Forth! And fear no darkness!: Madrid with Paul Ream

It’s now been six days since I have posted, and I’m sorry the number of posts per week is getting lower. It seems that every weekend I go and do something or host a visitor, which prevents me from catching up. So here is my post covering my trip to Madrid, which took place from October 14-18. In order to help myself remember as much as I can, I’m going to do it by date like some of my Cairo posts were. Also, I don't know what's going on with my computer but I'm just going to have to put all the pictures at the end of this post. Sorry!

Thursday, October 14:

I had a German test at 9 in the morning. I had to get up early to run my mom to the City Airport Train so she could fly home (once again, it was great having her here), and then I hustled to my class. I ended up getting an A on the test, so it all worked out. Anyway, I then attended my 1:25 class in which we had to perform the Melian Dialogue. I digress.

After class I went home and finished packing. I had a 7:30 flight, so I got to the airport around 5:15. Turns out in Europe, especially flights within the EU, they don’t even open check-in until an hour and a half before the flight. So I got something to eat, checked in, and went and used wireless Internet at my gate for a while. I flew Iberian Airlines (the only easy way to get straight to Madrid), and my flight was a little late getting into Madrid, but there was Paul Ream, a good friend of mine from Davidson, waiting with a sign to pick me up (it said “Panel” which is a nickname a group of us gave ourselves last year…and I would explain it but after reading it you would just think it was stupid, so I’ll spare you the headache and myself the embarrassment).

We took the 45-minute underground ride home (but it was very nice that their underground runs all the way to the airport). Paul is staying with a host family – a mom, her sister, and three sons, ages 26, 22, and 13. They have a relatively small buy very homely apartment, and they were very, very generous. We arrived around midnight, and spend an hour or so in the kitchen talking to the aunt. It really made me miss Spanish. I discovered my listening abilities were OK…certainly not anywhere near as good as Paul’s are, but my speaking abilities are still way behind. Granted, I haven’t taken a Spanish course in almost a year, but still. However, native Spaniards swallow all of their “s”s and speak so quickly…it is truly remarkable. Mostly I listened to them talk and tried to understand what I could and answer anything she asked without sounding like a fool.

Paul allowed me to share his double bed for the weekend, and about 1 a.m. I told him I was pretty tired, so we headed to bed.

Friday, October 15:

Paul usually doesn’t have class on Fridays, but this Friday his internship class was taking a tour of El Pais, the major national newspaper, so I went with them. The tour was all in Spanish, but it was easier than the night before because she knew she was speaking to a group of Spanish as a second language students. I didn’t understand everything, but most of the important stuff I understood (like how the entire sports room was devoted to different football (soccer) teams except 6 or 8 desks). It was pretty interesting, not to mention really large.

Afterwards we went on a walking tour around the city. We saw the main square, the oldest active restaurant in the world, an area of the city that looks like Vienna because the Hapsburgs built it, and eventually the royal palace and church. The architecture is quite interesting all around the city, and it just feels like a much, much bigger city than Vienna (because it is, about three times as big). We walked through an enclosed market place and tried some food, then walked past a statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and finally went home to retire for an afternoon/evening fiesta.

We woke up about 9:30 and went out to start our evening. For dinner we went to a local shop famous for it’s huge sandwiches. How huge you ask? They were made of toasted bread, cheese, and ham. Only not like the ham you get in the store or in a Subway sandwich. This was like ham cut right off of the Christmas ham. Thick, juicy, tender, real cuts of ham. Pilled so high I couldn’t fit my mouth all the way around it. The sandwich itself was as long as both of our heads but together. We each had a half and were completely satisfied.

Afterwards we partook in the Spanish tradition of botellón. This pretty much means going to an open air place, spending time with a bunch of other students, and hanging out in clusters until sometime between 1 and 2 in the morning, at which point everyone leaves and goes to a bar or club. Did I mention, by the way, that the weather in Madrid was gorgeous? Clear blue skies, 70 degrees; it was absolutely amazing. It got kind of chilly at night but that’s ok. Mike Anderson, another Davidson student who is studying in Madrid for the semester, also joined us. After hanging out, we went to a bar that is shaped like a cave. In fact, there’s even a drink named Panther’s Milk that you can order (and we did order), and when you order it all of the lights go on and milk starts shooting out of one of the stalactites into a large fishbowl. Unfortunately we stayed there too long, so by the time we got to the club (Kardinal) that we were going to go to, it was too expensive (we were on the list to get in free or cheap, but that only works up to a certain point). We ended up going to another bar where there was basketball on tv and pool and hanging out for a while before we decided to call it a night.

