Madrid Was Awesome

CEA organizes excursions for us around Spain and this weekend we went to Madrid. There were 105 of us that went on the trip, and only five staff members, so imagine the chaos.

We stayed in dorm type rooms by the university campus which were much nicer than the dorms at Cal Poly! And they had AC which was lovely because we don't in my Barcelona apartment. It was hot but not humid which is the kind of summer weather I'm used to. The residence wasn't that close to the city center which was a bummer because we had to take a taxi there and back every time.

I got to meet some of my roommate's friends and spent a lot of time with them. Most of them are from Cal Poly, too.

I really enjoyed Madrid. There were lots of green spaces which I love and the city had a different vibe than Barcelona. When I got back, I was so excited to write about it.

Friday

I was honestly excited just to ride on the high speed train. It was really weird because it didn't feel like we were going that fast and then I saw a screen with the speed and it said 298 kmh (185 mph)! It took about 3 hours to get there.

There was some pretty landscape and small towns along the way. I had a cute little main character moment on the train listening to Speak Now (Taylor's version) which she just released. If you're wondering, my favorite song from the vault is Timeless. And if you don't know what I'm talking about...it's basically just my obsession with Taylor Swift.

There was a bus to take us to our residence and after we got checked in a group of us went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It was delicious and kind of rare because there are very few Mexican places here. The margarita was yummy and we sat by a whole wall of empty tequila bottles.

Siesta time is so real in Spain. After a nap we met for a two hour walking tour of the city. We saw so many sights that I can't remember them all! I know we went by the royal palace. I wanted to go inside and tour it because it's open to the public but we didn't have time.

The architecture is beautiful and everything is so elegant. They have preserved a lot of old buildings too, as far back as the 1400s our tour guide said.

Statues are everywhere! There is actually water in the fountains which adds so much more vibrancy. In Barcelona they stopped the water because they're in a drought.

We went out to dinner at a sushi fusion place but the general consensus ended up being that it wasn't good enough for how expensive it was. Some of us walked around afterwards and got dessert - always a good idea.

As you can see, we demolished the churros and chocolate sauce. My gelato was amazing too.

Saturday

Museum day! El Prado had more older paintings and Reina Sofia is more about modern art from the 20th century. They're both incredibly famous collections of Spanish works.

A ton of Francisco Goya's pieces are in El Prado and there's a statue of him outside. No pictures were allowed inside the museum though.

Our tour guides in both museums did a great job at explaining the symbolism in the pieces. It helped me out because I've never taken an art history class or anything. You could've spent hours in there but we only had an hour and a half in each one with the guides.

I assumed there were no photos allowed in the Reina Sofia too, but it turns out there was only one section where that was true, so I didn't take any photos. This is a statue outside the building.

The building used to be a progressive hospital hundreds of years ago (obviously they've added on to it since then). Our tour guide called it progressive because there are lots of windows allowing for fresh air inside, as opposed to other hospitals back then that were in basements or dark spaces. The air and open space outside to walk around was said to help people recover.

In between the museums we had free time to get lunch and walk around in the city. We walked through El Retiro park which was beautiful. Lots of flowers, trees, and a lake where people can rent boats.

Museums by day and the club by night. We hit up Kapital, a 7 floor night club. It was crazy.

We finished dinner and went inside around 11:30. If you don't know, people don't start going out here until midnight or 1 am, so we were genuinely some of the first people in the club. That was humbling. We were laughing at ourselves for going so early! But it did give us an ample amount of time to explore all the levels and get drinks before it got too busy.

Sunday

We checked out of the hotel and had free time until 3 when we left for the train station. I went to the flea market with a couple girls and bought a dress and a hand-held fan, which everyone uses here because of the heat.

Then a bus took us to the train station and we were back in Barcelona in the evening!