We went to the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace. It's a big, pretty, white building with a courtyard in the middle (which is surrounded by two wings, the side of a church, and a pretty view of either Madrid or just a neighboring Spanish town -- I don't know; I didn't have a compass. Haha.).
We bought tickets (they had very generous student prices in Madrid -- we paid half price there, and also at the Mueso Thyssen-Bornemisza on Saturday, which I forgot to write about because it was boring an uneventful).
The rooms inside were amazing. This was, by far, the most regal and extravagantly decorated place I've seen in Europe. It was funny, because we saw a lot of Americans there (They're easy to spot by their clothes -- North Face jacket? Check. Coach bag/shoes? Check. College t-shirt? Check.), and I thought it was pretty fitting since Americans love flashy opulence. Though I guess the Spanish do too, huh?
The rooms were really lavishly decorated. The walls of one room (in the first picture below) were decorated with porcelain (like, instead of wallpaper, they glued porcelain to the walls), the Throne Room had red velvet hangings, and my favorite room (second picture below) just had this gorgeous 3D design. I don't know what it was, and it's not clear from the picture how it really looked, but it was gorgeous. The one room that wasn't over-the-top had bright oriental wallpaper and looked like it was probably used as a nursery. It was actually the smoking room. I guess after a nice hit of opium, the pretty colors make the high that much better.
There was also a mother who had her daughter on a leash. I really hate when parents do this. Your child is not an animal. And hey, mom and dad, you never put me on a leash and I'm still alive, right? It just makes me really angry. I want to walk up with scissors, snip the leash in half, and yell, "RUN, LITTLE ONE, RUN AWAY! YOU'RE FREE!" The worst part here was that the girl was about nine years old. Clearly not a baby.
We left the Palacio Real (there was a man set up playing water glasses, like in Miss Congeniality, except without the Swedish girl costume) and walked down the street to San Francisco el Grande. There were a bunch of special churches to see, but I've been in so many at this point that they're all pretty much a blur, so we just picked one. The dome here is bigger than the one in St. Peter's in London. It was nice, but nothing too special. There was some glittery stuff on the cieling that was pretty, but we didn't look around too much because it was Sunday and there was a service going on (Dios mio!) so we ducked out after a minute.
On the way there, we passed a huge group of protestors. Their sign said something about a jardín and San Francisco el Grande, and I'm pretty sure from what I could understand from their leaflet that the city was going to build on a park in the area and they didn't want in destroyed because it's important to have parques verdes in city.
There was also a mother who had her daughter on a leash. I really hate when parents do this. Your child is not an animal. And hey, mom and dad, you never put me on a leash and I'm still alive, right? It just makes me really angry. I want to walk up with scissors, snip the leash in half, and yell, "RUN, LITTLE ONE, RUN AWAY! YOU'RE FREE!" The worst part here was that the girl was about nine years old. Clearly not a baby.
We left the Palacio Real (there was a man set up playing water glasses, like in Miss Congeniality, except without the Swedish girl costume) and walked down the street to San Francisco el Grande. There were a bunch of special churches to see, but I've been in so many at this point that they're all pretty much a blur, so we just picked one. The dome here is bigger than the one in St. Peter's in London. It was nice, but nothing too special. There was some glittery stuff on the cieling that was pretty, but we didn't look around too much because it was Sunday and there was a service going on (Dios mio!) so we ducked out after a minute.
On the way there, we passed a huge group of protestors. Their sign said something about a jardín and San Francisco el Grande, and I'm pretty sure from what I could understand from their leaflet that the city was going to build on a park in the area and they didn't want in destroyed because it's important to have parques verdes in city.
We had some time to kill before heading back to the hostel, so we went to La Rastra, the flea market nearby. It was pretty busy, with people selling everything from clothes and accessories to books and, essentially, garbage from their basements. There was also a lot of underwear for sale, which seemed really gross to me. I stayed away from that, but bought two bracelets for one euro each.
We took the Metro back to our hostel, on which a really drunk older Spanish guy tried to talk to us. We told him we didn't understand him, and he asked where we were from. He said he lived in New Jersey for three years, which was a funny coincidence, but also annoyed because he said it five times and knocked me on the arm really hard to get my attention. Did I mention that this was at two in the afternoon?
We took the Metro back to our hostel, on which a really drunk older Spanish guy tried to talk to us. We told him we didn't understand him, and he asked where we were from. He said he lived in New Jersey for three years, which was a funny coincidence, but also annoyed because he said it five times and knocked me on the arm really hard to get my attention. Did I mention that this was at two in the afternoon?
And that pretty much sums up my trip. Oh, except also, on Saturday night, we passed Studio 54 of Madrid on the way home. Made me laugh.
Besos! XOXO
Besos! XOXO
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