Madrid Day 2: Park de Retriro and The Prado

After our walking tour, we took the metro to Park de Retriro, Madrid's largest park. It was SO relaxing and green! Green areas are sort of hard to come by in Rome, so we definitely appreciated how much vegetation was around us.



There was also a lovely pond, and we saw families feeding ducks, people paddle-boating, and others just strolling around like us. There were a pair of amazing street singers (harmonies, guitars, and everything!), and we stopped to listen for a little while.



After some more wandering, we stumbled upon this beautiful glass house and fountain. The park was fairly empty, since it was a weekday during winter, so we got to enjoy the serenity of the sights with very few people around us. It was so nice just to wander and not feel any pressure to "sight see", since we got most of the Madrid monuments checked off of our list before lunch.



One thing that our tour guide recommended we see was the statue of the Fallen Angel in the park. This is one of the only statues in existence that portrays Lucifer, and it was so interesting to view. There were fountain heads around the base with the most disgusting and grotesque faces I've ever see in art, and Lucifer's face was filled with so much agony and pain that it really made me think about his story (or at least what I do know of it).

The park was great, and after a few hours of wandering and breathing some fresh park air, we headed to the Prado museum (it's free most evenings from 6 to 8, so we were going to make the most of it!).



As with most art museums, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to dredge through my word-filled description of it (or skip to the next section, I don't mind). Do notice the statue of Velasquez in front of the museum, though - many of his works were in the Prado, including Las Meninas!

Given that we only had two hours, we needed a game plan. Luckily, the museum provided us with a map that included a list of "Masterpieces" that the museum housed. What did this mean? Prado Scavenger Hunt! Laurie and I raced around the museum checking off masterpiece after masterpiece - it was ridiculously fun. Sara, being an art history major, scoffed at our approach and took more time in each room, but in the end, I think that I still got a lot out of the museum - we did pause at the pieces that stuck out to us, while getting to see as much as possible - a win/win situation!

One artist's room that I absolutely loved was the Goya room. All of his paintings were so different from the traditional paintings of the time. For example, there was a series of portraits that he painted, and all of them looked hideous. There was a fat baby and a scrunched up old man that looked like a troll, just to name a few. They were terrifying and fascinating all at the same time (hmm, that seems to be a common theme for a lot of Madrid...).

And of course we saw Las Meninas! This is the "most famous" painting in the world, because it is filled with so much mystery and intrigue, such as: who is the figure in the background? What are the paintings hanging up behind the subject?
There is so much symbolism and intricacy to this painting, that art historians LOVE to talk about it. Seeing it in person was great, because you could really see all of the details that people talk about. The paintings in the background, for example, are a lot clearer in person instead of the dark, blurry images that appear in online copies or textbook pictures.

All in all the Prado was great, and I'm so glad we got to see it, especially for free! (And for real - if you're pressed for time, I definitely recommend a masterpiece scavenger hunt!)

After the museum, we decided to try to get tapas. Sara's friend recommended a student budget-friendly location, so we headed in that direction. When we got there, though, it was closed! Bummed, we stood around for a minute trying to come up with a Plan B. Eventually, we resorted to wandering around and going some place that looked decent.



Where did we end up? A restaurant where the waitstaff spoke absolutely NO English. We were drawn to it because of the price (9 euro for 2 courses, dessert, and a drink) as well as the dining population - the place was filled with authentic Spanish (read: not tourist) people!

Using our minimal Spanish skills and many, MANY hand gestures to communicate with our waitress, we finally had a good idea of what was on the menu.





I ended up ordering mushrooms for the first course. They were flavored so well, and so tender! For the second course, I ordered pork with sauce (which turned out to be mustard) and french fries. Having mustard and french fries in one meal made me an extremely happy camper, and to top it all off, my homemade flan for dessert was amazing!

We had such a fun time trying to communicate, and in the end our food was great for a great price. In order to thank our waitress for putting up with our communication issues, we wrote her a little note in Spanish and left it on our table (figuring out how to say "Thank you for helping us with our food. Sorry for our bad Spanish! from Three American Students? was much harder than you could ever imagine!).

After our meal, we wandered back to our hostel and had a much deserved (and needed) night of sleep, because the next day was going to be our day trip to Toledo! (Yes, the one and the same from the phrase "Holy Toledo!" Be excited.)

Madrid Day 2: Free Walking Tours and New Friends

Our first full day in Madrid, we slept in a little bit, made a light breakfast, and headed to our hostel's lobby to meet for the free walking tour they offered at 10am. We were met by a tourguide with a fantastic Scottish accent (he was from Scotland and had been living in various European cities for the past 10 years or so - he was totally fluent in 3 languages, which I thought was so cool).



