Sunday, May 25, 2008

My alarm awoke me entirely too early this morning! We went down to breakfast around 7:30. There was a very wide array of food there. Apparently, most Spaniards drink wine and champagne with breakfast (which I opted not to do). I instead had some fruit, toast, and cereal. I also had some cheese eggs, but most like everything else here, things are just not cooked nearly as long. I did not get bacon or sausage (I like to try new things, but it really looked like it might still be bleeding).
The first outing of the day was to the Prado Museum. This Museum houses some very famous works. I was a little sad that we did not get to see the Goya exhibit though since it cost extra money and it had a very long line. Nonetheless, we saw some amazing works of art! It was so neat being able to see all the pieces that we had been studying about. We had a very short time in this museum since we still had to grab a very quick lunch before heading to the next museum.
A group of about 12 of us went to a small pub across the street from our hotel. Ordering was much harder than any of us had expected. We all just ended up getting hamburgers because is was the easiest thing that we knew we could order. After receiving our food, we not only noticed once again that things are not as well done but also that we did not know what type of meat was in a hamburger. I think we determined that it might have been ground ham. It was not the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted, but I ate it very quickly and happily because I was so hungry at this point!
We then headed to a museum called the Renia Sophia. I was most excited about viewing several works by Picasso and Salvador Dali (although the museum was so large I doubt we could have gotten to see half of the works). The paintings and sculptures were much more than I could have ever expected! Not only the colors, but also the sheer magnitude of some of the paintings were astronomical! One of the Picasso works, the Guernica, was probably about 25 feet wide, from floor to ceiling! I felt so cool now that I am able to say that I have been able to see such amazing things as Picasso paintings in person!
When we were ready to had back to the museum after dinner, we were greeted by something very unpleasant. It had been drizzling throughout the day, but when we got out of the museum, there was a torrential downpour! We ran as fast as we could through the rain, trying to get back to some shelter. We waited in the hotel for a short time while the rain let up.
Amanda and I decided to run some errands. We walked up to a large plaza about 15 minutes away ( up some very steep hills) to go get our 15 minutes of free internet from the tourism center. After a couple of quick emails, the hunt for phone cards and mascara began (my mascara somehow got lost between the second plane and the hotel L ). We found some very cheap phone cards (with the help of a random girl who spoke very good English and Spanish who was passing through the phone store). Unfortunately, the mascara did not have the same story. I finally found some, only to see that it was priced at 24 euros (about $38!!!!!!!) I knew things were expensive, but I thought that was too steep for my budget! I passed on that and have been using a little of Amanda’s until I find something a little cheaper.
We went back to the hotel to quickly shower before going to a Spanish Opera! We walked with the professors (about 30 minutes) to get to the concert hall. While we were waiting for the rest of the group, I jokingly asked one of our leaders if me and Amanda could have the best seats. The tickets were all in Spanish, but our leader let us pick out our tickets, so I quickly grabbed the tickets with the lowest numbers on them. Turns out that it was a great move!
We walked with the rest of our group up to the 6th level, only to find out that me and Amanda were sitting much closer! We proceeded to find out that we got tickets in a box just two levels up from the stage. The seats were amazing! While the rest of the group was sitting in stadium seats over twice the distance we were (with obstructed views) we had a great view. I felt just like pretty woman! There was another guy from our group with us, named Chris, and then an Older Spanish couple ( who got really into the opera). We found out later that while the rest of our group got 6 Euro tickets, ours were at a face value of 65 euros (over $100)! The show was sold out and people offered to buy tickets from us, but I am happy we kept those seats!
The opera was hard to understand with it being in all Spanish. However, after reading the program, I got the general gist of the plot. I still am very undecided about the opera. I think it is definitely something that you have to learn to appreciate. It was slow moving and very long, but it was an amazing experience!
I got in bed super early to try to catch up on sleep. Overall, it was such a different and great experience than anything else that I have ever done!