It was part of a school exchange program thing, so we were staying with host families for a few days to make it less expensive. We landed in Madrid on the 15th and dropped our stuff off at a hostel. Then we went to see a bull fight, which is a gigantic misnomer because the bull doesn’t stand a chance; they tire, anger, and confuse it until the matador finally plunges a dagger into the back of it’s neck and blood comes out of it’s nose like a super soaker. Not really an experience I want to repeat, but I’m glad I saw it once.
We visited the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and saw Guernica (which was awesome) and some other works by Picasso, Dalí, and Miró, the latter I found to be a little annoying. It was like he just stopped caring and he had a whole bunch of art due to the museum the next day so he made a bunch of dots. One in particular, the fantastic Without Title consisting of 13 black dotes on a white background, for some reason had a crowd of people gathered around it nodding like pretensions yuppies. The art guards wouldn’t let me finish it by connecting the dots though (what a miserable job that must be).
Later in Madrid we visited the beautiful Parque del Beun Retiro and I rented a boat and rowed around he pound for a while. I ate diner in the Plaza Mayor and visited the royal palace, which is just ridiculously over decorated. It must be really annoying sitting down for supper at a 20 meter table and eating with gold utensils. Then we checked out some Catholic cathedrals. I may not know much about God but those people sure know how to build a pretty nice cage for him. There’s just something powerful about standing in the middle of a huge thousand year old building with a completely hand carved interior decked out with gold.
There were more panhandlers and hobos in the streets than pidgins, with tactics ranging from good quality musical performances, to selling shoddy products, to ambushing you with a horrible smell and blowing smoke in your face screaming “Quiero vivir!”. It was a little depressing, and the people were really rude, but they were nice to my money so it kind of balanced out.
Madrid had some of the craziest traffic I had ever seen; (until later when I went to Barcelona) everyone drives these tiny red cars or a motorcycle, traffic signs mean nothing to them and no one stops for pedestrians, the traffic police are non existent or invisible. People drive on the sidewalks, and alleyways that can’t possibly be meant for vehicles. I almost died dozens of times.
We left on a train for the city of Lleida in Catalonia to stay with our host families. The people there were really nice and welcoming despite the language barrier. We toured the city the next day, there was an old stone hospital and a crusader fort, and at the center of the city there’s an old cathedral that was converted into a fort in the 18th century. We climbed to the top (232 steps) and got a great view of the surrounding countryside, and I was told that on a clear day the Pyrenees were visible.
The next day we took a two hour bus ride to the Pyrenees along these narrow dangerous roads at the side of steep cliffs at 60 mph on a one lane, two-way road. We somehow managed to arrive at the base camp alive and proceeded to hike 12 miles along a mountain valley following a river until we arrived at the coolest waterfall ever, were we ate a traditional Catalonian lunch. That night the whole group stayed in a tiny hostel in the Pyrenees, which turned into a giant sleepless mess thanks to some teenage Spanish boys with a tragic misconception of the demeanor of American girls. The next day we did some more hiking and then returned to Lleida.
We took a day trip to Toledo, an ancient Punic Wars era city, which for some time was the site of three way religious harmony but has now been turned into a massive tourist trap. Every other building there is a sword shop, and they all sell the same exact selection of swords. When we finished the tour, the guides brought us to a bigger sword shop and gave us a tour, and in one room a guy was standing in front of a furnace pounding on steel. We were led to believe that the swords for sale in the room upstairs were all made right there in the basement, except they were the same exact kind as in the rest of the city, just more expensive.
I suppose I should mention the smell, because that was one of the most memorable parts of the visit. We went to five different cities, now you expect cities to smell, but this was beyond belief. With normal smells, it smells for a while and then you get used to it. However, in Spain, there was a constant barrage of a pantheon of offensive smells, rather than getting used to the stink, which is the normal coarse of action, new smells would come along before I could get acclimated so I was constantly suffering at the claws of some horrible, unidentified, offensive odor.
Our next excursion was a day trip to Barcelona, the largest city in Catalonia, and the site of Antonio Gaudí’s best work. We visited the Sagrada Família, a huge modernist cathedral that has been under construction since 1882. When Gaudí died, the work continued but they were unable to mimic Gaudî’s style, so the building has evolved into two distinct parts, the sand castle like spires of Gaudí and the more mundane parts. Later that day we went to Park Güel, which was far too full of tourists to be interesting. It kind of killed the point of going to a park to not be able to enjoy any o the scenery, but we did get to sit on the bench.
The last day in Spain we went to the old Roman city of Tarragona. There is an old Roman wall and an amphitheatre, clearly visible from Google Earth. The city was more or less unremarkable, pretty much what you expect to see from Roman ruins. The various layers of the wall, Roman, Medieval, etc. conveyed a real sense of the history of the region. After that we went a few km east to Salou and the beach for a relaxing afternoon.
We went back through Amsterdam (we didn’t leave the airport) and then arrived back in the good old USA on May 1st. It was the first time I’ve ever left the states, and I’ll never forget it. I had two weeks of homework and projects to do so that’s why I’m only re-Hatracking now, but I’m sure I’ll be welcomed right back.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Hi! Welcome back! Glad you enjoyed the trip! I would love to visit Spain! Some of the things you describe sound a lot like Guatemala city. So maybe Guatemala is Spain on a budget.
I love the Spanish language, and Spanish (or at least Spanish-American) culture. You are lucky you got to go!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:The city was more or less unremarkable, pretty much what you expect to see from Roman ruins.
Which is why Greece is far superior
Welcome back! I'm glad you had such a great and memorable experience, and I'm even more glad you got to see a bunch of the ancient ruins in Spain, you lucky dog you. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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Huh. I was in Spain back in May '00 and don't remember either Madrid nor Barcelona as being stinky. Maybe there was more rain that year?
(I had better luck than you with Park Güel, we went a bit before dusk and it wasn't crowded at all, VERY lovely, I love Gaudí.)
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Cool, I've always wanted to go to Spain, especially Barcelona. My friend's going this summer and I'm really jealous. I stayed with host families in Mexico, it was really the best way to meet a new country and culture. I think I'll always like Mexico more than Spain, just cause it feels more like home, but I still want to visit Spain. Even though they talk funny. But I'll get over that.
Posts: 464 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I spent a good afternoon at the official Miro museum when I lived in Barcelona last summer.
You get to know him more at his own diggs, since he designed the place, and some of his works seem more interesting than others.
There is one triplet set of panels with nothing but a line drawn across each one. His personal account of this work said that it was done in 30 seconds, but that his reasoning of the peice took 3 weeks of contemplation. Still there are some more legitimate seeming works there.
If you go to Barcelona it is also worthwile to make a day trip to Cadaques, (and absolutely mind blowingly quant and beatiful harbor village in north catalonia). On the way there is the official Dali museum, which is also very interesting because it was designed also by the artist.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Still there are some more legitimate seeming works there.
