So, our trip. Wednesday morning we left bright and early- I was awake at 5:45am, walking to meet the girls at 6:40 and getting on the bus at 7. Needless to say, I slept most of the way to El Escorial. However, El Escorial was really interesting! It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and it's this monastery place. We weren't allowed to take pictures, which was kind of a bummer, but it was interesting to look at. It had some art in it, some weapons, but my favorite part was the crypts. Pretty much every famous and not so famous monarchy of Spain is buried there, and their tombs are FANCY. It was really interesting to see, but also a creepy feeling to know that you're in the same room as some dead people who are incredibly famous (the Hapsburgs anyone?). Weird feeling. We didn't spend all that much time there-Profe told us that you could spend days in the library, but I honestly didn't think it was that impressive, since you couldn't really see the books, and of course, you can't touch them. Afterwards, we headed back to the bus and on towards Madrid. Our first night in Madrid we didn't really do much, since we got there around 7ish. We headed to Corte Ingles to get some food (we tried to feed ourselves cheaply this entire week). The Corte Ingles here is MUCH larger than the one in Granada, and we ended up spending about 30 minutes trying to find the escalators downstairs! We finally found them, and scavenged for something good to eat. It was difficult considering everything has to be cooked, and we later found out that pre-prepared food doesn't actually come cooked, but we got some stuff and we were all so exhausted that we didn't really care. So we headed back and just hung out in the hotel for the night.
Thursday morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast, because we had to check in with Profe between 8:30 and 9. After breakfast we had a few hours, so we explored the city a bit looking for Parque Retiro, which we found unfortunately just in time to head back to the hotel and catch the bus to Segovia. Segovia was nice, although we didn't spend much time there. We saw the famous aqueduct, which I did not happen to realize at the time. After we had viewed it and taken pictures with it I commented about how we should go see it. I was mocked. But I have never taken a spanish history class that discussed said aqueduct, so I don't think it was that bad, but it's become one of the quotes of the trip. After that we wandered Segovia, and went to the castle there. That was also interesting to see, and we climbed up the tower from which you could see absolutely everything! It was an amazing view! While we were up there, someone spotted Profe, so we all waved to him, it was quite a funny coincidence! Thursday night we went out to eat at this nice little Italian restaurant. I got spaghetti with some sort of garlic butter sauce-delicious!
Friday was a long day, but incredibly fun. We woke up and headed to the Prado to see some paintings! It's a huge museum, but a lot of it is Renaissance art, so Anna and I looked for about 2 hours but then decided to leave and head over to Reina Sofia, the other art museum in Madrid. On our interesting walk over there we encountered several things: the Botanical gardens, a boat in the middle of the street, Dunkin Coffee, a churros place that refused to serve us churros and finally, the museum! We didn't spend much time there either, but we looked at the Dali paintings, and the Picassos, and our goal: Guernica. I cannot describe how amazing it was to see this painting. I have learned about and studied this painting in so many different classes, that it was just amazing to see it, but also, it is massive! It has a room to itself and takes up and entire wall. Anna and I spent about 45 minutes looking and analyzing it, and then decided to tour the rest of the floor. We returned, looked at it again and then decided to come back the next day. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the musical.
I am now exhausted and need to get to bed. The end of my Madrid trip will come tomorrow! I promise! Buenas noches
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