Spain : Madrid and Segovia
So here I am on the last stretch of my trip. I arrived in Portugal one week ago, and in three weeks I will be flying across the Atlantic to the motherland. How time flies when you're having fun...err...trying to survive!
My route in Spain: Madrid--> Segovia--> Salamanca--> Barcelona--> Cadaques--> Girona --> Tarragona --> Detour to southern France (a week-long trip) --> Granada --> Sevilla --> Back to Madrid (long story) --> Trujillo --> Caceres --> Zafra --> Back to Madrid (another long story) --> Lisbon
One month (actually three weeks because of my French detour) in Spain was not enough. It is an incredible, vast, and beautiful country, full of geographical deliriums, lunar landscapes, and the world's worst food service. I stayed in hotels where the "reception desk" was also the bar, and the "receptionist" who took my money and gave me the huge wooden room key was a mean old man smoking a cigar and serving drinks to patrons. I am referring to the Hostal La Noria in Tarragona, in which the hotel rooms were accessible only by a staircase at the very back of this tiny, smoky, and dark restaurant full of old men eating alone. I am also referring to the Hostal La Cadena in Trujillo, in which I saw only one woman during my entire stay, and she was ancient and knitting and opened the door for me when I came in at 2 AM.
I also got to eat these amazing new things, the highlight of any trip abroad, of course. Things like paella, sangria, rioja wine, manchego cheese as well as a ton of other cheeses, tapas (croquettas and sepia a la plancha and gambas and tortillas were THE BEST), and gazpacho. I really love trying food abroad.
Highlights of Spain, which I've broken up into several entries for length's sake:
In Madrid, I stayed at my beloved Marina's apartment, which was full of other students from around the world. Polish, Peruvian, Austrian, Israeli, French, American...all of these nationalities living under one roof! I loved it. I imagine that is what I would like my apartment to be like in the future, minus the fights over food-stealing and the one bathroom for 8 people and the tendency of the hot water to run out at the most crucial point in the shower (hair washing). LOL. I was very lucky to be in Madrid for the Spanish football league championship match between Real Madrid (David Beckham's team) and Mallorca. We watched the match at a Guinness pub and when Madrid won, we took to the streets to celebrate, along with the entire city of Madrid, it seemed. So many people were parading down the streets, drinking and screaming and honking their horns and going insane, in all ways. We went down to the square where the soccer team was to appear and greet their ADORING fans, and when they got there, the guys we were with put me on their shoulders so I could catch a glimpse of the infamous David Beckham. It was from very far away, and I tried to zoom in with my camera, but it was not a great view. Still, it was a very fun night.
I also went to the Reina Sofia, one of the greatest art museums in the world. It has a superb collection of 20th century Spanish art. This museum houses Picasso's Guernica. I have seen this painting countless times in pictures, but I was really not prepared for the emotional crush that occurs when you stand before it. It is absolutely enormous, a monochromatic symphony of human anguish and suffering. I love art but I am rarely truly moved by an artwork, since we see them so often in textbooks and posters we become desensitized to the experience of viewing it, I think. But this work is just mindblowing, soul shaking. I really cannot describe it adequately, I think it is one of those things that must be seen in person to truly grasp.
My best advice for Madrid: do not take a metro from the airport to the city centre. It is ridiculously expensive. Take the metro from the airport to Nuevos Ministerios. There, several major metro lines connect, and the Madrid metro is efficient and easy to navigate. Also, Plaza de España and Plaza del Oriente are beautiful little elegant squares that you should definitely use for an afternoon nap on the lawn. AND best of all, most endearing of all to me, is this little cafe called Dublin, it is on Calle de la Princesa, just before the Ventura Rodriguez metro stop. It has the BEST croissants, which they put on the grill and cover in butter and marmalade, and the café con leche is exquisite. Best of all, it only costs 1, 50€ in total. Also best of all, it is always full of old, grumpy Spanish men smoking cigars, donning traditional hats, that are there complaining about their wives or playing cards. This is a hangout for the local oldies, and a great place to have a café.
So then, I took the bus to Segovia for a day trip from Madrid, and really enjoyed the architectural wonders of the place. But, maybe because I was only there for one day, I did not get to interact with any locals, just other tourists. I travel to meet locals, to talk to them and attempt to understand the ups and downs of their daily lives. It is the synthesis of topography, people, language, and culture that I seek when I travel. I figure I can view monuments in textbooks, so I don't travel to see monuments. I travel to meet people. Anyway, so it was a bit of a disappointment, until I noticed a man following me from site to site. After three stops, I turned around and confronted him about following me. He very sheepishly admitted that he HAD been following me, trying to keep a respectful distance, because he had been stupid and come to the city without a map and was entirely lost. Since I had a map and was apparently hitting all the major sites, he decided to follow me and had sincerely tried not to be creepy. All of this in French, because, as it turned out, he was French. I melted with pity for him, and invited him to join me for the day. We ended up visiting all these abandoned old buildings, like a very creepy medieval hospital overgrown with weeds, and having a great time. At the end of the day, he invited me to drive with him back to Madrid so I wouldn't have to take the bus. Feeling very comfortable and safe with him, I accepted, but only under the condition that we would take all the tiny country roads and not the major highway. He agreed, and I am still, a month later, eternally grateful that I got into that car with him. The landscape was absolutely precious, pregnant green mountains covered in clouds and little stone farmhouses dotting the fields, which are littered with these dazzling little yellow flowers that have captivated my heart. I swear it, the one thing I will remember most about Spain is those little yellow flowers.
So Segovia belongs to Benoit le Noir, the French dude, who is still my friend, and Madrid belongs to Jeremie, Jessica, Marina, and Borja. The first three are French people, and the last is a crazy guy from Madrid who told me I party like a Brazilian.
