Madrid with Picasso

We couldn´t take pictures but this is from online...not as cool.
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I was too tired to write a fourth blog yesterday so I will update the final day of our weekend now.

Sunday we got up and got on the bus to Madrid at 10:30am...Adam and Mark ended up being on the same bus as we were so we ended up hanging out for the day in Madrid. The Reina Sofia is free on Sundays and we really wanted to go so we figured it would be a good day to do so.

The Reina Sofia is home to Picasso´s "Guernica." How could I be in Spain and not see it?! So we went to the museum and looked around at some pretty interesting stuff before finally coming to a long hallway where, guarded by two people and a rope is the famous painting. For a couple years it was also guarded by a bullet proof glass cover! Luckily we were able to view it as it was meant to be. It was unbelievably big! I had no idea it would be so large! It is also remarkably less complex in its normal size (compared to that of its text book appearance).

A few of Dalí´s paintings are in the Reina Sofia, some of his earlier work in the same room as some of Picasso´s...Dalí is surely rolling over in his grave.

We stood in front of Guernica for a long time, close by is a series of photographs taken throughout the process of painting it. It was interesting to see some of the choices Picasso made, and some of the things he changed.

Afterwards, we were all pretty hungry so we went searching for some food! There was a McDonalds on every corner...but I refuse to in another country. So we went to the Plaza and our house Mom had told us that Madrid was famous for bocadillos calamares...calamare sandwiches! Well of course we had to participate! So we go into this little cafe and order a bocadilla calamares...and as we are standing there eating it we see a big sign over the bar that says "Awarded best bocadillo calamares in Madrid...for however many years" We were pretty excited! And it was a pretty tasty sandwich!

Afterwards we went to the Palacio Real in Madrid...it has 3,000 rooms and is where the king lives!! Holy cow! Don´t worry I picked which room I wanted, just in case the king of Spain every asks me.

It was such a hot day! It was unbelievable! We tried to drink as much water as we could...the thing with Spain is they don´t consume beverages! Water glasses are those little bitty juice glasses and most Spaniards don´t even finish one of those in a meal...I will be glad to be hydrated again once I return to the states! Julia puts out a big thing of water for us but even still we feel bad cause we practically finish the whole thing!

We walked around Madrid and looked in some shops, mostly for the air conditioning. It was nice to not be on a schedule but just to kindof wonder and pick and choose what to do. And I got to see a side of Madrid that I hadn´t...I like it much better. We left Madrid around 7 and were home for dinner. It was a nice trip.

We didn´t see the bull fight because there wasn´t a bus home that was late enough...and we didn´t want to sleep on the streets of Madrid. We are trying to plan it for the last weekend before we come home.

All is well here! Just lots and lots of classes, and getting ready for Barcelona! We are going into Madrid on Wednesday with the group to see a movie and have some popcorn! Haha, it´s one of the optional things we can do...and a lot of us decided to sign up.

Vida, Amor, Viaje