Greco, Velazquez, Dalí Oh My March 26, 2007

So this past weekend was my art history trip to Madrid. I had heard from people that Madrid was “just another big city” and I wasn’t expecting much. I expected to see a lot of tourism, English, big buildings, just very cityesque. I was pleasantly surprised.

Lauren, Kim, and I boarded the AVE early morning to head off to Madrid. I was very excited to take the AVE for once…and not a bus The AVE was really nice. We had a group of four seats together. It was so cute, there was a a table we could pull out to play board games and we got to watch a movie during the trip and they gave us yummy caramelos (sweets :0)) When we arrived in Madrid we bought some metro passes and took the metro into the heart of the city. Our first mission was to find a hostel since Kim and I had nowhere to sleep that night. After visiting about a dozen places and starting to get very nervous about sleeping in the train station that night, we found the cutest hostel. It was an incredibly relief…the hostel was cheap, clean, bright, cheery, free breakfast, free blankets, everybody was really nice. It really worked out well. It was also in the direct center of the city, we couldn’t have done any better After dropping off our bags we headed back out to find a cafe to eat our lunches at. Madrid appeared to be lacking outdoor cafes so we decided to sit next to a fountain and eat our lunches from our señoras. Afterwards we had a little free time before Lauren had to meet Megan so we wandered around exploring Madrid. The buildings were so pretty. they weren’t city like at all very old and gorgeous. The city was very touristic, moreso than Sevilla. There was a lot of international restuarants and things and a lot of english, but it was very pretty. After Lauren and I left Kim and I decided to explore the main street. We found a really cute park and played in it for awhile. The slide was realllly steep and scary lol. After walking for awhile more and finding the plaza de independence, which boasted a really neat memorial and some really neat fountains we decided to use our bus day pass to head to the top of the street and walk down it. At the top we found these two really neat towers that we’re slanted majorly so that they pointed towards each other it was neat. We continued our walk down exploring various shops and sights. We saw a lot of neat things. We found an Aston Martin car dealership and a mini BMW cafe. We also saw the Real Madrid stadium which got me really excited. We then went to Plaza de Picasso and walked around enjoying the nature and Picasso building. Afterwards we found a shopping mall!!! What a comfort I haven´t seen a shopping mall since I left, it was an actual shopping mall like in the US. It didn´t haveany good stores but it was fun to find. Afterwards we did find a mercadillo, which I loooved. I got a pretty scarf for my sister and some pearl earrings I had been wantin. We continued wandering when we met some random boys from Peru. They asked us for directions and they we talked a little bit. Kim and I joked that receiving besos (kisses) from them alone made the trip worth it haha. We then came upon a famous historical café Café Guijón and Kim and I decided to take a break and enjoy the atmosphere. We sat in the most adorable little seat that overlooked the very old café and spent a couple hours people watching, drinking coffee and having fun. We then decided to head back to our hostel, but a we were walking back we ran into Cristina from our center and she informed us that they were heading off to a jazz club, would Kim and I like to joing…OF COURSE. So we set off to meat up with Juan and other students and went to the café. It was sooo fun. We ordered some drinks and Kim and I shared a caprese tapa while we waited for the show to begin. We were sitting next to this really odd and funny and adorable old guy. Kim started lamenting about how we got olives with our drinks and they got potato chips, so the old guy (not understanding this however) gave us his chips haha. It was amusing. All throughought the evening he would shush the crowd and make weird noises and smile at us it was funny. The concert was amazing. It was flamenco jazz, there was a pianist, guitar player, bassist, drum player, and a singer. It was so neat. The singer sang in the traditional flamenco style and the musicians played very jazzy music. It was AMAZING. It was definitely an awesmoe cultural experience and it was so fun to hang out with new people. Oh yea! and I discovered that Cristina and Juan are from Plainfield..how odd is that. Apparently Juan´s family does the music at Plainfield´s spanish mass, so I´m going to go smoetime when I get home. After the concert, Kim and I headed back to the hostel to sleep. When we got back to our room, we found it empty and took the opportunity to get ready for bed in peace…when in walked a person. Kim immediately introduced herself in spanish, however this person looked really confused so Kim repeated in English, more confusion, until finally the person said, oih its all the same to me because my last name is korean. Kim chuckles and responds how funny would it be if we got married…then I´d be Kim Kim. More awkward silence. At this point we btoh realize we have no idea if this person is a boy or girl. Luckily the moment was saved when in walked a boy who looked startling like Harry Potter and he began shouting obscenities. Apparently he just began his work in Madrid and still doesn´t have an apartment so he needs to go get wasted. okay. an interesting mix we got here. But he soon left, and the Korean person, Kim and I went to sleep.

