As I mentioned, it didn't take my roommate Erin and I long to realize how little time we really had in Spain....so little time and so many places to see while we're in Europe! We spent a lot of time on our computers after classes last week researching cheap flights and bus trips to relatively nearby destination spots. For this past Saturday we bought train tickets to take a daytrip into Madrid with three of our new friends from Canada (Irina, Ola, and Gabrielle). We got up early Saturday morning and walked to the station to get on a train that left Salamanca at 7:50. We arrived into the city around 10:30 and were greeted with a rainy, cold Madrid. We kept high hopes of it clearing up later in the day, though, and Ola helped us all keep sunny attitudes by pointing out that this would be a perfect excuse for us all to buy pretty umbrellas.
We were very pleased with how easy it was to navigate the Madrid metro and found our way to our first stop, the Royal Palace, in no time. Never have I seen such an ornate display of wealth! Each room was so detailed and unique. My favorite part were the gorgeous frescoes painted on the ceilings. We tried to sneak photos but every time I pulled out my camera a guard would happen to pop up at my elbow so I gave up trying after a while. Although I did get this one of one of the main halls:
Que fantástico, no?
After el Palacio, we hit up two museums: first la Reina Sofia (contemporary art), where we saw works by Picasso and Dalí, most notably La Guernica (which honestly I'd never heard of but apparently it was a mural commissioned by the Spanish republican government during the Spanish civil war--see third photo down); then the Prado, which was overwhelming but so worth it! The design of the museum was so confusing...we walked around in circles and probably spent double the amount of time we meant to in there, but we were determined not to leave until we all the most famous paintings there by de Goya, Velasquez, and El Greco.
Needless to say, after those three sites we were exhausted, but so proud of ourselves for being so efficient with our time in Madrid, with time to spare for finding dinner and doing a little shopping. For dinner we went to El Museo de Jamon (literally, "the Museum of Ham: what?? See the first photo down) which was a crazy experience--it was so crowded we had to push our way to the bar and order our food and then just keep our ground and scarf down the meal as quickly as we could because we felt bad about taking up precious space. I really enjoyed la Plaza Mayor of Madrid, through which we walked around some as well! There was SO much going on...it reminded me of some of the random spectacles you would see in NYC's Time Square. The giant bubbles were super fun! The headless man was a little disturbing.
All in all it was a perfect day with a great group of girls! We arrived back in Salamanca around midnight...Madrid: check!
(left to right: Ola, Irina, Erin, Gabrielle, and me!)
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