite thing), Robin, Abby, and I treked on a pesar de la lluvia (in spite of the rain) to the Thyssen Museum... poor Laura's feet were not having all this walking, and she needed to be recharged for the night that lay ahead, por supuesto (DUH!) I think I would say that this museum was my personal favorite, again because I really recognized and appreciated so much of the art. It required us to really analyze the paintings on our own, because this museum didn't offer the same little plaques with explanations that we saw in the Prado. We saw 17th century Dutch painting, 18th century view painting, 19th century landscape, North American painting, Impressionism, Post Impressionism, and the early 20th century Vanguardias (Avant-garde movements). The galleries with Fauve paintings were the best-- I learned about these at Cornell, which are characterized by STRONG, brilliant color as opposed to Impressionism's more realistic values. I saw the works of this movement's leaders, including Henri Matisse and André Derain. Also on display were the works of Gaugin, Picasso, Dali, Miro, Gris, and Monet. Now that we learned in our Art History class about El Greco's "The Immaculate Conception," I can appreciate that painting more. The museum was also offering a special 45 minute tour of Monet, only, but our brains were definitely fried after taking everything else in.
We were exhausted after this long day, so we met Laura back at the hostel to rest our feet and get ready for la marcha (night life!) We had kind of a disastrous dinner experience before settling... We were really in the mood for pizza (maybe it's because we've been deprived) and probably should have known better before settling down in this sketchy restaurant. Not sure why we weren't tipped off by the blaring TVs, gambling machines, and rude waiters. Let's just say that after trying to order 3 different times and learning that they had nothing on the menu, we exchanged some words and salimos! (we left!) We FINALLY found a great little place, where we were able to happily eat our pizza and salad. When it came time to head to la discoteca (the club), we decided to go to the much-raved-about Kapital. It had an outrageous cover charge to get in, but it was totally worth the 7 stories of madness, and the club had been recommended by several different people who had been before. Our favorite thing was the MISTING MACHINE on the first floor-- every so often, the crowd got BLASTED with this cold air, meant to cool everyone off and get people screaming. And we screamed. There was also random confetti that fell from the ceiling. Había mucha gente bailando (everyone was dancing), and I'm SO glad we went!
El Domingo (On Sunday), we made our day trip to the city of Toledo, to see the sites painted by El Greco and learn more about Judaism in Spain. We made use of that bubbly-looking transportation hub and took the AVE train-- it was pretty barato (cheap) and verrrry efficient: we made it there in exactly half an hour. This was a BEAUTIFUL city. It had once served as the religious, cultural, and political capital of Spain until it was decided that Madrid served better because it is located smack in the middle of Spain. What I love most about Toledo is that it is such a natural city-- all the man-made architectural wonders that define a city like Madrid definitely do not impose on the city. Everything is rustic looking and it all feels very quaint. No wonder why El Greco had a field day with his landscape paintings. And unique to this city is its status as a "World heritage site:" the coexistence of Christian, Jewish, and Moorish cultures.
Our first stop was the Sephardim Museum, attached to El Tránsito Synagogue. I learned that the word Sefarad was used to mean Spain-- Jewish Spain, specifically. Anyway, it finally felt really good to be in a place that celebrated Judaism, even though my friends and I were probably the only Jewish people in the crowd! The actual museum had like 5 different rooms filled with aspects of history, customs, religion, and other relics of Spain's Jewish historia (history). My favorite room was called "Judaism as a way of life" or "El Judaísmo como modo de vida." There were tons of showcases devoted to the different, important stages of life: birth and BRIS (yes, there was a little video going on of one.. we walked away after we realized), Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and principal fiestas (festivals) like Passover and Purim, which was fitting because it just passed! I also liked the little make-shift Sukkah they had out back. We stood under like tools and took pictures.
Afterward, we went over to La Sinagoga de Santa María la Blanca, built by Islamic architects (mudéjar style) under the Christian kingdom of Castille FOR Jewish use! While this previous synagogue (later converted into a church) is now an official museum, most of the original synagogue remains-- 5 aisles divided by 4 rows of 7 horseshoe arches (they look typically like the mudéjar arches our Art History teacher showed us in class. Throughout the museum, which was really just a little walking tour through the only open room, were paintings, drawings, and poems honoring not only Judaism, but also cultural and religious coexistence. We reallllly have a lot of tolerance, considering all we were put through.
