Best Weekend:
- Saw girlfriend for first time in 4 months
- had a beautiful 2 year anniversary with her featuring sunset over medieval walled city and fancy dinner
- Went to Madrid to see what we could see
- Prado: art museum featuring el Greco, Goya, and Velasquez
- Guernica
- Bullfight!
For Lots of pictures of Madrid and the bullfight : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151270&id=563922118&l=ded72e62de
I will keep this brief becuase I am off to Andalucía (Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada) for the weekend starting tomorrow.
This was a fantastic weekend. I met my girlfriend of two years Melissa at the train station in Avila, and spent the evening showing her the town. We wandered the ancient medieval streets and followed the path of the walls until we came to a fantastic vista that my professor had showed me. We stayed there for half an hour as the sun set over the cathedral and walls of Avila, and then wandered our way back into the city for a wonderful dinner of roast suckling pig and steak. I also for the first time ever had beer with my meal, its nice being legal but I still don't get what all the hype is about.
After spending the night in the extra room of my very generous American friends' apartment, we headed into Madrid through the Spanish countryside. There we met up with Melissa's traveling companions, a cheerful duo from the US. Together we exhaustively explored the Prado museum, which included many amazing works of art, but featured the most moving picture I have ever seen: Goya's
"The Shootings of May 3rd in Madrid, 1814"
There was also another one of my new favorite paintings, Colussus (possibly by Goya)
We then found ourselves a lovely spot for lunch and exhausted the rest of the day exploring Madrid.
We also ran into the 'Dia de Hispanidad' parade. This is Columbus Day as seen by the conquerors, not by the conquered. Each Spanish-speaking country has a float or dance group in a massive mile-long parade featuring music and dancing and flags and dancing. It was a pretty cool thing to just run into. Thanks for finding us Columbus, it was really important. Here is the Colombian Float featuring a band on top of a semi truck:
That evening Melissa and I met up with several other Carleton students studying in Madrid. It was really nice to get to see them again, and very odd to be talking about Carleton things in a pub in Madrid Spain! However, a damper was put on the night when one of my good friends Caitlin was pickpocketed in the bar, including the keys to her home-stay!
Madrid is a bustling city, especially its partying districts. As Melissa and I wandered our way back to our hotel/hostel we ran across clubs and bars that were just getting started at 3 in the morning, and many kids pregaming at Botellones in the street. We, however, elected for some churros con chocolate, a must!
The next day was more art, including Guernica, but the highlight was the bullfight. After meeting up with more Carls for coffee we learned of a bullfight that afternoon, and promptly made our way over to the very-Arab-styled bull ring. I could go into great depth about the fight and such, but I merely want to say this. The matadors are not the bad asses--it’s the guys who have neither sword, nor cape, nor horse, nor shield, but only insane bull dodging agility. I mean this guy:
After the fight we explored the Parque de Retiro, basically Madrid's central park, and then I had sprint back to the station to catch a train. All in all a fantastic weekend.
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