3 Days, 2 Museums, 1 Hostel: Successful Trip

My trip to Madrid was a great success. Out of all the weekend trips I've done so far, I think Madrid has been my favorite. I successfully balanced sightseeing, having fun, and exploring the city to feel like I got as full of an experience as I could in 2 1/2 days.

Friday:

floor directory for Kapital (7 floor club)

Maddy and her two friends, Christina and Emma, didn't get to the hostel until 6. We dropped off our stuff in our separate 6 person rooms and went out into the rain to explore and find a place to eat. We ended up eating at a tapas bar called Lateral, which was recommended by someone I know who is currently studying in Madrid. The tapas were DELICIOUS; the dinner started my 2 day delicious food binge (since we don't have much of that in Scotland). After dinner we got ready and then went out to a 7 story club. It was so much fun because they had a huge dance floor on the main level and then different types of lounges and bars on the floors above--they even had karaoke. On the main level they had a stage with very odd dancers and miniature performances sporadically to keep the crowd entertained.





Saturday:

Alexander Calder sculpture

I woke up before Maddy and her friends and went to the Reina Sofia Museum by myself because they had gone the weekend before for their surrealism class. The collection is really incredible; it's entirely surrealist. The museum itself was too big and weirdly laid out. I began to feel oddly depressed after looking at surrealist artwork for about 45 minutes and sat in the sculpture garden for a bit, where they have an enormous Alexander Calder sculpture. I also was not the biggest fan of the museum because they allow people to take pictures inside and many of the people who go do not go to enjoy the artwork, rather they go to say they've been there and take pictures of the famous paintings. I did really enjoy finally seeing La Guernica (some of the images are truly haunting and need to be seen in person to get the effect Picasso had intended) and the Dali paintings. The way he uses color and is able to fragment his images to look like dreams is absolutely amazing. They also have a great collection of Joan Miros.

me in front of the Reina Sofia

The rest of Saturday in bullets:

communist protest

• took the metro by myself to Plaza del Sol to meet up with Maddy. Upon emerging I found myself looking at a communist demonstration which included yelling and sporadic bangs (fire crackers?). I miraculously found Maddy and we went to Plaza Mayor.
• Took a New Europe walking tour. Guides work on tips so they're amazing. If you're in a European city that does these GO. 
• Highlights of tour:
• World's oldest restaurant
• extensive history lesson on Spain's history (did you know that Spain was a dictatorship until 1975?!)
• bridge with the most suicides in Madrid
• Palacio Real

symbol of Madrid: a bear kissing a tree

Maddy and me in Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

Even though it doesn't look like it, I'm seriously enjoying these churros

most beautiful strawberries i've ever seen

Me with Maddy's trusty guid

Saturday night we met up with an old high school friend that happened to be in Madrid.

Beaver alums: Maddy, Jacob, me

brave friends sleep on the top bunk

Maddy and I returned to an empty room and decided it was the perfect time to document my first hostel experience (maddy's second) pretty much for this blog

you keep your stuff in lockers

Sunday:

Maddy and I woke up early and went to the Prado Museum. It is considered one of the best museums in the world. However, it is strictly classical art. I really enjoyed seeing the Titians and pieces by El Greco, but let's not lie to ourselves: an entire museum dedicated to paintings of Jesus in almost identical style does not sound very interesting. Maddy and I looked for the humor in the paintings, because since there is a lot of prostitution and sinning in the bible, classical art at the time tended to paint pictures of these scenes.
favorite recurring themes:

• men sneakily grabbing women's boobs
• floating baby heads (okay, angel heads. still weird)
• naked babies 
• midgets doing different things: standing next to huge dogs, riding tiny horses, hanging out naked

Even though Prado has an incredible collection and there were many paintings that blew me away, I could not help but keep in mind the movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (if you haven't seen it, watch it now. It literally changed my life) and asking myself: what is art? When you're in a museum full of classical paintings, many of which look the same, it is only logical to ask, "why is this here? how is this different from the last painting i saw?" Usually people ask these questions about modern art, but I think it is important to ask it about classical art as well because many times we are told something is art and just take it as that.
All in all, the Prado and Reina Sofia are amazing museums, but it is way too overwhelming for me to go into a huge museum with the same period paintings. To me, it makes them less amazing as a group. However, when I found a painting I loved, I was able to look at it in a different light since it was among so many other similar paintings.

Favorite HILARIOUS classical painting:

Ruben's 'Creation of the Milky Way'

After Prado we went to this huge market that they have on Sundays. Vendors sell clothing, purses, oddities, antiques: just about anything except for food and livestock. It was way too crowded and I had to leave; I've discovered I don't really like huge crowds.

Overall thoughts on Madrid/Spain:

• the food is DELICIOUS, most notably churros
• wonderful culture and interesting history
• too much PDA
• no sense of punctuality
• apparently they're really organized: all classical art in Prado, all modern in Reina Sofia. no mixing.
• cars actually stop for you if you're in the street
• ABSOLUTELY LOVE.