Tourist Things

These past few days, it feels like I have been on vacation, not studying abroad. We have toured Madrid, and today we did Toledo (just an hour or so south of Madrid), while tomorrow it will be Ávila and then on to Rufi and Salamanca. Then a few days after that, it will be back to the grind of school, which is going to be weird for sure. However, my few days as a tourist have been loads of fun, I think.

Before I get to Saturday proper and Sunday, I am going to share a little funny anecdote about my Friday night of sleep. In Madrid, we were staying at this hotel with a roommate (don't worry, there were two twin beds in the room, so it was not like this roomie and I got close). My roomie is Andrew, he is from Evanston, IL (just north of Chicago, and home of Northwestern University) but goes to school at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He informed me that he did a program here during high school in Bilbao (a city in the North of Spain, in the Basque country) so he is no stranger to Spain or speaking Spanish fluently. Anyhow, he was sleeping in the bed next to me and at some point during the middle of the night, he woke me up with constantly repeating my name. In my half-conscious state, I asked what he wanted, and he told me that he wanted me to stop snoring...because he really could not sleep with me snoring. So I tried to stay awake for an hour or so in hopes that after I had stopped snoring for a while, he could fall asleep and then the snoring would not be an issue. I did this and I was unsure of the results, as he was up at 7 the next morning. (He talked to me later and he said that it was not a huge problem because he recognized it was nothing I had a whole lot of control over, and that he had acquired some ear plugs so those helped).

Saturday morning, we got up and then were going for museum visits. First we were going to visit El Prado and then to the Reina Sofia. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed in either place, so the memory will only survive in my mind, not in photos. For those of you who are unaware, El Prado is home to famous Spanish artists (minus Picasso). Names such as El Greco, Goya, and Velázquez were on display. I have seen these paintings before on slides and on the internet, but they were even more impressive in person because one could get a sense of the size of the canvas upon which they were painted astounded me. I could not imagine a person as tall as me painting on a forty square foot canvas. After viewing the classical Spanish artists and their pieces, we moved to the Reina Sofia, which is the home of modern Spanish art, which was to include Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and Picasso. Unfortunately, we were not able to see a lot of Miró, and the Dalí collection was on loan to a museum somewhere else, so he was not around. However, we did get to see the famous mural Picasso painted after the bombing of Guernica (a small town in the north of Spain, in the Basque country) by the Germans at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). I had seen this piece on slides and the internet before, but the impression it had on me in person was something that could not be conveyed via these channels.

After these tours, we were given free time in the city of Madrid again, so I talked to this kid, Nathan, who is a second year Iowa State engineering major from Jefferson, Iowa, if he would like to accompany me on a walking tour of Madrid. He agreed, so we set off. 

I had various destinations in mind and he was very open- minded to trying new things and going places that I wanted to go, which is both a blessing and a curse, as I now understand. We walked to El Parque del Retiro, which is just a huge park in the middle of the busy city, akin to Central Park in New York. It was so calm and quiet compared to the rest of the city, and even though it was a Saturday in the middle of winter, it was still fairly busy. One of the most striking things we came across was the amount of people roller-blading and the things they were willing to do on their skates. There was a group of guys playing frisbee on skates, jumping from the ground to grab the disc out of the air. It was incredibly impressive. Within the park itself, there were two places I wanted to see: first was the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace), which was just a huge greenhouse, sort of. It was a building with glass all around it, so the entire building was completely see-through. As we walked on from there, a young man approached me and asked for my signature on a piece of paper. My first encounter with a person like this. I asked what the signature was for and he informed me it was a petition or something to start a building/project for impoverished children. I told him I could not sign, but he did not find this response to be acceptable. He followed me, and I kept telling him I could not do it and was not even from Spain, while he insisted that it was just a simple signature, una firmita. Eventually, perhaps after about fifty feet, he decided that I was not going to change my mind and moved on.

The next place was not as impressive as the Palacio de Cristal and was called the Palacio de Velázquez, which was a nice and fairly new-looking building, but had more modern art inside. I told Nathan I was arted out for the day and so we left. We found our way out of the park and I asked Nathan if he wanted to continue on with me, and he agreed, so I told him my objective was to reach the Palacio Real, the Plaza Mayor, and the Puerta del Sol (all on the other side of town).

We wandered (quite literally) on over to the other side of town, just letting our feet be the guide, taking streets that looked interesting or good smells. Finally, after consulting many maps, we found ourselves in the Plaza Mayor de Madrid. It was quite the sight, to say the least. It was incredibly packed with people and good smells, vendors and street performers. It really was a cool place to hang out. After that, we found ourselves at the Puerta del Sol, which I expected to be a huge gate or something (like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris) since Puerta means door or gate, but turned out to be only a large plaza. It was still interesting, especially since this side of town was the business district and the streets were bustling with people seeking good deals on reduced merchandise (rebajas) as a sort of post-Christmas sale extravaganza. 

