Hola desde España! Sorry in advance for this Suart Portman-length post but these past few days in Spain have been a whirlwind and there is much to write about! After 3 planes, 3 subway trains, and about 17 hours of travel, my mom and I finally arrived at our hotel in Madrid. Exhausted, we plopped down in a restaurant right outside of our hotel in Plaza Santa Ana. I'm slightly confused because I translated the name to mean something of a German brewery but our tapas seemed quite Spanish to me. Either way, we managed to order and eat with minimal English which was intimidating but everything here is delicious so it doesn't really matter if you actually know what you're ordering. After dinner, we walked around a bit and saw some of Madrid's beautiful, old European buildings lit up at night and headed back to our hotel to crash.
Friday was museum day. Madrid has an incredible amount of really fine museums, though none of which can compare to El Prado. El Prado is just massive and it seems like every room has a masterpiece in it. There were masterpieces by everybody who's anybody- Goya, Bosch, Ruebens, Titian, Velazquez, Renoir, El Greco, Caravaggio, Rembrandt... The list goes on and on. I thought it was really cool that even though they had a very diverse collection of art, there was a special emphasis and a lot of pride surrounding the Spanish art. After El Prado, we walked around a park and made our way to El Centro de Arte Reina Sofia- Madrid's contemporary art museum. They had tons and tons of works by Picasso, Miro, and Dali including the museum's centerpiece- Guernica. There were pictures of Guernica in about five or six of its stages of completion. It was really interesting to see the changes that Picasso made and the amount of thought that he put into this piece (which is so big it takes up an entire room). Finally, we visited Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza- a museum based around a privately assembled collection. Works here included more Picasso, Gaugin, Goya, and Van Gogh. Although impressive in itself, I was on art overload and ready for some more tapas. We ate outside in Plaza Santa Ana next to a small playground, overflowing with adorable and energetic little Spanish kids. Complete with being serenaded by some busking accordion players, we headed back for the night to plan for the next day.
On Saturday, we got up at the crack of dawn- strike that 2 hours before the crack of dawn- to catch our train to Barcelona. Just FYI the nightlife is just starting to die down at 6am and there are some shady characters on the street. Our slightly disconcerting walk to the train station was more than worth our amazing stay in Barcelona. The 3 hour train ride was occupied by watching the gorgeous Spanish countryside and trying my best to follow Rango in Spanish as it played on the train's TVs. Our first order of business in Barcelona was the Catedral de Barcelona- a beautiful cathedral in the old city center. Next, we wandered around and arrived at Mercat de La Boqueria. This was a huge, bustling market with tons of amazing sights and smells. With over 300 stalls, there's barely any room to walk, adding to its appeal :) After buying some lunch here, we strolled down La Rambla (a street with lots of little vendors) to our metro station. We arrived at the modernista side of town with lots of incredible architecture designed by Gaudi- my favorite of which was La Pedrera. It's impossible to describe his work so check out my pictures. The roof was especially fun and had a great view of the city.
That night my mom and I saw a concert at Palau de la Musica Catalana. We had dinner before the concert outside the hall which included tapas, croquetas, and cava- a traditional Catalonian wine. Now to describe the concert- the hall was by far the most beautiful hall I've ever seen. I don't think there could be a more beautiful hall in the whole world. An amazing stained glass inverted dome is the centerpiece with ornate, modernista details in every corner of the hall. Our seats were up behind the stage next to the organ pipes which provided an awesome view and an interesting perspective of the musicians. The concert itself consisted of folk-inspired pieces. However, the first piece was a piece for solo organ by Bach. This program explains that this is "in order to rediscover the relationship of silence and the sublime beauty of the organization of sounds" (or so google translate, Catalan tells me). At each concert this season, they will have a moment of silence which blossoms into a work by Bach, "an act of purification to prepare us to move into the concert." Hell yeah, Barcelona is fucking awesome. I will try to keep this short but the rest of the concert was equally as awesome. All of the musicians entered at the same time by section. The acoustics were great and so was the conductor. And of course, it was infinitely interesting to watch the musicians.
The next day began with Gaudi's culminating masterpiece- La Sagrada Familia. This is undoubtedly the most beautiful and awe-inspiring thing I have ever seen. The front entrance is covered with sculptures of the crucifixion of Christ and as you walk in, there is a line drawing in the tile floor of the Palm Sunday procession. This entrance opens up to the beyond massive nave. The pillars split at the top to look like tree branches and the ceiling decorations look like stars. The building is so tall, it really does feel like you're looking up to heaven. A quote from Gaudi on the premises describes his inspiration from nature which you can see in almost every detail: "The great book, always open and which we should make an effort to read, is that of Nature." I really can't do this cathedral justice, so go check out some pictures for yourself. After this, we went to Parc Guell- a park with lots of Gaudi quirks hiding around every corner. Finally, a beautiful ride back to Madrid, and dinner at the historic Plaza Mayor -the site of Spanish inquisition trials and executions and bull fights. (Dinner was slightly more pleasant).
Tomorrow we're back to London. Lugging my luggage through the tube will surely be entertaining to locals. I will be posting pictures here (if I can figure out how) or on facebook. Miss you all so much! If you actually read all of this, props. Adios por ahora!
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