CIDE vs. Madrid and Toledo: We Won
I must apologize, as I tried to write this Sunday night after I returned home, but that wasn't happening. I got started on this paragraph, and after a while I gave up life: I shouldn't be able to function, let alone write an entry on this weekend, after all the sleep I haven't been getting. Yet it has been so worth it. However, I would like to apologize in advance for any gaps in coherence or ramblings or other lackings in writing.
Thursday night: primero encuentro con los alumnos de Erasmus y de las universidades (first meeting with Erasmus students and other university students from Bilbao). The Erasmus Program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_program) is for European students to directly enroll in classes for a year abroad. Much better organized than our study abroad programs from the US, as it's completely seamless and transfers completely. Anyway, a Deusto student organized a party with our program and theirs, along with other assorted students from Bilbao universities, at a local "pub" (they use the same word in Spanish). Anyway, we intended to only stay for a little while becuase we had to be at the dorm Friday morning at 8 am to leave for Madrid. Haha yeah, that didn't really happen, but we did have a LOT of fun. Didn't get enough sleep for my 645 wake-up, but that's life.
Friday morning. Long bus ride. Oh well; that's life. We get to the hotel, get settled, and go down for the comida. This was the start of the only problem of the trip, the hotel food. Every time we could've taken a meal in Madrid, we ate at the hotel. It wasn't bad, per se (some meals were actually BAD), but everything was coated in OIL and GREASE. Even the chef making freshly-prepared meat and fish doused EVERYTHING in oil--needless to say, my stomach was not taking that very well.
Friday afternoon: Palacio Real and a few sections of the older part of Madrid, the more classically Spanish parts. The Palace was amazing. It's ridiculous to think of the cost of this place, as it was adorned to the T, with Rococo art everywhere and chandaliers (they by themselves were amazing, tapestries, paintings, furniture, wallpaper, marble, the whole works). There's really no comparison in the US, especially when two chapels were integral to the design of the building.
Tour around some old parts of the city, to give us a true sensation of what Madrid really is. Plazas, old streets, tapas bars, the whole 9 yards. We did a little shopping to buy some tourist crap, and that's about it.
Back to the hotel, dinner, hung out, and left for the night. I had been talking to a bunch of my friends who live in Madrid (met them over the summer, long story if you don't already know), and a few of them and a few of my friends and I met them at a bar to have a couple drinks.
Went to Kapital around 1. Basically, it's a 7-story dance club. Discoteca. Think about it. Different music and atmosphere on each floor. 'Nuff said. We got back early on Spanish time, around 5.
Up early, to Toledo for the day on Saturday. I was in pain, basically all day, from the damn hotel food and my intestines. Oh well. The Cathedral was amazing; a real throw-back to the past. Just the amount of money that was in there was unfathomable. But, I did get a real sense of a place of worship. It's still a Cathedral, even tho it's mobbed with tourists.
We wandered around the city a little, visited a couple museums, and took in the sites. We had a group lunch, which honestly (even apart from my gastrointestinal troubles) was terrible--some of the worst lasagna I've ever tasted. The city of Toledo is so typically, old-school Spanish, and it's wonderful to just walk the streets and people watch and go into little stores and such.
Back to Madrid for the evening. More terrible hotel food. And what would we do on a Saturday night after we haven't slept enough for the past two nights? Hell, it's Saturday night in Madrid! Back to Kapital we went, and boy was transportation interesting.
We took a cab down there, or two cabs, rather, because a girl in our group didn't want to walk the 5 mins to the metro. Oh well. We soon realized, 15 euros later, that this wasn't working. The cabbie told us at 1:15 that it made no sense for us to remain in his cab (actually a very nice thing to do) and just to take the metro the rest of the way. There was a huge party in the city that night, so they had closed a bunch of streets crosstown. They even closed La Gran Via (the big way)--one of the two main roads in Madrid. Great. We found a bathroom close by in a bar, and I busted out the metro map to try to figure this crap out. Asked a couple nearby to help us, and oh yeah, the metro closes at 1:30. Wonderful. We moved damn quickly towards that train, and finally got down there and waited for the girls to arrive in the other cab.
