Madrid

I don't know how to start these blogs cause I'm overcome with a smile thinking about the amazing things we have experienced. Well, chronologically is traditionally the way to go so we left on Saturday morning and got to Madrid in the afternoon.

We went to the Refina Sofia, a modern art museum that had Picasso's Guernica, Dali, Miro, Solano, and other contemorary paintings and photography. Guernica was by far the most amazing site thus far on the trip. I didn't realize how big it was. Then we took an hour break for a late lunch and went to the Prado museum (both museums happened to be really close to our hotel). The Prado has much older art and we got to see Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, and other artists. Favorites included Las Meninas (Velazquez), Saturo (Goya), and the 2nd and 3rd of May (Goya). I took a class at CDH that covered spanish art and I really appreciated having this backround. I also took a spain culture class this past semester and learned a ton more about the history and artists.

We finished up around 8 and went back to the hotel. We tried to keep dinner cheap and just bought some bread (p.s. ton of bagette bread, all fresh and delicious...don't worry I am eating plenty here). We hung out at the hotel until 12 (we waited for the club to open). We went to the Teatro Kapital, supposedly the 2nd biggest club in Europe; it had 7 stories, each having different music, tons of people, lots of dancing, and we ended up leaving at 6 a.m. I'm not planning on making this a weekly occurence, but it was a great experience. We met some people from America, but the coolest people we met were from France. One of the girls had actually studied abroad with Timmer, a friend who attended CDH; small world.

I got about 3 hours of sleep and then we had breakfast and went to the Plaza Mayor, church (35 minutes masses here of the 2 I've been to), and then the Rastro (a flea market). The rest of Sunday was really relaxed. We went to a restaurant (I liked my host family's paella better because we had more seafood in ours...3.5), went to a giant park and relaxed to free music. This park had a man made lake, and a great layout. I talked with a woman for a while, told her what I was doing here...later in our spanish conversation she told me she spoke english and you should have seen my suprised face (obiously I couldn't see it, but it was a funny reaction). We went back to the hotel and left at 6, got back to Segovia at 8. Great time, great people. Hopefully I can make it back there again.

P.S. just want to comment on the street graffiti art. It's pretty sweet.