Spain...In Three Days

27 September 2009

Ok, here goes... we took the train to Paris on Saturday (the 26th) to catch our flight to Spain. The plane was late by an hour and a half so we didn't get into Madrid until nearly midnight. After a lengthy cab ride, through what I could already tell was a beautiful city, we arrived at our hostel and got some much needed sleep. Sunday morning we got up early (thanks solely to the motivation of Brigid) and treked through the streets in search of the Prado Museum. After wandering through some street vendors and aquiring a few spanish gifts for some certain someones, (yes, clearly I am talking about you) we arrived at the museum.

From what I had been told the Prado is basically Spain's equivalent to the Louvre, and it did not disappoint. We only bought tickets to see the permanent collection, but even that was more than I could see in four hours. I focused mainly on the religious paintings (probably about 60% of the whole collection) and enjoyed myself immensely. For those of you who don't know, I took a class last semester called "Saints in Art and Iconography" (which I loved!) and something our teacher said really stuck with me. He said, "Learning to recognize saints based on their iconography is a lot like trying to pick out family members from old photos, they may look slightly different but you can always tell who's who." Anyway, I played this little game with myself while wandering through the hallways of the Prado where I would try to guess which saint or biblical story was being depicted before checking myself with the audio guide or by deciphering the spanish name plates. Here are a few that I got: St. Anthony of Padua- lily, franciscan habit, small child; St. Bernard of Siena- franciscan habit, staff with initials IHS; St. Andrew - X shaped cross; St. Francis of Aussi - stigmata; St. Paul the Hermit & St. Anthony of Egypt - being fed in the desert by a crow; St. Dominic - dog holding a torch; St. Bernard of Clairvaux- white Cisturcian habit; St. Barbara - tower; St. Rock - dog and wounded leg; St. George - fighting a dragon, armor; St. Margaret - being swallowed by a dragon; St. Jerome - lion, cardinals vestments, book. (All of the wonderful paintings inspired me to take up my studying of the saints again when I get home so I'll be able to pick out even more)

Besides all the great religious paintings they had an incredible collection of Ruebens (from when he spent time in Spain) which I was not expecting at all. Grandma G. would have loved it, I especially liked his Adoration of the Magi - commissioned by the Antwerp city council. Ok, anyway...I liked the museum so much that I bought the guide book- which I never do, which weighs like a thousand pounds and I will now have to worry about getting it home, whoops.

After the Prado we walked through the city in search of the place to pick up our bullfight tickets. We stopped along the way and had incredible pizza - Trigg and I split one with chorizo which might have been the best pizza I've ever eaten (that statement could definitely cause some drama). After successfully navigating our way through the city and picking up our tickets, we began the hike to the arena and enjoyed the sights along the way. All the buildings were beautiful and the vibrant yellows and reds were a nice change from France's large collection of grays. I have to say that for someone who was viewing Madrid as just a  means to get to Morocco, I now have a rather large crush on the city.

Ok, that night we had tickets to a bullfight, which I was a bit apprehensive about, especially after some of the responses that I got from my family. But, I went and I kept an open mind. Here's what went on. The fight, which was in a beautiful amphitheater (which is actually completely round- we just use the word incorrectly in enlish) began with an opening parade. The toreadors, horses, assistants, and teams of mules (I discovered what those were for later) parade through the stadium to huge applause. The atmosphere alone was incredible. People, including many elderly couples, were all dressed up, sitting on cushions that they had brought from home, looking like they were about to take in an afternoon of polo. I had assumed the tourists kept the bullfighting business alive but it is truly a much loved Spanish pasttime for all ages (there were little kids there!) Ok, logistics wise it goes like this- they let in the bull, he runs around and gets lots of cheers before they bring in several extremely well padded horses and riders to initally injure the bull. Several assistant toreadors also get a chance to injure/generally piss of the bull. After that a specific grand toreador puts on a show of about 10 minutes of the most incredibily daring stunts you've ever seen. I swear these guys had been trained in ballet they were so graceful. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, sometimes hiding my eyes because I was sure he was about to be impaled. Finally, when the bull is weak the toreador takes a final blow with a long sword. At that point, which I was surprised to see, the bull nearly always lays down quite gracefully and dies. If he is still breathing they very quickly-and actually in a humane manner- but him out of his misery. Then come in the teams of mules to drag him out of the stadium. This was repeated 6 times for 6 different bulls, and each performance and toreador was surprisingly quite different. The native Spainiards clearly knew when something spectacular and out of the ordinary was happening because they would cheer and stand up, I wish someone had let me in on the secret subtleties.  Well, after watching it and making up my own mind, here is my opinion: I definitely enjoyed myself, despite the overall goriness. The finesse and daring that it took those men to approach the bulls was incredible. Being an animal lover I clearly didn't enjoy thinking about the bull's suffering but it was done in a rather classy manner. I am glad I did it, I don't think I'd ever do it again but it was a Spain must-see!

That evening on the long walk back to our hostel we stumbled onto a live concert in one of the main squares. I think they were celebraiting Madrid's (now unsuccessful) bid for the Olympics, but the performer was incredible and there must have been 10,000 people in that square. It was just such an exhilarating atmosphere to be walking down the colorfully lit streets of Madrid at night, surrounded by thousands of cheering people- we were finally able to push through the crowd and finally settled on a tapas restaurant for dinner. About half way through the meal Trigg pointed out to us an interesting development. There were 8-10 young girls all dressed up in high heels and itty bitty stretchy dresses walking up and down the street. Considering prostitution is illegal and highly enforced in Spain, you'd think they would have been more subtle about walking up to each and every guy on the street and touching his arm or chest even just in passing. Well, being the mature 20/21 year olds that we are, we clearly made a game out of the sitution. Each one of us took dibs on a girl trying to guess who would rustle up a client first. I can't even remember who won there were so many funny/awkward exchanges, but it made for quite the divertment during dinner. I believe the most memorable quote by Rachel was, "This street has everthing: McDonald's children, dogs, hookers..."  After that last bit of excitement for the day we found our way back to the hostel and settled in for the night.