Madrid (Dia Dos), the Bathroom of Doom and the Thyssen

So I woke up today after a great sleep on Carla and Irene's sofa. I really like sleeping in the sleeping bag that Jimmy let me borrow... it's like being in a cocoon, warm – but not hot – and overall just really comfortable. When I went out into the kitchen some older lady had come into the apartment and was babbling something at me in Spanish, all the while I stared at here in utter confusion, and finally conveyed to her well enough that I a) didn't live there and b) had no idea what she was saying to me. Then some other guy showed up, and the best I could guess was that they were making some repair. I'm guessing she was the land lady. Carla got home shortly after they left, and I told her – turns out it was the land lady and some repair man. I guess the whole thing was that they were there to change a light bulb. Yikes. Showering was really an adventure, to say the very least. Carla's apartment is really nice, but being on the top floor it has some odd ceiling arrangements, and the bathroom is very tiny – not too small for her and her roommate, but I felt like a giant. Damn tiny Spaniards! (Though I suspect it's actually my fault for being too tall!) So anyhow, getting the water to do what I wanted it to took some time, and I had to settle for a mostly cold shower. I easily washed up though, despite being practically doubled over. Then getting out I slipped and nearly fell. Thankfully the walls are close enough that I was able to catch myself. I packed up my things, Carla laid down to take a nap, and I planned my day. I needed to go to the post office to mail a letter to my grandparents, get some money exchanged, find the phone store where one of Reb's friends works to get a new SIM card, then I had planned on visiting the Thyssen and the Prado. So I left my larger bag at Carla's and got on the Metro and took it to the center of town, then transferred to another line to come out by the post office. Now, this was seriously the biggest post office I've ever seen. It was very much a palace in it's own right. I had to go to three or four different windows before I could find the one that sold stamps – I should have known it was the one with the long line of people! Leaving the post office I walked around down Passeo del Prado, the strip where the city's three major art museums are located. Found the plaza where there was supposedly and American Express, but it turns out the location was closed and they'd moved. So I walked back towards Puerta del Sol, and the exchange office was right around the corner from where I needed to meet Jeremy, the SIM card guy. So I changed over some USD (that always makes me so sad... I came with 500 USD, and after being raped by the exchange rate I was left with just over 300 Euros.) So I found Jeremy's office, he hooked me up with a new SIM card (see previous post about phone number change) and also with a good calling card that lets me call any phone in the States for €0.40 an hour. Really I pay €0.40 whether I talk for five minutes or fifty-five, but the card gives you the option to connect to multiple numbers one after the other so I can make a bunch of phone calls within an hour and still pay only 40 cents to do so. Pretty fantastic if you ask me. So I made some calls, talked to my mom and walked form Puerta del Sol in the wrong direction – which I didn't realize until I reached the Opera Metro exit – from where I intended to go to get to the museums. I finished up my chat with her and hopped on the Metro and rode over to Atoche, one of the stops near the museums. I found out later that that's where the Metro bombings happened a couple years ago. So I got out and walked past the Prado and the Botanical gardens, got some good pictures of the buildings and monuments. At every large plaza in Madrid there seems to be a fountain – they're everywhere. The two coolest ones were one sculpted to look like Triton being pulled along by dolphins, and then near the post office there's another depicting some queen or another – I didn't find out who she was – being pulled along in a chariot. I like fountains. So I decided to start with the Thyssen, which was only €4 with my International Student ID. It was interesting – you work your way from the top floor to the ground floor and basically tour a complete review of art from the 14th or 15th century up through the 20th century – and there were some works by very well known painters, though I'm not really sure if it was worth the visit. Don't get me wrong, I like art for the most part (I think I mentioned something like this back when I visited the Guggenheim), but I'm not a huge fan of classical paintings and portraits. There were a lot of really great landscapes though which I do like, especially when they are large and detailed. That impresses me... but the countless “Portrait of a Young Woman” or “The Madonna with The Christ Child” got kind of old after so many “interpretations.” I think the Thyssen has more versions of the Annunciation than anyone else in the world. Poppycock I say. After going through all of it though I decided to not waste the time seeing the Prada, both because from my reading it's just more of the same with a small area dedicated to sculpture, and also that it's just so massive it's almost a two-trip museum. I'm looking forward to seeing the Reina Sofia tomorrow though, which was closed today. Leaving the museum I walked back to the Metro and transferred once to get back up to the stop near Carla's apartment. Had a sandwich and a coffee for lunch and played around with my new SIM and read some info on Madrid. It had started to sprinkle and was slightly overcast – not sure why, but when it gets like that I always tend to get grumpy or sad or something. I think that's pretty common though. So I hid in the cafe for a while, then went over to Carla's to find no one there. I called her and she told me Irene would be home in an hour, so I went just around the corner and got on line to check my email and stuff. I talked to a couple people on line from home, and that cheered me up. After an hour or so of puttering around I went back to the flat, talked to Irene for a bit, gathered up my things and headed back to the Metro to find my way to Rick's, the CS'er I'm staying with tonight. I found his apartment which wasn't far from one of the Metro's end stops. He and his flat mates live on the ninth floor, so I was really pleased to find an elevator! Rick was running a little late, but I got to meet his roommate Ricardo who is from South America. There are four of them that live there and they all work for the same oncology research institute there in Madrid. Rick is, ironically, from Ohio too and graduated from OSU last year. He was accepted for a fellowship or something and got to come to Spain for 9-10 months and do research. He's hoping to soon be accepted to OSU's PhD/MD program so he can use his research towards a thesis, and then eventually wants to work as a neuro-oncology surgeon. Also staying at Rick's were two girls from Germany, Victoria and Corinna, who were flying out of Madrid to Buenos Aires and were planning a five month backpacking trip around South America. They were really nice, and it was good to be able to meet some other CS'ers. They were supposed to be flying out tonight, but unfortunately something happened to the airline they were booked on, AirMadrid I think, I believe they went bankrupt. To make things worse they weren't able to get reimbursed for their tickets, and were delayed. Needless to say they were exasperated, and Corinna was coming down with a bit of a cold. So Rick sat out in the living room with us and we talked a bit about where we were from, talked about traveling, volunteer work Victoria and Corinna had done in Ireland and London (how they met), and wine. Rick had some Sherry that he'd gotten from a weekend trip to the region of Spain that specializes in it's production. He chilled it and we tried it – erm, I'll stick to cooking with Sherry! Yet another new experience though, so I can't complain... that and Rick has a really great shower with hot water, and in contrast to my morning shower it was much safer! So now we've got all our sleeping arrangements taken care of, so it's time to crash.