Madrid is the most purely cultural place we have been in Europe, the most untouched by American influences (though they are still heavily influenced by America, cue "Burger King Tapa's menu"). Already got the hang of the kiss kiss for hello and goodbye's. The Spanish really are very touchy with each other, hugging and kissing all over, and they're infectiously cheerful. We saw the giant dome bull fighting stadium, still controversially in use today. We walked through Madrid's glorious parks like Barcelona, with small churches, monuments, grand palaces and an ancient runes sight. The gastronomy and shopping here is absolutely insane. A huge shopping area has stores from around the world, at all budget levels, with coloured canopies over the streets to keep the shoppers happy. It feels like being in a mini New York waltzing down these streets.
We found a cute local market built in the middle of the city with glass walls surrounding its many stalls of fresh tapa's and drinks. One euro each got us a diversity of octopus, squid, fish, and cold cut treats. Sunday here is not the day of rest, the day the city shuts down like in other European countries, but the day of action and fun. All the streets are overflowing with people meeting up in local bars and restaurants, surrounding the central Plaza Mayor in the middle of the Old Town. The little places are so close together that you can hear the laughter and conversation through the walls. It felt like a celebration, but it was just a regular Sunday. At night we headed for a bar marked on the map, but stumbled upon a big Music Festival! Loads of stalls set up for food and alcohol, and tables and chairs filled up the streets. One end had a stage where Latin performers sang and danced, encouraging the young and old in the audience to salsa to the pounding beats. We met a group of Spanish guys who spoke varying levels of English, and joined up with them for the night where we drank, teased, and learnt more salsa moves than we could ever remember. The last night we went out we went to Madrid's big music festival that took up all the blocks surrounding downtown! Every street corner had new music, new lights, new themes, and new drinks and food. We bounced from place to place with a girl from our hostel, dancing like crazy people or salsa dancing (which sometimes determined whether we blended into the dancing crowd, or stood out as the only ones dancing). There was a live concert with some Spanish band we watched for a bit as well, but it was just incredible to see what looked like half the city out dancing and having a good time, from young kids to the elderly! Spain definitely knows how to have fun by just letting loose and making friends with everyone around you.
We went to quite a few museums in Madrid because a lot were actually free in the evenings. Museo Reina Sofia was a spectacular contemporary art museum that had to be divided into two large buildings surrounding a green courtyard, one of the largest contemporary art museums in the world. We were awed by Dali's collection of wierd and bizarre masterpieces, which he describes as his every Freudian thought and image drawn onto a blank slate, with no inhibitions. Museo del Prada was a collection of numerous old masterpieces, mainly from Spanish artists. They were similar to most of the other generic portrait museums I found, painting wealthy or religious figures, though some caught my eye. We got a great New Europe tour around the older and main areas of the town, and I'm sure heard Spain's entire monarchy and dictatorship history, and got to see the oldest restaurant in the world. Another museum we did was the beautiful, nautical collection of beach and garden paintings by Sorolla, held in his former home, with a gorgeous wild garden surrounding it. We also saw the Naval Museum, which suprisingly kept my interest, bringing back fond memories of my Papa and his model ships at the cottage. They were Papa's pride and joy, and we always got in trouble for using it as a Polly Pocket pirate ship or finger battle arena. And Josh, I saw the oldest cartographic map depicting America...I don't think I quite appreciated it like you would have. We picked up a cute young army soldier in there who turned into our own private audio guide. He took us afterward to this secret patio cafe on the top of a fancy shopping center we would've missed, that had the highest view of the city.
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