We spent the rest of our afternoon just relaxing on una puente (a bridge) that overlooked a river and a beautiful view. By the time we got back, we headed straight for the hostel-- our feet had really had enough at that point. Our dinner plans were pretty small: we found a Cien Montaditos chain!! It's that place with 1 euro little sandwiches and potato chips. And it was PERFECT because it was nice and cheap-- the 4 tontas (idiots) kind of ran out of cash in Toledo-- I don't even want to talk about the canned salads that Laura and I ate. I doubt she even discussed it in her blog. It was also good because we needed to save room for our CHURROS CON CHOCOLATE!!! I still can't believe we had been in Spain all this time and hadn't indulged! So for 3 euros, we had insaaaane amounts of churros to dip in hot, liquid chocolate! Qué delicioso!
Monday morning, the alarm went off nice and early again. I wasn't really hungry for desayuno (breakfast), thanks to those churros, so we grabbed our coffee to go and headed to the Reina Sofia Museum, named for Queen Sofia of Spain. This museum was definitely dedicated to Spanish art, as opposed to the others which displayed art from various schools. My FAVORITE PART, hands down, was the room dedicated to Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica. I had seen pictures of this painting, but seeing the real thing was UNREAL. It bothered me that people were taking photos of it, when the room was lined with several guards and many reminders: "NO FOTOS!" I didn't realize it took up the entire wall, either. Picasso was commissioned by the Spanish government to paint the mural, which depicts the bombing of the Basque town of Geurnica by Italian and German war planes in support of Franco (EW) during the Spanish Civil War... talk about heart wrenching and emotion evoking. I must have stood there for at least 5 minutes (which is long to be standing in front of one painting). It is definitely an anti-war symbol to remind people of the tragedies and horrors of war. If you walked through the rest of Picasso's gallery (there were a LOT of works), you noticed this was a common theme. We were able to take a picture of his sketching of Guernica, which I thought was pretty cool. Surrealism was also a big part of the gallery, and we saw a good deal of the collections of Dali, Gris, and Miro again. Unique to this museum were the temporary exhibits of more modern art. Some of it was definitely questionably done by professionals in appearance, but we're not allowed to say that because "we can't fathom their suffering." I apologize, Thomas Schutte.
We had a nice lunch near the museum-- I love when we don't spend a lot of money for good food! After that, it was time to get our bags from the hostel (the owner kept our stuff in a room because we had to check out much earlier) and headed to the bus station. And GO FIGURE: of the 3 public buses assigned to leave Madrid on this particular day at this particular time in the 2 particular ASSIGNED seats in front of Laura and me, 2 boys I knew from home (one from Plainview, one from LI who goes to Binghamton) plop down. Estabamos contentas (we were happy) because it helped pass some of the time during the never ending bus ride back to Sevilla. We got home close to 11pm to a nice dinner left out by Vicki: tortilla de papas y espinacas (potato tortilla/omlette with spinach) and, como siempre, la fruta (as always, fruit). I swear, sometimes I actually have 5 pieces of different fruit throughout the course of the day. I hope that's OK?
SOOO, it is now Thursday night, and Laura and I decided not to go out because we have our Cordoba day trip tomorrow, which will be quite pleasant if it doesn't pour. Ana is expected to come home tonight from Paris-- she's been gone for the week doing business (she's so cool for her age), so it's been Laura and me for dinner-- AND Vicki with her tendencies to pop in and tell us stories. She kills us sometimes. Different family members have been over for la comida, though. We finally met their grandson, Iago. In one word: GUAPISIMO. He's 28 and very very handsome-- he pokes fun at us at the table, but he's really cool. He explains things to us when we look like we have no idea what's being said by the other grown ups. He told us to go back to that club, BOSS, on Friday night-- the one that doesn't traditionally let Americans in, that we managed to get into a few weeks ago. I'm glad we met him! Anyway, I have to thank Ana, again, when she gets home for letting me borrow her suitcase with wheels. It was good to have in Madrid-- SO many advantages to living with a family as opposed to living in an apartment.
Next week is midterms galore at our program's site-- the ones at La Universidad aren't for another week or 2 because we started classes later. I'm not really too worried... after our Art History teacher graded the last quiz, she specifically approached Laura and me to tell us how impressed she was with our quality of writing, and how clearly we stand out from the rest of the students. She said, coming from Stanford, that it is reassuring to know that there still exists the quality of students like us-- it frustrates her to water down the material because the rest of the students would honestly fail. So, our "studying" shall continue!
Pues, bien. I think I've rambled on enough... and I didn't spell check because I don't feel like reading it over. SOOOO enjoy, you'll have pictures soon!
Hasta luegoooooo!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment