Well my trip to Madrid was definitely full of drama. That being said, I did make a stop off at the Prado for… a few hours. I didn’t plan to spend so much time there but as soon as I’d start to leave I’d catch a glimpse of something else I wanted to see. It really was thrilling to see some of these paintings that I’ve read so much about and seen in so many textbooks, and yet there they are, in the flesh so to speak. There was actually a special Goya exhibition going on too so I even got to see one of my favorites, Saturn Devouring His Son. Not exactly a happy piece, but for some reason it always made me chuckle. It helped me out on the GREs too! When they asked what Saturnine meant, that painting is what popped into my head (and wouldn’t you know, I got it right too). La Maja Desnuda was there too which is another favorite of mine, but strangely enough the Maja Vestida wasn’t to be seen. I even saw Velasquez’s Las Meninas and WOW is it big. I really had no idea it was so tall. It was so amazing to see the paintings I had read so much about and studied so much right there in front of me.
I did some wandering around and such but it was pouring down rain all day so not so great for seeing the sights unfortunately. I did brave the top of a double decker bus though along with a few other raincoat-clad men to get a better look at things.
Backing up a bit: I have to talk about what happened before I got here. I had planned on waking up at 5am to get the last of my things together and call a taxi to come pick me up at 5:50, but… I overslept. I don’t know how my alarm clock got turned off (I’m sure I did it in my sleep actually) and stupid me had the cell phone on silent so the backup alarm was useless. Luckily however, I had to get up to use the bathroom at 6am, and quickly threw the rest of my things in a bag and called the taxi. At 6:15 I was in the taxi on the way to the bus station and believe it or not, I managed to figure out what platform the bus was leaving from and find the platform with 3 minutes to spare.
So: The bus ride. I bought a Supra ticket, and MAN was it worth every penny. This is first class stuff. First of all, I was on a single-file side of the bus so I didn’t have to deal with anyone sitting next to me. Secondly, super awesome bucket leather reclining seats. Here is what I was dealing with:
Also, a girl serving drinks and snacks the whole time. There was actually wifi on the bus too, but I couldn’t find the outlet and neither could the attendant girl so I let it go and got some sleep instead. Once I woke up I started reading through the books Mandy and Bob gave me for Christmas to start making out my itinerary. I’ve already wrecked the itinerary, but whatever, I have an idea of what I need to do while I’m here. As we were about to get off at the bus station, they gave us a free gift…. Wouldn’t you know it, it was an alarm clock. Irony is funny that way.
I had to use the restroom but I thought I would just wait until I got to the bus station instead of going back into the tiny bus-bathroom which is always awkward and such. That was a mistake. The bus bathroom was WAY nicer than the ones at the station. Note to self: next time wait to get on the bus to pee.
Since I had no earthly idea where I was, I decided to take a taxi at least to get to the hostal the first time. I gave him the address and such and well, long story short, he ends up driving me about 3 blocks past where it was and yet was telling me it was further down the street. I’m not sure if he was just trying to take me for a ride, or if he just didn’t know where the hostal was. In any case I finally found it, threw my things in the room, woofed down a couple of sandwiches Merche had made for me, and went off to the Prad.
Afterwards I wandered around for a bit taking pictures and then stopped off at a café for a tortilla Espanola and watched a bit of a Formula 1 race.
I hopped on a tourism bus that Merce had suggested to me where you buy a pass for a day or two and you can just hop on and off the bus as you please. It is a double decker bus with little audio jacks and headphones to listen to little factoids about the sites as you pass by.
Taken from the bus: Puerta de Alcala
Me in front of the Plaza de Cibeles
Much more to come
3 comments:
Madrid is a really great city because there’s just so much to see and do. Did you get to do your entire itinerary? If you did, congratulations! Seems like every time I try to plan out my itinerary for a new city I seem to get distracted and end up doing other things, or not finishing it! I like the idea of the tour bus because you get to see a lot of things in only a day, and it is also a great idea if you are alone, tour busses are always fun, and usually the person driving it is fun too!
I studied in Madrid, so I did have a lot of time to explore the city, but I did realize that there was still so much to see in the city that I missed. I need to go back soon!
I particularly liked the Madrid Vision tourist bus I took because you could get on and off as you please, and you could plug in some headphones and listen to information (in one of 8 languages available)to get info along the way. The driver didn't really talk, but since you had the audio anyway it wasn't a big deal. There was also a bus stop right outside of my hostal which was a convenient taxi to get home when I had no idea where I was going!
I did manage to hit everything I had planned out (thank goodness I had the books Bob and Mandy gave me to study on the trip down there!) but of course there were lots of other things I would have liked to have done too. For example, I didn't get around to a tablao to see some flamenco, because I was just too exhausted at the end of the day.
Personally I don't really like the touristy feel of Madrid, but I'm still glad I went to see all the famous things you just can't see anywhere else. Visit Asturias sometime, it's gorgeous ;-)
I know what you mean about the tourism feeling in the city... I actually like breaking up my time between tourist and non-tourist activities, for example, spending the day visiting all the "must do's" and then at night, going to a Spanish friend's apartment and having an authentic Spanish dinner, or visiting a local restaurant, where only Spanish is spoken. When I studied in Madrid I stayed in a shared apartment with a few other international students, and I actually felt like a Spanish resident! It was pretty cool.
I haven't been to Asturias, what was it like? Pictures look amazing!
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