domingo, 30 junio | Madrid

I was up and nervous relatively early and ready at 830 in Plaza Zocodover to meet up with the rest of the going to Madrid group. The group consisted of Alex, Colby, Mariah, Sophie, Emily, Olivia, Natalie, and her friend that her host mom introduced her to, David, who is from Ireland and studying here in Spain in August. Once everyone was there we walked to the bus station. We had to purchase a bus ticket and get onto the bus, and it was rather simple once we knew where to go, but at first I'm sure I looked like a deer in the headlights. The trip from Toledo to Madrid is an hour bus ride and on the bus we were goofy people.

Once we get off of the bus we get to metro station by walking through a door and going down a flight or two of escalators. We needed to buy metro tickets to be able to get through the turn stiles, I split a ticket with Mariah. We then read the map and discovered that we needed to take the metro to the exit of Sol and get a map. Once we had a map we realized that we need to go through the metro again to get to the open market that happens every Saturday. If you've ever been to a farmer's market multiply the amount of vendors to get over 200 stalls, then add in vendors selling items in the span of things you could find in Walmart, and then add in enough people that could populate the entirety of Memorial field shoulder to shoulder with about 6 inches of personal space and that's what the market was like. I got a few souvenirs and presents there and used the spanish that reminded me of our mercado in Spanish 4 at Pius with Maestra Hayes.

Plaxa del Sol

We then went to lunch. I got my current favorite meal: torillas española. They are the quiche with potato combination and ridiculously good. I think I am going to get the recipe from Sandra so I can make it when I'm back in Nebraska. After lunch we met up with Conner who was here the whole weekend exploring the city. In the plaza where we waited there was a mural on the wall that was so realistic that I didn't realize it was painted until I realized there was graffiti where people would 'walk.' Bonus? there was a cat painted about half way up the wall. It might have been in this plaza or the next, but a man was playing the violin so beautifully and so well that you could hear it through out the plaza and it was an amazing sound- definitely one of those moments that if given the option I would go to a concert featuring just him playing the violin.

The mural.
Find the Cat, where's Waldo style

We then went to the Royal Palace 'Palacio Real de Madrid' and I was in heaven. If I was an art history major, this is the era I'd want to study. The rooms that were open to the public were absolutely gorgeous. My favorite room was an orientally designed smoking room. The tiles on the wall were in my favorite shade of blue and the animals and plants painted were so realistic yet they were overly colorful. There were turtles, butterflies, cats, flowers, and a dozen or more different animals on the different sections of the room. I wasn't allowed to take photos, but I did get a post card because it was my absolute favorite. Since I can't replicate the palace in my own home I can at least attempt to recreate some parts of it using chandeliers and porcelain urns, and if I had the perfect house, ceiling, and landlord, I'd also paint the ceiling. I'm going to need very high ceilings and very wide walls to fit chandeliers the size of a baby pool in diameter in my house; and amazing curtains to block the sun from hitting the hundred or so dangling crystals and blinding everyone in a two mile radius. I could, however, attempt to bring a little of the palace into my home by using chest high porcelain urns. The urns in the palace were extremely ornate and most were just stuck in a corner and often over looked. There was one urn as you left the dining hall that had purples, blues, and grey flower decoration around the lid and there was still 2.5 feet of decoration that was insanely ornate. What is even crazier is that the ceilings were painted just as ornate. The ceiling in the royal chapel had the coronation of Mary in heaven and if you looked straight up at it your eye was naturally drawn to Mary. There was another ceiling that had a man holding a pendant and it looked as if the pendant should be hanging straight down and not painted along the ceiling. Conner is a music major so the Spanish Quartet violins inside were very cool to see from his point of view, because it gave it more depth other than just 'oh look a violin.' The Stradivarius violins are worth about 100 million Euros! My mind was blown. After the rooms we headed towards the armory and saw more knights' armor than I'd ever seen before. I never realized how much detail when into each and every single piece of metal. There was one breastplate that had tiny flowers pressed into it. And the armor for the horses was just as impressive, and there was gold thread details on any fabric. The last thing we toured was the pharmacy and that had all of these apothecary jars and porcelain jars and had a lot of interesting labels.

In front of Palacio Real

The Cathedral next door.

Side view of Palacio Real 

Gardens behind Palacio Real

After Palacio Real we started watching the people in various plazas on our way back to the metro. We made our way through the metro with minimal complications and got to the bus deport with about 5 minutes to spare and got on last minute and I spent the hour of the bus ride sleeping. After we got off of the buses I got home without getting lost in new city. I found that I had the house to myself and drank lots and lots of water to make up for the lack of water during the day and walking around so much. I was definitely thankful that I walked so much during the school year and my Chacos because although I was a bit sore I wasn't in pain from walking all day.

I then began researching Barcelona vs. Valencia for the three day weekend and wanting Momma and Gramma's advice, so I started sending emails and googling everything. I'm currently torn between Barcelona and Valencia and would love suggestions and opinions. For dinner we had hamburgers which reminded me of home but then I ate the tomatoes and realized I'm alright with being here for three more weeks. We were waiting to watch the Brazil vs. Spain fútbol game at midnight so we began watching "La Nana Mágico" (Nanny McPhee).

The Confederations Cup Final of Brazil vs Spain fútbol game started with Brazil scoring in the first three minutes and then Spain getting some close calls and then Brazil scored again and now I think its half time and I'm about to fall asleep at the table. It's interesting to watch a game that is so entrenched in a culture that parallels the Husker culture, but yet it is still decidedly different. As I'm typing this Brazil just scored their third goal, and it might be a sign that I should go to bed.

Love y'all!