So, yeah. We're back from Madrid. I have to say that I had a really good time, but I was super tired after our trip. I still am, actually. I need to take some leave to recover from my leave, I think.
Anyway, I won't post a lot, because already posted about some of it…
We got to Madrid on Thursday night, and we made our way from the airport after meeting Amanda and Jessica. We traveled underground via the Metro, and we eventually came out near our hotel, and got situated in that respect. After dumping our crap, we went to have a bite to eat at a cafe in this square which had a lot of activity due to some strange movie thing being shown on a large screen. Anyway, the meal consisted of plates of cheese, bread, and sausage (chorizo) and was very good. It seems they tend to share plates of food a lot in Spain, and it was a nice change. Anyway, we would get used to these foods during our stay. Later we walked around and looked at various sites, and we went to another cafe and had these little pastries which you dip into cups of chocolate. I can't remember what they are called, but they are good. Basically, we stayed up really late, and all of the food places were still open, there were tons of people on the street, etc. It was pretty cool, and WAY different to the UK.
The next day, we went to the Palacio Real, which is the royal palace. It was pretty neat, and some of those rooms had crazy decorations, man. The rooms all seemed to have certain themes, and some of them were so covered in decorations that it was hard to see everything. I think we went to palace gardens after that, but I'm not sure. The days and times are all jumbled in my mind. I know we went to eat at some place which is popular with the locals after that and we had this really good chicken, more sausage, and more bread..and this kind of apple cider stuff which turned me red (that happens to me with alcohol) I think that we went to a museum called Prado after that, and saw a lot of art. Jessica had to go to class so she wasn't with us at this point, and she was studying while we were in the palace, so she didn't go in there either. I can't really remember many of the artists' names in there, but I do remember Goya, and there was one really cool painting I liked called Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch. You can see some info about it here. By the way, you can't see how fantastic that painting is by the pictures on that site. Anyway, that museum was cool, but most of the art was related to christianity, and a lot of the paintings had the same qualities, so after a while, it got a little less interesting. I won't link to anything about all of those pictures, because they were all the kind of thing where you see some godly light from above, some weird angels coming down, and a mass of people on the ground either fleeing in terror or with some combination expression of pain and happiness on their faces. Anyway, we eventually left the museum and walked around for a while, I think…and went to a place called Vips, which is apparently comparable to an American Dennys. We ate some crazy things with ham and this creamy stuff inside, had some drinks, and waited until Jessica met up with us. I don't really remember what happend next, but that night we met up with Amanda's Spanish friend Pedro and his Polish wife Asia and had some Paella in this place which had plants growing all over inside the restaurant. The room had a glass ceiling, or something. Anyway, the food was good. We had 2 kinds of it, and one had squid ink in it, and was still surprisingly good. The only bad thing is that all of the Spaniards were kind of yelling at eachother a lot and the place was incredibly loud, so Steph and I both had headaches. After we got out, we had dessert at a cafe. It had these waffle type things which had chocolate and whipped cream on them, which were good, but shortly after we ate them, Steph started to feel sick, and her headache was bad, so we had to leave. It was ok though…very long day.
Next day we had breakfast outside a nice little cafe with lots of birds. I had some pastry which was filled with chocolate. It was really flaky and nice. Then, we went to the Reina Sofía Museum, or whatever, which was much better and more interesting than the Prado, in my opinion. We saw tons of stuff…some of the more memorable artists being Picasso, Dalí, and Miró. I didn't care too much for Miró, but some of the Dalí stuff was pretty cool, and the Picasso stuff was interesting. The Guernica was absolutely massive. Anyway, eventually we came out of there, and walked aroud a bit, and went to El Corte Ingles to get various food items for a picnic in this really nice park. We had a picnic and talked a bunch, and took some pictures, saw a man on stilts, some disney characters, etc etc. It was really nice in the park, actually…..and we got to do a lot of talking. We went back to the hotel to change, and then we talked for a while. I can't exactly remember what was next, but I know we walked to a statue of Don Quixote and took some pictures,and then we walked soem more and we went to eat at a cafe. We had a few different things, including shrimp, some mushroom and ham thing, bread, cheese, and some slightly different version of tortilla de patata which had chorizo in it. After we ate, we went to a place where we saw some really awesome Flamenco. Man, it was so cool. We drank Sangria and watched, and I took some pictures. I have never seen people with faster feet, man. It was insane. The music was really cool too. I like how it was just 2 guitars, 2 other men taking turns on vocals, and the rest was all stomping and clapping. Anyway, it was a great time. After that, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.
Our last day in Madrid we met for breakfast in the hotel with Amanda and Jessica, talked and ate a bit, and then saw Amanda off, as she had an earlier flight to catch. Steph, Jessica, and I went to a market and looked at tons of things, and Steph and I bought a pretty litte painting. The guy was doing one at the time, and the way he did it was pretty interesting. It was all done with this little metal scraper thing. Anyway, we also got a gift for John (Steph's brother) and then we pretty much went back to the hotel, got our stuff, went to the air port, and said goodbye to Jessica.
The flight was kinda crap, but I won't go into that…overall, I really enjoyed the trip and I was really thankful to have friends there who knew Spanish. I thought it was a really good time, and I really liked the feel of the place, and of the people…it all seemed very lively and much different. Another place, another feeling, another expierience in life.
Some people don't understand the desire to travel places and see things, and think things are done for the wrong reasons, but those people tend to be closed minded, and would be the types who would go stay in a nice hotel, only visit very touristy places, and do only touristy things. They wouldn't learn anything from the experience, and they wouldn't understand the desire to learn about other places and other people if one tried to explain it. These people are all about feeling secure, and not leaving their little bubbles, and wouldn't know a life changing experience if it bitchslapped them in the face. They are the kinds of people that will live the same way their whole lives, just like every other person around them..in their little square boxes, inside bigger square boxes, in little square neighborhoods, in their square little worlds.
Steph and I want to escape the boxes for a while and see what it is like in other places. We want to experience things and make most of the wonderful world we live in. The trip we are planning for when I get out of the military will be a life changing experience, and we will never be the same after it. People who can't comprehend that are simply mind boggling to me. It isn't difficult to grasp. And suggesting we have any other reason for going is just an insult, really.
Anyway, I didn't mean to end that on a bad note or anything, because it was such a positive experience overall. It was just something on my mind. Anyway, I guess I have written a lot more than I thought I would. Time for some work. :)