Well I did want to venture to Mallorca this weekend, but because our school had planned a field trip on Saturday I was forced to forgoe my travel plans. Iam actually quite glad that I did, because I only discovered more of what Madrid has to offer.
Thursday night some of the girls from the program went to a place called Orange Cafe, a club up the street from our apartments. It was really fun, but there were two observations which displeased me. The first Spain's lack of their own music. As an avid music lover, I was really excited to discover some tunes which were purely just entertainment to my ears (since my Spanish is horrible). Instead this club had the same tracklist as KISSFM at home: Lady Gaga, Shakira, etc. Don't get me wrong I love GaGa as much as the next little monster, but I wanted some authentic Spanish guitar and rolled r's mixed with a nice beat? That was nonexistent and has been at the nightspots I've ventured to in Madrid. My second observation: Spanish/ European guys are way too touchy. They have no concept of personal space. I'm not going to expand on this concept, but lets just say hands attempted to touch areas that are off limits. You may have strong features and beautiful long hair, but at least learn how to keep a conversation before you make a move.
On Friday I had the pleasure of going to the oldest restaurant in the world, established in 1725 Boutin in Madrid holds the Guinness World Record. There speciality was suckling pig, which I decided to pass on. I ordered a filet mignon instead, which was great and went well with their extra fruity sangria (which I have become a major fan of). The food was almost as good as the company, and overall I did not mind paying 20 euros for a nice cooked meal. I rarely eat these at the apartment because the extent of my cooking is heat up meals and pre made pasta packets. Saturday we had a field trip to Segovia and Avila. Avila is a huge medival city (the place of my photograph above) which is encompassed by large stone walls. The old city is only home to 6,000 residents and the highlight was seeing St. Teresa's chapel and her ring finger. Quite disgusting, her finger is in a glass case with a green ruby ring still on it. Segovia proved to be much more visually and historically pleasing. We went to a medival castle built by Phillip II and saw the original thrones of Ferdinand and Isabella. Unaware that we had to climb 150 steps to the top of the tower, I emerge amongst the clear skyline short of breathe and dissapointed in how out of shape Iam. My camera died in the middle of our trip, so I was forced to take a mental picure of the view. For our lunch break I went with my English teacher and some others to a well priced establishment with an excellent menu del dia. The highlight was dessert, a delicacy in Segovia this cake was similar to a lemon tart with torched almond cream sauce on top.
That night my roommate suggested we go to a bar that she found in her tour guide book. After some wandering around, we found it. A small bar in which you walk down stairs an are immediately surrounded with ciagarrette smoke and laughter. The cheap sangria pitchers and lovely piano player were worth my eyes burning from secondhand smoke. We spent most of the night in that hole laughing and conversing with the Spainards arond us.
In addition to these events I also went to a bullfight and a Spanish play based on a poem by Lorca. Both of which I will share in my next post. Here are the photos I managed to take of the weekend before my camera died:
Here is a song I often listen to while traveling "Zebra" by Beach House:
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