Well, after a fun and interesting, but short weekend in Madrid I am sadly back at school. We have less than 4 weeks left and I am so ready to finish school. But I still have two more exciting trips before my long journey back to the US. One to Grenada and Switzerland.
Friday afternoon after 3 classes, a 5 page paper and a presentation I was prepared for, but didn't have because the teacher said we didn't have time 3 of my friends (Laine, Jessica and Kristin) and I headed to Madrid. We took the train and we were sad when we found out we couldn't all sit together. Jess, Laine and I were still in the same car, but Kristin was not. After our first stop we were told that the three of us in the same car could sit together, so that was nice. Shortly after that we noticed the train attendants coming around with some kind of drink and peanuts. We kept wandering if it was free or we had to pay for it, but we watched the people in front of us and they weren't paying, so we got excited and took advantage of the free drink. Shortly after we received a dinner menu with wine too and we were thinking this is too good to be true. It was then we realized some how we were sitting in first class on the 4 hour train ride to Madrid. And let me just say it was the best part of the trip and the fastest train ride I have ever been on. We didn't want it to end. Instead of eating our bocadillas, we took advantage of the free dinner which consisted of vegetables, rice and some kind of meat, a salad with dressing, hot bread and some kind of cream puff pastries. And how can you forget about the butter that was cold. And the free vino aka wine, water and cafe we got too. Ah! It was so magical and don't worry my friend Jess took a ridiculous amount of pictures to document it too, I will post some of them.
First class in the train... notice the free food and beverages
We arrived in Madrid around 10 PM and took the metro to find our hostel. Unlike Ireland, the hostel was labeled and easy to find. We checked in and were so happy that the 4 of us were sharing a 4-person room. We didn't have a bathroom, but it was better than sleeping in the room with other foreigners. It wasn't the cleanest hostel I have stayed in, hence the reason we toughed it out and didn't shower the whole time we were there. I know I am obsessed with showering, but the uncleanliness and coldness of the water didn't appeal to me. We decided to go exploring and walked to Plaza del sol which was recommended by my friend Helena. She had given me a name of a chocolateria open 24/7 with the best churros in Madrid, so we decided to try them out. They were not as good as the looked, but we still devoured them. After that we returned back to the hostel, went to bed and got prepared to get up early Saturday morning.
Laine and I eating the churros
Since most of us had been to Madrid and done the touristy things such as the Prado Mueseo y El Placio Real, we decided to head to a town called el escorial which is about 45 minutes outside the city of Madrid. We took the train which runs every hour to El escorial and we barely made it, but we got on at the last second. We got to el escorial about an hour later and headed to the Monasterio de San Lorenzo. The monastery is the biggest in Spain that was built by one of the Kings of Spain in the 1500s as a monastery, and it also served as a palace and currently serves as the burial place for all of the royal Spanish family. We took advantage of the audio guide tour in English and walked around for a few hours. They have lots of art (big surprise there), tapestries, a church that really pretty, gardens and a huge library, and several hundreds of caskets of the previous Royal families of Spain. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures on the inside, but I did get a few of the outside and the gardens. At least it gives you a picture of how big this place was.
El monastario de San Lorenzo
Los jardines al escorial
Jess, Me and Laine with our patatas fritas
After touring the monastery, we were ready to head to Franco's big monument El Valle de los Caídos which was another 15 minutes away from El Escorial. Unfortunately we realized that there is only one bus a day that takes you there from El Escorial. We have been studying lots about Franco, the Spanish Civil war and El Valle de los caídos and didn't want to miss the opportunity to go. So we walked around the small town and found a place to eat. Unfortunately the food didn't do justice compared to the first-class train food, but it was okay. After lunch we went to the bus station and got on the bus to head to El Valle de los caídos.
El Valle de Los caídos or the valley of the fallen is in the middle of nowhere about an hour outside of Madrid. It consist of a huge Cross built on top of a church in a mountain and it is also the burial place of Franco himself and Jose Antonio (founder of the Spanish fascist party). Apparently the cross is the biggest in the World. It was built by Franco (the spanish dictator) during his regime to symbolize the peace of the world. However, it is very ironic, because all of his prisoners built it and many of them died while constructing it. It was also built to remember the ones who had died during the Spanish Civil war while fighting for Franco. We had no idea what we were going to see when we got there. We just had been advised to visit by many of our professors here in Valencia and so we went. We also thought there would people there to be remembering their love ones that died fighting against Franco.
When we got there it was cloudy and cold. Go figure... and the feeling was very strange. We discovered we couldn't go to the top of the mountain where the base of this huge cross is, so we went inside the cathedral which is built under the cross in the mountain. It was creepy and very different. We saw where Franco himself is buried and also Jose Anotnio. Both of which had tons of flowers and were roped off. We thought it was interesting that their tombs were both covered in flowers since many people don't like them. We started to observe the crowd and noticed all these people were kneeling down and kissing Franco's grave and saying prayers for them with their eyes covered in tears. All of us were confused, because after studying about him and all of the crazy, inhumane things he did during 1939-1975 to Spain how could anyone be putting flowers over his grave or praying for him. After that we saw all of these young men, about our age come in and solute him and Jose Antonio. Now this was absolutely ridiculous and the sad thing was not one person in there looked offended. To me this was like praising Hitler for all of the bad things he did. All of these men and some women walked around the cathedral and proceeded to solute these 2 people. We sat down and observed the atmosphere for awhile and the next thing I know all of the men start yelling "viva España" (Spain lives) which was one of Franco's mottos. This scared us a lot and made us move outside, where they were doing the same thing, but also holding the flag that represented Spain during Franco's regime which is now illegal in Spain. Needless to say, it was very interesting and creepy to see the reaction of people at this monument. And it was sad to see how many people, including many of them my age (which means they weren't even alive during Franco) still show support for the fascist party of Spain and Franco himself. I am so glad we went and saw this, but I don't think I want to go back. I don't know there was just something crazy about the whole thing. (I wanted to take more pictures, but we couldn't take any inside the church.)
El Valle de los Caídos
We caught the bus back to the train station and once again caught the train back to Madrid. We made it right before it left, which was so lucky since we would have had to wait another hour for the next one. When we got back to Madrid, we went back to the Plaza del Sol to find s place to eat dinner. When we got there we realized we were in the middle of a huge protest, but we still don't know what exactly they were protesting. We found a restaurant, ate some dinner and then headed to Starbucks and then walked around the area for a while. It was exciting because there were actually tons of Christmas decorations and lights up, but none of them were turned on. We made it back to the hostel and went to bed. On a side note: I was woken up shortly after by my mom with a phone call saying Ole Miss had won the game against #8 LSU in the last 2 minutes. I am so thankful for that phone call and I cannot wait to hear about all of the excitement of the game. Maybe there is hope to go to a good bowl game my senior year. Ha! Hotty Toddy!
Christmas decorations at Corte Inglés
Sunday, we woke up and went to the market at El Rastro which the triple A Spain book calls a "must see". But let me just say they are incorrect... although it is a huge market, most of the stuff is just junk. Don't waste your time... Ha. We caught the train back to Valencia at 11 and we were so sad because we were not in the first-class section. 4 hours later we returned back to the 80 degree weather in Valencia. I don't think it is ever going to get below 60 here. Luckily Grenada is in the mountains and will be cold and of course Switzerland will be covered in snow.
Once again it's Monday and I have lots of work to catch up and projects to work on in the next few weeks. Will update soon! Hasta Pronto!
-MO (Bets.. my name betty which is now been turned into simply bets by my good friends)
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