Let the Museums Begin

June 27, 2009

Today was a HECTIC day! My roommate and I woke up a little early and went and worked out. It was nice to get a good work out in to try to cancel out the jet lag. It didn’t work so well. Probably because of all of the standing around in museums and such. So far, I have spent waay too much on food and a few souvenirs. It’s kind of a problem. I eat as little as possible but 3 meals a day tends to add up here. Anyhow. After breakfast, we met up with the group and our ISA rep led us to the jardin botanico y el museo del prado. En El Museo del Prado we saw different paintings from the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries and learned about how they depicted the goings on of Spain at the time. Our tour guide, Marisol was great! She was very informative and animated and tried to keep our attention as best she could while flying through 300 years in 1 hour.

After El Museo del Prado, we had a little free time where we could branch off and do pretty much whatever we wanted. My roommate, Paul, and I, (I figured I should give him a name since you’ll be hearing a lot from him) stopped at this little outdoor café and had some unique sandwiches. It was the first time that I had tasted a calamari sandwich and also the first time that I had tasted fried calamari without crust. And interesting lunch to say the least. After meeting up with some girls from the program and walking toward our next destination, I experienced one of the most incredible sights in my life. It’s called El Plaza Mayor. Essentially, it is just a gigantic opening in the city enclosed with buildings and garnered with extravagant archways. But inside is completely different. With, lots of little cafés and an abundance of street performers, Madrid comes to life before your eyes. From there, we went to our next tour site, which happened to be a giant Palace. El Palacio Real de Madrid. Was the palace that King Felipe II built and made Madrid the capital that it is today. The enormous marble structure is very impossible to miss. Once inside, Marisol proceeded to tell us all about the royal family and what was done with each room and the customs that came along with having an absolute monarchy.

After all of the excitement, I had to come and lay down. It has been a long day and it’s only 17:30.