All About Madrid

Hey y'all. Want to hear about Madrid? Here it is:

The Trip:

We left quite early on Friday morning to catch an 8:30 am plane to Madrid. Nothing interesting here, except that I got patted down by airport security for the first time. And they analyzed my shoes with this shoe analyzer machine. And my belt got caught in the x-ray machine, in between the rubber flaps, and it took them way longer than necessary to get it out. Good times.

Friday:

So immediately after we step off the plane, we are whisked off to a tour of the Retiro Park and then the Prado art museum. The park was very beautiful and there were a lot of pretty fountains and such. We stopped by the Palacio de Cristal:

After a pleasant stroll, we arrived at the Prado. While I realize that this museum is supposedly wonderful, it was a bit awful. The tour guide was very difficult to understand. I didn't like the paintings she picked, with the exception of Las Meninas. Do I need to see Goya's dark period? I don't really appreciate cannibalism, even as an "art form." After two hours of traipsing around the museum and only seeing about 6 paintings, we were finally set free.

My friend Kelsey and I decided that with our limited amount of time, the best way to get around Madrid would be to take the bus tour. So we did. It was a beautiful day, although a bit brisk. Sitting at the top of the bus is a great way to see all of the city in one go, especially the architecture. It also helped us get an idea of what we wanted to do and see on Saturday afternoon.

After a brief rest at the hotel, I went out to get some tapas with a group of friends for dinner. It was quite nice.

Saturday:

We woke up bright and early to head to the Palacio Real. This is one of the highlights of my trip to Spain so far, for sure. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures in the Palacio Real, so I don't have any to share. To sum up, it is one of the most luxuriously, beautifully decorated buildings I have ever seen in my life. I don't think I could live there because it would be too overwhelming.

After an excellent guided visit of the Palace, we went to lunch at a restaurant. The food was typical for Madrid, and very good. After this, we headed out for some shopping. In the evening, I went to visit the Reina Sofia, another art museum which was right next to our hotel. This was a highlight, because they had La Guernica by Picasso. Not only that, but they had all of his pre-sketches and some photos of the work in progress. The other cool thing about the museum was it had a third floor with a huge terrace, made of glass. I happened to explore it just at sunset, and it was awesome to see the city starting to light up.

Later on that evening, I had yummy chicken paella for dinner and we went on a quest to find the best churros with chocolate in Madrid. And they were delicious! 1 am rolled around, time to go to El Kapital and dance the night away!

and then on Sunday, we came back to Barcelona.

That ends the tale of my last trip.

Besos!