That night, a good friend of mine from Madrid, Laura, stopped by the club for a couple hours to hang with us. That was very fun, very good to see her again. Basically, a very fun night all around. We left the club at [gasp, it's the Spanish way] 5:30ish. We tried to get a cab, and in about 25 minutes, I saw 4 empty cabs. Four. That being said, I asked about the metro and was informed that it starts at 6 am. Oh well, it would be a lot cheaper and get us there in the same time (at that rate). So, the other guy who was with me (along with two girls), we took the last metro of the night and the first of the morning. Wow. What a thing to think about--I was so proud of myself.
Wake up call at 8. That one hurt, again. More bad breakfast, then off to the museums. The Prado and the Reina Sofia. The Prado contains classic Spanish works plus a bunch of Dutch artists from when the Spanish Empire ruled Europe. Silly Hapsburgs. The Reina Sofia is mainly modern, featuring Dali, Picasso, and some Goya. Picasso's Guernika is in there as well as Goya's Third of May. Awesome stuff. Surprisingly, I was able to function. Don't know how or why, but I was in the mood for modern art, so I was really just interested in the Velazquez (especially Las Meninas) in the Prado and then heading over to the Reina Sofia. Picasso even piqued my interest; I usually have trouble really appreciating him.
Back to the hotel, a decent lunch, then bus ride home. That was when I started this entry; it's now the following Sunday, almost a week later, and I only recovered from that trip a few days ago. Haha oh the life of a young person in Spain. Anyway, I'll try to get my entry of this past weekend up before next Sunday.
Needless to say, Julia will be a main character of that entry, as she is sleeping on my bed behind me--she came to visit this weekend, evidently deciding this last week. Quite the weekend, but it got stifled last night (for me) by my developing sickness. The Cold Eeze zinc cough drop tastes rather horrible, and I'm chuggin the fluids!
My best to everyone and your loved ones, and enjoy life!
AMDG,
Anthony
Thursday night: primero encuentro con los alumnos de Erasmus y de las universidades (first meeting with Erasmus students and other university students from Bilbao). The Erasmus Program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_program) is for European students to directly enroll in classes for a year abroad. Much better organized than our study abroad programs from the US, as it's completely seamless and transfers completely. Anyway, a Deusto student organized a party with our program and theirs, along with other assorted students from Bilbao universities, at a local "pub" (they use the same word in Spanish). Anyway, we intended to only stay for a little while becuase we had to be at the dorm Friday morning at 8 am to leave for Madrid. Haha yeah, that didn't really happen, but we did have a LOT of fun. Didn't get enough sleep for my 645 wake-up, but that's life.
Friday morning. Long bus ride. Oh well; that's life. We get to the hotel, get settled, and go down for the comida. This was the start of the only problem of the trip, the hotel food. Every time we could've taken a meal in Madrid, we ate at the hotel. It wasn't bad, per se (some meals were actually BAD), but everything was coated in OIL and GREASE. Even the chef making freshly-prepared meat and fish doused EVERYTHING in oil--needless to say, my stomach was not taking that very well.
Friday afternoon: Palacio Real and a few sections of the older part of Madrid, the more classically Spanish parts. The Palace was amazing. It's ridiculous to think of the cost of this place, as it was adorned to the T, with Rococo art everywhere and chandaliers (they by themselves were amazing, tapestries, paintings, furniture, wallpaper, marble, the whole works). There's really no comparison in the US, especially when two chapels were integral to the design of the building.
Tour around some old parts of the city, to give us a true sensation of what Madrid really is. Plazas, old streets, tapas bars, the whole 9 yards. We did a little shopping to buy some tourist crap, and that's about it.
