Madrid. To get to Madrid, we took a night train from Paris on a Thursday night to arrive the following morning. Here’s comes the best part: it was a sleeper train, so we had our own beds. It was like Harry Potter…if they slept on..the..Hogwarts..Express. Never mind, not exactly the same thing. Just imagine if Harry, Hermione, and Ron were to actually sleep instead of getting into altercations with Malfoy, flying cars, etc.
Bar none, the best part of Madrid (and all of Spain) was the food. It was delicious AND cheap. I’m talking a 2-course meal with bread, wine, and dessert for 10€. That would cost upwards of 25€ in Paris. That night we went to a tapas bar where for 2€ each bought as a beer and free tapas. FREE. I didn’t even know that word existed in Europe. Let me just say, I now looooove tapas. Appetizers as a meal? Spain knows me too well. If you go to Spain get croquettes. They look like little fried balls of goo, but man is that some good goo. Note: they’re actually fried balls of ham and cheese (and maybe fish).
Overall, Madrid was pleasant enough. I would probably not go back again, but it was a very nice city. It was very nice to finally see buildings that are different colors. The French are not very fond of colored buildings. They like their stonewashed ones just fine, apparently.
Segovia. On Saturday, I spent a very enjoy half-day in a small town called Segovia. It’s about an hour north of Madrid. One of the highlights of Segovia is the gigantic Roman aqueduct that runs throughout the town. It’s very surreal to see a monument that old—one that is still intact, nonetheless. A friend at school told me that until just very recently, the entire structure was held together without cement. Interesting fact: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella resided in Segovia. Who knew. Certainly not me. Segovia is a charming city. It was good to see a small town, since it really gives one a true representation of the country. As much as I love cities, they’re just too manifested with tourists. Also, there was snow! Lots of it.
Gaudi's Casa Milà
Barcelona. Barca is cool. Very cool. Great weather. Great architecture. What more do you need to know? Before I visited, everyone told me, ‘You need to see Gaudí’s work.’ Huh? Who’s Gaudí. Well now I know. He was an avant-garde Spanish Catalan architect. And thanks to a kindly Barca cab driver, he was not ‘rich’ in his lifetime. It all sounds vaguely like The Fountainhead, don’t you think?
His style is surreal in nature. No straight lines. Experimentation with color and mosaics. Almost what I would imagination viewing buildings on an acid trip would be like. We also visited a park, Park Güell, that he was commissioned to design.
At first I thought that it would be a relief to leave a francophone country for a few days. But I was wrong. Completely wrong. Now, I lived in Texas for upwards of 14 years now, and I cannot speak a lick of Spanish. I know, I know. But I refused to take Spanish, because I wanted to be ‘sophisticated’ and take French. I felt completely unnerved not being able to communicate in Spain. It actually made me feel quite vulnerable. It was like being mute. Of course, people spoke English, but you know….Out of habit I kept responding in French. Merci…non gracias! Darn! This weekend also made me realized how much French I actually do know, because I would formulate in my head what I wanted to say or ask in French and then realize that that was useless. I was greatly relieved to get back to Paris and hear le français encore.
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