Volcanoes, Slag Heaps, Marshmallows and Screaming Norwegians

Hello!

Another great weekend was spent in Madrid, here is what went down:

On Thursday, Felicia and I went to the Reina Sofia and then to a Golden Age play, "El Alcalde de Zalamea" (The mayor of Zalamea) by Calderón de la Barca.  Although both of these events were mandatory for our classes, they were also AWESOME!  Afterwards we went to an all you can eat conveyor belt sushi restaurant. 

 Here is a funny anecdote:  I had no idea how to get to the theater from the metro (it was actually quite close) so I took a taxi for 3 blocks and then had to pay the driver with a 50, I could tell he really liked me.

On Friday, a bunch of us went to a super duper vegetarian restaurant.  It was so good I didn’t even miss meat!  We then went to a Renoir exhibit at the Prado.  While there we saw "The Garden of Earthly Delights" which is quite an odd piece of work.  Here it is:

 Can you believe that this was painted in the 15th Century?

Later that evening we went to a totally gnarly bar dudes; it was HAWAIIN themed.  There were parrots and fish and waiters in hawaiin shirts and lots of other theme-y stuff.  We got a smoking volcano to drink with very long straws.  The waiters gave us festive leis, drink umbrellas, and carnations.  It was radical.

Saturday we voyaged to El Escorial!  It is a monastery / autumn palace just outside of Madrid.  

It was all quite autumnal.  

The palace, commissioned by Felipe II, was nippy noodles, but well worth it.  The ‘coolest’ part were the enormous crypts called the Royal Pantheon.  There were tons of sarcophagi housing most of the kings of Spain and their families since Carlos V, a Holy Roman Emperor.   There is a giant mannerist basilica in the center of the palace as well as art and architecture museums.  My favorite place though, was the library.  It was not enormous, but it was super guay and there was a really cool looking Platonic globe thing that looked like a sphere of gears and was used to do astronomy things, I am quite the expert on these things.  Here are some interesting facts.  El Escorial is mostly made out of granite, which is abundant in the nearby hills.  Escorial, the word, signifies slag heap, hmmm that does not seem to be a majestic title.  

After some chocolate con churros

We went our separate ways

That night we went to a purple glowing bar that served us marshmallows and candy.  I accidently got us two free drinks when the waiter presumed I was waving at him for his good looks.  I was not.  But we drank the beers anyway.

Sunday was a day of work after a lunch of ramen YUM!  However, Starbucks has holiday decorations and drinks, so that made HW much more enjoyable (if less productive). 

Last night I went to a concert that was ostensibly jazz.  Rachel did not attend.  Anyway, it was not jazz.  It was some group of drunk Nordics.  Most of the songs were pretty normal. But there was this one that started out as a Norwegian folk song that then turned into a lullaby that then turned into some crazy satanic screaming.  I couldn’t control myself. 

Anyway, that is pretty much all that has occurred of note. Tomorrow an enormous delegation of VWMers are flying to London (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) both to explore the city and to see HARRY POTTER!!!  I am so excited! 

Hasta la Vista,

Hilary

Here are two unrelated but awesome pictures.  (I do not want my post to pale in comparison to Rachel's so I am adding some more photos)

Here we are jumping in Sevilla

Please note the hilarity of this picture. Eli and I have assumed the same strange pose. Rob’s (the guy on the right) face is priceless.  Ben and Helios look so victorious.  And Erin is firmly on the ground and blocking her face.  It just gets funnier every time I see this picture.

And here is some really divine subway graffiti.