Does Spain Know?

Don't get pickpocketed!

So we've been away for awhile, but I promise it's just because we've been so busy doing fun stuff! But we'll do our best to get you all caught up with our latest goings-on.

Last Sunday (the day after our last update), Riva and I did end up going to El Rastro, a big open-air market that sells mostly crap that looks like it was made in poorly-funded sweatshops trying to imitate something they saw on an American infomercial, but there was also some cool handmade jewelry and cheap leather goods, so we both ended up finding a few things--mostly Christmas presents!

The rest of last week was pretty much the usual until Friday, when we set off to Cologne! Or, as it's apparently called in Germany, Koln. Who knew? Coline met us at the airport and we were off for a weekend of festivities!

Apertif, anyone??

It was great to see her after all that time--we figured out we hadn't seen each other since 2010--and she gave us a great look at the city, which sits right on the Rhine River. Coline lives in this surprisingly spacious student apartment with one other girl, who happened to be out of town that weekend, so we didn't get to meet her, but we did get her room, which was bigger than our living room here in Madrid.

Cologne is beautiful, and the Christmas markets were just starting to open up, so we got to check out all the crafts and food and decorations, and it was all so festive and fun that we are REALLY ready for Christmas now. We had bratwurst and marzipan and good German beer (Cologne is part of the Kolsch region) all weekend, and I only wish we could've had more time. But we were lucky to be there as long as we were.

Later today, we leave for Santiago de Compostela, and we'll be touring Galicia all weekend, but we'll try to update whenever possible!

Why Don't We Spain There?

Warm coffee on a cold day!

This week was pretty much business as usual, class, tutoring, etc. We did go back to Zumba for the first time in weeks, though! Then, on Thursday, we had to write our midterm essays for Ramiro's class, which was kind of a pain, but we found a nice little cafe to set up camp in, so it went as painlessly as possible.


Yesterday, Riva and the two of us finally got around to checking out Mercado de San Miguel, a huge indoor marketplace full of different booths selling all kinds of snack-sized portions of food and drink for the ultimate tapas-hopping experience. We got there around 3PM and pretty much stuck around the rest of the day sampling just about everything we could find, from cranberry mozzarella roll-ups to rose cava.

Tapas at San Miguel!

Later, we met up with Andrew to go back to the pizza place in Sol we went to last week after the Opera for a little snack and a bottle of 6-euro cava. Then we went out to Fontana de Oro where we ran into Kate and Prentiss (both from Vassar) and their respective gentleman callers. We were home by 2AM, so all in all a successful night.

We didn't do too much today, just watched some TV and popped out to Corte Ingles to pick up a couple of canvases. Then, of course, we were able to come home and do some painting. A quiet day, but overall very enjoyable.

Tomorrow we're planning on going to El Rastro, Madrid's largest outdoor market, and then we'll probably have to do some work in preparation for the end of the semester.

Better Than Spain

Haunted Metro!

Sorry we've been so off our blogging game this week! There actually has been a lot going on, which is why we haven't written (unlike usual when we skip days just because we have nothing to talk about).

Monday: After class, we considered going to the Thyssen Museum (Pop art shit), but they close early on Mondays, so we went across the street to the Prado instead, which is free Monday evenings. We spent a few very pleasant hours there, mostly checking out Spain's copies of Greco-Roman sculpture and pausing a few times to just sit and draw them. Very relaxing, very fun.

Wednesday: Along with Riva, Alexandra, and Hannah, we headed to a free tour of the Sorolla museum. The museum itself is actually Sorolla's house from when he lived in Madrid, and they haven't really changed much around since then, so that's pretty cool. Unlike most artists (ugh), he was actually pretty commercially successful while he was alive, so the house is pretty sweet. And, fun fact, from what we saw of the portraits, his son was kind of hot. Who knew?

Later Wednesday: Another Pasaport Cultural event at the Ciclo de Cine aka Wednesday Movie Night. This week's director was Jorge Torregrossa, and the feature film was called Fin. It's kind of suspense, kind of a thriller, definitely an independent film. It was pretty good though, I have to say, although Very different from last week, but still enjoyable.

ALSO, we talked to Amy, and we don't actually have to get a full 3 credits from the Pasaporte, which means we don't actually have to do 24 events. So my life is my own again.

In the Mezquita Courtyard!

