La noche nos llamo: The night called us

Started out the day fantastically...especially compared to the freezing cold and wind yesterday...(we even saw a few snowflakes)! We had breakfast at a place called Nebraska...imagine that! Then we walked over to Palacio Real where we admired the gardens, their symmetry, and the sun...I tried to get a tan to no avail.

From there we walked around to the front of the palace, which stands opposite the Opera House (which seems too plain to be separated into 2 horizontal portions as large as they are). We listened to a man singing and playing guitar...Mon and I wondered why all men don't sit and sing to us like that?! haha.

On the other side we could see the patio/plaza behind the palace, and the cathedral/church built in about 5 different architectural styles due to the expanse of time it took to complete it. I played soccer with a litte kid who had been playing by himself, then we headed on to see the main market still in use today.

The streets of the old city were not nearly as narrow as those in Barca, but it was interesting how the houses hugged the curves. I don't know if it's visible from the photo, but the lower 1/3 of the buildings are angled out, probably to fortify the structure. This picture in particular was taken right at the bottom of the staircase up to Plaza Mayor.

The plaza is huge compared to the enclosed plazas we've seen in Barca. There were lots of people milling about, taking pictures, eating lunch, walking around, looking at shops...it was really pleasant. The buildings themselves were all uniform in their inclusion of balconies, with equal floor heights and the pattern smacks you in the face...no need to go searching for it!

**Check out the video and see for yourself!**

This was the location of our first sketching assignment. I chose to do a facade and section study to capture the proportions through an elevation and the geometry of the section that can't be captured just by the facade because of the slanted roof as well as the arcade that screens a walkway beneath the buildings.

After the Plaza we headed to el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. There we saw multiple mediums of art; video, sculpture, canvas, text, etc. Picasso's Guernica is there too. To be honest, I was not as impressed by it in person as I thought I would be. I was much more affected by the manner in which he refused to keep the painting in Spain until the end of Franco's rule. We also saw a collection of work by Bauhaus member Josef Albert and his wife on patterns and tiling. My favorite of those works was Abstracto.

The addition to the museum, pictured above, was done by Jean Nouvel. While it doesn't fit the building, as Nouvel is known to build object architecture that stands on its own, I did appreciate the way that the new and old building don't actually touch to be sealed together. I also liked how the street sidewalk continued underneath the roof that covered a plaza between the old and new parts shown here. The use of glass also helped to create an interesting feel. One of my pictures of this is shown on the main blog page under "Madrid."

I'm not sure if the furniture inside the addition was designed by Nouvel as well, but I really liked some of it, especially pieces like this that doubled in use: one end is a table and the other is a bench!

After Reina Sofia, we headed to one of the heavenly places in Madrid...also known as a Chocolateria, where they serve coffee mugs full of chocolate with baked churros to dip...yeah--that was good! We did dessert first, then hit up a local restaurant where Felipe used his people skills to get us the Menu deal, and I had the best steak ever! We sat in a room full of soccer fans, so clearly we were half-talking, half-futbol-watching!

Upon returning to the hotel, most people were really tired, but a few of us were wide awake and ready for another night of dancing at an Unce-unce club! Billy, Ben, Felipe, Sean, and I headed out to Joy Esclava, where we ran into..."issues" and ended up heading a few doors down to Palacio Girivina(?) which was basically a beautiful old mansion converted into a 2-story posh club with a bunch of bars, 3 dance floors, and a few lounge rooms full of comfy furniture. I did not take advantage of any of that furniture, however, and instead opted to dance the whole time! The music was the best when one of the employees came out and played a bongo-like drum to the current techno, house, or pop music-SWEET! We preferred him much more than the weird dancers that they had on stage...STrAnGE!!

anywho..."we stayed out until 5:30, came to the hotel, showered, then went out looking for a quick breakfast at 7:15, met everyone in the lobby at 8, and were officially inducted into the Madrid nightlife scene with an all-nighter."

Las Vacaciones de las vacaciones: The vacation from the vacation

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!