We headed to Plaza Mayor to meet up with some others for the tour, and when we got there, we had a nice opportunity to chat with some other people who were staying in our hostel as well as other hostels in the area (this is where we met our friends from Kansas).



The tour started off in the Plaza, and right away I knew this wasn't going to be your average walking tour. Let me explain:

Our tour guide stopped us at the Plaza's statue, and said that there was a story that for years, the plaza had a very weird, disgusting smell. Nobody could figure out what it was, until one day the city's people got angry at the figure in this statue so they started throwing stones at the monument. One stone pierced the horse's belly, and then a stream of dead sparrows came pouring out!

Apparently, there was an opening in the horses mouth that was big enough to let sparrows inside, but they couldn't get back out afterwards and were trapped! Years and years worth of dead sparrows were stuck inside until the horse's belly ruptured. After this incident, the horse's mouth was sealed up, and now the plaza smells just fine.

As I said, not your average walking tour, but so much more interesting! (Sorry for those of you who are now green in the face.)



We also saw a restaurant named after the "Spanish Robin Hood", Luis Candelas. Apparently, he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, but also was a lot um... more promiscuous than your average Robin Hood. There is a long story of exile and romance, but in the end, he was killed for his illegal acts. He is still a celebrated figure in Spanish history though.



Next we learned about the Oldest Restaurant in the world. Botin has been under the same ownership since 1725! There was a certificate from Guinness World Records to legitimize the fact, as well as a picture of Earnest Hemmingway. Apparently when he lived in Madrid, he would often frequent this restaurant - cool!



Our tour was great - lots of intrigue, morbid stories, and cursing from our Scottish guide. I'm not sure how an older crowd would have reacted to the tour, but we thought it was just dandy! This is a picture of "Straw Plaza". I won't go into detail, but apparently the word for "straw" in Spanish translates into a bad word, so this plaza is famous for being good for more than straw (think El Cajon Blvd).



The tour wasn't all silly, though. We learned a lot about Madrid's gory and gruesome past, such as about the Spanish Inquisition (something I either never learned or never paid attention to in high school), which I found shocking and fascinating to hear about. This is a picture of a plaza (Plaza de la Cruz Verde) where the cavalry would assemble before going out to fight the non-Christians.



Next up, the highest bridge in Madrid! Pretty, but with a very sad history. Because of its height, it used to be the #1 "jumping" spot in the city. The government has since then taken many measures to prevent that (such as adding plexiglass walls), but it was an interesting insight to the city that I don't I would have gotten otherwise.



Right near the bridge was a Moorish-designed cathedral (and that's our tourguide in the bottom right corner!). The architecture was so beautiful that it was sad to think about the Moors being driven out of town for their beliefs. There was also the old Moorish wall of the city, where we heard the tale of "El Gato".



El Gato was a fellow who boasted of being nimble enough to climb anything, just like a cat. When the Spanish army was trying to get over the Moorish wall without any success, they called upon El Gato, who promptly crawled over the wall and helped the rest of the army get in. He was so cocky that he changed his last name to Gato, and to this day there is a family-line with the last name "Gato". Another celebrated Spanish figure.



We also learned about the symbol of Madrid. This is the Oso and Madrana (a kind of berry). We had been seeing it all over Madrid, but didn't know what it meant. It's sort of the city's mascot, and although I can't remember the story right now, I think it's about how two groups united (the bear and the tree both representing different groups).



More stories:
This church contains a very interesting relic - a stuffed alligator. The story goes that there was a small child about to be eaten by an alligator, so her mother prayed and God sent a tree to fall on the alligator and squish it. The child was saved! And the alligator's body remains as evidence of the miracle. I'm so bummed that I didn't get to go inside...





We also saw monuments to some of Madrid's famous people. The first picture is that of a famous Spanish bull-fighter. A very controversial sport, bull-fighting still occurs in Spain, but we weren't there during the correct season for it to be very popular. The second picture is a monument to Diego Velazquez, the famous Spanish painter who painted Las Meninas. He had a very tragic death, and to this day his body hasn't been found (which means he hasn't gotten his remains buried in a church, as would have happened otherwise). This memorial is what he has instead.



When the tour ended and we thanked our tourguide, we went with a few of the girls we met on the tour to get churros con chocolate, a traditional Spanish dessert. The churros tasted AMAZING dipped in the thick, gooey chocolate, and I think it made for a very well-balanced lunch.

The best part, though, was getting to swap travel stories with the girls who we were eating with. For an hour and a half, we heard stories of eurorail passes and lost luggage, working in Borneo for two years and the woes of not having peanut butter and Vegemite (one of the girls was Australian). I loved getting to share such a great moment with them, and to me it really symbolized what travel was all about - brief moments with strangers turn into lasting memories of friends; constant friendly hellos and heartaching goodbyes; and the sense of adventure and openness to new experiences abound.

