Saturday, January 31, 2009
Got money out, met at the bus stop for Madrid! Nice bus, slept a little bit. Nice hotel, right in the center of the city – Puerta del Sol. Really busy square with painted people, tons of people around. Sunny day, warm(ish). Went to the Prado Museum which was really big and quite frankly, most of the art looked the same. Kind of overwhelming, and we didn’t come close to seeing everything, exhausting. Favorite paintings were one huge one of Jesus on the cross by a really famous painter that I can’t remember his name, and Crossing the River Styx or something like that. Tips for being a famous painter: make big artwork, create a new “movement” or style, paint royalty or Jesus (or the Virgin Mary), or criticize the government or war. After the museum we wandered to the Parque del Buen Retiro which is a huge park with paths, trees, fountains, a lake with an amphitheatre, but hardly any grass. We took lots of pictures and almost froze to death! Listened to a bunch of random people playing bongos/drums along a bench. Afterwards we went to the Reina Sofia museum which has more modern art and even better, we got in free J Much smaller and didn’t even go to one of the floors, just focused on Picasso and Dalí stuff which there was a ton of. Guernica was huge, two guards and sensors that wouldn’t let you get within several feet of it. Whole rooms of sketches and pictures of its creation. Dalí had lost of weird stuff – extreme surrealism, but no melting clocks. Went to a place on the way back and had a huge greasy pepperoni pizza with a coke that really hit the spot. Wandered w/ Taylor through Plaza Nueva, awesome – big courtyard with cafes and horse thing. Found Zara, went to a little souvenir shop and bought a little something ;) Went for churros – super expensive and nothing like the ones in Granada. Hung out with some people in the fancy lounge at the hotel and wrote some emails with my iPod. Took a shower with no door and obviously the water went everywhere – what were people thinking?
