España: Las Vacaciones de Primavera: Madrid: Day Two

So yesterday morning, I woke up to a gorgeous sunrise shining through my window, with the sound of the city singing in our ears! After a late night of blogging getting out of bed this morning was super difficult. Knowing I was going to experience the most beautiful city in the world ,I did not mind the 7:30 alarm. So Mysti, my roommate for Madrid, and I headed down for breakfast before rushing off to El Rastro. El Rastro is one of the oldest weekly activities in the world, and it consists of Sunday morning “booths” full of groceries, clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, and everything in between. These little huts are right on top of one another, and they are all selling stuff super cheap—it reminded me of a flea market, but with better stuff. This was the coolest thing! Although it’s notorious for pick-pocketing, being able to stroll between hundreds of booths and hundreds of shoppers was an awesome experience. I even ran across a local artist who etches AMAZING landscapes of Madrid and other places he has traveled. Between his rusty englihs and my hand gestures, I actually purchased one of his etches of Plaza Mayor—a scene that I took an exact picture of just the day before. So 14 Euros later, I had an original Spanish piece of art. Like its legit. (Guess this will deal since stealing Guernica isn’t okay and its too big to fit in my carryon) Little did I know that I would be carrying this piece of art around ALL DAY LONG, but it was cool. No biggie!

After El Rastro, we all headed to Goya’s grave, which was located inside one of the churches he painted frescos for. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but the frescos were beyond impressive. The detail was so intricate—the church/recently-turned-museum had set up magnifying glasses that allowed you to see close up the ceilings and Goya’s magnificent work.

Next we headed uphill to get on cable cars that would allow us to see the city from above. Little did we know that about a hundred other people had this same idea, so we waited almost two hours to get on. It was totally worth it. My pictures are amazing and this blog cant contain all 90 pictures I took on that trolley alone!!!

Following this experience, our group of 36 split into smaller groups that headed in separate ways. Since arriving late, my group had yet to see the Palace, centered in Madrid, so we headed that way. While wondering around, we ran into the Temple de Debod, an Egyptian temple that was a gift to Spain for their help in some kind of war (yeah, I need to get my facts straight, but everyone is asleep and I don’t have any internet to look it up currently, so use your imagainations.) It was surprising to see a legit Egyptian structure in the middle of Spain’s capitol; I really thought Ken was pulling my leg when he told me this. Ken takes advantage of my gullibility, like a lot.

So after enjoying that, we finally convinced Ken to stop and eat. Like my stomach at this time was eating itself—it was like 3 in the afternoon and we hadn’t eaten since 8am and we have been trekking across the city all morning. So with Ken’s handy dandy Yelp app, we found a local crepe restraint were we all ordered different crepes and tried all of them. I ordered the Italian crepe, while Ken and John split some spinach crepe and a desert crepe with icecream and whipped cream in it. Delicious. All of it.

Okay, so nowwww we finally make it to the Palace, with filled tummies and hungry eyes for some art. (So flashback, a lot of students told us the Palace was boring and dull, but boy were they wrong!) Walking into the Palace gates led to a small courtyard that oversees a magnificent view of the entire city of Madrid. Like the WHOLE city. So we had a mini photo shoot here (duh, I am the spawn of my mother!) When we got inside the Palace there was no photography (shocker) so we were able to get postcards after our tour. Apparently the palace has over 1,000 rooms, but only about 56 were available for us to see on our tour. Surprising facts: (1) one of the previous Kings kocked out two walls and combined the THREE rooms into one gigantic dining room. Yeah, this table would have been the coolest to own during those Thanksgiving meals back home. The centerpieces were roses and made the entire room smell lovely. (2) The king had a separate room to get dressed. I guess he took the whole “Walk-in-closet” thing wayyy too seriously. This room was ginormous. One of my favorite rooms was one that seemed to be an extremely tacky wallpaper. Like the kind in your grandma’s bathroom, until I looked closer and realized that it wasn’t wallpaper, but hand-embordered patterns of vines. All done by hand. Have I emphasized the ALL DONE BY HAND part? Because I don’t think there is anyway I could hand do anything that was going to cover the walls of a room in a Palace—or even my dorm room. After we finished the rooms, there was also an armory, where they had knight uniforms hung everywhere. They also had gear on display that would have covered the horses. For the guys, this was the highlight of their Palace experience. So easy to say, the Palace was worth going.

After the palace, we had free time until 9pm, where we were meeting our group at the Metro. So we walked around and enjoyed all the little shops along the way! It was great for Carmen, Lynde and I, but the boys were not as interested in the little boutiques and souvenir shops that we were so excited to browse through! We did however get to see the Worlds oldest restraint! (legit, they had a framed letter announcing it!) we were looking at getting a snack there, but they were closed between their lunch and dinner hours. Interesting fact here: they have an entrée of baby eels that cost 102.20 euros. Yeah, that’s not a typo. That’s the actual number.

We also came arcross the restraunt that Ken mentioned earlier in the day that is known for having the Best Hot Chocolate in all of Europe—so of course, who could pass up the hot chocolate!? For 2.50 euros, we each got to enjoy a cup, AND we got to eat churros! WHATTTT?!!?! Yeah, it was a must try place to be!!!!

So by this point in our day, our feet are pounding and we are ready for a break, so we head back to the hotel where we write our journals on the terrace on the roof. Oh, and there was a gorgeous sunset so another photo shoot. (not surprised are ya?!?!)