Is This Real Life?

This past weekend, we took a trip to Madrid, and the best word I can come up with to describe it would be unbelievable. Honestly, I kept having to figuratively pinch myself to figure out if it was really happening. The city itself is very cool, much like a Spanish New York City. There's so much to do, and we did so much. I have never been on my feet for so long in my life, but it was worth it. On Friday I didn't do much of cultural importance and instead went shopping with some of my friends, which was of course a lot of fun, but involved plenty of walking. After shopping we went for some delicious tapas, most of which contained seafood. I ate octopus for the first time! It was actually quite good. They make pulpo a la gallega (Galician-style octopus) which has olive oil and paprika on it, and it's rather tasty. The octopus itself doesn't have a terribly distinct flavor, but I liked it! We also ate calamari, mussels, and my new favorite thing in the world: jamón ibérico (Iberian ham) with manchego cheese. Jamón ibérico is very thinly sliced ham indicative of Spain, particularly the south, and it is delicioso. And manchego cheese is, of course, Spanish, so naturally here it's sublime. The dish tends to be a bit pricier (our plate on Friday was 15 euros), but that makes sense considering it's one of the most delicious things ever to grace my mouth. Later that night we went out to check out the Madrid night life, and of course had a ton of fun. I got to talk to some Madrileños (people from Madrid) in Spanish! At one point, I would say something to someone in Spanish and he would respond in English. We both wanted to practice our language skills, so that was the perfect way to do it!

My friends and I were very tired the next day, but we had a full day of cultural enrichment that I loved. First, we went to the Museo del Prado, the really awesome art museum in Madrid, where we got to see some amazing paintings. I've studied Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya in a few of my Spanish classes, most recently in our culture class here at the center, so being able to see their works in real life was indescribable. The Prado definitely had me questioning if this is really my life right now. It's still hard for me to believe that I was actually standing in front of the original Las Meninas. While I don't know that much about art, I've always liked and appreciated it as an artist of another sort (although it feels like a bit of a stretch to call myself an "artist"). All types of art can have a profound emotional effect, and I've always felt strongly about Goya's Pinturas Negras (Black Paintings), which he painted toward the end of his life. Deaf, old, and widowed, he began to paint works much darker in nature--hence, the name of the group--reflecting various themes. I've always been both fascinated and a little afraid of the paintings, and seeing them in person impacted me pretty strongly. After the Prado, we went to another museum, the Reina Sofia, where there are a lot of Picasso, Miró, and Dalí pieces. Seeing Picasso's Guernica in living color (or lack thereof, rather) was another experience that left me speechless. Considering everything that went into the painting and seeing its size was for sure a singular experience. There was a really cool progression of photos showing all the changes that the piece underwent before it was finished. It changed almost completely from the original, and it was really interesting to see his thought process. And although my favorite Dalí wasn't there (Cisnes que se reflejan como elefantes, or Swans Reflecting Elephants), I could've stared at his works for hours if my feet didn't feel like they were going to rebel from my body and self-amputate out of pain. Despite this fact, I agreed to go to the Parque Retiro with some friends, a gargantuan park of which we saw a small part. It was lovely, but the consensus was that it would probably be even nicer during any season except winter. Still, I'm glad we went, even if I could barely get myself up the hill leading to the entrance.

That night, I was clearly too exhausted to go anywhere, so I watched Desperate Housewives in Spanish (Mujeres Desesperadas) and went to bed early. The next day, we went to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), which was also breathtaking. It may sound like I'm using a lot of hyperbolic adjectives, but the things we saw on this trip were really wonderful and thus difficult to explain. The palace is where the king once lived, but now it's only used for public ceremonies. The rooms were so ornate, it was kind of hard to take it all in. It reminded me a bit of seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but my favorite room was probably the throne room. There were chandeliers in every room, and it seemed like each time we went into a new room, they got bigger. Even though the king doesn't live in the Palacio Real anymore, it was still one of those times I wish I could marry into the Spanish royal family. (Another time would be when we learned in my culture class that the king gets paid something like 8 million euros a year to pretty much travel around and own a bunch of beautiful houses and tell Hugo Chávez to shut up. Yeah.) Too bad Prince Felipe is 42 and married.

So obviously Madrid was wonderful, but funnily enough I actually found myself missing Sevilla at some points. It has more charm than Madrid, and I prefer its size and atmosphere to the huge city. We've been doing some really cool cultural sight-seeing right here, as well. Last week, we went to the Baños Árabes (Arab Baths, similar to Turkish Baths to my understanding), which was pretty neat. It was a little bit too relaxing for me at some points in the sense that I had kind of a hard time taking it all seriously so I just laughed. But there's a room where you go into hot water for a while and then get into really cold water afterward, which sounds awful and I almost didn't do it because I hate cold water, but it was actually incredibly refreshing and made my skin tingle. There was also an aromatherapy room, good for helping me get over the cold that refuses to leave me alone. Later that day, we saw a flamenco concert, and I loved it. Sevilla is pretty much the best city to be in for flamenco, so of course we had to go see some. The dancing was so cool to see. The foot movements are very intricate and staccato; it reminded me of Irish step dancing. But the upper body movement is so fluid that it's crazy that they do both at the same time. And although the dancing blew me away, the singing is really what to focus on (or so I was told by my professor). The intricacy of the music takes so much skill to perform, it's almost operatic in some ways. The whole concert was a great experience.

Today, we saw the Catedral (Cathedral) and Giralda (the tower of the cathedral), which was beautiful. We climbed up the Giralda--it took a LONG time and a lot of leg power that I do not have--and the view was breathtaking. I'll post photos of the view later; this post has gone on long enough. If you made it this far, congratulations. There's a lot here, but there was a lot to tell. As always, much more to come!

Pictures (from top): Front of the Prado, Guernica, Parque Retiro, front of the Palacio, me with the view from the Palacio overlooking Madrid, blurry flamenco dancers.