MADRID Day 2

If you thought yesterday was a jam-packed day, just wait. On Saturday we did even more. We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. Oh my Goodness! This breakfast was amazing. I was just happy they had cereal, but there was every kind of fruit you could imagine: strawberries, kiwis, plums, mango, guava, grapes, grapefruit, oranges, pears, apples, pineapples, figs, and some tropical fruits I have never seen. I think that’s all of the fresh fruit, but there was also an entire spread of dried fruit. There was also practically any kind of pastry you could dream of. Of course breakfast in Spain is not complete without ham. There was about six different types of cold ham and then a plate of hot ham products. There were empanadas, Spanish tortilla, eggs, sausage, and croquets. I am probably leaving something out, but this breakfast was impressive. We eat lunch here too, but you will have to wait to hear about that divine feast.

After breakfast we were off to the Palacio Real. This was a palace built during the 18th century. The palace had over 13,000 rooms, so it was quite large. We got off the bus to find ourselves surrounded by beautiful statues of all the Spanish kings. The palace seemed to stretch forever as we walked up to the entrance to get our tickets. Once inside the golden gates, we walked across the courtyard, which was probably the size of two football fields. One side of the courtyard had the front entrance to the palace. Two sides of the courtyard had massive archway halls, and the last side had a gate in front of what I think was a church. We entered the palace through the front entrance. We got a tour of the palace from a guide, and we got to wear these super sweet earpiece things so we could hear the guide from far away. I was really disappointed that we could not take pictures in the palace because it was absolutely incredible, but the security guards were pretty strict about the cameras. In fact, if they saw a camera they would come up to you and tell you no, even if you had not taken a picture. I did sneak a few, but only inside the armory room. The palace was so ornately decorated. Each room we walked through had its own unique theme. The guide told us one room had taken 15 years to complete because of the detail of the ceiling and hand paintings on the wall. One room was called the porcelain room. All of the walls and ceilings were covered in porcelain vines, flowers, and angles. The halls in the palace were massive too. If I had lived here, I would have roller-skated down the giant corridors. Our tour guide was really good too. He spoke all in Spanish, but everyone could understand him, and he was really good at explaining the history behind each of the rooms.

After the tour we were given free time to explore the courtyard, take pictures and visit the gift shops. One side of the Palace was open and you could look down are the surrounding city. On this side there just so happened to be a peacock walking around. We learned that Spanish word for peacock is Pavo Real. On this same side was the collection of armory. There were so many different suits of armor. There were lances, shields, swords, and helmets galore. There were also suits of armor for children too.

Once we were done exploring the armory rooms we took pictures in the courtyard. It was a gorgeous day, so the pics came out really good. Check out facebook for all of my pictures. We left the castle around 12 and headed for the Museum of Queen Sofia. This museum housed all the famous modern art works, including Guernica. Jesus took us through the museum showing us some famous painting by Dali and Picasso. When we walked into the room with Guernica, I think my heart stopped beating. The painting was so powerful and depicted such a horrible scene. I could almost feel the destruction as I looked at this painting. We got free time to wonder around the museum after Jesus was done giving us his tour. I found some more paintings by Dali and Picasso. I also found a sculpture room with all these super modern looking pieces of twisted metal. I reunited with the group around 2:30 and we headed back to the hotel for our three-course lunch.

Oh my, Lunch, Lunch, Lunch. I was famished at this point, so I was eagerly awaiting what was in store for us. The first course they brought out was a tomato mozzarella salad with shrimp. It was divine, absolutely scrumptious. The second course was roast duck with apples. The roasted apples really made this dish. For dessert we had tiramisu. It was probably the best tiramisu I have ever had. I was sitting next to William, one of the four boys in our group, and he is obsessed with desserts and chocolate. By obsessed, I mean he likes to scarf them down as fast as possible. This doesn’t make sense to me, because I like to enjoy my desserts. I timed how long it took William to eat his tiramisu. His plate was clean in 1 minute and 32 seconds, and then he started eying other peoples desserts to see if they were going to finish. I am surprised he could even taste the tiramisu!

Lunch was wonderful. I wish we had kind of food all the time. After lunch we had the rest of the afternoon free to our selves. I went off with a group of girls to explore other parts of Madrid. We took the metro to get down into the center of the city and then we walked to the Plaza Mayor. Compared to Salamanca’s plaza, Madrid’s was huge. There were so many people there too, sitting at outdoor cafes or watching the dressed up performers. There were so many people dressed up performing for money. Their costumes were really something else. There was a wizard, a flamenco dancer, some guy that looked an ax murderer, and people covered in clay. We walked from the plaza to a giant park. This park was so pretty, and it was the perfect time of day to take pictures. The trees in this park looked like broccoli stalks and all the bushes were groomed and arranged in fancy little designs. We walked around the huge park for a while and then discovered a lake. There were people paddling around the lake on little boats that you could rent. There were also a ton of couples sitting all on the grass making out. It was Valentines Day, so I guess that’s acceptable, but some of these Spaniards were really going at it. We found a spot to sit on a wall overlooking the lake. There just so happened to be a drum band playing, and we met some people from Canada, who were studying abroad in Madrid.

We past a Kabob café on the way back to the metro station, so we all eat some delicious falafels for dinner. One of girls on the trip got in a discussion with the Kabob waiter about American falafels. The Kabob guy said in America falafels are shit because they are not made by Turkish people. Andrea said they tasted better in America. The conversation went back and forth as Andrea tried to explain that were Turkish people in America and the Kabob kept refuting her. He probably thought we were just dumb Americans. We headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out. We ended up going to a club called Joy, but the cover charge for the guys was 15 euros. We did not want to leave the boys out, so we found another club called Cibeles that only had a 5 euro cover. We head a fun night of dancing, and got a cab back to the hotel around 3.