Madrid

The Wednesday after my family left I went on a Hemingway bar crawl with a bunch of kids from my Lit class. We (Sam, Mary, Farrell,Emon, Mitch & his friends and I) literally went from class to the bar crawl and then to a club afterward. I literally went out in the clothes I wore to class. We went to London Bar, Quatro Gats, Bar Marselle and Belushi's (not Hemingway). For each bar my friend Sam had a little blurb about it that we read before drinking. It was so much fun. We played drinking games and Belushi's and just chilled at the other bars before going out to the club, which was just as insane. But I am so happy I made new friends.

That Friday I woke up early after happily not going to Abroadfest, which is this huge party thing where DJs play House music and people do drugs and get shit faced. Not my scene. So anyway, I went to Madrid Friday with CEA. We took a high speed train to get there and I sat on the train with Sam. When we got to Madrid it was pouring and cold, but I wasn't going to let that ruin the city. I roomed with my friend Lior and while she recovered from her night out I went on a tour of Madrid. It was pouring so we (Sam, Emon, Michael, and Josh & I) were first just in a bus and saw lots of things including the Real Madrid Stadium, the US Embassy, and an Egyptian Pyramid. The tour was nice, but made me sleepy and our tour guide was very strange giving his opinion and pointing out stupid things and not getting Greek mythology right. After the bus tour we did a walking tour in the pouring rain and saw Town Hall, the Royal Palace, Mercat de Miguel, and Sol Square and another Square that I can't remember the name of. We also saw and later went to the best Churro place in Madrid.

That night we went to a real Flamenco show with CEA and it was so cool and intense. The people singing were amazing and the dancers were great. I was happy I was able to appreciate their dancing me thanks to going to Milana's dance competitions and seeing what real good dancers look like. On a side note, the male dancer looked like a mix between Adrienne Brody and Brody Jenner and kind of could have played Jesus in a play. I thought about that too much.

After the show we added 3 more people (Haley, Pegy, and Todd) to our group and went to a pub called Ulysses after the James Joyce novel. We got pints of beer and cider and played cheers to the governor, which was so much fun. For the rest of the weekend this was our group and even though it was a little large it was a good group and we got along great. After the pub we went to get Churros at Sin Granas(?), which is supposed to be the best. They were good, but I still love cinnamon and sugar Churros more.

The next morning we all woke up early had our free hotel breakfast and made sandwiches for later and headed to the Palace. The Palace was gorgeous and insanely beautiful with a huge courtyard and ornate rooms. Everyone was wishing they were a royal at the end. We kept getting yelled at though because everyone was sneaking pictures and Emon decided he wanted to touch a real gold wall. We also tried to sneak onto a Canadian tour. Somehow we did not get kicked out though.

All of us then went to Retiro Parc, which is like Central Park for Madrid. The park was beautiful with a huge lake in the middle that has paddle boats and a crystal palace that is now used as an exhibit. The park also has the only statue of the devil (supposedly) in Europe. The most insane part is that the park used to be only for the Royal Family to use and walk around. I can't imagine Central Park not being opened to the public. So insane.

We then went on a tour of the Art Museum Reina Sofia, which is in an old hospital. I saw lots of Picasso's, but the most important and one I was excited about was seeing Guernica because I have learned about it since middle school. After the Reina Sofia we went to the Prado, which is supposed to be the Louvre of Madrid. At this point I was dead from walking around all day, but I managed to see more paintings and photographs. By dinner though I did not want to see any art for the rest of the weekend.

That night thankfully did not involve art, but instead we tried to go on a Hemingway bar crawl in Madrid, but instead went to a local Disco Techa and met these 3 Spanish guys. They were really nice and fun to talk to because only one of them actually spoke English so we had to try hard to speak to them. Sam, Todd, and I ended up going with them after to get Churros at the same Churro place before heading back to the hotel. It was cool because they were so much more open to talking to us then people in Barcelona and you could clearly see the differences between Castillian and Catalans.

The next morning I headed back to Barcelona with some new friends and absolutely loved Madrid.