We finally said goodbye and vowed to become facebook friends (which we are), and then my travel companions and I headed towards our next adventure in Madrid: Park de Retriro.

Madrid Day 1

We arrived in Madrid in the late afternoon, and by the time we checked in to our hostel and made our beds, it was time to find some dinner. Knowing absolutely nothing about Madrid and the region we were in, we wandered around hoping to find something.

Not the best strategy.

After walking and walking, everything we saw either looked too fishy (in the literal sense of the word - I'm not a huge fan of fish, and Sara's a vegetarian) or too pricey. Finally, being exhausted and hungry, we plopped down at this mediocre chain that's big in Europe (Cafe and Te) for sandwiches.

Once we had refueled, we realized it was only 8:30, so of course we had to continue exploring Madrid. The only problem was that... Madrid isn't very interesting on a Monday night.







The most interesting thing we saw all evening was this very elaborate building that was beautifully lit up and changed colors every 30 seconds or so. We ooh-ed and ahh-ed for the appropriate amount of time, and then turned towards home because we were so tired and cold from the chilly night air.

It turns out that the building we saw was Madrid's main post office/Palace. Laurie had really wanted to find the post office, because she heard it was the most photographed building in Madrid. We only figured out on our last day in Madrid that we had seen it our first night!

So that's it - our first few hours in Madrid were pretty underwhelming, but we had high hopes for the next day, because our hostel was hosting a free walking tour of Madrid's main sights!

Last Day in Barcelona

(There's one new post below this one, so make sure you take a look at both! I'm going to put Madrid up tomorrow, so check back then!)

We woke up early in the morning on our last day in Barcelona, and all felt a small ache in our hearts because we'd have to be leaving soon. While Sara decided to pack and have a relaxing morning, Laurie and I wanted to check out the Barcelonan market.



The first thing we saw? A beautiful display of chocolate! I've been to the markets in Rome, but this one was different because I felt that the vendors took a special pride in their displays, because everything looked really pristine. Also, Italian markets just have healthy things, so I was wide-eyed at this chocolate display!



Come on, you have to admit that that's the cutest egg display you've seen in your life. Laurie and I wondered what would happen if someone pulled an egg out from the bottom... (don't worry - we didn't try it out!).



The vendors were constantly primping their displays, and the entire market was just like one big eye-candy feast. Unfortunately, our original goal of getting some fruit for breakfast was slashed when a (somewhat cranky) vendor told us that we couldn't buy a single orange. However, fear not!

All throughout the market, we saw these large displays with to-go cups of juices of every color. Exotic flavors lined the shelves, and I just couldn't resist getting one. I purchased a cup of Banana Coconut juice, and it was the most amazing juice I've had in my life. In all honesty, I loved Barcelona, but I'd go back there just for the juice if nothing else.



On our way back to the hostel, we passed this display of really morbid and bizarre statues, so obviously we had to go check it out. It turns out that they were historic statues for Barcelonan carneval. It was a great piece of Barcelona culture to stumble upon during our stay!



The last thing we did in Barcelona was visit a new part of town (we saw the soccer stadium!). They were having some sort of international convention though, and given the large amounts of construction going on, we didn't get a chance to thoroughly explore.



Still pretty, though!



We finally dragged our feet to the airport, and all felt sad to be leaving. I also felt tired, so I began my search for caffeine. Since it was a hot day, I asked the barista for an iced coffee... she looked at me like I was crazy. The man behind me in line helped me say it in Spanish, and she finally understood.

What did I end up getting? A cup of ice. And a cup of coffee. Ohhh Spain, you're a funny one.



I also ate my chocolate-covered candied orange that I had purchased at the chocolate stand (how could I pass something like that up?). I felt wide awake, and then we began the next part of our adventure - Madrid, here we come!

Barcelona Part 3: Picasso, Gaudi, Hot Chocolate, and Paella

I'm finally posting about the rest of my trip! (Sorry for the long delays - life here is just always so busy!)



In the morning, we planned on going to the Picasso museum because it was free, but it didn't open until 10, so we decided to leave our hostel a little early and go explore. Our goal? Two of Gaudi's buildings (Casa Batllo). We didn't go inside because it was so pricey, but the outside was spectacular.



The outside was covered with intricate mosaics, and there wasn't a straight edge in sight. What made it all the more beautiful for me was that this whimsical building was unassumingly sitting in the middle of downtown Barcelona, surrounded by dozens of traditional city buildings.



Next, we headed to the (free!) Picasso museum. It was SUCH a cool museum, because each gallery was from a different period of his artistic life, and they went chronologically so that you could really see the difference in his style over the years.



We weren't really supposed to take pictures, but there was no way I was walking out of the museum without snapping a shot of a Picasso signature, especially when signature after signature was staring vback at me! I quickly took my (rather blurry) picture and hastily moved on to the next room (I felt like a photography ninja).



