Madrid Part 2 (Sept. 24th to Sept 30th)

Friday Sept 24th:

 Today I assembled with the “Cal Poly in Valladolid” crew at the NH Hotel in the heart of Madrid; be it favorable or detrimental, I will no longer be alone for the rest of this trip. I’ve enjoyed my days of solitude, but after today I will be one of four males in a group of twenty-five Cal Poly students. Following some mathematic computations on my highly technical, scientific calculator, this sum of human bodies roughly equates to g=21 i.e. there are twenty-one college aged girls—which also equates to there being an overabundance of female estrogen and babbling gossip. But for the sake of my own safety, I digress.  

Jim is a professor of Geography at Cal Poly, and he will serve as our Cal Poly faculty leader for this week in Madrid. He is a complete goofball. Jim is that special breed of awkward, who will go the distance and say, after a long pause, something along the lines of, “sooooo… uh, hmmm, what should we talk about now?” For this, I can’t help but love the guy, but it feels like it’s going to be unbearable to not to give him at least one noogie, wedgie, or a big ol’ fashioned bear hug before the end of the week.

I also met Pablo, our tour guide for the week, a Spanish native who studied Philosophy in Madrid and now works as a professor and tour guide around Madrid and its neighboring towns. Pablo may be a relatively small, unmarried forty-some-odd-year-old Spaniard, but he continues to impress the hell out of me with his incredibly vast and in-depth knowledge of Spanish culture, geography, world history, all religions, and art history in regards to paintings, sculptures, and architecture. Also, he speaks Latin, French, Spanish, and English with a British accent. He would have been the greatest addition to my trivia team in high school! Initially, I was considering spending the week in Madrid by myself so that I could explore more on my own and further practice Spanish with random Spaniards, but after meeting Pablo, I know that I am committed to the entire week of upcoming activities.

I also met my roommate for the week, and go figure his name is Kevin, just like my roommate in San Luis Obispo. I have a great first impression of my temporary roommate—he is friendly, a history major, and also has a girlfriend, so at least I have a companion who also has to be on his best behavior. As for the other two boys (other Nick and Jackson), I really don’t know at this point, I have shared just a few brief introductory words with them, but the week is still young.

Saturday, Sept 25th:

Today was our first excursion together. At 9:30 am, I boarded a bus full of chattering college girls, who are all still trying to make their best first impressions amongst each other, while the severely outnumbered boys try to keep their guards up against a towering invasion of feminine beauty products. No, it’s really not that bad at all; almost all of the girls are incredibly welcoming, and they all seem to have good heads on their shoulders. Though I won’t name names, I would prefer it if a few of these girls would kindly discontinue inhabiting the same hemisphere as me, but I say that with all do respect, and bless their little hearts. The only problem is that they all speak English amongst each other, and when you’re in Spain to learn Spanish, you at least try to speak Spanish. I decided that eventually I was going to have to do something about this.

Cathedral in Toledo

I just caught wind of this urgent newsbreak: I’m pleased to inform you all that Francisco Franco is still dead.

View of part of the city and the military fortress. You can tell that this was a great area for a capital city because it has hills and a river all around it, which made it tough for intruders to reach it.

As the day went on in beautiful Toledo, which was the first capital of Spain before it changed to Madrid in 1561 (thanks Pablo), I made what will become my most critical move for this trip in Europe, I conversed with and soon befriended other Nick. As it turns out, Nick is the man. He is silly, funny, has a girlfriend, is borderline gay, and has uncanny good looks; so basically we are the same person—minus the good looks and charm that he carries ever so gallantly (but notice the borderline gay is still lurking inconspicuously).

Spain has an interesting history. At one point, it was ruled by Muslims, and slowly over time, Catholics regained their country. This building looks exactly like an islamic mosque because of the use of bricks and the key-hole shaped arches, but it is actually a Catholic church built by Muslims under Catholic rule in the 11th Century. Toledo was once a coexistance of Jews, Muslims, and Catholics until the Catholics did their famous "convert or get the hell out of here" campaign.

El Greco also called Toledo home. We got to see his masterpiece in a small church in the town. It is roughly 16 ft. tall and has never been moved, which means that El Greco painted it where it stands today!

Sunday Sept. 26th: 

A free day

I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Museum with potential new friend Nick, Avery, and Kristen. The collection of paintings span eight centuries, and does a great job of highlighting an array of different types of paintings including 14th and 15th century Italian, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionist, Expressionist, Surrealist, and Cubist. After spending the day with Nick, the “potential” was dropped from his title and replaced with an “awesome.”  After today, I know that adventuring with him won’t have the downside that I was expecting to have when traveling with other Cal Poly students because he also wants to practice Spanish, so we are able to improve together.

And he's a fabulous dancer!

