Madrid Weekend

Palacio Royal-- Royal Palace

Michelle, Christy, and I eating lunch in Plaza Mayor

Laura and I on the steps of the Prado

Michelle, Jenny, and I in Plaza de España with Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

Madrid was the perfect trip to start off our traveling expeditions in Europe. I went with six other girls (Jill, Michelle, Laura, Jenny, Christy, and Betsy) and we had a blast. We took the bus from Granada to Madrid on Friday morning, which was super easy and a pretty nice bus ride. It took about five hours, but they played two movies (License to Wed and Monster in Law, both dubbed in Spanish!) and we were able to sleep for a good chunk of the time.

We got into Madrid, checked into our hostel, and decided to explore a little bit. We ended up going to Plaza Mayor, which is a really huge historic plaza and eating lunch outside in the square. Our waiter was this really cute little Spanish man who was really excited that we were trying to speak Spanish to him even though he spoke English. I found that, in Madrid, most people speak English but they really appreciate people trying to speak Spanish to them. 

After lunch, we walked around the city a little more, stopping by Palacio Royal and the cathedral. My favorite part of the city tour was getting to Plaza de España where there's a huge statue of Don Quijote (riding Rocinante, his horse) and Sancho Panza. Jenny and I are both Spanish education majors and both admittedly LOVE Don Quijote de la Mancha. We took some good pictures of the statue and I couldn't get the "I am I, Don Quijote" song out of my head for the rest of the day :-)

We then walked down Gran Vía, which is a street with a lot of shopping and restaurants in Madrid. We went shopping and got some coffee at little coffee shop and really enjoyed ourselves. After that, we went to the Reina Sofia, which is Madrid's modern art museum. We saw a lot of Dalí and Picasso, which I loved. I'm usually pretty dense when it comes to art, but being able to see Picasso's Guernica in person is definitely something I will never forget. Guernica was Picasso's commentary on the Spanish Civil War and the attacks on Guernica, a town in northern Spain. The painting was INSANE in person. It was enormous and breathtaking and so intricate. I'm really glad to be able to say that I have seen it.

After the Reina Sofia, we went to a little restaurant called Chic Antocha for dinner, which was really fun. The restaurant had a great atmosphere and was just what we wanted after our long day.

The next day, we went to the Prado museum, which is an art museum with a lot of important Spanish art (namely works by Velazquez and Goya). Four of the girls did the audio-guided tour, but Betsy, Christy, and I walked around for a few hours and then hung out in the café for a little bit, which was a nice time to just sit and relax.

We then went back to the hostel and took naps before dinner. We went to this really cute restaurant on Calle Amor and were able to get a lot of really great food. We went out that night, first spending some time in our hostel bar and then going to a discoteca called El Kapital. El Kapital is this enormous discoteca with seven floors. Each floor has a different atmosphere, so it really had a little something for everyone. We hung out there for about three hours and decided to call it a night and get ready for our trip back the next day.

The next day, we woke up, packed, had breakfast, and headed to the bus station to hop our bus back to Granada. It was a really fun weekend with really good people and I can't wait to start traveling more!

Next weekend, we go to Morocco (Africa!) through a trip that the school organized for us. I'm really excited to see what it's like!