Madrid

The first trip of hopefully many more: Madrid! The Fund had its own trip to Madrid on Friday, so we all took the bus together (it is only about an hour from Toledo) and then most people decided to stay the weekend. It is hard to describe exactly what we did because most of the time was spent wandering the streets and doing nothing in particular. We did see the Palacio, the Biblioteca Nacional, and Parque de El Retiro. In summary: the Palacio is beautiful and ornate and impossible to absorb all at once (I've decided that frescoes are really a terrible idea, because I want to look at the paintings, but there is too much to see at once, especially when you are craning your neck to look up, and so you end up looking at little pieces instead of the whole thing). The problem isn't really limited to the frescoes though, because every old building seems to have the same problem here-- I pass the Catedral in Toledo multiple times everyday, and have stopped trying to look at every detail because it cannot be done. I prefer to look at it from far away and not be overwhelmed by the multiple scenes and figures that can be seen up close.

The Biblioteca Nacional was a bit of a disappointment because we did not get to see where they kept the books. There were two wonderful exhibits, but since it was Friday night (after a long day of travelling and sight-seeing), I did not have the energy to read much of the explanations, and instead tried to absorb a little just by looking. The first exhibit was about a writer in the Phillipines when it was a colony of Spain. I read about the history of colonization and promptly forgot it all. The second exhibit was about the history of the library, but at this point I had given up on reading in Spanish, and instead just looked at the displays of illuminated manuscripts and tried to imagine the melodies on pieces of old sheet music.

My favorite part of the trip was the Parque de el Retiro. After a long morning of wandering the city on Saturday, we bought some bread and cheese and picnicked in the park. There were more statues and ornate columns, but also (of course) trees and grass and water with boats, and it was nice to have some simplicity for a change!

The days were very full, but I'm afriad I was a little boring by the end of the day. On Friday, instead of going to Club Capital (a famous night club with 7 floors, but has a cover charge of 15 euros-- more than I wanted to pay for something I probably wouldn't have enjoyed!) I stayed in the hostel to read and sleep. It was very peaceful, aside from an awkward encounter with a group sharing the room. (They came in in the middle of the night, talking loudly in Spanish, one voice on top of the other, lights on, door open, and after deciding I was too tired to assemble my own Spanish confrontation in response, I climbed out of the bunk bed and slammed the door shut after they left. Or rather, after I thought they left-- they were actually still in the room, standing directly behind me. The door-slamming, however passive-agressive it might have been, seemed to work better than whatever jumbled Spanish communication I could have offered anyway. They opened the door quietly as I climbed back into bed, and for the rest of the night shuffled in and out and talked in hushed voices)

The following night, I went out with the group, but we ended up at an Irish pub (yes, an Irish pub in Madrid, and the bar tender was a Canadian who spoke English better than Spanish) with expensive drinks. After standing around for about half an hour, a few of us decided to head back to the hostel. In place of the overpriced drinks, we stopped at a little store to buy some ice cream-- cheaper than a beer, and much more delicious!

We came back to Toledo on Sunday, and it was nice to be back in the small, calm town after Madrid. As usual, I have some thoughts floating around and occupying my head, but I will save them for later and give them there own space. For now: Madrid was a good first trip, and Toledo is starting to become famliar and comfortable.