 Monday, Sept. 26th:

 We spent the morning hours in the Museum of Modern Art Reina Sofia, which showcases some of the most impressive art in the world from the 20th Century. Most of the museum is dedicated to Spanish artists, and hosts huge collections of the two greats: Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. It also happens to have my favorite painting in the whole world, Picasso's Guernica. Other notable artists are Joan Miró, Juan Gris, Francis Bacon, Man Ray, and many more. 

Like most afternoons, I went to Parque de Buen Retiro for a little while, but this time was by far the best. I went with Nick, Kevin, Jackson, and Brandy and we saw the sights, napped under a shady tree, and then us boys went off and fought a bunch of children. We found an impressive playground filled with awesome kids that just wanted someone to beat the crap out of—that someone became me and Jackson. For some reason we were targeted by this roughly six year old boy for about 15 minutes of torture.

 As we were leaving, the cutest seven year old Spanish girl, dressed in her Catholic school uniform, asked me, “¿Vas a volver mañana al mismo tiempo?” (Are you going to come back tomorrow at the same time?). My heart sank! I never thought that I would get a date with a girl in Spain. 

From left: Jackson, Kevin, Nicogrande, Nicotito

If the birds can live in peace together, why can't we?

 Depiction of the Turtle Family

This is my friend Wilbur. He is a little camera shy, but after giving him some turtle treats, he gladly posed for me.

Awesome Playground

The Spanish Beating

The time was 5:30 pm then, and I know that I won’t be able to make it for my playdate tomorrow because the group is heading north to El Escorial for the day. I feel awful about it. The only thing that could make me feel better is to make some new super cool awesome little kid friends, but it’s late now and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

Tuesday, Sept 27th: 

El Escorial amazed me. It is a catholic monastary and residence of the king of Spain starting in the sixteenth century under King Philip II, who used his unexhaustable supply of gold from the New World to build this giant mammoth beast. But what amazed me even more was that we were able to make super cool awesome little kid friends outside of the main entrance.

This is my contribution to Great Sideburns of the World Quarterly

Kevin posing in front of El Escorial

Who can find the gold ball in this picture?

And you better believe we made some super cool awesome little kid friends! This is us playing the classic jump rope game "Helicopter" where you have to duck under the rope when he says "Arriba" and jump over it when he says "Abajo"

Wednesday, Sept 28th: 

Do notice that this car is a "Smart" car. OHHHHHHH THE IRONY!!!!

The whole group walked to the Prado museum because all of Spain was having a giant huelga (strike), so the subway and bus systems were closed for the day. You could find 29-S (which stood for the 29^th of September, the day of the strike) spray painted throughout the entire city. 

The Prado is one of the greatest musuems in the entire world, and hosts European art from the 12th to 19th Century, and it is based on the former Spanish Royal collection. My favorite painters were definitely Goya and Velázquez; if you haven't seen any of their stuff, look it up, but it also helped to have Pablo's in depth explanations of what made each painting so incredible and historically significant.

That afternoon after lunch, Nick and I returned to the Prado to see the rest of the works that the group was not able to get to due to time restraints. 

Classical guitar player in front of the Prado

Eighteen members of the group + Jim went to a flamenco concert for our last evening in Madrid. I made a bittersweet decision and sat next to Jim during the concert. On one hand, I had the pleasure to converse with a really friendly and sweet guy before the concert began. But on the much more important and soon to be twisted hand, once the concert began, Jim leaned over to me every five minutes to utter an array of meaningless babble such as, “Oh man, that woman looks like a man,” or “I wonder if I can order a coke from that waiter. Well I don’t want to be the only one. If I order a coke, would you want to order something too? On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t, that would be my third of the day. I can’t have too much caffeine—wife’s orders,” and without fail, during every song he managed to prop his face next to my burdened ear and declare pointlessly,  “Wow they sound just like the Gipsy Kings,” which they absolutely did not. In Jim’s eyes, if there are Spanish lyrics and classical guitars being played, then it sounds like the Gipsy Kings. “Damn it Jim, will you point your jaws over to some other poor soul, or just shut your god-forsaken face,” I hummed gently in my heart, while looking over to Jim, mindlessly nodding in approval. I still love him though.

This is not a picture of Nick. He is just a decoy for my picture of this group of ACTUAL ITALIAN MOBSTERS from Manhattan. I felt like I was in the middle of a scene from Goodfellas.

Thursday, Sept. 30^th: 

A little bit later this morning, I will arrive in Valladolid to meet my familia for the next three months; I will soon have a madre named Carmen and a padre named Pepe. One side of me is a bit nervous, but the rest of me is proud that I was able to control myself and not give Jim at least one good swirly in one of the hotel’s many toilets or bidets, nor did I tape a single “Kick Me” sign to his back.

There was one real disappointment this morning; the entire group hated bidding farewell to our dear Pablo, our tour guide extraordinaire for the past six days. But rest assured, he gave us his contact information in case we ever need him for anything. I’ll check back in ASAP—until then…

PABLO!!!!!!