After some more walking around, we finally saw the Palacio Real and the Catedral directly across from it, which was really quite special. The Catedral was the first we saw, and it was so large and old looking. The Palacio was equally impressive and both had a fantastic view of the city. Even though it took us a while to finally navigate ourselves to this side of town, it was so definitely worth it. The only bummer, which I only learned about after we had returned to the hotel, was that we were very close to the Plaza de España, but did not reach it. Oh well, it just gives me a reason to return some day, right? ;) I realize the descriptions here are really short, but I have a lot more to talk about and I am at a loss of words for it, other than awesome (in the sense that it evokes awe in a person), so hopefully this gets across in the pictures.

We got back to the hotel, and I was utterly exhausted from all the walking we did, so I just chilled out the rest of the day and went to bed.

Today (Sunday) was the day for the trip to Toledo, a city about an hour south of Madrid which is (according to our tour guide, whose information I question) more than four thousand years old. The city itself is not that old, of course, but there have been people living there for at least that long. At any rate, it has been an important city in the history of Spain. It is famously known for at one point in history being the capital of Spain (during the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, near the beginning of the sixteenth century) and for also being a city of three cultures during the Muslim occupation (spanning the years 711-1492). So the architecture, culture, and history just hits you. We went on a panoramic tour of the city, which is guarded on three sides by the Río Tajo and on the final by a wall. It was the most impressive city I had ever seen. 

We got off of the bus and went next on a walking tour of the city and got a lot of history, which was absolutely fantastic for yours truly, as it is both my major and my passion. We first visited an old monastery/church that was called Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes (Monastery of Saint John [the Evangelist] of the Catholic Monarchs). The intricacy and all the details that went into making the church was impressive. We have nothing that compares in the United States. Again, the pictures are worth more than any words I can use here. 

Although there are no longer any Jews in Toledo (and apparently have not been since they were expelled by Spain in the year 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs, the same ones that funded Columbus' journey,) there still exist synagogues there from before their expulsion and so that if the Jewish community ever decides to return, they can have their place of worship back. It was a really cool building with a big cross at the front, a star of David at the back, and Muslim architectural style. This visit ignited both my passion for history and more specifically for the Sephardic Jews of Spain. So incredibly awesome!

After this, we had a little free time to go to the bathroom and to explore a bit. Toledo is known for its expert craftmanship and forging of steel and silver, so there were lots of shops selling ornate jewelry and other trinkets in gold and silver. I did a lot of window shopping in Toledo and finally ended up in this little cafe thing, run by one man, where they sold this stuff called Mazapán (sweet bread). We were told to try it at some point, because it is a treat characteristic of Toledo. After I asked for a piece of it, he asked if I wanted an entire box, and I nodded, saying sure. Then I realized what he had said and what I agreed to, and asked instead for just a single, sample size. I tried it for half a euro (about fifty U.S. cents) and found it to be really tasty. Also in his sweets display, he had this cake that I have seen everywhere around Madrid that I knew was for the holiday (Día de los Reyes Magos - Day of the Three Wise Men, I think a specifically Spanish celebration), so I asked him what it was called. He let me know and I went back to listening to the other people from my program chatting. He came up to me and offered me a piece of it, which I thought was incredibly kind of him to do. I ate it and it was bread with almonds on top, along with a kind of sugary substance and then some dried fruit (I think I got a bit of orange). After this, I continued with the tour.

We next saw El Greco's masterpiece, El Entierro del Señor Orgaz (The Burial of Mr. Orgaz, who was apparently an important figure at the time). This was another piece of art that I had also seen but was impressed by its size. We then quickly moved onto the Cathedral of Toledo, a two hundred year project finished in the gothic style that just trumps the city's skyline (after the Alcázar) and makes for an impressive looking church. After seeing this, we moved on to the main plaza of the town and were told we had free time to explore the city. I went off on my own and did some side street exploring (which is known to be like a labyrinth, and let me attest to this fact, because it really is) and went back to that little cafe that we visited this morning. The man recognized me immediately and asked if I was back for more Mazapán, and I said I was actually here for lunch. I had a pork sandwich with some peppers and a beer, costing me a whopping five euros and filled me to the brim. This man and I chatted for a bit after I was done eating, so this was a really special experience for me. During and most definitely after the touring of Toledo, I found it to be a most beautiful city and thought that if I were going to live somewhere in Spain (after experiencing these two cities), Toledo would definitely be the one I would choose. I would not want to live in Madrid, as it is far too large, but Toledo is small and manageable, and offers awesome views.

After more walking around, we went back to the hotel and had a two hour meeting about our time in Salamanca for the duration of the semester, and then had free time after that. Which is where I am now, this very long blog post later. Haha. Hope you made it this far, and if you did, get up and go do something, because that is what I am going to do right now. Peace, and good night.