Anyhow, we finally made it back to Spanish soil! It was so nice finally being able to understand the language being spoken around you again rather than hoping to stumble into someone who knows another language besides French.
By the way, the architecture in the Madrid-Barajas Airport is incredible. I think I may have posted that in one of my first blog posts, but my opinion has not changed; it's pretty sweet. It's also the world's 11th busiest airport (at least in 2009 it was). Thank you interwebs for the info.
When we pulled into the Atocha station on the airport bus, it was already raining at a pretty steady clip. Nonetheless, we forewent the taxi (we're Russian, after all) and trudged through the rain to our hostel (it actually wasn't way too far from the station). After checking in at No Name City Hostel (they had a Wild West kind of theme going on - somewhat strange for a hostel in Spain) and dropping our bags off in the room, we headed back out into the rain to do some preliminary exploring. It was definitely wet out there, but...
...newspaper guy don't care (honey badger don't either).
Motorcycles. Errywhere.
Umbrellae (that should be the plural, not umbrellas). Ty's looking all cute on the left, and I look like I just got Phineas-Gaged with an umbrella (except without an entry wound). Danielsan, would you agree? Anyhow, during our first walk through Madrid, we stumbled upon the Prado museum, which was having free entry that afternoon. We walked around in there until we were ushered out by a dozen docents (it wasn't actually a dozen; I just had an incredible urge to write that) and continued meandering through the streets.
Taxis.
Evening time.
The next day, Ty and I set out for a day packed with more museum visits. First, however, we had breakfast in the hostel (if you're ever booking hostels, make sure they have breakfast included - such a nice perk). After downing croissants with coffee, we were on our way. On our flight into Madrid, I had leafed through an inflight magazine (it was a really boring flight, okay?!) and found a page that had information about a graphic design exhibit in a Madrid museum. If you know me well, you know that I really love anything related to graphic design. So, after much begging, I convinced Ty to come along with me.
Some highlights from the exhibit. There was an abundance of awesome typography. I'm a sucker for typography.
After Taisa managed to pull me out of the museum, we walked around el Parque del Retiro (I think that's what they call it) for a while before grabbing lunch and hopping to another museum. Lunch was paella - the first time both of us had ever tried it - in a cozy little place not to far from the Reina Sofía, the next museum we were going to. The next few images are from there.
#artsyshot
A building right outside the museum.
The next day was our last in Madrid. We had made plans to meet up with Lauren, Michelle, Lane, and Cameron at the royal palace (they had come into Madrid the day before, I think) but wanted to wander through Plaza Mayor on the way there, which was conveniently right in between our hostel and the palace. According to the ever-so-knowledgeable Wikipedia, this plaza "has been the scene of multitudinous events: markets, bullfights, soccer games, public executions, etc." Betcha didn't know that. I didn't. Well except for the execution part, which José María taught us in Tres Culturas (our history class).
A Madrileñan (sorry for the Spanglish) street we passed on the way to the palace.
And there are our friends!
Exploring the palace. They didn't let you take pictures inside, so I was an obedient tourist and didn't (*cough cough* Lane :). But it wasn't way too interesting anyhow; just a bunch of overly-decorated rooms. The armory, however, was super cool. If only you got to pick a "souvenir" out of there to take home...
A building on the way back to our hostel. I like brick.
Finally, the time came for us to part with our friends and the Spanish capital as well. The last leg of our trip was a high-speed train ride (they call it the AVE) to Sevilla, so we packed our bags up and walked the opposite of the route we had walked two days earlier, but this time it was hailing. We quickly realized, however, that one gets a lot less wet walking in hail than walking in rain. Lucky us. When we got to the station, we spent a little time trying to figure out how to get our tickets (we eventually found a handy machine that spit them out for us) and then waited for our boarding time to arrive. Soon afterward we were on our way! One of the perks of taking the train is getting to seeing an ever-changing landscape as you go. It's getting late, so I'm just going to leave you with three of my favorite landscpaes from the ride.
Tsa luego!
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