So... this past weekend I opted not to do any sort of major travels and stick around the Madrid/Alcala area, which turned out to be a good decision in retrospect. The weather elsewhere turned pretty sour, especially on Sunday, and a few friends had a hard time getting back from Salamanca because the highways were shut down for a while outside of Madrid. Apparently getting an inch of snow is enough for Madrileños to consider the city to be "collapsed". My friend Abram and I went there on Friday though and had perfect weather, we were even wearing t-shirts while we were walking around, something which hasn't happened much here yet.That day we walked around the city until we came to the Prado Museum, and then we busted out the cameras. Starting there and heading around the building, it was just one sight after another. There is a cathedral nearby that provided some good photo opportunities, as well as a local musician playing classical guitar who was really talented. We worked our way up the hill to revisit Parque del Retiro, where we spent most of our time that day. The sun was shining brightly, and provided some excellent lighting. Between the Prado, the church, and the park with it's lake and all it's statues, all in all I took 300 pictures that afternoon on my DSLR. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the more touristy area of Puerta del Sol, the main hub for all of Madrid's road systems, and the geographic center of the country.
On Saturday we took a train all the way from Alcala across the countryside to the mountains outside of Madrid, home of the Palacio de Escorial. Built by Philip II as part monastery, part palace, this enormous complex is situated on a hilltop overlooking Madrid and the surrounding area, though it is a good bit outside the city. We took the self-guided tour so we could take our time, and it took us a while to get through the whole thing. There were hallways and corridors leading every which way, it was like a big maze inside. We walked through the tapestries section first, then moved onto the part which demonstrated how it was constructed, which was pretty state-of-the-art at the time, using giant wooden cranes to hoist the cut stone into place. After that we saw the Hall of Battles, which was one enormous hallway with paintings from floor to ceiling on every wall demonstrating all of Spain's major military victories throughout the years. We also saw the ancient paintings sections, which were divided into the different periods and regionalities of the artists, which included Flemish, Italian, and Spanish painters' works. All of the artwork was religious in design, and there were some very dramatic and moving pieces in the collection. We saw paintings of Jesus being taken to Cavalry, being put up on the cross, hanging on the cross, dying on the cross, being taken down from the cross, etc. etc. After walking through all the various galleries there was no mistaking what Philip II thought of Jesus' crucifixion. The lower part of the monastery and the last part of the tour was the mausoleum, which was part amazing, part creepy. All of the tombs were very elaborately adorned, with all of the family crests hanging above each tomb. The most interesting part was where 60 children of the royal family were buried in one big tomb area, as all of them had died before they reached puberty, and could not be considered as successors to the throne. Kind of eery, but I guess that was just part of life back then.
We finished the tour after that and walked back out into the cold and rain, and were finally able to take some pictures for the first time of the whole tour. No pictures were allowed inside unfortunately, due to the religious nature of everything. Also very unfortunate was that we were not able to enter the basilica whatsoever, as it was under construction and renovation at the time. Totally lame! We didn't stick around much after that because it was really cold and really rainy, and not a very good day for taking pictures out in the elements. In fact, as we were watching the weather on the news the next day, they showed pictures of both of Abram and my weekend destinations, Parque del Retiro and Escorial, as part of their "it's snowing like crazy in Spain right now, EVERYONE PANIC!!" montage. Kind of a funny coincidence.
This past week I just had classes and not much else going on, since the weather has continued to be cold and rainy. We were making plans to go to Germany this weekend, but that fell through due to a scheduling mistake. We are still thinking about going next week, and are spending this weekend here in Alcala making plans for next week and other future travels to Ireland, France, Italy, and elsewhere.
I'll be out taking more pictures here soon if the weather ever lets up. It has been nothing but grey skies, cold, rain, ice-rain, hail-snow, and snow for the last few weeks. What a pain! Apparently this is an anomaly for this part of Spain at this time of year, no one can remember another year that had so much cold weather and so much precipitation for this long. Carlos and I have been joking that we brought the Colorado cold and snow with us, because reports from there are that in general it has been really nice, with some 60+ degree days and sunshine even. Send it over this way please!
Aside from that I am just practicing my ukulele a bunch, and I continue to improve my Spanish every day. I am still trying to get together with an 'intercambio' (conversation exchange) partner through the school, but it has been a real chore so far. This weekend I am going to be hanging out with some local friends Abram has made here, then attending a going-away party at my friend Caolan's apartment, and hopefully I'll be able to meet some more local Spanish students there as well. I really like the group of Americans I am here with and who I've met through school, but I also feel like I need to start expanding my circle of friends to include some native Spanish-speakers, since most of the Americans insist on speaking English when we're hanging out together. While I do appreciate how easy it is to speak a language fluently now after being challenged sometimes by having to speak Spanish, I feel like I'm here to learn Spanish more than anything else, so something needs to change.
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