Friday: No class, and no excursion! After a blissful morning of sleeping in, we met Riva at the Teatro Real to buy student tickets for that night's performance of Le fille du regiment aka THE OPERA. That's right, kids, we spent Friday night at the MADRID OPERA. Student rush tickets are 90% off, so we got floor seats in ROW TWELVE for 20 euro!!! After buying tickets, we went to a special exhibition on the history of the Madrid Metro, which was held in a Metro station that was shut down about 50 years ago. A little creepy, maybe haunted (the metro still goes through, but it doesn't stop), but a very cool exhibit.

Mezquita time!

The show itself was actually awesome, like obviously very high quality, plus the show is really fun! It was basically a musical romantic comedy, like could have easily starred Ginger Rogers. We had a TOTAL blast, then grabbed dinner and cava at a little Italian place near Sol before grabbing a drink at Fontana de Oro, where there was a band playing 1970s American music--very fun.

Roman bridge in Cordoba!

Then, this morning, we and Riva caught the AVE to Cordoba! It was a great day trip; for one thing, the weather is WAY better in Andalucia than Madrid. Sunny and warm, while Madrid was cool and rainy today, so thank god we weren't around. It feels kind of like the older parts of Granada and Toledo, and the Mezquita is seriously awesome. In true Andalusian style, we did a big tapas lunch with tortilla, patatas moriscos, pisto con huevos, deep-fried eggplant with honey and balsamic vinegar, and thick slices of bread drenched in the most AMAZING olive oil I've had since being here. I didn't even crave butter!

After lunch, we wandered around the little cobblestone streets and did some shopping before catching the AVE back to Madrid, and we were home before 9!

Little Spain Lies

The title could have been "Little White Spain," but that seemed too pointed, even for me.

That cross is the tallest thing in Spain.

Anyway, it's actually been a pretty eventful weekend here in España. Friday was our final day trip with Ramiro of the semester (although we still have the weekend trip to Galicia coming up at the end of this month), so we spent the morning at the Prado talking about cubism, the surrealists, and civil war-era Spanish art in general, including a crash course on Guernica. Very interesting stuff, the time actually flew by (unlike our day talking about the Catholic Counterreformation aka the "How boring can we make this portrait?" school of art).

That afternoon, we drove out of Madrid up into the mountains to see the "Valle de los Caidos" (Valley of the Fallen), and I don't think any of us really knew what it was but were like "Wow, it's so pretty up here, smell that mountain air!" until we realized that "Valle de los Caidos" is actually "Valle de Franco" and is the monument he erected to himself to house his tomb once he died.


That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the Spanish government is still allotting tax money to fund the upkeep of FRANCO'S MONUMENT IN HONOR OF HIMSELF. We saw FRANCO'S TOMB on HALLOWEEN and let me tell you there were some fascists ghosts in that place, and we were NOT into it. It's very huge and creepy and Catholic and full of avenging angel sculptures and tapestries depicting the Apocalypse. It just reminded us all how very recent Franco's rule was and how real it still is to most of Spain. In fact, he still has a lot of supporters here, which makes me pretty ill.

That evening, we went to a little gallery for a Pasaporte Cultural event, which was just checking out this exhibition of sculpture and prints that took topographical depictions of rivers and mountains and translated them into abstract forms of shape and line. It was actually very cool, not at all a bad way to spend an hour. The artist's name is Maya Lin, and if you're interested, there's more info here.

That night we went out for Halloween, nothing super remarkable, except that Spaniards don't really do costumes so much as pick an outfit and add zombie makeup and fake blood. Some of them do choose costumes, like cheerleader or doctor or Princess Elsa, and then they add zombie makeup and fake blood. Made for an interesting night anyway.

Saturday, we went to Segovia with Riva and Alex. It's about a half-hour ride on the Ave, but you end up in this ancient city in the middle of the Spanish countryside that feels like a thousand miles from Madrid. The city's real claim to fame is its Roman aqueduct, but there's also a fairly impressive cathedral and a medieval castle. Also a lot of restaurants serving whole suckling pigs. We regrettably declined.

That night, we went with Hannah and Alex to a fairly fancy bar in Malasaña called The Passenger, which is done up on the inside to look like the inside of an old-fashioned train car, with music to match. One wall is lined with giant TV screens that play landscapes and cities and stuff rushing by at high-speed. A little nauseating if you think about it too hard, but if you concentrate on your-overpriced cocktail and leather armchair, it's not so bad. This morning, we and the girls went back to brunch at Carmencita--stunning as always--and then we and Riva spent the rest of the day at La Acuarela, that weird Viennese-style cafe we keep acknowledging as less than satisfactory and then keep going back to.