What up guys!?!?! So WE
FINALLY MADE IT TO MADRID!!!!!! When I saw the coastline of Spain, my smile
wrapped from ear to ear! Before that, however, the plane ride was decent. Out
of all the flights, this was my least favorite… I sat in the section with three
seats smack dab in the middle of the plane, and the Spanish lady to my right
snored THE WHOLE RIDE and the man to my left didn’t realize the arm rest is
there to show where his space ended and mine began. The flight was a little
snug for me, and between the three babies screaming the whole flight, I think I
may have caught 20 minutes of sleep with my headphones in! On the flight, they
served us a ham sandwich and some yummy apple juice. After having a quick wake
up call at 3:30 am, and a plane ready at 6, and all the crazy security
measures, it was nice to sit down and rest KNOWING we were on our way!
As I said, when we landed, I
could have kissed the first Spanish man I saw, like really. We were all that
happy!!! The Madrid airport is gorgeous(and I am not just saying that because
it took us 3 flights to get there)! With the super cool looking lime green
beams and the attention to detail, we could tell we were in the land with some
of the most renown architecture around!
Ken Johnson, one of our two leaders, and I after the 2 hour flight to Madrid!
Eventually we got our luggage
from baggage claim, and we also collected all the luggage of other NCSU
students who were forced to leave behind their bags in the effort of getting on
flights to here, there and yonder to eventually end in Spain! With the nine of
us, and about 13 suitcases, we were able to head to our hotel! Our bus driver
took us straight to the “Hotel T3 Tirol” where we will be staying for the next
two nights!
When we arrived, they fed us
a quick breakfast of traditional Spainish food—different crossants and
pastries, different types of sliced deli meat, fruit and freshly squeezed
orange juice! Ken and I also grabbed a piece of the best chocolate pudding
something pie, which was TO DIE FOR! (yeah, pie for breakfast, I deserved it.)
After being shown to our
rooms, we quickly grabbed our metro passes and were out before you could say
jump! We hit the ground running, literally, to make the first available metro
to the center of town, which conveniently was only two stops away. Then we got
out and began exploring Plaza del Sol, where we were reminded of NYC and all
the street performers! Several people were dressed in Mickey and Minnie suits,
Bark Simpson was also present and we even noticed Bugs Bunny made his presence
known. There were other street venders who were dressed in more rare costumes,
like a piñata beast thing (that was really scary) and the giant butterfly man.
There was also a fountain that was surrounded by people of all ages hanging out
enjoying their Saturday picnic. It was great!
Along with the magnificent
architecture, we got to see the beautiful Plaza Mayor, the most famous of all
the meeting places of Madrid! It was gorgeous and really, truly, breathtaking!
Between the statues and the fountains, we were not able to find anything to
complain about!
We continued our sight seeing
throughout the morning and were able to see nearly everything there is to see
in Madrid, Spain! From gardens to patios to aritecture to people, we were
really moving fast and absorbing everything we could, and I was snapping photos
like there was no tomorrow! We even got to see a couple going into one of the
churches in their tux and wedding gown…yeah I know, HOW COOL!?!?
Around 1pm we bought tickets
to The Prado, Spain’s national art museum. Best part of the day. It was awesome.
The only let down? No photos, period. So none of those for ya, but do know I
got to stand in front of Las Meninas,
Dieo Velazquez’s most famous painting ever for a solid 5 minutes. So google the
image now. Yeah. Pretty cool huh? What if I told you its about 10 feet high and
8 feet wide? Yeah. Pretty amazing considering it looks like a photograph and
not a painting! Oh, and the dog in the lower right hand corner was the best
part! It looked like it was ready to jump off the canvas right there in the
middle of the museum!
After the Prado, we went for
some lunch! We ended up at a restraint Ken had heard about called Estado Puro, that was right around the
corner to the Prado. While there we all
ordered different foods and I was brave enough to try EVERYTHING except for
Ken’s fried anchovies, I passed on those. After an awesome lunch, Ken bought us
desert, of which he ate almost three chocolate pudding things himself! During
our meal, we had the best time getting to know our small group of 9 who have
been together since all the flight cancelations! We laughed harder than
anything I can imagine, in a long time! Between Ken’s stories of traveling,
Ali’s high school infatuation and our keen sense of excitement for FINALLY
making it, we were more than ready to have some fun!
Meat Bombs Warm Tapas
"Ali-oli" Potatoes
Bravo for our Bravas! (Spicy Potatoes with Mayo)
Asparagus in tempura with romescu sauce (My favorite out of all the dishes!)
desert!
Eventually we met up with
Chester and the other 26 students at Reina Sofia, Spain’s national art museum
dedicated to the 20th century art and til now. Here, we could take
pictures, and you know I did!
Dali
Picasso
Now. Picasso’s all
time famous painting is hung in Reina Sofia. And cameras are not allowed. So, I
did what any art teachers daughter would do and I risked it all. And below are
the few snapshots I got of the magnificent piece of art that represents what
Picasso saw in the Spainsh Civil War as a response to the bombing of Guernica,
a Basque
Country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian
warplanes.
Just standing in that room was so much more than you could imagine. Its
complexity and size just left me with nothing to say, but the desire to
secretly walk around and snap photos with out looking (and guess what? I got
away with it!!!) So, this is obviously not the complete work, but hopefully it
will help show the size and power! If you wanna see the full one, GOOGLE
PEOPLE! But really, it was beyond amazing. Like I don’t even know what to say!
Okay, so today was the best because, (1) we arrived in Spain, (2) we
visited art museums all day long, and (3) I got to meet and deeply engaged in
convo with 9 people I would not have gotten to meet had it not been for the
flight mess up! I would say today was awesome!!!!!!!!!
Adios for now my peeps!
Katie Kimble
Glad you made it. Bryan misses you.
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