Madrid

I haven't written much in a while, mostly because Sharon was visiting me and we had such a great time together. It was really fun to be able to show the city to someone because I finally know it so well and to be able to use my Spanish and for her to meet all of my friends here. I'm trying to remember all the things we did while she was here - we went to the Cathedral and the Palace, we walked around Barrio Santa Cruz, we went out with my friends for my roommate's birthday, and we hung out in the park and by the river. I feel like I got to show her a really good representation of what my life is like here and all the things I really like about Seville - the food, the bars, the history, everything. I think we were both exhausted by the end of the week, though, and I put her on a bus at 1am Thursday morning, only to get on the same bus 1 day later with my friend Hilary because the two of us decided to venture off to Madrid for the weekend.



So we left Seville at 1am for a 6-hour bus ride to Madrid. You would think that everyone would be sleeping, but actually everyone was talking on the phone. Nice. So I didn't sleep that much, but enough so that I was able to enjoy the day. We got the bus station in Madrid and we had decided to take another bus to Toledo, the Visigoth capital of Spain that remained the capital until the 1500s. Toledo is a very interesting city because even though religious tolerance was lacking in most of Spain after la reconquista, it remained in Toledo for much longer. After a delicious breakfast which consisted of toast that we ate with forks and 2 cups of coffee, we wandered around trying to find the important sites to see. Toledo's streets are worse than Seville's - there is no way to figure out where you are even with a map. But there is a beautiful cathedral as well as 2 synagogues, both of which are decorated in Muslim style and one of which was not only turned into a church at one point but was also used to station Napoleon's troops. We also saw some works of one of Spain's most famous painters - El Greco (The Greek, because the Spaniards couldn't pronounce his Greek name). Around 3pm, we decided to head towards the bus station to catch the bus back to Madrid to check in to the hostel. We didn't do much for the rest of the day because we were so exhausted. We were planning on going to the Prado (Madrid's most famous art museum) because it was free for a couple of hours, but the line was so ridiculous that by the time we got in, we wouldn't have had enough time to see everything. We showered, went out for dinner, and called it a night.



Saturday was basically an art marathon - 3 art museums in one day and a picnic in a plaza. Unfortunately it was a little cold and started to rain, but we ended up going to this awesome place for dinner that had really expensive drinks which actually came with tapas. Dinner and sangria for 6 euros, not a bad deal after all. Hilary had run into a friend from Tufts who is studying in Madrid who recommended it to us. We talked to some Spanish students for a while and then headed back to the hostel.



Sunday morning (after losing an hour of sleep, since Spain finally decided to change their clocks), Hilary took a train home but I went to explore the Royal Palace and a couple other sites around the city. Then, I met up with my friend my school and her friend from home, who are both studying in Denmark and who are traveling around Europe together during their 3-week vacation. We wandered around the park, got lunch, and actually went to a bullfight! Pretty gruesome, so we didn't stay for the whole thing. We had some dinner and then hung out in their hostel for a while, watching a movie. Everyone was really tired after traveling so much, and I had to get on a bus at 1am. I got back home at 7:30, just in time for a quick nap before class.

Pictures of Madrid

I have a ton of stuff to do this week, especially since I'm leaving on Thursday. Between applying for summer jobs (yes, still) and planning for trips to come, there's barely a minute to do anything. And, believe it or not, I actually have a little bit of homework this week. And an open note test on Wednesday. But Ethan's coming when I get back from Paris, so I'm really excited!

Funny picture of the week:


translation: the cow that laughs