Madrid

If Granada is like Santa Fe, Madrid is, well, New York. It is huge, bustling, and full of things to do and see. Yet at the same time, it still has that Spanish charm that I seem to just find everywhere. I mean every corner you turn, there is some plaza or other or an incredibly beautiful building predating anything I have seen in the US.

So we started off our visit in Madrid in the museum of modern art, known as the Reina Sofia. I hate to say it, but I have never laughed so hard at any artwork before. I guess I just can´t appreciate things like the ´untitled box for standing in´ or a completely white exhibit room that is actually an exhibit in itself. The Picasso´s, Dalí´s and Miró´s were interesting enough but just not really my cup of tea. In reality, they just weirded me out a bit. However, next on our list was the Museo de Prado which is basically just second to the Louvre in Europe. Now this museum is incredible - it has works by Velzquez, El Greco, Goya, Ribera, Rembrandt and more. It is amazing how lifelike some of the pictures are and you could spend whole days just getting lost in the building. The problem was that I was rather tired and though I hate to admit it, I was feeling overwhelmed with all of the art after only 2 mere hours. So, like any American tourist, I went to Starbucks to get some sustenance.

Our next stop was The Escorial which is the huge and rather austere palace from the reign of King Felipe II. The library was impressive, as was the maseleoum were all of Spain´s kings and queens since Felipe´s time are buried along with other members of the royal family. I think I probably saw about 2000 coffins that day, which was fitting as it was halloween. To continue in that same vein, we drove up the the Valle de Los Caidos where Franco is buried. It is an incredible monument and I was very conflicted regarding my feelings towards it. First of all, it is where 50,000 nationalist soldiers are buried and Franco built it as a testament to the strength of Spain under his rule. However, the monument itself is incredible, carved straight into the mountain with the second largest basilica in the world. The cross that towers overhead is much taller than the Eiffel Tower and the whole thing overlooks a massive valley and can be seen from miles away. However, when I would stop to think about how many people died in the civil war and how much suffering came about from it, I was not particularly fond of the monument. But I can still appreciate it. If you ask any Spaniard, they seem to express the same feelings. After all, their conflict was much more recent than our civil war and there are still many remains today.

Anyway, all seriousness aside, I was excited to celebrate halloween in Madrid. People actually do dress up and it is a rather popular holiday for young people. So we met up with a friend who lived in Madrid that we had met earlier and went out to a delicious dinner before meeting up with some other Spaniards, Mexicans, Venezuelans, and Costa Ricans to go dancing. It was rather fun but before long, all of us Americans were ready to head back and go to sleep. Of course, no one could believe that we would want to go home at 4:30 in the morning as the night was just getting started in Madrid. One day, I am sure I am just going to see the sun rise. In fact, the next morning when I woke up at 8 to get breakfast, there were many people walking along the streets still in costume, just heading home for the day.

I spent a glorious afternoon in the Parque de Retiro in Madrid which is basically equivalent to Central Park. The sun was shining, it was warm, the park was full of trees with autumn leaves, and everyone was out, either taking a walk, paddling a boat on the lake, watching the street performers, or just sitting in the grass. I have to say I really miss grass and decidious trees here in Granada, so it was so nice to actually feel like it was fall. If there is only one thing the Europeans do right -which I know they actually do a lot of things right- it´s that there are parks everywhere.

The next two excursions we took were to Segovia to see the impressive and more than a thousand year old roman acqueduct, and then to Toledo to visit the medieval city where Don Quixote was born. Both were charming and full of fall sunshine. In Segovia, I visited the royal palace which is supposedly the model for the castle in ´Snow White.´ During both excursions though, I was feeling a bit tired and sick so I probably didn´t appreciate them as much as a should have. But I have to say, after visiting Madrid, I am finding that it will be harder and harder for me to leave here. Don´t get me wrong, I can´t wait to see all of you, but I am finally settling into Spanish life and I know that there are many aspects of it that I will miss, much more than I originally thought.