We got to bed about 6 a.m. Now, I should probably clarify that this is apparently what Spanish youths do every night. Apparently Paul’s older brother (host) used to do that Thursday through Sunday night and go to work on Monday. It was fun to do one time, but I probably will not ever do that again.

Saturday, October 16:

We slept in. Way in. But eventually we got up and went and ate a kebap (the kebaps in Spain are lamb instead of chicken, a refreshing change, and they usually serve them with fries and a special sauce). After eating we went to watch his young host brother, Ricki, play in his own football (soccer) game. Unfortunately, the referee never showed up, so they had to cancel the game. Just from watching warm-ups though, it was easy to tell that Ricki is really, really good. As were the rest of the kids on his team.

Afterwards, we met up with a couple of his friends who had bought tickets to an Atlético Madrid football (soccer) game. On our way it was really amazing to see how many people were turning out for the game. Everyone was dressed in red and blue and all heading the same direction. I also bought a scarf to fit in. Once inside and seated, I surveyed the stadium. It was about twice as big as the Rapid stadium, though the scoreboard was pretty plain and didn’t really do a whole lot. The game was pretty exciting, an Atlético victory 2-0.

Saturday night we decided to go a bit slower. We walked around and tried a variety of foods at different restaurants, and eventually went over to Mike’s place to hang out for a while. He had a couple of friends and his roommates there, so it was fun to meet more new people. Tonight, however, we left about 1 to make sure we could catch the last underground back to Paul’s apartment.

Sunday, October 17:

It was a good thing we went to bed earlier because we got up about 9. After a small breakfast, we headed out to the Rastra (I think that was the name) – Madrid’s biggest open-air market. Here I purchased the cheapest jersey I could find, and I also bought the Atlético patch that hopefully I can have sewn on during winter break (Aunt Carol Beth???). After walking around here for a while we went to a museum where we saw a variety of works, but most importantly and impressive was Picasso’s Guernica. It is way bigger than I imagined it after seeing it in textbooks, and just as graphic and meaningful.

For lunch today we were invited to join in the family meal (called la comida, which means food, because it is the major meal of the day). There was a nice potato salad as an appetizer, but the main dish was amazing. It was a chicken stuffed with LOTS of ham and cheese. I made sure to eat whatever was put on my plate, which was a lot, and then his host mom put more on my plate, so I ate that too. There were 11 of us – Paul, his host mom, aunt, the three brothers, two grandparents, one girlfriend, and a friend of the mom’s named Michael (who had a very young child there with him who didn’t eat with us), and me. The grandmother was hilarious. Kind of reminded me of Patrick actually, but she was so funny to be around (at least what I understood). And I’m sure I was the butt of a few jokes I didn’t understand.

It was another beautiful day, so we spent most of the rest of the day walking around Madrid’s central park. It’s pretty big and really beautiful. There were all sorts of families walking around or boating in the lake, trick roller skaters doing tricks, and plenty of trees and shade to sit and nap under. After the park we went to another museum and saw more artwork (if you wanted to spend all 4 days in a city like Vienna or Madrid seeing art, you could – easily). Finally, we ate one final kebap and wandered around the city a little bit looking for desert. We settled on some kind of warm tortilla with chocolate inside. Eventually we headed home to get some rest and do homework (Paul had class Monday and I had a written midterm due).

Monday, October 18:

I got up about 6 and left by 6:20 to get to the airport. I was there a little early again, but that’s much better than being late. It also gave me time to work on my midterm (which I had done by the time we landed). I ate McDonalds in the airport for breakfast and watched the sunrise. I got home in time to take a nap before turning in my paper.

It was an amazing trip. So much fun, and great to see another Davidson friend and learn what all he’s doing. Paul’s Spanish is unbelievable. I guess that’s what happens when you study in a country and are immersed in it for two months. At any rate, it was definitely worth the money and three classes I missed.

That’s all for this post. On October 20th another Davidson friend visited Pat and I in Vienna for a few days, but that is another post altogether. Hopefully that’ll be up before I leave tomorrow for Hallstatt and Graz!