Back to the hotel, dinner, hung out, and left for the night. I had been talking to a bunch of my friends who live in Madrid (met them over the summer, long story if you don't already know), and a few of them and a few of my friends and I met them at a bar to have a couple drinks.
Went to Kapital around 1. Basically, it's a 7-story dance club. Discoteca. Think about it. Different music and atmosphere on each floor. 'Nuff said. We got back early on Spanish time, around 5.
Up early, to Toledo for the day on Saturday. I was in pain, basically all day, from the damn hotel food and my intestines. Oh well. The Cathedral was amazing; a real throw-back to the past. Just the amount of money that was in there was unfathomable. But, I did get a real sense of a place of worship. It's still a Cathedral, even tho it's mobbed with tourists.
We wandered around the city a little, visited a couple museums, and took in the sites. We had a group lunch, which honestly (even apart from my gastrointestinal troubles) was terrible--some of the worst lasagna I've ever tasted. The city of Toledo is so typically, old-school Spanish, and it's wonderful to just walk the streets and people watch and go into little stores and such.
Back to Madrid for the evening. More terrible hotel food. And what would we do on a Saturday night after we haven't slept enough for the past two nights? Hell, it's Saturday night in Madrid! Back to Kapital we went, and boy was transportation interesting.
We took a cab down there, or two cabs, rather, because a girl in our group didn't want to walk the 5 mins to the metro. Oh well. We soon realized, 15 euros later, that this wasn't working. The cabbie told us at 1:15 that it made no sense for us to remain in his cab (actually a very nice thing to do) and just to take the metro the rest of the way. There was a huge party in the city that night, so they had closed a bunch of streets crosstown. They even closed La Gran Via (the big way)--one of the two main roads in Madrid. Great. We found a bathroom close by in a bar, and I busted out the metro map to try to figure this crap out. Asked a couple nearby to help us, and oh yeah, the metro closes at 1:30. Wonderful. We moved damn quickly towards that train, and finally got down there and waited for the girls to arrive in the other cab.
That night, a good friend of mine from Madrid, Laura, stopped by the club for a couple hours to hang with us. That was very fun, very good to see her again. Basically, a very fun night all around. We left the club at [gasp, it's the Spanish way] 5:30ish. We tried to get a cab, and in about 25 minutes, I saw 4 empty cabs. Four. That being said, I asked about the metro and was informed that it starts at 6 am. Oh well, it would be a lot cheaper and get us there in the same time (at that rate). So, the other guy who was with me (along with two girls), we took the last metro of the night and the first of the morning. Wow. What a thing to think about--I was so proud of myself.
Wake up call at 8. That one hurt, again. More bad breakfast, then off to the museums. The Prado and the Reina Sofia. The Prado contains classic Spanish works plus a bunch of Dutch artists from when the Spanish Empire ruled Europe. Silly Hapsburgs. The Reina Sofia is mainly modern, featuring Dali, Picasso, and some Goya. Picasso's Guernika is in there as well as Goya's Third of May. Awesome stuff. Surprisingly, I was able to function. Don't know how or why, but I was in the mood for modern art, so I was really just interested in the Velazquez (especially Las Meninas) in the Prado and then heading over to the Reina Sofia. Picasso even piqued my interest; I usually have trouble really appreciating him.
Back to the hotel, a decent lunch, then bus ride home. That was when I started this entry; it's now the following Sunday, almost a week later, and I only recovered from that trip a few days ago. Haha oh the life of a young person in Spain. Anyway, I'll try to get my entry of this past weekend up before next Sunday.
Needless to say, Julia will be a main character of that entry, as she is sleeping on my bed behind me--she came to visit this weekend, evidently deciding this last week. Quite the weekend, but it got stifled last night (for me) by my developing sickness. The Cold Eeze zinc cough drop tastes rather horrible, and I'm chuggin the fluids!
My best to everyone and your loved ones, and enjoy life!
AMDG,
Anthony
posted by Anthony Damelio at 3:13 PM
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