Madrid

Last weekend I traveled to Madrid with the other students in the program. We took the AVE, a fast train that travels from Sevilla to Madrid in about 2 hours. It always leaves on time, and always arrives on time.

My first impression of Madrid was that it looks pretty dull. I guess the season is partly to blame, especially since it’s winter and the trees have no leaves whatsoever. But all of the buildings were either one of two colors: off-white or brick red. Madrid looks like just another big metropolis – think New York, only less congested. I definitely do think Sevilla is prettier, and a better place to live. The people in Sevilla seem nicer and laidback.

The first night that we tried to go out for dinner was a bit of a disaster. Originally, we had planned to get tapas, but we had really no idea where to go. We stopped by one restaurant, and sat down with the menus. However, after the waiter told us that they don’t serve tapas until the Saturday, the whole group (about 11 people) walked out. It was kind of awkward. We then stopped by another restaurant, and we were informed that the restaurants don’t usually serve tapas until 8:30 pm. We decided to stop by a nearby grocery store for some light food, before we headed out again later at night. At the hotel, we decided to join in on another group’s dinner plans. They wanted to go to a restaurant named The Finca de Susana, and then head to a Cuban restaurant for dancing. However, when we got to that restaurant, we saw that there were no available seats, and the wait would be long. We gave up on that idea, and the group split up in search of food. At that point, it was around 10 o’clock. I was really hungry and would have settled for anything. We ended up at a restaurant/café named Las Fatigas de Querer. Andrea and I shared a humongous, sizzling plate of steak. I liked it, though it was oily and was more than enough meat for the week. After dinner, we headed over to the Negra Tomatita for some dancing. The one guy who danced with me asked me where I was from, and I said “Estados Unidos,” but I told him that I wanted to practice my Spanish. To my dismay, whenever I tried to talk to him in Spanish, he kept talking to me in English (maybe I should have said I was from China?) Although I didn’t really dance with many guys, I had fun being with my other friends in the program. I really enjoy dancing bachata, so it disappointed me that no guy asked me to dance bachata. Whenever they played bachata music, I just lead another girl.

The second day we visited the Prado, a museum featuring the artwork of Spanish artists like Goya and Velazquez. We had a long two-hour guided tour. I didn’t really appreciate it, because the guide only pointed out certain paintings, and I wanted time to just look at the captions and contemplate the meaning of each. Nonetheless, I was glad to see Las Meninas by Velazquez, which has always been one of favorite paintings. In fact, I actually bought a (children’s) book about the infantia of Las Meninas. I’m really a sucker for things like these, but I bought it to improve my Spanish. Plus, it comes with a free poster of Las Meninas!

Later in the afternoon, Andrea, Austin and I visited la Reina Sofia, which is home to Picasso’s Guernica. The painting is quite big, and up close, I could see the texture and mixture of paint. The museum also had pictures of Guernica step by step in the making, so it was interesting to see Picasso’s original intentions. Besides Guernica, nothing else seemed that interesting to me, as it only featured abstract modern art. Austin and I also lost Andrea along the way, so we spent most of the time just looking for her.

That night, we decided to try our luck again at La Finca de Susana, since it apparently is a very nice restaurant that offers relatively cheap food. We arrived earlier than the night before, so we were able to sit down immediately. What I was most surprised about were the waiters. They were all Asian. Filipino, maybe. I guess it’s not that surprising, since Madrid is a metropolitan of different ethnicities, but a fancy restaurant doesn’t sound like a usual place for immigrants to work at. Anyway, the service wasn’t that great. We tried to order our food in Spanish, but the waiters, pressed for time, made us order in English. Also, one of the waitresses brought out a dish of croquettes that none of us had ordered. We tried to tell her that none of us ordered that. She thought we didn’t understand, so she repeated the name of the dish in English, which was unnecessary because “croquetas” and “croquettes” don’t sound that different. Besides the bad service, the food was decent. I wouldn’t say it was the best, because the gambas (shrimp) were smaller than I expected, and the fish and mushroom kebabs were slightly more charcoaled than I would have liked.

The next day, we visited the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). The exterior looks kind of dull, but the inside is magnificent. The rooms we visited included the king’s bedroom, the room with the king’s throne, and the king’s dressing room (and queen has a lot of her own, too). Every room is highly decorated (Baroque style) and has a certain color theme. Although the decoration seemed a bit too ornate, the palace gave me inspiration on what my future house should look like (haha). After roaming around the palace, I stopped by the gift shop. And guess what? I bought another children’s book! This book was about Goya and his painting of May 2, 1898 – another famous painting that I really like.

It was raining by the time we left the palace, and I wasn’t too happy about that because one of my shoes was torn and my foot was half-way soaked. But I decided to join the others in getting food at a local café. I really like getting coffee here, because they always serve them in cute little cups (I guess I can’t say much about American cafes, since coffee is mostly served in paper cups). The lack of tipping also makes things easier for me. One thing I’ve realized is that most restaurants aren’t accustomed to individualized orders that are different from what’s offered on the menu. For example, some of the girls tried ordering a sandwich without mayonnaise, but the waiter just seemed confused and overwhelmed. After lunch, we stopped by a sweet shop and purchased some filloas, which are cinnamon-y wraps with a cream filling. I really like the sweet shops in Spain, because of the traditional/fancy décor and the drool-worthy pastries.

We again took the AVE to return to Sevilla. I was sitting by Terry, and we spent the last 20 minutes listening to Britney Spears and dancing in our seats.

Good times, but I was definitely ready to head back to Sevilla.