Post #2 of today: museums, burgers, Sol, y sangria

Loyal readers,

Surprise!  Guess what.  You get to enjoy two fascinating posts from me today!  Be excited!  :)

This afternoon I went on tours of the Prado and Thyssen art museums.  There was a bit of a problem getting to the Prado on time, mostly because we had trouble locating it after getting off the metro… what city doesn’t have any signs pointing to one of the greatest art museums in the world?!  Sometimes Madrid frustrates me, especially with the lack of appropriate signage.  Regardless, several fellow pedestrians were kind enough to point us in the correct direction, and we made it eventually.  However, the tours were less than satisfying.  Our guide was a professor from SLU, and she didn’t speak any English.  Normally this would have been a “fun” challenge, but I was actually hoping to easily learn something today.  I think I would have appreciated a tour in Spanish more if I had already learned about the museum in English.  Regardless, we made it through, and I learned a little.  I know I will return to both museums with my art history class though, so I’m not too concerned.

After leaving the Thyssen, we made our way to Sol and returned to Dubliners for some much needed sustenance.  It was only about 6 or 6:30, so we started with two appetizers (nachos and chicken fingers), and we totally devoured those.  When we told our waiter we were ready to order dinner, he was shocked, asking, “you want more food?!”  All I could do was laugh and wonder at the huge difference between here and home.  We ordered sandwiches and burgers, which were immensely satisfying.  Once we got over the initial craze of food, we had a leisurely dinner (even though it wasn’t dinner time here… we needed a little “American” time), and simply enjoyed the atmosphere and good company.  We then met up with some other friends in the plaza and walked around, watching the general happenings of the city.  During this time we witnessed all of the following: highly talented rollerblading people performing awesome tricks (some of them were so graceful we thought they must be figure skaters); several men in the midst of a robbery of a department store (I guess the police caught one guy, the rest escaped—weird sighting); a man making giant soap bubbles; people dressed in character suits of Mickey and Minnie; and a wonderful little mariachi band.  Madrid is a vibrant city.  :)  Strolling along the streets, we finally found a tapas restaurant, and it is only a few doors down from a Starbucks!  (I was very excited to find such a wonderful landmark!)  At this restaurant, Cañas y Tapas, our friends had a bite to eat and we all enjoyed sangria—this was my first time drinking sangria, and I enjoyed it a lot.  This particular sangria was pretty carbonated though, so I’ll have to try different versions to see which I prefer.  Chilling at the restaurant was the perfect way to end my first Friday in España.  It’s hard to believe that I haven’t even been here a week yet.  I’ve learned a lot, but still have a long way to go.

Tomorrow is my trip Segovia, so I need to get some sleep!

Adios y hasta mañana!

Elizabeth

P.S. You also get to enjoy some lovely pictures today!  As we go along on this blogging journey, I'll try to be more advanced :)

El Prado

The plaza at Sol

Sangria with my friend Victoria