¡Madrid! y Toledo y Segovia

Woo so this weekend's excursion was overall a really good one. I'll do this as chronologically as possible...

Actually, first I have to start before the weekend, because we did stuff I haven't talked about yet (o fun)

The mountain biking. on Wednesday. Oh my god, it started with the steepest uphill riding I have ever done in my life...like I have never even done anything remotely like that...I was heaving and rocking my body forward after like the 2nd minute, terrified because I hadn't realized what I had gotten myself into when we insisted on "medium" difficulty instead of "easy". But it got better. our guide told us the beginning was the hardest and he was right. Riding uphill on rocky terrain was pretty difficult..I realized I had never legitimately gone mountain biking before. But it made the paved sections that much sweeter, and the downhill absolute heaven (minus some close calls with large rock encounters). The views were gorgeous, as to be expected. Our guide was awesome and took pictures of us sweating and spitting the whole way, sweet guy. He even took one of himself, hahaha, hilarious. We got ice cream afterwards as pats on the back.

Then....Madrid! Thursday we rode to Toledo, which was the former capital of Spain. On the way we stopped on the route of Don Quijote for a lookout point.

In Toledo, we visited the richest cathedral in the country (insane) and wandered through the streets. It was a very calm, very cute city...what I picture when I think of old Spain. It is also known for its swords. Saturday we went to Segovia, and it was of a similar breed...older, calmer, beautiful little stone streets and plazas. Segovia has one of the best maintained aqueducts in the world, and it was cool to see it so huge and ancient and intact. We also went to the Alcazar (castle) of Segovia and climbed to the top. Segovia sort of looks like a fairytale.

la catedral de Toledo

Alcazar de Segovia

from the top of Alcazar

Segovia's aqueduct

catedral en Segovia

aqueduct
catedral from a distance
outdoor almuerzo

This is a long entry. Pictures & descriptions together! Geez. Anyway, obviously, we spent the majority of our weekend in MADRID.

To be honest, I loved all of the monuments we saw, but everything felt somewhat rushed. Our free time was a bit limited, the night life was a bit confusing, and I didn't really love the city until Sarah and I took a random walk Sunday morning.

We visited the museo Reina Sofia (saw Picasso's "Guernica", lots of Dali), El Prado (saw Goya, Velazquez, and Rob Schneider which was weird. He's very small in person), el Palacio Real (where the royal family lived until Franco, absolutely gorgeous), Valle de los Caidos (the monument Franco built for his own burial), etc. All of that good stuff, and really, it is incredible stuff. My mind was sufficiently blown.

Franco's grave. Built into the side of a mountain. We couldn't take any photos inside, but it was like walking into an enormous harrypotter-esque religious cave tunnel, with dim lighting, huge black statues peering down at you, enormous tapestries lining the walls, and hallways to small chapels, all surrounding a gated, bloody Jesus Christ. And Spain's dictator buried underground.

Taking in fresh air

do I even have to label this?

For my birthday we all went out and it was fun overall, but we were all so surprised by how early this HUGE city seemed to shut down. Cafes seemed closed by 1, bars empty by 2, clubs costing 20 euro to enter were bumping but my brain wouldn't even let me consider paying up that amount. The streets were pretty at night, minus the uncomfortably high amount of prostitutes meandering about. We ended up at a dance club and I had fun, but we encountered the same problem the rest of our nights. Where does everybody go?! Why is everything closed so early?? Madrid?

Jorge (our director) did surprise us with an incredible treat on Saturday night--tickets to the theater. We saw El Ballet Nacional de Espana..... it was incredible. Absolutely fantastic show, and I never use the word fantastic simply because I think it's weird. But it was like a mixture of classic ballet and flamenco dance, almost more so flamenco. The first act was a dance representation of Garcia Lorca's "Bodas de Sangre"...really inventive and I felt strangely proud that I knew what was going on without ever reading the play. The rest was just a series of differently stylized dances. It was just a really great show.

Phew I'm exhausted. I wrote this entry forever ago and realized I never finished it so now it's Sunday oct 4 and I have to finish it. Sunday morning Sarah and I woke up semi early and wandered around the city. We found the big park (Parque del Buen Retiro) and it was BEAUTIFUL!! Comparable to Central Park....maybe better....I loved it. It totally enhanced my overall perception of Madrid and living in a city that size.

I think that's everything I'm too tired to think about it. Adios!!!