Spain Part IV: Madrid

We got to Madrid around 5:30 PM, checked into our hostel and found some dinner. I called my friend Jessie who was now on the bus to Salamanca and told her the bus station story. Though she was angry I didn’t get to see her, the story was so ridiculous that everything ended on a fine note. Our flight the next day was leaving at 3:00 PM, so with less than a day to spare I realized that some intense Madrid toe-tapping action would have to take place. That night we went to a convenient store and bought bottles of wine for under a euro and then went to meet up with Ryan’s friends who were studying abroad there. We got to their apartment and met some other people who were there also. As strange coincidences go, two of the people in the apartment happened to be studying abroad in London and were close friends with the girls who stayed in our hostel room in Cork.

With our wine we played a big game of Kings for over an hour and then everyone was planning on going to the big club El Capital. Because I had no time in Madrid and wanted to see as much as possible I left them at the club and went back to the hostel with the plan of waking up at 9:00 AM. In the spirit of religious processionals carrying over from Seville, as I walked back to the hostel I saw the longest line of people I’ve ever seen waiting to get into a church. The story behind this is that once a year this church lowers a statue of Jesus from the ceiling and if you touch the statue’s foot and make a wish it will come true. People stand in line up to three weeks prior to this event so that they can get their wish. When I saw them, it was three in the morning and people ages 8 to 80 were waiting in line. That takes some good faith.

I adhered to my plan and woke up at 9 the next morning. As my alarm rang, people were sill getting back from the night. I walked around for a bit until Evan woke up and then we went to the Reina Sofia. I wanted to go here to see Picasso’s Guernica, and we walked around the museum searching for it. I didn’t realize how large it was, but it spanned such a distance that an entire large room was devoted to it. It is quite an amazing painting. The museum included many other famous works of art and has a pretty great collection of Dali’s.

After this we stood in line at the Prado museum. This was my favorite. There are so many awesome pieces of art here that it is overwhelming. Among the many, I got to see Velazquez’s Las Meninas, Titian’s Bacchanal, and then my favorite, Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was hard to believe that all these paintings were in the same museum, but it was quite awesome.

After the museum we met with my friend Jessie Lurie for a little bit and went to the major park next to the Prado.

She showed us around and soon enough we had to get our stuff and get to the airport. As I said, Madrid was short lived but I’m glad I got to see some of the highlights. We got on the plane and took off toward London.