Madrid

This weekend I had a great time traveling to Madrid.  I got to see all the big touristy places, and of course I got to spend time with Julie which was pretty awesome.  So to get you all caught up...

Friday afternoon we didn't go to our afternoon class.  Instead we got on a 2:45 train.  After the morning classes I came back to the house, packed up my stuff, and grabbed a sandwich that R was kind enough to make for me.  Then it was time to meet Emily and walk to the train station.  We didn't know exactly where we were going, and it was kind of a long walk, but we did make it to the train station and found our vía and got on the train with a few minutes to spare.  The train ride was quick and comfortable and they played captain america.  And when we arrived in Madrid, Julie was there to greet us.

When we left the train station our next goal was to find our hotel.  We didn't really know where the street the hotel was on was, but we tried one way and failed, so we tried the other way and that was a success.  It was easy to find when we walked in the right direction.  We checked in no problem and went up to the room which was really nice.  Then we just sat in the room and talked for awhile before heading out to find something to eat.  We wound up at this pizza place that Julie said was good.  After that we went back to the room to get some sleep before a busy day of walking around Madrid on saturday.

Saturday morning we met up with Julie to go to the prado museum.  We had to wait in a little bit of a line to get in but it was free for students which was nice.  It is a huge museum though and there is just so much to see.  Julie left us after an hour or two but I'm pretty sure Emily and I spent like 4 or 5 hours there.  It was crazy.  No pictures inside, but here's the outside of the museum

After that we needed to find something to eat.  So we went to basically the first restaurant we came across which happened to be a burger king.  Once we had eaten something we went over to another museum, the reina sofia.  This has a lot of picasso in it and the big deal is his guernica.  It was pretty cool to see it in person.  We went through that museum much more quickly though.

So after that we just spent some time walking around sol which is like a big plaza area where there are always a lot of people, a lot of street performers, and lots of shops and restaurants nearby.  We went into some souvenir shops and wound up stopping at this pizza place for some dinner.  Then we found a little bakery type place and got some chocolatey doughnut like thing.  I also finally got another sweatshirt.  It's a silly I heart madrid one, but that was seriously the only sweatshirt int he whole city I'm pretty sure.  At least the only one that didn't have anything to do with a soccer team.

Just as we were about to start heading back to the hotel, Julie called and wanted to meet up with us again.  So we waited for here to get to sol and then we walked to plaza mayor and then to where the cathedral and royal palace are.  We also saw the opera house.  It was cold and it was dark but it was still just fun to be walking around the city.  We were definitely tired by the time we got back to the hotel though and were very ready to go to bed and get some sleep before another busy day.

We met up with Julie again on sunday morning so that we could take the metro over to the cathedral for 10:30 mass.  The cathedral was really pretty and colorful and there was actually music with the mass which was a nice change.  It also last like a whole 45 minutes I think which tops the 30 minute masses we have been going to.  

After mass we went next door to the royal palace.  This was a palace that was actually quite different than the palaces we have been seeing in southern spain.  Rather than all of the arabian architecture, this palace was done mostly in a french style I believe.  It was really pretty, but like the museums, no pictures inside.

Cathedral

Palacio Real

After our visit to the palace we walked over to this egyptian monument that is up on this hill and offers a nice view of the city down below.  We also visited the plaza de españa where there is a big statue of miguel cervantes.

Then we took the metro back toward the hotel and said goodbye to Julie, at least until we see her in Sevilla for holy week.  And before we had to go back to the hotel and catch our train we took a quick walk through a part of retiro park.  We didn't see much, but what we did see was really nice.  I'm sure it's a great place to be when the temperature is a little warm and all of the trees have their leaves.

Then it was back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then head over to the train station.  We were a little confused about where to go when we got in the train station, but we eventually figured it out and got where we were supposed to be with plenty of time to spare.

And now it is back to business as usual, another week of class.  But now I have officially completed one third of the program here in spain.  How crazy is that?