Exploring Madrid
I spent the weekend exploring the city, visiting the Palacio Real on Friday with Madeline, Vanessa, and Rachel. It was absolutely spectacular! We spent about half an hour goofing around taking pictures in the courtyard before heading inside. Unfortunately, there were no English guides so we just walked around the 10 or so rooms out of 2000 open to the public. And they were amazing! The palace was constructed in the 1700s, and Napolean’s brother once lived there, to the emporer’s envy. It is the 3rd most magnificent palace in Europe. My favorite room was the throne room, which had such a decorated ceiling that it looked like statues and paintings were conversing casually, an effect completed by the use of gold to separate foreground and background. However, I also really liked the overwhelming rococo room where plants seemed to take over in porcelain form as well as the porcelain room of Chinese figures. We explored the Armory (so cool! Guns! Armor! Those people used to be really small … I think I would barely fit into a suit and these were built for grown men) and the Pharmacy (a rather more cheery version of Snape’s dungeon) before eating lunch and checking out the gift shop. There, my friend Madeline found the COOLEST book about “hidden” Madrid, all the attractions that are really interesting but aren’t in many touristy guide books. So, on Friday I learned that the plethora of statues around the city were originally commissioned to be on top of the palace, but that the queen mother had a nightmare and refused for them to be placed there. Ergo, they are scattered throughout Madrid and the country, and you can still see where each statue was supposed to go on the roof. We saw the greatest statue ever of some king, because it was designed by 3 artists and balanced by Galileo, since the position that it was wanted to be in was not conventional and could easily fall over due to weight issues. It is considered to be one of the greatest statues ever. I also saw where artist Diego Velasquez may or may not be buried, as the church/cemetery where he was buried was destroyed 200 years after his death and his body was somehow lost in the process. However, they located the ruin of the church and put up a monument in his honor. We saw ruins of the Wall surrounding Madrid during the Moorish occupation, within which hid a statue of the Virgin Mary, whose location was also lost until it was remembered as a king began to tear down the walls of the city. We saw said statue as well, and it was sad that it had to be behind bars to prevent vandals and thieves from accessing it. Oh, I also found out that the bar I was thrown out of on La Noche En Blanco was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite pub! Irony, huh?
On Saturday, we met to tour this convent where the 1700 year old blood of a saint is still kept, and apparently reliquifies every 27 of July. It was kept in a room along with the bones of saints in boxes. [Look, it’s a Saint in a Box! Step one, stick the saint in the box…..step three, give her the box!] The guide was in Spanish, and we saw quite a few interesting art pieces in addition to the famous remnants and the church itself. Afterwards, we headed towards the Plaza Mayor to see the pulpit and the stairs of the Inquisition (which we had actually seen before but not realized the historical significance of) as well as the statue that ate birds. The statue that ate birds is actually a statue of a man riding a horse, and the horse’s mouth used to be open. It was not until a vandal sliced open the belly and had hundreds of bird bones fly in his face that it was realized birds would fly into the open mouth of the horse, become trapped inside, and die. The mouth was subsequently wielded shut. Oh, and the Plaza Mayor? Location of the Inquision. We then headed over to have tapas in the Plaza de Santa Ana followed by churros at the Famous San Gines, which was fabulous.
Sunday, we got up early to go to el Rastro. I had been before with Alex, but the others’ hadn’t. It isn’t as overwhelming as the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, however the sheer volume of people makes it quite a powerful experience. After the others went back to their homestays for la comida, I met Alex at the local bar for a coke and some tapas of calamares fritas. She got hit on by the bartender that neither of us could understand (and who wasn’t very cute) and now cannot go back to our local pub. Que pena!
All in all, weekend=success, and we cannot wait to take the magic book out for another spin in Madrid!
October 9, 2008
Wedding Crashing
We had tapas for dinner with MariCarmen (soooo much food!) and met the business kids from another program. However, after the tapas/dinner, we were forced to crash a wedding. Like, seriously, the brother of the groom just started handing out glasses to us as we were leaving and gave us champagne. I was like, what is going on here?!?!
We went out for more drinks thereafter. And 2 days later, I saw the recently married couple on the street as I walked with Laura, Lindsey, and Jasmine from the Prado to school.
It’s a small world after all?
Written some time ago but never posted due to my laziness....
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