My route in Spain: Madrid--> Segovia--> Salamanca--> Barcelona--> Cadaques--> Girona --> Tarragona --> Detour to southern France (a week-long trip) --> Granada --> Sevilla --> Back to Madrid (long story) --> Trujillo --> Caceres --> Zafra --> Back to Madrid (another long story) --> Lisbon
One month (actually three weeks because of my French detour) in Spain was not enough. It is an incredible, vast, and beautiful country, full of geographical deliriums, lunar landscapes, and the world's worst food service. I stayed in hotels where the "reception desk" was also the bar, and the "receptionist" who took my money and gave me the huge wooden room key was a mean old man smoking a cigar and serving drinks to patrons. I am referring to the Hostal La Noria in Tarragona, in which the hotel rooms were accessible only by a staircase at the very back of this tiny, smoky, and dark restaurant full of old men eating alone. I am also referring to the Hostal La Cadena in Trujillo, in which I saw only one woman during my entire stay, and she was ancient and knitting and opened the door for me when I came in at 2 AM.
I also got to eat these amazing new things, the highlight of any trip abroad, of course. Things like paella, sangria, rioja wine, manchego cheese as well as a ton of other cheeses, tapas (croquettas and sepia a la plancha and gambas and tortillas were THE BEST), and gazpacho. I really love trying food abroad.
Highlights of Spain, which I've broken up into several entries for length's sake:
In Madrid, I stayed at my beloved Marina's apartment, which was full of other students from around the world. Polish, Peruvian, Austrian, Israeli, French, American...all of these nationalities living under one roof! I loved it. I imagine that is what I would like my apartment to be like in the future, minus the fights over food-stealing and the one bathroom for 8 people and the tendency of the hot water to run out at the most crucial point in the shower (hair washing). LOL. I was very lucky to be in Madrid for the Spanish football league championship match between Real Madrid (David Beckham's team) and Mallorca. We watched the match at a Guinness pub and when Madrid won, we took to the streets to celebrate, along with the entire city of Madrid, it seemed. So many people were parading down the streets, drinking and screaming and honking their horns and going insane, in all ways. We went down to the square where the soccer team was to appear and greet their ADORING fans, and when they got there, the guys we were with put me on their shoulders so I could catch a glimpse of the infamous David Beckham. It was from very far away, and I tried to zoom in with my camera, but it was not a great view. Still, it was a very fun night.
I also went to the Reina Sofia, one of the greatest art museums in the world. It has a superb collection of 20th century Spanish art. This museum houses Picasso's Guernica. I have seen this painting countless times in pictures, but I was really not prepared for the emotional crush that occurs when you stand before it. It is absolutely enormous, a monochromatic symphony of human anguish and suffering. I love art but I am rarely truly moved by an artwork, since we see them so often in textbooks and posters we become desensitized to the experience of viewing it, I think. But this work is just mindblowing, soul shaking. I really cannot describe it adequately, I think it is one of those things that must be seen in person to truly grasp.
My best advice for Madrid: do not take a metro from the airport to the city centre. It is ridiculously expensive. Take the metro from the airport to Nuevos Ministerios. There, several major metro lines connect, and the Madrid metro is efficient and easy to navigate. Also, Plaza de España and Plaza del Oriente are beautiful little elegant squares that you should definitely use for an afternoon nap on the lawn. AND best of all, most endearing of all to me, is this little cafe called Dublin, it is on Calle de la Princesa, just before the Ventura Rodriguez metro stop. It has the BEST croissants, which they put on the grill and cover in butter and marmalade, and the café con leche is exquisite. Best of all, it only costs 1, 50€ in total. Also best of all, it is always full of old, grumpy Spanish men smoking cigars, donning traditional hats, that are there complaining about their wives or playing cards. This is a hangout for the local oldies, and a great place to have a café.
So then, I took the bus to Segovia for a day trip from Madrid, and really enjoyed the architectural wonders of the place. But, maybe because I was only there for one day, I did not get to interact with any locals, just other tourists. I travel to meet locals, to talk to them and attempt to understand the ups and downs of their daily lives. It is the synthesis of topography, people, language, and culture that I seek when I travel. I figure I can view monuments in textbooks, so I don't travel to see monuments. I travel to meet people. Anyway, so it was a bit of a disappointment, until I noticed a man following me from site to site. After three stops, I turned around and confronted him about following me. He very sheepishly admitted that he HAD been following me, trying to keep a respectful distance, because he had been stupid and come to the city without a map and was entirely lost. Since I had a map and was apparently hitting all the major sites, he decided to follow me and had sincerely tried not to be creepy. All of this in French, because, as it turned out, he was French. I melted with pity for him, and invited him to join me for the day. We ended up visiting all these abandoned old buildings, like a very creepy medieval hospital overgrown with weeds, and having a great time. At the end of the day, he invited me to drive with him back to Madrid so I wouldn't have to take the bus. Feeling very comfortable and safe with him, I accepted, but only under the condition that we would take all the tiny country roads and not the major highway. He agreed, and I am still, a month later, eternally grateful that I got into that car with him. The landscape was absolutely precious, pregnant green mountains covered in clouds and little stone farmhouses dotting the fields, which are littered with these dazzling little yellow flowers that have captivated my heart. I swear it, the one thing I will remember most about Spain is those little yellow flowers.
So Segovia belongs to Benoit le Noir, the French dude, who is still my friend, and Madrid belongs to Jeremie, Jessica, Marina, and Borja. The first three are French people, and the last is a crazy guy from Madrid who told me I party like a Brazilian.