Artsy Fartsy Time

Hey Y'all!

Greetings from Madrid, the center of Spain and cultural mecca of all things art! We arrived yesterday via train around 6 o'clock and went "bar hopping" for tapas in a bunch of cool restaruants around Madrid. Had some chill time and called it a relatively "early" night so that we could get up for breakfast this morning.

Holy. Crap. I missed Continental Breakfast. I mean don't get me wrong, I love me my cereal,but sometimes a girl just needs some GD EGGS in the morning. Which is exactly what I had, along with an assortment of other goodies :-) Magic in breakfast form.

Anyways, after a wonderful start to the day, we went to the Museo del Prado which is THE art museum in Spain. We walked around for a good 3 hours, seeing famous works by Goya, Miró, and, my personal favorite, Diego Velazquez. I saw Las Meninas and was amazed. I remember learning about it with Señora Rogers in junior year and ever since I´ve wanted to go see it in person. His technique is a lot stranger than I remember, but the detail in the faces and the subtle meanings and messages hidden in the painting were so amazing to see in person. Needless to say, it was a truly amazing experience.

After that, we had a wonderful lunch in this little place called La Comunista which is apparently really really popular here. The food was fantastic and I was once again a very happy camper :-)Then we made our way back to the hotel for a quick nap before La Reina Sofía at 4 o'clock.

Let me preface my experience at the Reina Sofía by saying that I'm not a big fan of cubist art. I know it's impressive and a different style and paved the way for other artists and all, but to me, I just don't really see the appeal. But I must say, Guernica is one of the most stunning works I have ever seen in my life. This mural is ENORMOUS and really really powerful to behold. It depicts the bombing of Guernica by the German Lufftwaffe that was APPROVED by Franco which ended up killing hundreds of innocent people. Pablo Picasso, through strange images and metaphoric symbols, shows the horror of the event in pure black and white, and the effect is stunning. I have pictures that I'll post when I get back to Barcelona. Really amazing.

We also got to see some more Dalí and some other very famous pieces that are all jumbled in my head right now because I´m exhausted. But anyways

I have like 2 minutes left on the internet, so I must say adeiu, but I'll try to post more tomorrow!

Love you all! MWAH!