Madrid y Valencia: Packed Weekend

What a weekend! I´m exhausted by it, but it was a lot of fun. Rather than doing homework, I´ve decided to tell you about it. I have pictures of Madrid, although they aren´t posted yet on my Flickr page. I decided against bringing my camera to Las Fallas, because I didn´t want to have to worry about it getting stolen or broken, which I found to be a very real possibility once I got there. Still a shame, since there was plenty that was picture-worthy in Valencia.

On Friday I went to Madrid with the group. I ended up going with the Liberal Arts group instead of the Culture and Context one because originally I had plans during the week of our trip. It was cool though, because I got to hang out with a group of people I generally never see (Liberal Arts kids are in different classes, and our groups aren´t mixed a lot for activities and field trips). I was able to make some new friends, which is refreshing halfway through my trip. The bus ride wasn´t as bad as the one to Sevilla, but it was still pretty long. Unfortunately, the weather was shite all weekend (rainy and cold), so we didn´t end up going out all that much for individual exploration. The first night I met up with Laura (from NU), who is studying/working in Madrid for a year. She took us out to an Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick´s Day. The place was extremely crowded, extremely Irish, and it was tough to get a drink with the throngs of people swarming around the bar. In the States, I always hear "Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick´s Day," but in Spain that just isn´t the case. I was very evidently not Irish (except for my rusty red beard), when I couldn´t shout Irish folksongs with the rest of the lads. Everybody was still friendly enough and didn´t exclude me from the excessive backslapping and general drunken good tidings. Ended up heading back to the hotel pretty early because Eric, Lauren, and I were all pretty beat. We meant to go out again to a more low-key spot, but it just never happened.

Saturday, we were up early to get some sightseeing done with the group. We skipped the tour of the Senate because it was at an ungodly early hour, but hopped along for the tour of the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) where the king and queen live. I have to say, it was a much more extensive tour than the White House one in DC, but it also started to get really repetitive and kind of boring around the 20th room we walked through (we walked through 40 total they told us). I mean, it is impressive how ridiculously lavish everything was decorated, but there´s only so much one can handle. After that, we hopped in and out of la Catedral de la Almudena, which seemed like it was pretty cool, although cathedrals have never really been my style. Next, we checked out the Plaza Mayor, and ate calamari bocadillos, something Madrid is famous for. It was probably the best fried calamari I´ve ever eaten, although I think I would have preferred it on a plate, with some sort of sauce, rather than plain in sub form. After lunch, we took a siesta, then woke up to go on a tour of el Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. That´s where Real Madrid -the Yankees of Spanish soccer- play. Needless to say, their trophy room was absolutely ridiculous (they were dubbed the best Spanish futból team of the 20th century), and the stadium itself was pretty cool. I got to finally sit in one of those uber-comfortable looking chairs the players get to sit in while they aren´t playing, and they were even more comfortable than they look on TV. I can´t figure out why they make them so comfy, since it´s hard to compel yourself enough to get up after you´ve been in one. After that, we had free time so we went out and got some amazing tapas from a place that was brimming with Spaniards. I tried pigs ears for the first time, and aside from unnervingly chewy texture, they were extremely delicious. After that we got a beer from a microbrewey (these are all but non-existent in Spain), and it was easily the best beer I´ve had since I´ve been abroad. It got me really excited for Spring Break in Belgium. We went back to the hotel with intentions of going out, but never quite made it. It was raining pretty hard at that point, so we couldn´t muster up the desire to stomp around and get soaked.

Up early again Sunday morning to check out of the hotel, after which we visited the Prado Museum. It was impressively large and held many famous paintings I had previously only seen in books. There was a lot of dark, twisted stuff in their which appealed to my devious sensibilities. I´m not generally big on art museums, but this one really pulled me in. Maybe I´m finally starting to appreciate fine art a bit more as I get older. We checked out the beautiful Parque del Retiro. It reminds me a lot of Central Park in New York, since it´s sufficiently massive enough to make me forget I´m still in a major city. We sauntered about there for an hour, then Eric and I split from the group (which was going back to Alicante anyway) and headed to the train station... Next stop: Valencia for Las Fallas.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I didn´t bring my camera, which I regretted almost immediately when I stepped out of the train station. There were so many friggin people everywhere it was absolutely ridiculous. There was lots of music on the streets and at every semi-major intersection there was gigantic papier-mache and wood floats (Las Fallas). I really wish I had pictures of these because they were absolutely beautiful. They were generally topical, addressing some sort of theme or issue, some serious, some not at all so. Every year there is a competition for the best one, which gets placed in Ayuntamiento Square (where town hall is. every city has one). The winner this year was a tall skinny lady with a Peace sign medallion, holding a baby, with some other naked ladies around her and a bunch of other smaller crap going on around the bottom. I can´t even begin to understand what the theme was, but it sure did look cool. We walked around for a while and then watched the Fire Parade, which was a large procession of people dressed in red with many forms of spark-producing devices. Basically it was a sulfurous mayhem. Very cool. We chilled in someone´s hotel for a bit (a few people in our program got hotels, but we thought it too expensive and not worth the trouble), then went out into the night to find food and celebrate. Around 10 or 11 they started going from intersection to intersection burning down each Falla. The Bomberos (firefighters) sprayed water around the edges so the fire wouldn´t spread, but these things sure did burn fast! We caught a couple of them, but they move fast from one to the other down the street. I think I was reading that there was somewhere over 60 Fallas total spread across the city. After that, we headed back towards Ayuntamiento Square and waited for the burning of the winning Falla. It started with a crazy fireworks display, and then all of a sudden the whole thing was up in flames. It was claustrophobically crowded with people pushing from all sides, but it was still a spectacular sight to behold. Things started dispersing soon after, and we took to the task of keeping ourselves awake until we had to catch our bus at 6:15 (AM). We followed some Puerto Rican friends around for a while, although it was getting tough to find stuff to do as the early morning crept on. It was Sunday night/Monday morning after all. I guess the bus ride back took 3 hours (much longer than it should have), but I wouldn´t have known as I was dead asleep from the minute I sat down on the bus until we arrived in Alicante. I proceeded to sleep through most of today.

So that was my weekend. I´d post more about other stuff, but the computer lab is closing soon and I wanna get home for dinner anyway. I´ll try to get back on and post more general reflection stuff in the coming days, although I have a presentation to prepare for my history class on Wednesday, so I have a lot to keep me occupied at the moment. I´ll try to have pictures of Madrid up ASAP, although they aren´t terribly exciting to be honest.

Rosen out.