Madrid

This past weekend, I went with my art interest group to Madrid. We left on Friday and since the program paid for everything, we got to take the train (a 3 hour ride) instead of the bus (a 6 hour ride). We even got to stay in a really nice 4-star hotel right next to Puerta del Sol. On Friday we walked around the city and looked at all the popular sights with our tour guide Angel (my old teacher). It was really neat to see everything and also learn the history of the city. My favorite part of Madrid from the first day was the "Palacio Real," the place where the kings and queens have always lived up until the democracy began. After our tour it was time for dinner... the majority of the group went out for tapas, but a group of us girls decided to go to a different restaurant because we were HUNGRY and didn't want to wait forever to get our food (which is obviously what happens when you go out with a huge group of people). After dinner we randomly saw the Spanish student that came along on the trip as a guide; he was with his Madrid friends, so we went with them to a bar for the rest of the night. One of the guys was studying to be an English teacher, so we tested his knowledge in English and gave him some suggestions of where to study in the United States (not Wisconsin).

The next day we woke up early to begin our loooong day of museums. We had a free breakfast buffet at the hotel which I was really pumped about because it had pancakes AND cereal!!!!! Two foods I have been consistently craving while abroad... I was so excited for the cereal because there was SKIM milk (which is basically unheard of in Spain), but it ended up being a let down because it was really warm and therefore really unappetizing. After stuffing my face with pancakes, we went to the "Museo Nacional del Prado" (the Prado museum). This was a really interesting museum for me because a lot of the paintings here are ones that I had previously studied in my Spanish classes. The star painting of the museum is "Las Meninas" by the painter Velasquez. Other paintings that I really enjoyed seeing there were "El dos de mayo" and "El tres de mayo" by Goya, paintings which depict a battle against the French that took place in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. After El Prado our group went to a free lunch buffet (which was awesome) before heading to our next museum, "el Centro de Arte Reina Sofia." This museum had a ton of work by Pablo Picasso, which was cool to see although he isn't one of my favorite artists. The star painting of the Reina Sofia museum was Picasso's "Guernica," which represents the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso stated that he would not allow "Guernica" to be in Spain until democracy came to Spain, and this promise was kept. In 1981, after Franco's dictatorship ended, the painting was finally moved from New York City to the museum in Madrid.

After being museumed-out, my friends and I met up with my friend Jack Hale who is currently studying in Madrid. We went to a bar called "Dubliners" because my friends had just found out that their flight to Dublin was canceled due to the volcano in Iceland. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to see a fellow Green Bay'er in Europe! The next morning we had to wake up early to go to (you guessed it) another museum, but ended up leaving the hotel much later than expected due to everyone's flights being canceled and needing to find alternative ways for people to get back to Sevilla. Once all of that was figured out, we headed to the Thyssen Museum. Here there was a Monet exhibit which I was really glad I got to see. The museum also had a lot of Pop Art, which I loved, although I was upset I didn't get to see any of Andy Warhol's work. After the museum we had a couple hours of free time before heading back to Sevilla.

The festival "Feria de Abril" is going on in Sevilla this week, and we don't have any school because of it (yes!)... I'm not really sure what the festival is going to be like, but I am going to "the lighting of Feria" tonight. Since a lot of people who were planning on traveling in Europe this week had their flights canceled, a lot more of my friends will be attending the festival which I am pretty excited about. I'm just relieved that I didn't plan any trips this week that required flying, because I would be pretty bummed if any of my trips had been canceled. I'm hoping the smoke clears up in Spain by next weekend so I can fly to Barcelona. It's crazy how ash and smoke from a volcano in Iceland expanded all the way to Spain in three days! Kinda freaky...

I'm headed to Morocco, Africa this coming weekend with Jack (the friend who is studying in Madrid) and my roommate Natalia. We are going (with a travel group) to the cities Tetuan, Tangier, and ChefChaouen. It should be a very interesting experience, and I am soooo excited to go!

One month and two days left!

Emily



Picture #1: El Palacio Real... palace where the kings and queens lived
Picture #2: Plaza Mayor... bullfights used to take place here and people were also killed here during the Spanish Inquisition
Picture #3: Clock in Puerta del Sol... on New Years Eve, this is the place to be (it's like the Times Square of Spain)
Picture #4: My friends and I standing in the entrance of the Prado Museum
Picture #5: Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"... that stupid lady wouldn't get out of the way!
Picture #6: My friends and I in the bar "Dubliners" after they found out their flight was canceled
Picture #7: Me in front of the Puerta de Alcala