The next morning we woke up and went to mass before meeting our group at our new hotel. Our hotel room was sooo sweet. It was just the two of us but we had three beds and this amazing balcony that was right in front of the main sign over looking the main street it was beautiful. After settling in a bit, we headed to El Prado our first of many museums. The museum was amazing. We began as a group and Conso explained various paintings to us and we saw a lot of the work we had studied in class. The greco room was my favorite. He is sooo amazing. I loooooved all of his works. We also spent a lot of time in the Velazquez room enjoying his many paintings. he too was a superb artist. Las Meninas was amazing, the colors and details. just awesome. We also saw a lot of Goya. Goya was a very interesting artist, previously I had only known about his dark and morbid paintings, which are very interesting, but we also discovered that he was a multi-talented artist that painted many themes and concepts. We then explored the museum on our own, paying another visit to Velazquez and Greco. After the museum, the four of us went for a delicious lunch at Vitamina. It was perfect for 7.50 we got a buffet and a 4.50 freshly squeezed smoothie drink that was to die for. The buffet was really good to, while it had all the traditional Spanish salads and meats and such, it was so nice to be able to just eat a salad for lunch. It felt good to eat like I do at home for once. After lunch, we went to Museum Reina Sofia. This museum was sooo awesome, I just wish that I hadn´t been so exhausted by this point. We started going around the museum as a group enjoying the amazing Picasso, Dali, Miro and more that the museum had. It was sooo beautiful and fun to stand in front of paintings and discuss what we think they mean. It was awesome. Then we had some free time so we went to check out some more paintings at the museum and we saw a very odd exhibit on televisions. I still don´t understand it, but it had tv´s showing football, static, bars, odd things. I´m not sure what it was all about it was interesting though. After this museum, we went to head back to our hotel but we were confronted with a very large anti-war demonstration. It was very interesting to see and hear. I was very excited to see this. WE decided to avoid the crowds and take the backroads back to our hotel, where I enjoyed a lovely shower and chilled around with people until dinner. For dinner, Tina, Tiffany, Kim, and I went to a little bar for some tapas. It was delicious. I was excited to finally be with people that liked seafood! yay! We ordered some delicious paella, salad, bread, and some really good cheesy tapa. It was a really nice meal and it was fun to go out to dinner with different people. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel and went to bed. we were sooo exhausted.

The next day, we woke up to a lovely hotel breakfast before embarking on our visit to El Palacio Real. The palace was amazing. It was my first palace too! yay! It was huge and breathtaking. The decoration was so awesome and intricate.  There was so much symbolism and meaning in everything.  There wasn´t one plain room, every room had a specific design and layout and theme it was so neat.  AFter the palace we went to Plaza Mayor which we also studied in class.  We just did a quick walk around it and reviewed the concepts that we learned about.  It was very pretty and neat to see in person especially with the Sunday flea markets and shops around it.  Afterwards, Lauren, Kim, and I went to El Rastro-a famous market in Madrid.  It was realllllly busy and we didn´t have much time.  We found a couple of neat things that were way too expensive, and we also found a lot of junk, but it was fun to go.  We had to return to our hotel for lunch then, which was of course delicious.  After lunch we went to Museo Thyssen which was my favorite of the museums.  The whole museum is a collection of Thyssen´s works…man was he riiiiiiich to buy all of that art work.  It was awesome, we started upstairs in Gothic painting and worked our way down into the modern painting.  It was neat they had most major artists like Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Miro, Dali, O´Keefe, Picasso, and soooooo many more.  They had every style of art and all the good artists it was so cool.  WE were on our own in the museum to, so we were able to leisurely explore the Museum at will.  AFter this we went to get some coffee at the best coffee shop-faborit.  The cappuccinos had heart-shapes in them with the foam it was sooo cute and yummy.  After coffee it was time to go back, so we headed to the train station for another ride back to sevilla.

The next

Advertisement