Madrid: City of Modern Art and Jamon

     First off I apologize to any avid reader of my blog (if I have any haha) for not posting in a while. I have been quite busy with lessons and class, so I will do a mass update/blog posts to make everyone happy. The end of October/beginning of November is a holiday here in Spain; what's called a puente (bridge). Since Spain is a Catholic country we get all Soul's Day off which is November 1st. And since the Spaniards love to party or have any excuse to have a day off work, they have 'created' this fabulous 'invention' called puente. They bridge the days off so instead of having to go to work on Monday and then having Tuesday off, they just give you Monday off as well... brilliant? I think yes!


   So since we had a 5 day weekend at the end of October, Cait and I went down to Madrid for a couple of days. We met up with some childhood friends of Cait who came in from Italy and the U.S. for a week to visit. It was definitely a wonderful visit and a much needed change of scenery, as we hadn't left Logrono since we arrived. We got in on Sunday and met up with said friends and walked around. We walked to the Palacio Real, but didn't go in (one palace is enough to see right??) since it was almost closing time. We did walk into the cathedral near the palace, which I have been told by several Spaniards is 'the ugliest cathedral in Spain'. I wouldn't call it ugly, but it certainly wasn't as breathtaking as the cathedral say in Sevilla. After walking around the city for most of the afternoon we were pretty exhausted so stopped for something to eat at Museo del Jamon. Now for a little 'Katie's a blonde' moment. I had been told by several people that I HAD to go see the Museo del Jamon and so was talking to Cait and Diane about what to do in Madrid. I mentioned that I wanted to go here right after Cait said she wanted to go to the Museo de Reina Sofia. Now mind you, the Museo del Jamon (unbeknownst to me) is not a museum at all. It is in fact a chain of restaurants. So I thought I was being all artsy and academic by suggesting we go to the Museo del Jamon, when really all I was getting at was that I wanted to eat large quantities of Jamon.


   And that is just what we did! While Museo del Jamon is not a real museum in the normal sense, it is a wonderful mecca of jamon! They serve everything with jamon, so we of course ordered two plates full of jamon and queso and chorizo and pan! After stuffing our faces, we left as happy campers. The next day we did indeed go to a real museum, the Reina Sofia. Guernica by Pablo Picasso is housed here and that was essentially all I really wanted to see. I am not a huge modern art fan, but do love museums and art and being a nerd in general, so the hour plus wait in line was worth it. That night was Halloween, but since this is not a special holiday in Spain we did not end up dressing up. There were people dressed up, but only as zombies or vampires or ghosts. Spaniards think that Halloween is only for dressing up as something scary or frightening, and use Carnival for dressing up however you please! We tried to go to a concert by El Guincho (if you haven't listened to him I highly suggest it... he's amazing!), but by the time we got there they weren't letting any more people in the door... bummer.


  The next morning Cait and I made one more stop before we hopped back on the bus up to Logrono... Starbucks! Yes that's right, we were extremely American and had to stop at Starbucks. But let me tell you that Chai Tea Latte was heaven and just what I needed and tasted like fall... ahhhh! It was a great trip, but it was definitely good to be back home where it wasn't so crowded or big or overwhelming (in my opinion). Madrid is a wonderful city and one I definitely want to go back to!

Palacio Real 

The 'ugliest' cathedral in Spain

Reina Sofia