we went to a pregame at jess's apartment and got to see nicole who was visiting owen from tulane! also lana, who graduated and is now working in italy, was there for the weekend staying with hunter in that apartment with us so we got to see visitors from everywhere. it was awesome to have so many tulanians in one place, always love when that happens. so we stayed at the pregame for a very extended amount of time and finally made moves to this place called cave bar. cave bar made these infamous drinks where milk comes out of the ceilings and into the drinks and is notorious for making people vom. so naturally i opted out of having one. after being there for a little bit it was decided that everyone was really tired from traveling and we should all just go back and hang at the apartments. clearly the next step was to hit up the local mcdonalds. apparently only hunter, wylie, and i were down for mickey d's but it was whatever i was so excited obvs ordered a big mac medium combo with sprite. yum. as we were walking back to their apartment a block away, hunter and wylie were on either side of me as i peacefully and quite happily enjoyed my medium french fries. once we turned the corner we noticed these group of guys running full speed at us, and usually when someone is running at you that fast you think okay they're in a hurry they'll go around me. i've noticed when i usually try to play chicken on the streets with random spanish pedestrians they don't move out of the way ever, but i didn't realize this also applied to grown men in a full sprint. next thing i know i had gone flying in the air and had been completely knocked to my ass. i smacked my head on the pavement and my food went everywhere. when i came to, my first thought was of course "MY BIG MAC!!!" ....it was covered in sprite (as was i) and all over the ground ...(as was i). so as the boys are trying to get me to my feet i vaguely remember them arguing with these spanish men. the one line that stuck in my head was when all the guy could say was "perdon" and hunter's response was "perdon?! I don't give a FUCK about perdon" i didn't want the boys to start a fight with these spaniards so i just said esta bien and we kept going. in hindsight definitely should have made them buy me another big mac. also still considering emailing the traffic department of the madrid government if that exists to see if they have footage of this because a video of me actually being trampled and thrown back about 5 feet would go viral in a heart beat.
aftermath of my collision the day after. poor fries brushed to the side like they ain't nothin'
so in madrid i got a concussion!!! great start to the weekend. slept like a baby that night which you're not supposed to do but whatever i'm alive, got up the next morning bright and early (at noon) to brace some art museums. ella, lana, and i decided that without knowing the city really at all we should definitely walk to the prado even though its not that close. we got lost. and then it started raining. its funny cause that happened in real life, you just can't make that stuff up. despite my efforts to hop on a metro, no one wanted to cave. so we kept walking. then we got to a building that said "Museo del Prado Casa del Buen Retiro"... the building was pretty small so i was a bit confused and thinking.... this is it? and we walked up to the door and it said it was closed and we were like wtf the prado is never closed this is absurd why is it still raining on me. we pouted for a little, laughed cause we were delusional, kept walking to find shelter cause we were cold and then boom! the real prado appeared. thank god. we got our carbo-load on at a local cafe and brace the enormous art museum for a day of culture. on the real though it was actually one of the coolest places i have ever been. i am a sucker for a good museum and i studied a lot of the spanish art like velazquez and goya in my intro to spanish culture class last semester so it meant a lot more. we saw goya's black paintings like saturn, el dos y el tres de mayo, velazquez's las meninas, a few paintings by el greco and many more. it was unbelievable to see them in real life. we were then rushed out of the prado (after 2 hours) thinking we were going to a bullfight with the boys, but alas we just met them for burritos. we then went on a little walking tour to plaza del sol and plaza mayor. it was a holiday so they were absolutely packed. then for dinner we got drink at el tigre which were huge and came with so many tapas. seriously they wouldn't stop bringing us tapas and i was full but couldn't help myself. after we went back and got ready for round 2.
soaked and ready to prado bitchez
plaza del sol
so at this point i'm exhausted, have a headache, and can't really see straight but everyone was like we're going clubbing!!! yaaaa pacha!!!! and i just physically, mentally, and emotionally did not have it in me. so after faking it at the pregame until 3 am, when everyone walked out the door of the apartment i made my way to the bedroom to catch some shut eye. clubs aren't exactly my scene anyway so i was pretty pumped to get back into bed. the next morning while everyone was asleep i thought it would be a nice gesture to go get bagels for everyone cause they're hard to come about here. i googled and found a place and mapped it out. i then stealthily snuck into bretts room, took his keys from his nightstand table, and snuck back out, only to not so stealthily smack my head directly on my bump on the wall protruding next to bretts door. and to top it off when i went traipsing around madrid to find this bagel place..... it didn't exist. oh well it was nice to take a walk alone. then ella and i started our touristy day once again.
we went to the reina sofia first which is the modern art museum. i loved this museum it was insane so much art that you could stare at forever and still have no idea what it means. there was also a couple exhibitions on photography and propaganda as well as extensive collections of dali and picasso. some of you may know that i spent the majority of the end of sophomore year studying guernica by picasso and making a huge project on it for my spanish class. it was one of the hardest projects i've ever done but to actually see it in real life was so rewarding. after we stopped for a doner kebab, duh, and met up with lana to galavant around the palacio real, or royal palace. that was also pretty mindblowing cause there is just so much history in one place sometimes its hard for my little peabrain to wrap my head around it. we saw the armory and got a little tour of the inside, saw some drawing rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, and even a chapel. ella played this game with herself, how many pictures can she take before she got yelled at so that was fun. after the palacio we met up with everyone else at parque del retiro and lounged for a little while before enjoying some churros con chocolate.
ladies at the palacio
the armory... comfort was not a concept back then
ella sneaking a pic of the porcelain room in the palace before getting yelled at
parque del retiro
scobb and i imitating statues in retiro, LOL STUDY ABROAD IS FUN!!!!!
that night we made dinner at the boys apartment. correction: ella made dinner and we ate all of it and it was delicious. we sat at the table and had a nice little family meal it was lovely. after we were pretty stuffed but managed to motivate to pregame at owen and jess's and check out the madrid botellon. it was very different than the granada one which is more or less a glorified parking lot turned drinking/pregame haven. in madrid its actually in a park and much more spread out but it was still really cool. after we had had our fair share of the botellon we went back to warm up cause it was pretty chilly and watched some videos including the art of flight. apparently i was the last one to see this short film but it literally blew my mind. look it up.
on sunday we had basically conquered all our touristy excursions but made one last trip to el rastro which is the huge market only on sundays where you can buy a lot of really cheap crap. i'm not good at shopping with other people so i didn't get anything but ella got a coat and a shirt for 7 euros total to give you an idea of how cheap it was. we then lounged around with the guys for the rest of the day until our bus later that afternoon. it was a nice lazy sunday after an incredibly fun weekend. i loved madrid so much and i know i'll be back. it was certainly my most cultural weekend yet with all the sightseeing, i was personally pretty impressed by ella and me's determination to see it all. hopefully we can take this attitude with us this weekend to dublin, ireland! it's crazy cause i actually leave in two days for another trip but i actually could not be more excited to be visiting both dublin and galway. i'm about to go p.s. i love you on all your asses next post so be sure to check it out for an update on my irish wedding!
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