Discovering Madrid

At this point of our semester most of us were getting pretty exhausted. With only 3 weeks left of school, we had a lot of school projects and exams. I knew I could not leave Spain having not been to Madrid. Lindsey, Martha and I took a bus from Granada that was 5 hours long Friday morning. Upon arriving we found our hostal close to the street called Gran Via. This is the equivalent of our main streets and there is a street called gran via in every city. Our hostal had three beds with a shower in our room but no toilet. It was the weirdest set up, but the best we could find for the weekend. After getting settled we headed out to see the Plaza de Espana and the Palacio Real de Madrid. The Palacio Real was beautiful and supposed to be Spain's equivalent of Versailles in France. The Palacio Real was created by a Spanish King that grew up in Versailles and wanted to make palace bigger and better then Versailles. I personally still like Versailles in France better.
The next day I separated from the group and went to Segovia for a day by myself. I knew if I didn't go there I would regret it. Segovia has one of the two castles that Walt Disney modeled the Disney World Castle off of. I went all over the city and saw the roman aqueducts, a beautiful cathedral, and of course the castle. It was a great day. On my little trip out there it was amazing to see the difference in the landscape from central Spain from the south. Everything was much greener and it seemed there were actual established suburbs of Madrid. Granada is definitely smaller and a whole other world in Spain compared to the other cities.
Saturday night we went to the Reina Sofia and saw Picasso's Guernica. It was awesome to see that in person because we learned all about it in my art history class. After we went for dinner at a place that offered wine, bread, salad, entree, and dessert all for 12 Euros. I had the best fish I have ever had there. That night we met up with some of Lindsey's family friends where they showed us the night life of the city. By the time that was done, around 4 am, I was exhausted.
Sunday before we left we took a stroll through the parque retiro and saw the Pardo museum. All in all the weekend was great and jam packed.