so we got up and walked to Plaza Mayor.
We could see that they had christmas lights up but not on, which made me excited to see them lit at night. Walked around the plaza, saw the statue, and the christmas market and kept walking to go to another plaza.
On the way saw el Museo de Jamon (the Ham Museum) which alison had talked about eating at, so we stopped there to get something to eat. Cheap and wonderful. Walls of ham and whatnot. We stood at the counter and for a single euro i had a delicious ham and cheese croissant. mmm, i'd eat more of those.
We saw Puerto de Sol. Had our picture taken by the Bear and Tree statue (symbol of madrid), and kept on walking down the road.
We kept seeing groups of people with flags and then down the road a huge gathering of people. We walked into some sort of protest, which was interesting.
Trying to get ourselves out of the protest was harder than walking into it. But we decided to alter our plan and go to El Prado (art museum) even though it wasn't free at that time due to the MASSES of people everywhere shooting off fireworks and marching and whatnot.
Wonderful art museum. Although apparently i'm too old to be a student. That made me angry.
So many good pieces by people that i've learned about. That's what was great. I was able to see in person many pieces that i've studied. Awesome. I definitely had the map out with me ensuring i went to all of the rooms to see all of the highlighted pieces. Lots to see. including Guernica and Las Meinas.
From that museum we walked across the street and through the Botanical Gardens. Here i was a student and happily paid my 1 euro entrance. I'm sure it would be exceptionally amazing in spring and summer in full bloom, but it was nice to walk through anyway. There was a photography exhibit about the native peoples of columbia and their natural environment that had some beautiful photos.
We then made our way to Museo Reina Sofia (modern art museum), which was free for the afternoon.
Bought 2 pairs of 1 euro each earrings from a south american man outside the museum. A huge modern art museum. With many dali paintings, which made me super happy. And a room +more of Miro. also lots of things that i don't think i understood at all, but that's cool. Came out into the midst of a different- climate change- protest. Lots going on that day in madrid, apparently.
went to a corner-ish cafeteria for food before heading home. We had tortilla and coca-colas (yay glass bottles of coke). Mmm tortilla. It's possible that the last time i actually had tortilla (of the very few) was as an undergrad with the one teacher that i had from spain. he was a bit nuts, i do remember that; but he brought tortilla for us once...
Did some reading back at the hostel because we had decided to go to the flamenco show that evening which wasn't until later. It was right down the block from the hostel. Unfortunately for us, though, it was also 31 euro. So we vetoed that. Used the internet at the hostel to look up other options, but i couldn't really get Amber on board.
We ended up walking back through Plaza Mayor (unfortunately soon after we arrived the christmas lights went out) among all the people in madrid wearing festive hats and wigs. This apparently is the cool thing to do. We ended up at St Somebody or another's market. A bustling place, there was lots of food and drinks to attempt to get. Amber had some seafood tapas. I had a glass of delicious sangria and a yummy crepe.
after that we headed back and tried to get some sleep before crazy came back. which indeed worked for awhile, but then she was crazy again. she went to sleep after her friends left her, but then awoke. was crazy enough for us all again to be up and when the scandinavian dude came back the french girls told him and he got the hostel guy who threatened to "make the check out right now" if she continued being crazy. this meant her friends were pissed but actually attempted to attend to her as to not get forced out.
so again, we overslept, which again was fine.
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