MADRID...the capital of Spain.
"Imagine Barcelona...on drugs"
I stayed up talking to Bob and Ben until 3 this morning...had to be up at 4:30 to do the wakeup calls so everyone made it to Placa Catalunya for the Aerobus this am. It was gorgeous, having been just washed by the awesome bcNETA (basically the city janitors--keeping the streets swept and hosed, keeping the many recycling/trash bins in order--basically making Barca a beautiful and clean city), and reflecting the lights around the plaza, without a person in sight...this probably doesn't happen but for about an hour each day between the partiers returning home and the workers waking up!
Christi wasn't feeling well, so the modes of transportation were not exactly the best thing for her, but we made it to the Munich airport without problems. The airport was crazy! The colors, the materials...I felt like I stepped into some crazy Mission to Mars movie where everything was super high-tech. It wasn't, mind you, but the shapes suggested that the entire airport was a giant machine; just ushering people in and out as it pleased...See Ben's site for some pictures of the interior, mine didn't come out well, so I'll leave your curious minds to search some of my colleagues' awesome pages for more visually pleasing info!
We made it to the hotel, after about 3 metro switches, a super-sick Christi, and an attempted pick-pocketing (shakes fist at crazy woman picking me out!), and took a little while to get settled, then hit the town, sans Christi, to get our scheduled events out of the way!
We were hungry, so after walking around in the freezing cold and ridiculous wind-tunnel that was Madrid, we split up and my group found a small cafe. After lunch, we headed to El Prado art museum. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed--I guess that just leaves you a good reason to visit!
I was amazed when I saw Goya's "El 3 de Mayo en Madrid: Los fusilamientos en la montana del Principe Pio." It commemorates the shooting of innocent people on the mountain during the civil war, I believe? I had seen it multiple times in books for Spanish classes, but it was pretty cool to see it in person!
I also really liked some of the paintings by Claudio de Lorena, Peter Paul Rubens, J. Bautista Martinez del Mazo, and one in particular by Francisco de Zurbaran. His was called, "Christo crucificado con donante." While it did not immediately catch my eye upon walking through the room, despite its size (taking up almost 1/3 of the wall), what was most impressive was what happened after having left the room. Upon turning back to the previous, I was baffled at the "sculpture" in the room before...I didn't know how I could have missed it and on returning, I found that what I had thought to be sculpture, was actually the ability of the artist to create a realistic 3 dimensional image using the 2 dimensions offered by paint by using light and shadow
After El Prado, we headed toward el Parque del Buen Retiro to walk around for a while since we had a few hours before dinner. Victoria and I played in the tree,
Tom sketched, we all ambled through the frozen gardens taking photos and imagining the springtime state of this huge park, and then...
we found a playground, of course! This one was yet another incredible adventure accompanied by tons of laughs, and even more dizziness. Keep a look out for the "videos" links on my main page, where you can join in on some of the fun!
On the walk back to the hotel we saw why we, as architecture majors, should be in Madrid...the detail of the buildings, the way entire plaza facades curved to match the circular fountain or gate at the center...we notice those things!
This is an example of one of the interesting architectural finds on our walk...a church tucked in between and underneath what looks like an apartment building...but look closer... the apartments are not just stuck on top, they create an arch above the church to maintain a separation and continue the visual curve from below caused by the cylindrical church facade--cool, huh?!
Well--dinnertime came and Christi still wasn't feeling well, so we kept our reservation and headed over to the restaurant called La Bola, where we ate "Ropa vieja" as our main course...literally translated it means "old clothes!" It was very good, though, and I would probably compare it to pulled pork in texture...but anywho...it was tasty but it got expensive as every small thing had a charge. We had a good time, though, and the night was just beginning.
After dinner we grabbed some breakfast foods, went back to the hotel, then went to a local bar. From there we headed toward a bar Felipe knew of called Joy Esclava. We were intercepted by a guy enticing us with passes to a clbu nearby, so we made a pitstop there, then headed on to Joy, where we realized what a small world it is when we found out one of the guys we met there was friends with Erin Dunn, from CUA...CRAZY!
Dancing until 3 am can really catch up to you, so bed is in order upon arriving in the room. Thank goodness we don't meet until 12 tomorrow!
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