Near this central courtyard was my favorite gallery. They had a large room dedicated to Picasso's interpretations of Las Meninas, the famous painting featuring a young girl and her attendants. Picasso did dozens and dozens of sketches in order to study how different colors and lightings would affect the overall painting. It was fascinating to see how such a classical piece could be viewed from a cubist's perspective.



After we had had our fill of Picasso, we went just down the street to poke our heads in the Chocolate museum (how could we not?). While we didn't feel like paying the entrance fees, we could see glimpses of many sculptures made entirely out of chocolate. We also purchased a bar of cheese honey chocolate just for fun. Not my favorite, but hey, how many times can you say you've had cheesy chocolate?



Next, we took the metro to Park Guell! Designed by Gaudi, this park was originally supposed to be a luxury neighborhood for the incredibly wealthy. It was abandoned, and I can see why - who would want to climb this hill every day?? (Yeah, we had to walk all the way to the very top of this!)



The view was spectacular, though!



By the time we got into the park, we were hungry for lunch from climbing that steep incline. During out lunch spot search, we came across these beautiful columns: spiraled, stone mosaics were like nothing I'd ever seen before! Gaudi will never cease to surprise me.



We also saw a steampunk photo-shoot going on. It made me really excited. (Steampunk, for those who don't know, is a type of fashion that combines Victorian-era dress with mechanics and factory-ish elements - think about Wells' Time Machine, sort of.)





Finally, we came upon this large central space with lots of people and vendors. It was surrounded by one long continuous mosaic bench. The bench was so beautiful, because every section was different, but it all worked together.

We found a nice ledge to hang our feet off of, and had our adorable lunch of homemade sandwiches and Paprika Pringles. It was so nice to just eat, chat, and people watch. There were Barcelonan families picnicing below us and dads playing soccer with their kids. The 7 year old kids would have owned us in soccer.



After lunch, we get up to continue exploring. We found this large, columned awning that was trimmed with more mosaic, and because it was a rather hot day we wanted to go underneath it to get a break from the sun.



The underneath was very cool, but we were in for a surprise: the entire ceiling was decorated with more mosaics! Each arch had a differently designed "plate" like this one, and we spent a lot of time looking at the differences between them. There was also a guy playing classical guitar, so Laurie commented that it felt like a moment out of a PBS special. I couldn't agree more.



Then we finally found the lizard! It's the most famous symbol from the park, and we were happy we got to see it. Channeling our inner-Romans, we elbowed people out of the way in order to take a few pictures (there was quite a crowd waiting for their turn with the reptile).



Say cheese! (Or "Gaudi!" - that seems more appropriate for the occasion.)



So funny story: it turns out that we saw Park Guell completely backwards. We came in the back entrance, and then ended at the front! Oh well. It actually worked out better that way, because we got the hill out of the way first!



It turns out that Gaudi's Park Guell is just the tip of the iceberg though, and we spent a great afternoon wandering around the rest of the Park's greenery. I thought my brothers would get a laugh about how explicitly Barcelona reminds people to pick up after their pets.





Walking under seemingly perilous cobblestone ceilings and up steep hills, we eventually found ourselves at the top of a huge mountain. It was the highest point for miles around, and it was SO beautiful. We could see the whole city, and enjoyed pointing out the areas that we had visted.





After hiking back down the mountain, we found the exit to the park and said our goodbyes to the mosaics. We were all a little tired from all of the walking, so we started heading in the direction of home.



Although we ended up walking instead of taking the metro, it was a happy decision because we got Spanish hot chocolate! Sara found another Gaudi building that she wanted to explore, but Laurie and I were content just seeing the outside, so we went to get hot chocolate. It was amazing. So thick and creamy, we had to use a spoon to drink/eat it!

Afterward, we went back to our hostel to recuperate a little bit before going out to find an authentic Spanish dinner. (I took a much needed nap!)



Our taxi-driver in to Barcelona had recommended Port Olympico for good food and a nice atmosphere, so we decided to go there for some Paella. When we arrived, however, no one was there! It felt oddly like a ghost town, and we were a little unsure where everyone was, but then we realized it was a Sunday, and most regular Barcelonans were probably at home! We did find an open restaurant though, and the host was so eager to have us eat with them that he offered us free Sangria with our meal.

While I had never had sangria before traveling to Spain, it's my belief that Spanish sangria is absolutely amazing. Fruity and slightly tangy from the wine, it's a drink that I enjoyed with my dinner. I had chicken paella, and it was really good! Honestly, I don't think I understand all of the hype about paella, but it was nice to try it nevertheless. (It was good, but I'd much prefer a bean and cheese burrito.)

And so ended our second full day in Barcelona!