Good Sangria and a Day of Museums
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2008
1
32
36
Trip End
Aug 01, 2008
Where I stayed
Madrid,
Spain and Canary Islands
Saturday, July 26, 2008
From here we went in search of this bar that had beer pong on Thursday nights, but of course Andrew had just looked at the map online and never wrote down the actual address, so we didn`t know exactly where we were going. After a little wandering, we found the bar, only to have it be completely empty (it looked like a club and therefore we were way too early) and have the bar tender tell us that they only do beer pong during the school year, i.e. not until September. (Obviously, Andrew missed that part online!) So we went roaming for another place, only the area we were in was definitely the gay section of Madrid so all the bars were either filled with gay men, or just really trendy. Not quite our scene. We found one that seemed ok and went in for a drink. It was cute, very much the trendy incense type of lounge around bar with low lighting and lots of pillows. While this would have been a fun place to have wine on a girl`s night out, it didn`t quite fit out group, or attire. We decided to head back in the direction of the hostel to see what we could find and by the metro stop was an Irish bar, so in we went. They even had baseball on inside! After a couple of drinks here it was about 12:30am and my sternum had started to flare again so we decided to head back and I went to bed while Andrew and Edie stayed out around the bar for a couple more drinks.
I decided to try to get as much done as possible on Friday so I could take it easy on Saturday and work with everyone else`s schedule since despite what they all say, no one ever wants to get up early with me to see stuff. I got up, had breakfast and headed off for my mass tourist day. I spent the morning at the Royal Palace. So amazing and a definite must see! Some of the roams and frescoes are absolutely stunning and its impressive to think that someone lived (or even lives) in a space like this. I was even able to subtly tag along with a US tour group to get some extra info! The palace also had an armory with all the knights armor and some swords with amazing handles. There was also the Royal Pharmacy, which has all the old jars and things that used to be used by the palace to make the medicine and herbal remedies for the court. Really cool!
After the palace I headed to see some art, stopping along the way to get some falafel for lunch. I went to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza first, which had two special exhibitions going on. One of Miro and one of this artist called Arikha that I hand`t heard of before. The Miro exhibit was interesting since I often don`t like his stuff, but found one painting that I really loved. (Sadly it was from a private collection so there were no postcards available and I wasn`t allowed to take a photo.) The Arikha exhibit was also really interesting. This guy had been in an internment camp during WWII were he lost both his parents and ended up working on a kibbutz in Israel. He even, at some point in his adult life, was pronounced dead, only to be brought back to life and eventually come out of a coma. His pastel drawings were incredible!! And his paintings had such interesting brush stroke and emotion. Really cool! The regular collection at the museum was also great and had a lot from the 20th century which is my favorite time period in art.
From here I headed to the Prado, which has a vast collection of some classic masterpieces! I got to see Rubens, Goya, Velazquez, Fra Angelico, Durer, and so much more. Its really cool to see stuff in person that you have heard about through years of art history courses! It was interesting, though, that I had heard how long it takes to go through this museum and how vast it is. While the collection is incredible and intense in the amount of major masterpieces it holds, the museum itself was not as large as I expected. It was big, but not Louvre big. (Better for me since it was my third stop of the day.)
By this point I had been up on my feet for hours, and my chest was was kicking into major pain gear, so I headed back to the hostel to meet up with Edie and Andrew. By the time I got there they had already headed off to meet up with Edie`s friend Matt who had come in for the night, and his friend Patricia, and Patricia`s fiance. Due to the joys of cell phones that you never hear...they missed my message that I was back at the hostel. This turned out to be a major blessing since it let me take an hour long nap, something that I desperately needed given my pain level. (My body seems to just shut down lately when it gets sore.) Edie and Andrew got back to the hostel around 7:30pm, and we all showered and headed out to meet the others for dinner. After a 30min attempt to locate everyone since Matt`s phone wasn`t working, neither Andrew or Edie had gotten the name of the place, and Patricia`s directions were about a block off, we finally found them. Patricia had picked out this great bar, Le Tigre, which brings you free tapas when you buy drinks. The sangria wasn`t as great as some other places, but certainly wasn`t bad, and I got to fill up on tapas of potatoes, mushrooms, bread, and cheese. (there was meat too, but not the kind I could eat.) Full, happy, and ready for the rest of the evening, we left Patricia`s husband who had to work early, and the rest of us headed to a pub crawl we had a flyer for.
Turns out no one else showed up for the crawl, but as a group, we decided to make it fun anyway and we headed off with our leader, William. We started at a great Irish bar, which had good music (although the dj couldn`t transition between songs at all!), good sangria, and since it was still technically a pub crawl, free shots! mmmmmmmmmmm. The place also had lots of TVs with sports...yay more baseball! We stayed here for a couple of hours and had a blast. From here we headed to a dance club, where the music wasn`t great, but I did meet some cool people including three guys who where in Madrid studying Spanish: Chris (from the Netherlands), Jonathan (also from the Netherlands), and Conrad (from Poland). They were also hanging out with two awesome girls from their class, one from England and one from France (Marie). I spent a while talking with them, and when they decided to head to another place, our group decided to go with them. The club the guys wanted to go to would let us in since Andrew and I both had sneakers on, and Andrew also had shorts, so the pub crawl leader took us to another place. It was a little early, and therefore a little empty. They music was only ok as well. The 3 guys decided they wanted to go to a salsa club, so we all headed out. However, on the way there, my group seemed to change their minds, and while I was ready to head off with the other group and just meet Edie and Andrew later, by the time this got figured out, we had been split up in the crowd. Really sucked, but such is life. William, the crawl leader, took us to some other club, but it was too smoky and crowded and after one drink there it was about 5am. We all decided to call it a night and head home.
So now its the next day and we are all slowly recovering from our long night out. This afternoon we are headed to the Reina Sofia, which is an art museum I have been looking forward to the entire trip since it has Picasso`s "Guernica." Can`t wait!! Edie and Andrew are even coming with me!
Added note: Edie`s friends Matt and Patricia are really cool. Major props to both of them, and if they are reading this, please accept my apology for having to deal with "that stuff."
